Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU Athletics 2013 Hall of Fame Class Announced
April 15, 2013 | Football, General, Men's Basketball, Ice Hockey, Gymnastics
Kline-Ruminski, Oestreng, Paluch & 1959 football team to enter the Hall
The Bowling Green State University Athletics Hall of Fame will add three individuals, plus a championship team, this coming fall. The class of 2013 will include Shane Kline-Ruminski '02 (men's basketball), Marny Oestreng '02 (gymnastics) and Scott Paluch '91 (ice hockey), as well as the 1959 football team.
Complete Release - PDF
2013 Hall of Fame class photo gallery
The official induction ceremony, as mentioned, will take place on Saturday, Oct. 26. The class will be recognized on the field during the BGSU-Toledo football game at Doyt L. Perry Stadium. The game is designated as Hall of Fame Day, and is part of Letterwinner Weekend. The class will be officially inducted into the Hall in conjunction with a reception, which will be held at the Stroh Center. The reception will take place before or after the football game, with timing determined once the game kickoff time is set.
Biographical sketches on the 2013 inductees follow:
SHANE KLINE-RUMINSKI (men's basketball, 1992-95)
Kline-Ruminski, a native of Chesterland, Ohio, was a unanimous First-Team All-Mid-American Conference selection as a senior in 1994-95, and was an NABC District 10 second-team pick. He averaged 17.2 points and 7.3 rebounds for head coach Jim Larranaga that year, leading the nation with a field-goal percentage of .683. Through the 2012-13 season, that FG percentage remains the school single-season record. Kline-Ruminski made 181 of his 265 shot attempts that winter, and ranked fourth in the MAC in scoring and ninth in rebounding.
Kline-Ruminski also was fourth in the league in scoring as a junior, with 17.7 points per game, and ranked 10th in the league with 6.9 boards per contest. He shot .563 that year to rank fifth in the league. The Falcons' co-MVP as a junior, he was an all-conference second-team pick. Kline-Ruminski helped the Falcons post a home record of 24-3 over his last two seasons.
The Falcons went a combined 34-21 during those two years, including an 18-10 overall record in Kline-Ruminski's junior season of 1994-95. That BG team tied for second in the MAC with a 12-6 league record.
Kline-Ruminski, a two-year team captain, was an honorable-mention All-MAC choice as a sophomore, after averaging 12.0 points and 5.4 rebounds. That sophomore season, he was one of 12 athletes invited to attend Pete Newell's Big Man Camp. He was the MAC's Freshman of the Year and – not surprisingly – a member of the league's all-freshman team in 1991-92, averaging 9.2 points and 4.7 rebounds.
Kline-Ruminski ended his career ranked second in school history with a field-goal pct. of .596, and finished 10th on the BG scoring list with 1,427 points. He still ranks 14th in scoring at the University, and is also 14th at the school in career rebounds, with 623. Kline-Ruminski's career FG pct. still ranks second all-time at BGSU.
After his BGSU days, Kline-Ruminski played professionally in Belgium (1995-96), Turkey (1996-98), Israel (1998-2000), Portugal (2000-01) and France (2001-02). He is the founder/owner of the National Basketball Academy, which he started in 2002. During the 2010-11 season, Kline-Ruminski was selected to the All-Anderson Team.
MARNY OESTRENG (gymnastics, 1999-2002)
Oestreng, a native of Trogsted, Norway, became an NCAA champion while at Bowling Green, and still holds the BGSU records in every individual event. Oestreng's school- and career-best score in the all-around while at BG was 39.600, and she also posted the program's best-ever scores in the floor exercise (9.975), uneven bars (9.950), vault (9.950) and balance beam (9.925).
Prior to coming to BGSU, Oestreng won four Norwegian junior all-around titles and then captured three Norwegian all-around titles. She competed in the European Championships in each of the five years before coming to BGSU.
As a freshman in 1999, Oestreng won the NCAA title in the floor exercise. She was the final competitor of the NCAA meet, and posted a score of 9.925 to win the title and earn All-American honors. Oestreng, the first-ever BGSU gymnast to even qualify for the national meet, had earned that trip to the NCAA meet by virtue of winning the floor at the NCAA Region 4 meet hosted by LSU. She posted a score of 9.950 to win that event at the regional meet, and finished 11th in the all-around at that meet with a score of 38.600. Oestreng also tied for third on the bars at the regional meet.
Oestreng was the dominant gymnast in the conference that year, winning the all-around title at the MAC Championships with a meet-record score of 39.600. She also won the league titles in vault (9.875), bars (9.900, tied the meet record) and beam (9.850, tied the meet record). No gymnast in MAC history had ever won more than three individual titles in a single league meet. Ironically, the only event she did not win at the 1999 MAC Championships was the floor exercise, where her score of 9.900 placed her second. She was named the MAC Gymnast of the Year as well as the MAC Freshman of the Year.
In that epic freshman season, Oestreng won the vault event in 10 of the 14 meets during the season, while winning the bars and the floor exercise nine times each, the beam on seven occasions and the all-around in 11 of 14 meets. Oestreng qualified for the World Gymnastics Championships in October of 1999 in China after capturing the all-around title at the Norwegian Championships in June.
As a sophomore in 2000, Oestreng finished fifth at the NCAA Regionals in the floor, eighth in the all-around and 10th in the bars. She captured the MAC all-around (39.450) and vault (9.875) titles, and finished second in the conference in the floor exercise (9.900). Oestreng's junior year saw her finish 12th in the NCAA Regionals in the all-around with a score of 38.275. She tied for top honors in the all-around at the MAC Championships (39.150) that year, and also tied for first on bars (9.875)
As a senior in 2002, Oestreng helped the Falcons to one of the most successful regular seasons in school history with a 17-1 mark (a school record for wins in a season). At that season's MAC Championships, she tied for first in both the all-around (39.175) and the floor (9.900), and deadlocked for second on the vault (9.875). She was named the MAC Senior Gymnast of the Year.
SCOTT PALUCH (hockey; 1985-88)
Paluch, a native of Chicago, Ill., was an All-American defenseman for the Falcons, and later coached the team for seven years. The top-scoring defenseman in BGSU history, Paluch was a First-Team All-America and All-Central Collegiate Hockey Association selection as a senior in 1987-88. He helped BGSU post four consecutive winning seasons and a winning percentage of .655 during his four years as a player. The Falcons won 33 games and captured the CCHA regular-season title in 1986-87, his junior year. Then, BG won 30 games the next winter, earning the program's first CCHA Tournament title with a championship-game win over Lake Superior State at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. Bowling Green earned NCAA Tournament bids in both of those seasons.
Paluch scored 169 points in 165 career games, including 61 points as a senior in '87-88. That 61-point total is the second-highest total in a season by a BGSU defenseman in history, and his 169 career points, as mentioned, is the most ever by a BG blueliner. Additionally, his career total of 48 goals is the most in history by a BGSU defenseman.
Additionally, Paluch holds program records for goals in a game (three, tied for first) and a series (four, tied for first) and assists in a series (seven) by a defenseman. His total of 121 career assists is tied for first by a BG defenseman.
Among all players, Paluch still ranks 19th in scoring among all players in BGSU history, and his assist total ties him for 11th.
His 36 career goals in CCHA games ranks him first in league history for goals by a defenseman, and he ranks third in CCHA annals in both career assists (91) and points (127) in league games by a defensemen. That point total is 14th on the BGSU list (all players). In his senior year, he had 37 assists in 31 CCHA games, the sixth-highest single-season assist total in BGSU history, and the most by a BG backliner.
Paluch helped the Falcons to one first-place finish, two second-place showings and one fourth-place effort during his four years as a player. He participated in the U.S. Olympic Festival in three consecutive years, from 1985-87, and helped Team USA to a bronze medal at the 1986 World Junior Championship. He was a member of the CCHA's All-Tournament Team in both 1987 and '88, and was named the Falcons' team MVP in the latter season.
Following his collegiate career, Paluch signed a professional contract with the St. Louis Blues. He played two seasons for Peoria, the Blues' International Hockey League affiliate. In his two seasons, Paluch played 160 games, recording 21 goals and 69 assists.
He served as an assistant coach at both BGSU (1990-94) and Boston College (1994-2002), helping BC to four consecutive Frozen Four appearances and a national title in 2001, before becoming the Falcon head coach in 2002. In seven seasons at the BG helm, Paluch compiled an 84-156-23 record. That includes the 2004-05 campaign, when the Falcons posted a 16-16-4 mark, the first season of .500 or better by the program in nine years. BG was fifth in the CCHA that season, earning a first-round home series in the conference playoffs for the first time in 10 years.
BG also hosted a first round CCHA playoff series in 2007-08 when the Falcons posted an 18-21-0 overall record, the most wins by a Falcon hockey team since 1994-95. In 2009, Paluch left BGSU to become a regional manager for USA Hockey's new American Development Model.
Paluch earned his degree in sport management from BGSU in May of 1991. He and his wife, Amy Jo (also a BGSU graduate), have three children and reside in Bowling Green. Paluch is a member of the Illinois Hockey Hall of Fame.
1959 FOOTBALL TEAM
The preseason preview section of the 1959 Bowling Green media guide begins with the following sentence: “The 13 lettermen who will greet Coach (Doyt) Perry on opening practice day will be the smallest number of returning letter winners that the Falcon coach has had in four seasons.” Led by those returnees, however, Perry's fifth BG team proceeded to go a perfect 9-0 – the first undefeated and untied season in program history – en route to winning the college division national championship.
Ron Blackledge, Bernie Casey, Bob Colburn and Bob Zimpfer all earned All-Mid-American Conference First-Team honors, while Jerry Dianiska, Russ Hepner and Chuck Ramsey were named to the second team. Perry's balanced squad led the MAC in both total offense, with 371.0 yards per game, and total defense, with just 208.3 ypg allowed.
Casey scored 10 touchdowns in BG's nine games, nearly as many as the Falcons' nine opponents scored altogether. BG scored 38 touchdowns to the foes' 11. Perry's team opened the season by crushing Marshall, 51-7, and BG then topped Dayton, 14-0, in the home opener at University Stadium.
The Falcons then picked up a second consecutive shutout, with a 34-0 win over Western Michigan before a Homecoming crowd of 9,200. The fourth game of the year saw Perry use his first string for only the first quarter and part of the second, as Bowling Green rolled up a 43-0 halftime lead en route to a 51-21 win over Toledo.
MAC wins over Kent State (25-8) and Miami (33-16) clinched at least a tie for the conference championship. Casey scored the Falcons' first three touchdowns in the Miami game, giving BG a 21-0 halftime lead vs. the Redskins. After a 23-14 win at Southern Illinois, BG returned home and defeated Delaware, 30-8, in what Perry called “the greatest victory in Bowling Green history.”
The final game of the season was by far the closest game of the year for the Falcons, as BG pulled out a 13-9 win at Ohio University. Ohio took a 9-0 halftime lead, but the Falcons rallied, as Colburn threw a touchdown pass, and Jerry Colaner intercepted a pass in the fourth quarter and returned it 30 yards for the deciding touchdown. clinching both the outright MAC title and an undefeated 1959 campaign. The Falcons were voted number-one in the nation in the final UPI poll of the season, and also were named the mythical small college national champions by the Washington, D.C. Touchdown Club.
–––––––––
The 2013 class of inductees, the 48th class in history, brings membership in the Athletic Hall of Fame to 222 individuals. Two teams (the 1983-84 national championship hockey team and now, the 1959 national championship football Falcons) also are in the Hall of Fame.
Complete Release - PDF
2013 Hall of Fame class photo gallery
The official induction ceremony, as mentioned, will take place on Saturday, Oct. 26. The class will be recognized on the field during the BGSU-Toledo football game at Doyt L. Perry Stadium. The game is designated as Hall of Fame Day, and is part of Letterwinner Weekend. The class will be officially inducted into the Hall in conjunction with a reception, which will be held at the Stroh Center. The reception will take place before or after the football game, with timing determined once the game kickoff time is set.
Biographical sketches on the 2013 inductees follow:
Kline-Ruminski also was fourth in the league in scoring as a junior, with 17.7 points per game, and ranked 10th in the league with 6.9 boards per contest. He shot .563 that year to rank fifth in the league. The Falcons' co-MVP as a junior, he was an all-conference second-team pick. Kline-Ruminski helped the Falcons post a home record of 24-3 over his last two seasons.
The Falcons went a combined 34-21 during those two years, including an 18-10 overall record in Kline-Ruminski's junior season of 1994-95. That BG team tied for second in the MAC with a 12-6 league record.
Kline-Ruminski, a two-year team captain, was an honorable-mention All-MAC choice as a sophomore, after averaging 12.0 points and 5.4 rebounds. That sophomore season, he was one of 12 athletes invited to attend Pete Newell's Big Man Camp. He was the MAC's Freshman of the Year and – not surprisingly – a member of the league's all-freshman team in 1991-92, averaging 9.2 points and 4.7 rebounds.
Kline-Ruminski ended his career ranked second in school history with a field-goal pct. of .596, and finished 10th on the BG scoring list with 1,427 points. He still ranks 14th in scoring at the University, and is also 14th at the school in career rebounds, with 623. Kline-Ruminski's career FG pct. still ranks second all-time at BGSU.
After his BGSU days, Kline-Ruminski played professionally in Belgium (1995-96), Turkey (1996-98), Israel (1998-2000), Portugal (2000-01) and France (2001-02). He is the founder/owner of the National Basketball Academy, which he started in 2002. During the 2010-11 season, Kline-Ruminski was selected to the All-Anderson Team.
Prior to coming to BGSU, Oestreng won four Norwegian junior all-around titles and then captured three Norwegian all-around titles. She competed in the European Championships in each of the five years before coming to BGSU.
As a freshman in 1999, Oestreng won the NCAA title in the floor exercise. She was the final competitor of the NCAA meet, and posted a score of 9.925 to win the title and earn All-American honors. Oestreng, the first-ever BGSU gymnast to even qualify for the national meet, had earned that trip to the NCAA meet by virtue of winning the floor at the NCAA Region 4 meet hosted by LSU. She posted a score of 9.950 to win that event at the regional meet, and finished 11th in the all-around at that meet with a score of 38.600. Oestreng also tied for third on the bars at the regional meet.
Oestreng was the dominant gymnast in the conference that year, winning the all-around title at the MAC Championships with a meet-record score of 39.600. She also won the league titles in vault (9.875), bars (9.900, tied the meet record) and beam (9.850, tied the meet record). No gymnast in MAC history had ever won more than three individual titles in a single league meet. Ironically, the only event she did not win at the 1999 MAC Championships was the floor exercise, where her score of 9.900 placed her second. She was named the MAC Gymnast of the Year as well as the MAC Freshman of the Year.
In that epic freshman season, Oestreng won the vault event in 10 of the 14 meets during the season, while winning the bars and the floor exercise nine times each, the beam on seven occasions and the all-around in 11 of 14 meets. Oestreng qualified for the World Gymnastics Championships in October of 1999 in China after capturing the all-around title at the Norwegian Championships in June.
As a sophomore in 2000, Oestreng finished fifth at the NCAA Regionals in the floor, eighth in the all-around and 10th in the bars. She captured the MAC all-around (39.450) and vault (9.875) titles, and finished second in the conference in the floor exercise (9.900). Oestreng's junior year saw her finish 12th in the NCAA Regionals in the all-around with a score of 38.275. She tied for top honors in the all-around at the MAC Championships (39.150) that year, and also tied for first on bars (9.875)
As a senior in 2002, Oestreng helped the Falcons to one of the most successful regular seasons in school history with a 17-1 mark (a school record for wins in a season). At that season's MAC Championships, she tied for first in both the all-around (39.175) and the floor (9.900), and deadlocked for second on the vault (9.875). She was named the MAC Senior Gymnast of the Year.
Paluch scored 169 points in 165 career games, including 61 points as a senior in '87-88. That 61-point total is the second-highest total in a season by a BGSU defenseman in history, and his 169 career points, as mentioned, is the most ever by a BG blueliner. Additionally, his career total of 48 goals is the most in history by a BGSU defenseman.
Additionally, Paluch holds program records for goals in a game (three, tied for first) and a series (four, tied for first) and assists in a series (seven) by a defenseman. His total of 121 career assists is tied for first by a BG defenseman.
Among all players, Paluch still ranks 19th in scoring among all players in BGSU history, and his assist total ties him for 11th.
His 36 career goals in CCHA games ranks him first in league history for goals by a defenseman, and he ranks third in CCHA annals in both career assists (91) and points (127) in league games by a defensemen. That point total is 14th on the BGSU list (all players). In his senior year, he had 37 assists in 31 CCHA games, the sixth-highest single-season assist total in BGSU history, and the most by a BG backliner.
Paluch helped the Falcons to one first-place finish, two second-place showings and one fourth-place effort during his four years as a player. He participated in the U.S. Olympic Festival in three consecutive years, from 1985-87, and helped Team USA to a bronze medal at the 1986 World Junior Championship. He was a member of the CCHA's All-Tournament Team in both 1987 and '88, and was named the Falcons' team MVP in the latter season.
Following his collegiate career, Paluch signed a professional contract with the St. Louis Blues. He played two seasons for Peoria, the Blues' International Hockey League affiliate. In his two seasons, Paluch played 160 games, recording 21 goals and 69 assists.
He served as an assistant coach at both BGSU (1990-94) and Boston College (1994-2002), helping BC to four consecutive Frozen Four appearances and a national title in 2001, before becoming the Falcon head coach in 2002. In seven seasons at the BG helm, Paluch compiled an 84-156-23 record. That includes the 2004-05 campaign, when the Falcons posted a 16-16-4 mark, the first season of .500 or better by the program in nine years. BG was fifth in the CCHA that season, earning a first-round home series in the conference playoffs for the first time in 10 years.
BG also hosted a first round CCHA playoff series in 2007-08 when the Falcons posted an 18-21-0 overall record, the most wins by a Falcon hockey team since 1994-95. In 2009, Paluch left BGSU to become a regional manager for USA Hockey's new American Development Model.
Paluch earned his degree in sport management from BGSU in May of 1991. He and his wife, Amy Jo (also a BGSU graduate), have three children and reside in Bowling Green. Paluch is a member of the Illinois Hockey Hall of Fame.
Ron Blackledge, Bernie Casey, Bob Colburn and Bob Zimpfer all earned All-Mid-American Conference First-Team honors, while Jerry Dianiska, Russ Hepner and Chuck Ramsey were named to the second team. Perry's balanced squad led the MAC in both total offense, with 371.0 yards per game, and total defense, with just 208.3 ypg allowed.
Casey scored 10 touchdowns in BG's nine games, nearly as many as the Falcons' nine opponents scored altogether. BG scored 38 touchdowns to the foes' 11. Perry's team opened the season by crushing Marshall, 51-7, and BG then topped Dayton, 14-0, in the home opener at University Stadium.
The Falcons then picked up a second consecutive shutout, with a 34-0 win over Western Michigan before a Homecoming crowd of 9,200. The fourth game of the year saw Perry use his first string for only the first quarter and part of the second, as Bowling Green rolled up a 43-0 halftime lead en route to a 51-21 win over Toledo.
MAC wins over Kent State (25-8) and Miami (33-16) clinched at least a tie for the conference championship. Casey scored the Falcons' first three touchdowns in the Miami game, giving BG a 21-0 halftime lead vs. the Redskins. After a 23-14 win at Southern Illinois, BG returned home and defeated Delaware, 30-8, in what Perry called “the greatest victory in Bowling Green history.”
The final game of the season was by far the closest game of the year for the Falcons, as BG pulled out a 13-9 win at Ohio University. Ohio took a 9-0 halftime lead, but the Falcons rallied, as Colburn threw a touchdown pass, and Jerry Colaner intercepted a pass in the fourth quarter and returned it 30 yards for the deciding touchdown. clinching both the outright MAC title and an undefeated 1959 campaign. The Falcons were voted number-one in the nation in the final UPI poll of the season, and also were named the mythical small college national champions by the Washington, D.C. Touchdown Club.
–––––––––
The 2013 class of inductees, the 48th class in history, brings membership in the Athletic Hall of Fame to 222 individuals. Two teams (the 1983-84 national championship hockey team and now, the 1959 national championship football Falcons) also are in the Hall of Fame.
BG Football Press Conference vs UMass 11.20
Thursday, November 20
BG Football Postgame vs Akron 11.18
Wednesday, November 19
BG Football Press Conference vs Akron 11.13
Thursday, November 13
BG Football Postgame 11.8 vs EMU
Sunday, November 09