EMPORIA STATE'S KATHY DEVINE TO ENTER DRAKE RELAYS HALL OF FAME

April 22, 2016-Emporia State Hall of Honor member and former national collegiate record holder Kathy Devine will join four other Hornet athletes and one legendary coach in the prestigious Drake Relays Athletes Hall of Fame next week during the 107th running of the Drake Relays.

Devine was a three-time Drake Relays champion, in 1977, 1978 and 1980, and was the first women's shot put champion at the Drake Relays. During her career, Devine set the national collegiate record four times in the shot put while attending Emporia State, first as a freshman in 1976 and then broke it for the final time with a throw of 53-7.75 at the 1978 Drake Relays. That throw stood as the Drake Relays record for eight years until it was broken by Relays Hall of Famer Pinkie Suggs in 1987 with the only throw to exceed Devine's during a 17-year period.
 
Outside of the Relays, she had an equally successful collegiate career. In 1976 and 1977, she was a two-time AIAW national champion as well as a two-time U.S. Federation champion. She also was a two-time national AAU runner-up and became a three-time shot put champion at the Kansas Relays in 1976, 1977 and 1978. Devine swept the shot put, discus and javelin events at the Kansas Relays in 1978, setting a collegiate record of 53-3 in shot put, a mark she broke just a week later at the Drake Relays.

Devine was also a key member of the Emporia State volleyball squad for four seasons, earning all-CSIC honors each year.

She will be the fifth student-athlete and sixth Hornet overall selected to the Drake Relays Hall of Fame, the most representatives of any non-Division I school. National champion 800m runner Billy Tidwell was a member of the inaugural class in 1959 and was joined by  Olympic Gold Medalist John Kuck in 1964 and national champion miler Archie San Romani in 1966. Two-time U.S. Olympian Al Feuerbach was in inducted in 1992.  Emporia State legend Fran Welch was inducted in the coaches category in 1992.

Emporia State in the Drake Relays Hall of Fame
Athletes
Name Years at ESU    Event    Inducted
Billy Tidwell 1951,55-57    800m    1959
John Kuck 1925-26    Shot    1964
Archie San Romani 1935-37    Mile    1966
Al Feuerbach 1967-79    Shot    1976
Kathy Devine 1976-78    Shot    2016
Coach
Name Years at ESU        Inducted
Fran Welch 1929-64        1992