MASCAC Announces 2021 Hall of Fame Class
WESTFIELD, Mass. - The Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) is pleased to announce the 2021 Hall of Fame Class brought to you by GEICO. The MASCAC created the Hall of Fame to provide the recognition of those individuals who have made a significant contribution to the conference and to help preserve the storied history of the MASCAC and its member institutions.
Salem State is well represented as former hockey All-American hockey player Michael Gilligan '70, All-American women's soccer player Patricia Comeau-Buradagunta '94, former NCAA champion women's basketball coach Tim Shea '83g, and the 1972 men's golf team, the first-ever MASCAC championship team were selected for induction.
There are five categories for nomination: student-athlete from a men's team, student-athlete from a women's team, overall team, coach and administrator. The 2021 MASCAC Hall of Fame Class is as follows:
Michael Gilligan- Salem State, Stanley Egbor- Worcester State – Student-athlete from a male team
Patricia Comeau-Buradagunta- Salem State University, Claudine Rice- Westfield State University – Student-athlete from a female team
Salem State University Men's Golf 1972 - Team
Tim Shea- Salem State University - Coach
Bob Corradi- Massachusetts Maritime Academy - Administrator
Starting this year's honorees are the student-athlete from a male team honorees. An outstanding defenseman on the Salem hockey team for four years, Michael Gilligan was the first hockey player in the history of the College to win All American honors. In addition to being a first team All American, he was twice elected captain. He won the team M.V.P award and was named to the ECAC All Team twice. After graduating, Gilligan played for a year with the Springfield Blades of the Eastern League, and, in 1972, was on the U.S team at the World University Games at Lake Placid, New York. He also taught in the Peabody schools. From 1975 to 1981, he was the head hockey coach at Salem State College compiling a record of 128-48-2. In Massachusetts State College play, his record was 36-0-1. He currently has the second highest winning percentage (72.5) in the New England College Division.
Stanley Egbor is one of the most highly decorated track athletes in Worcester State history. He was a six-time All-American in the 55 meter, 100 meter and 200 meter events. His junior season, Stanley was not beaten by a New England Division III athlete all year in both the indoor and outdoor seasons. That season, he was the MASCAC and Alliance Champion in the 55 meter and 200 meter during the indoor season. He also was the ECAC champion in both of those events. He finished 5th in nationals to earn All-America status in the 55 meter sprint. Egbor has won numerous New England, ECAC and MASCAC/Alliance awards and is the Worcester State record holder in six events (55m, 60m, 100m, 200m, 400m, 4X100).
Up next are the student-athletes from a female team winners. Patricia "Buffy" Comeau-Buradagunta is still recognized, as SSC's only first team national All-American selection in the sport of women's soccer. A two-year performer, who also played basketball, Comeau-Buradagunta helped lead the soccer program to a 29-6-2 record. In addition to helping SSC to a pair of NCAA playoff appearances, she was a member of two MASCAC championship teams and the soccer team's leading scorer her senior year. She scored seven goals and recorded 12 assists. Comeau-Buradagunta, a native of Spencer, MA who also earned first team All-New England and All-MASCAC honors her senior year, was chosen SSC President's Cup Female recipient her final year.
Claudine (Rice) Poplawski gained national recognition for Westfield State as an elite hammer thrower in the mid-1990s. Poplawski won the 1994 NCAA Division III national championship in the hammer throw with a winning distance of 169-5. She earned her second All America certificate a year later by finishing second at the 1995 NCAA Division III national championships. Her biggest accomplishment, however, was winning the prestigious Penn Relays in 1995. Competing against 12 NCAA Division I athletes, Poplawski unleashed a school record throw of 176-9 to earn the top spot on the victory stand. Just after her stunning victory at the Penn Relays, Poplawski was ranked the 10th best hammer thrower in the world, according to the Track and Field News. She participated in three United States Mobil national outdoor track and field championships, and earned All-USA honors with a sixth-place finish at the 1993 meet in Eugene, Oregon.
The 1972 Salem State men's golf team takes home this year's team hall of fame honor. The squad won the first MASCAC Championship at the Essex County Club going 10-0 during regular season. The team finished 18th at the NCAA championships hosted by Williams College when Division II and III had a combined championship. The team was invited to participate in the St. Andrews Invitational (Scotland) with 10 collegiate teams (Division I,II,III) from the United States to compete in the first Palmer Cup against 10 teams from Great Britain. Salem State finished 6th overall. That year the Vikings won the ECAC Championship (All Divisions) hosted by Dartmouth College. Team featured 1972 Golf All-American Scott Pryor.
Tim Shea enters the MASCAC Hall of Fame as a coach, but he also serves as Director of Athletics for many years. Shea joined Salem State as the full-time women's basketball coach in 1981 after a successful stint at Salem High School. During his tenure, Salem State dominated the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC), winning a combined 38 championships -- (22 regular season and 16 postseason titles). Shea, one of the all-time wins leaders in NCAA Division III women's basketball history, had an overall record of 649--179 (.784); achieved his greatest accomplishment during the 1985-86 season when he directed the Lady Vikings to the university's first and - to date – only national team championship. The 1985-86 Lady Vikings posted a 29-1 final record and were ranked No. 1 the entire season. Shea was also cited by the New England Women's Basketball Coaches Association (NEWBA) and Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) with regional and national coach-of-the-year honors. Before retiring from coaching in 2011, Shea led the school to a record 24 NCAA Division III post-season tournaments, including 14 in a row from 1993-2006, and coached nine NCAA Division III All-Americans during his tenure. The basketball floor at Twohig Gymnasium was renamed Tim Shea Court in 2015. His tenure as athletic director included the addition of several varsity sports, including men's and women's
lacrosse, and women's ice hockey. The O'Keefe Sports Complex facilities also received significant upgrades as the department of athletics and recreation expanded with the addition of the new Gassett Fitness Center in 2013. The University also renamed the athletics endowment, the Timothy P. Shea '83G Athletic Endowment in 2015.
Rounding out this year's class is our adminstrator honoree who similar to Shea also was a coach and adminstrator. Bob Corradi gave 43 years of service to the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and 26 years as Director of Athletics. A Bourne native and a current resident of Sandwich, Corradi served in a number of different administrative capacities at Massachusetts Maritime prior to assuming his current role of Director of Athletics in September 1989. He has overseen the growth and development of a program that has nearly doubled from eight sports when he assumed his duties to its current 15 varsity sport offering, and he also oversaw the construction of a new turf athletic stadium (Clean Harbors Stadium) while helping to implement new construction and upgrades to existing athletics facilities both on and off campus, including the Clean Harbors Athletic Center, Commodore Hendy Field (baseball), Alison Rollins Field (softball) and the Keith Hartford Sailing Center on Herring Pond. During Corradi's tenure as Athletics Director, the amount of student-athletes participating in intercollegiate athletics at the Academy has tripled, and nearly 45 percent of all student-athletes participating in at least one sport have achieved a minimum 3.00 GPA over the past five years, another example of his commitment to the mission of Massachusetts Maritime and NCAA Division III.Corradi began his career at Massachusetts Maritime as the Academy's first and only Head Baseball Coach in 1973, as he has amassed 579 victories in 43 seasons on the diamond while earning the nod as Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year on four occasions, the last coming in his final season in 2015. Also in 2015, Corradi was named as the 2015 ECAC Division III New England Co-Coach of the Year. He guided the Buccaneers to both the MASCAC and ECAC titles during a 1982 season that saw Massachusetts Maritime win a school record 28 games, and in the fall Corradi served as Assistant Football Coach for 38 seasons under Head Coaches Don Ruggeri, Joe Domingos and Jeremy Cameron, as he helped lead the Buccaneers to a pair of New England Football Conference championships in 1977 and again in 1983.
The inductees will be recognized at a formal MASCAC Hall of Fame induction which will be coupled with a MASCAC athletic championship or event at the site in which the individual competed or was housed during the 2021-22 year.