Michigan Athletics Announces 2022 Hall of Honor Class
6/21/2022 10:00:00 AM | General, Softball, Rowing, Women's Soccer, Women's Swimming & Diving, Women's Track & Field
• University of Michigan Hall of Honor
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan athletic department announced its seven-member 2022 Hall of Honor class on Tuesday (June 21) with Abby Crumpton (women's soccer), Samantha Findlay (softball), Joan (Spillane) Postma '62, Jim Richardson (women's swimming and diving), Red Simmons (women's track and field), Ellen Tomek (rowing) and Debbie Williams-Hoak (women's track and field) set to join the prestigious Hall.
This is the first Hall of Honor class comprised entirely of female student-athletes and coaches of women's teams at Michigan and is in honor and recognition of the 50th anniversary of Title IX legislation.
The induction ceremony is scheduled to take place this fall. Criteria for consideration included being an NCAA champion or member of a national championship team, an All-American, Olympic medalist, Olympic team member, professional league champion or world championship team medalist/member, NCAA or conference player of the year, conference champion, record holder or all-conference award winner.
The U-M Athletics Hall of Honor was established in 1978 to recognize individuals who have made significant contributions as athletes, coaches and administrators to the tradition of Wolverine athletics and, in doing so, have enhanced the image and reputation of the University of Michigan.
Abby Crumpton | Women's Soccer (1999-2002)
Abby Crumpton Minihan is the first women's soccer player to be inducted into Michigan's Hall of Honor, and deservedly so. The program's record book is littered with her name even 20 years since she last donned her No. 22 jersey.
As a senior tri-captain in 2002, Abby was an NSCAA/Missouri Athletic Club Hermann Trophy Award finalist honoring the nation's top player, a second team All-American, and the Big Ten Women's Soccer Athlete of the Year. That same year, U-M reached the NCAA quarterfinals for the first time. She also was a freshman on the 1999 team that won U-M's second Big Ten Tournament title.
Crumpton was a three-time All-Great Lakes Region first-team and All-Big Ten first-team selection (1999, 2001-02) and was named second team to both as a sophomore in 2000. In 2001, she was named U-M's team MVP and earned U-M's Athletic Academic Achievement Award in 2000 and '03.
The forward led U-M in points in 2001 (30) and 2002 (35), goals in 2001 (13 goals) and 2002 (11 goals), and assists (13) in 2002. Until 2013, Abby held the program record for career points (116) and currently ranks second. She ranks among the top five all-time in eight career categories: points per game (3rd, 1.29); goals (3rd, 43); goals per game (T-2nd, 0.48); game-winning goals (4th, 10); assists (2nd, 30); shots attempted (2nd, 300); games played (4th, 90); and games started (5th, 83).
Among single-season performances, she appears twice in the record book for points, with 35 in 2002 ranking third all-time, and her 32 points in 1999 tying for eighth. Her 13 goals in 2001 rank seventh, her 12 goals in 1999 are tied for eighth and her 13 assists in 2002 are tied for second. Abby's three goals against Indiana in 2001 remains tied for Michigan's single-game record.
Samantha Findlay | Softball (2005-08)
Samantha Findlay capped her freshman season with the most famous home run in Michigan softball history, hitting a three-run shot in the 10th inning to clinch Michigan's 4-1 win over UCLA and give the Wolverines their first national championship. Findlay batted .409 in the Women's College World Series and was named Most Outstanding Player. She hit .361 that year with a team-high 77 runs batted in and 43 walks, and she smacked 21 homers to share the school single-season record with Jessica Merchant.
A first team All-American as a second baseman in 2008, Findlay set career marks (since eclipsed by Sierra Romero) for home runs (62), RBI (219) and slugging percentage (.677). She was named to the all-region team three times, the Big Ten All-Tournament team twice, and was the 2005 Big Ten Freshman of the Year as well as a 2008 unanimous All-Big Ten first-team selection.
Joan (Spillane) Postma | College of Literature, Science and the Arts (1960-62)
The summer prior to her freshman year at the University of Michigan, Joan (Spillane) Postma swam for the United States at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. Joan earned a gold medal on the U.S. women's 4×100-meter freestyle relay, setting a World record after defeating the favored Australians. The University's first female Olympic gold medalist, she attended U-M on an academic scholarship from 1960-62.
She completed a degree in elementary education from the University of Houston and went on to a 29-year teaching career with the Cy-Fair Independent School District, first as a math teacher and then as director of technology support services until her retirement in 2002. She remained involved with swimming for many years, also teaching swim lessons. Postma Elementary School in Cypress, Texas, is named in her honor. She and her husband have one daughter, Perri, a son, Robert, and four grandchildren.
Jim Richardson | Women's Swimming and Diving Head Coach (1985-2012)
The longest-tenured head coach in Michigan women's swimming and diving history, Jim Richardson led his teams to 14 Big Ten Championships and 14 top 10 national finishes in his 27 years (1985-2012). His teams won 12 straight Big Ten titles from 1987-98, adding two more titles in 2001 and 2004.
The 1993 and 1995 NCAA Coach of the Year, Richardson coached Ann Colloton to Michigan's first individual NCAA swimming title in 1989 (200-yard breaststroke), followed by seven others combining for a total of eight NCAA swimming titles (seven individual events and one relay).
A six-time Big Ten Coach of the Year, Richardson's teams accumulated a 175-77 overall record and 113-25 record in Big Ten competition. Four of his teams went undefeated, including an unbeaten streak from 1986-87 through 1988-89 (13-0, 7-0, 7-0), as well as 1993-94 (8-0).
Red Simmons | Women's Track and Field Head Coach (1978-81, posthumous)
Red Simmons is remembered as the University of Michigan's first women's track and field coach and the founder of "The Michigammes,"" the first Ann Arbor Women's Track Club, in 1960. Simmons was fueled by the idea to allow women the chance to compete. With the passage of Title IX legislation in 1972 and recruitment by newly formed varsity programs across the country, the need for the Michigammes slowly diminished.
Having proved his mettle as a coach with the Michigammes, Simmons was selected as the first women's track and field coach at U-M in 1976. The Wolverines gained varsity status two years later. In his four years as coach, the Wolverines gradually improved, finishing fourth at the unofficial 1981 Big Ten Conference outdoor meet. He coached the program's first All-America selection (AIAW), Penny Neer, before retiring in 1981.
Simmons became U-M's first Honorary "M" man in 1990 and was the inaugural inductee into the Michigan Women's Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1994. The Wolverines have hosted the "Red Simmons Invitational" every year since 1981 in his honor.
Before becoming synonymous with women's track and field, Simmons served as a detective with the Detroit Police Force from 1933 until retiring in 1959. Himself a track athlete, Simmons was a two-time state champion in the hurdles, ran for Eastern Michigan and competed in the 1932 U.S. Olympic Trials.
Simmons passed away in 2012 at the age of 102.
Ellen Tomek | Rowing (2003-06)
A three-year letterwinner at Michigan, Tomek was a member of the Wolverine novice program as a freshman. She competed in the second varsity eight as a sophomore and junior before spending her senior campaign in the first varsity eight. Tomek earned All-Big Ten second team honors in her final season at Michigan.
She is one of Michigan's two three-time female Olympians (Tiffany Ofili-Porter), competing in Beijing in 2008 and Rio in 2016 in double sculls, and in Tokyo (2020) in the quad sculls. She was an 11-time member of the U.S. Rowing national team with seven international medals. Part of U-M's 2003 and 2004 Big Ten champion teams, Ellen was a second team All-American and Michigan Rowing Athlete of the Year in 2006 as a senior.
Debbie Williams-Hoak | Women's Track and Field (1979-82)
Williams-Hoak earned notoriety for committing to Michigan after a talk with Bo Schembechler at her high school athletic banquet and, thus, becoming the "only female athlete Bo Schembechler only recruited".
Williams-Hoak became the first Big Ten champion in Michigan Women's Track and Field history and went on to win four Big Ten titles in the javelin. She was the first female track athlete to place at the National Track Championships when she finished ninth as a freshman (AIAW). She competed in four national championships and went on to earn All-America honors. Williams-Hoak set the school record in the javelin, throwing 167 feet, 6 inches -- a record that stood for over 25 years. Williams-Hoak was inducted into the Michigan Women's Track & Field Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Ohio Track & Field Hall of Fame in 2016.
Williams-Hoak qualified for three U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials and finished seventh at the 1984 Olympic Trials. She also competed in seven U.S. Olympic Festivals -- six in Track and Field and one in softball while also representing the U.S. in track and field in competition in Russia and West Germany.
Williams-Hoak later joined U-M as an assistant track and strength and conditioning coach. She was selected by the U.S. Olympic Committee as a throwing coach at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. Williams-Hoak was also a member of the Letterwinners M Club Board of Directors.
At the age of 31, Debbie took up the game of golf. She won the Michigan Public Links Championship, the Women's Interstate Mid-Am (shooting a 62 and 67), two Michigan Women's Amateur Championships, the Michigan Open and was named the Golf Association of Michigan's Female Player of the Year in 1993. She also competed in seven USGA National Championships before turning pro in 1995. She played on the LPGA Futures Tour before qualifying for the LPGA Tour in 2000.
Williams-Hoak became a Class A LPGA Teaching Professional in 2007. She earned the LPGA Sandy LaBauve National Award for her work with the LPGA Girls Golf Program. She has won the LPGA Midwest Section leader of the Year twice and was named the LPGA Midwest Section Goldie Bateson award winner. Williams-Hoak was selected to the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame in 2018 and the Michigan Women's Golf Hall of Fame in 2019. In 2022, Williams-Hoak was named as one of the top 50 LPGA Teaching Professionals worldwide.
Williams-Hoak also is a high school golf coach at Saline for the boys and girls teams. She has been named District, Regional and State Coach of the Year for high school golf and is the current President of the Michigan Interscholastic Golf Coaches Association along with being President of the Michigan High School Coaches Association.
