Athletics Hall of Fame
2007 Inductees
Felicia Britton Harris | Timothy Brylka | Amber Crowder | Stephen Hengst | Jerome Jackson | Kurt Rogers | Larry Rule | Stacey Sparks
Felicia Britton Harris ’99 of Belleville, Ill., originally of Decatur, will be inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame for her outstanding track career.
Felicia was 1996 and 1998 CCIW champion in both the 100- and 200-meter runs and represented the Big Blue at the Division III national championships. She also finished second in the CCIW for those events in 1997 and continued to distinguish herself in these categories by placing third and fourth in the 200-meter and 100-meter, respectively, during the 1998-1999 season.
Several of her Big Blue records still stand today, including the outdoor 100-meter (12.24) and 200-meter runs (25.02), as well as the indoor 55-meter dash (7.33) and the 200-meter run (26.26). Harris also played basketball during her freshman year at Millikin.
Harris earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Millikin, where she was a Long Vanderburg Scholar, a three-time recipient of the Wayne Dunning Award and a member of the Multicultural Leadership Program. She also was named a P.E.O., Magna Bank and First National Bank scholar. In 2005, she completed a master’s degree in business administration through the University of Phoenix.
Since 2004, Harris has been a tax specialist with Ameren Services after previously working for Illinois Power for five years. Harris and her husband, Frederick, have been married for eight years. She has a step-daughter, Jade, 14, and enjoys running, basketball and reading. Her cousin, Rashawna Pender, is a member of the Millikin class of 2003.
Timothy Brylka ’01 of Elburn, Ill., will be inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame for his excellence in football.
Brylka, a quarterback and four-year letter winner, was named the CCIW’s Player of the Year in 2000. More than six years after his graduation, he remarkably still holds 15 Big Blue records, including career records for total offense yards for a quarterback (7,294), touchdown passes (63), pass completions (462), passing yards (6,639) and pass attempts (845). He holds the season records for passing yards (2,159), touchdown passes (23) and total offense yards for a quarterback (2,613). In addition, he set game records for pass completions (33), touchdown passes (tied with five) and total offensive yards for a quarterback (442). He is ranked second and sixth on the all-time record list in game-best passing with 372 yards and 342 yards, respectively, and he also compiled the Big Blue’s game-best total offense by totaling up 442 yards vs. Wheaton in 1998.
During his junior and senior years, Brylka served as co-captain and was selected to the All-CCIW first team. As a sophomore, he made the All-CCIW second team. During his senior year, he was named the team’s most valuable player. Brylka also played baseball for three years for the Big Blue and was named the team’s co-captain his senior year.
Brylka earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from Millikin, where he graduated magna cum laude and was a presidential scholar, plus a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Alpha Kappa Psi. He earned a master’s degree in education from Benedictine University.
Brylka teaches business, coaches freshman football and is head varsity baseball coach at his high school alma mater, Wheaton Warrenville South High School. Previously, he worked as a financial advisor for Principal Financial Group. He and his wife, Kristine, are expecting their first child in November.
Amber Crowder Kennell ’96 of Shelbyville, Ill., will be inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame for her excellence in volleyball.
A setter and four-year letter winner, Kennell was an integral component of the 1995 Big Blue volleyball team that holds the Millikin record for most victories in a season (36) and best hit percentage (.281). During her junior and senior years, she served as co-captain of the team and she was named co-MVP her junior year, as well as sharing MVP honors with her entire team for her sophomore and senior years. Kennell was selected to the All-CCIW first team all four years and was named to the Division III All-American second team her senior year. She was named CCIW Most Outstanding Player her junior and senior years and was also a featured WAND-TV Player of the Week. Kennell is ranked second on Millikin’s all-time career assist list with 4,833, third on the all-time season assist record list with 1,498 in 1995, and fifth on that same list with 1,289 in 1994.
After graduation, Kennell served as head volleyball coach at Shelbyville High School, where she led the team to the IHSA state tournament and subsequently was named Area Volleyball Coach of the Year by the Decatur Herald & Review newspaper. Afterwards, she spent three years at Lake Land College as internship supervisor and one year as the school’s assistant volleyball coach. Since 2003, Kennell has owned and operated Amber Kennell Photography.
She is a member of the American Child Photographer’s Charity Guild, Children and Family Photographers of America and a registered photographer with the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep organization. Kennell recently raised nearly $1,500 for the Shelbyville Little League and Girls Softball Complex through the Amber Kennell Photography Kids Contest. She is also a volunteer volleyball assistant at Shelbyville High School.
Kennell earned a bachelor’s degree in human services from Millikin and a master’s degree in family and consumer sciences from Eastern Illinois University in 2000. While at Millikin, she was a member of the Behavioral Sciences Club and volunteered at Futures Unlimited. In 2005, she organized a Homecoming reunion of Big Blue volleyball players. She and her husband, Darren, have three children: sons Bart and Brett, and daughter Abbie.
Stephen Hengst ’63 of Decatur will be inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame for excellence in basketball and tennis.
Hengst lettered all four years in basketball and tennis and served as captain for both teams his junior year. His Millikin basketball career was especially noteworthy. During his time on the team, he scored 1,028 points, making him the eighth person in Big Blue history to score over one thousand career points in basketball. Today, he ranks 12th in all-time rebounding for the Big Blue, with 652 rebounds in 71 games throughout three seasons. (Unfortunately, the rebounding stats for his junior year – Hengst’s best season – were lost during a coaching transition or that ranking would be even higher). In 1961, he led the CCIW with a field goal percentage of .592. Additionally, his career average of 11.2 points per game ranks him 28th on the Big Blue all-time career scoring list.
After graduation, Hengst began a 30-year career with the Decatur School District, working as both a coach and an administrator. A teacher and coach at Lakeview High School from 1963-68, he was assistant football coach in 1965, the year that Lakeview became Decatur’s first and only unbeaten public school varsity football team. During the early years of his career, he also coached tennis and basketball for Lakeview, including serving as varsity basketball coach for the school from 1965-68. Next, he served as assistant principal at Mound Middle School (1968-69), dean of boys at Lakeview (1969-74), assistant principal at Stephen Decatur High School (1974-85), and principal at Eisenhower High School (1985-90). He retired as director of schools and curriculum for the school district’s central office in 1993.
A member of the national Association of Secondary School Principals, he was named 1981 Administrator of the Year by the Decatur Association of Educational Office Personnel. He also was inducted into the Decatur Athletic Council Hall of Fame in 2000.
Hengst earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education and a master’s degree in education, both from Millikin. While a student, he was a member of Delta Sigma Phi fraternity and president of the Letterman’s Club his senior year. He and his wife, Kathy, have two daughters, Jill Wynne and Julie Hengst Shea ’91. Other Millikin relatives are his son-in-law, Ben Shea ’90, his sister-in-law, Marty Vogel Horve ’93, and his niece, Amy Svendsen ’08.
Jerome Jackson ’01 of Aurora, Ill., will be inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame for his excellence in football.
Jackson, a wide receiver and four-year letter winner, was selected to the All-CCIW first team his sophomore, junior and senior years. He is first on the Big Blue’s all-time records list for career receiving yards (2,584) and career receptions (166) and also holds the season records for pass receptions (63) and receiving yards (986). He holds the first (986 yards in 2000) and fifth (763 yards in 1998) positions on Millikin’s season-best receiving list and is ranked fourth (197 yards in 1999) and eighth (171 in 2000) on Millikin’s game-best receiving list. He served as co-captain of the team for his senior year. Jackson is first on the all-time list of only 12 Big Blue players who have accumulated more than 1,000 receiving yards during their Millikin football careers; his total career yards of 2,584 surpassed Jeff Query ’89, who had set a total of 2,548 yards during his Millikin days. In submitting Jackson’s name for consideration for the Athletic Hall of Fame, one of his nominators referred to Jackson as “possibly the most accomplished wide receiver in MU history.”
Jackson is currently an account executive for National City Bank in Naperville, Ill. He was previously a national account executive for Wachovia Bank, a senior financial trainer for Career Education Corp. and an admissions counselor for Millikin in the Chicago area.
Jackson enjoys spending time with his son Cole, who is 4, as well as competing in triathlon competitions and other sporting events.
Jackson earned a bachelor’s degree in communication from Millikin. Jackson’s sister, Megan Moore, also attended Millikin with the class of 2001.
Larry Kurtis “Kurt” Rogers ’83 of Decatur will be inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame for his excellence in collegiate and professional golf.
Rogers played four years of golf at Millikin, serving as the team’s captain during his junior year and co-captain as a senior. Technically, Rogers was named most valuable player all four years of his college career: The entire team shared the honor his freshman year, he was named sole MVP his sophomore and senior years, and he shared co-MVP honors with Brad Kay ’85 his junior year. He placed fourth his junior year and eighth his senior year on the All-CCIW team. During his sophomore and junior years, he made the cut for the Illinois State Amateur tournament.
In 1985, Rogers joined the Professional Golf Association and went on to play in 21 Illinois Open Tournaments, placing third in the 1998 Illinois Open and finishing ten times in the top 15. In the United States Golf Association U.S. Open, he advanced to the sectional tournament five times and twice was the medalist at the local qualifying tournament with a score of 69 in both 2002 and 2006.
Rogers played on the PGA tour 1991 and 1994 Hardee’s Classic tournaments, as well as the Hogan Tour, the Nike Tour, the Nationwide Tour, the Golfweek/Callaway Pro Scratch National Finals in Las Vegas, the Hawkeye Classic in Iowa, the Greater Cleveland Open, the St. Louis Open, the Greater Wichita Classic and the Highland Springs Country Club-Ozarks Open in various cities around the Midwest. He is also a six-time member of the professional Heartland Cup Team, which matches 12 Illinois PGA club professionals and 12 Central Illinois amateurs. In the Illinois Professional Golf Association of America, Rogers won the Assistants Championship in 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2001; the Chapter Championship in 1997 and 1999; and the Match Play Championship in 1998. He was also five-time consecutive Assistant Player of the Year, from 1998-2002 and Chapter Player of the Year in 1997 and 1999. Rogers holds the current course records for Decatur’s Hickory Point Golf Course with 61, Scovill Golf Course with 59 and the new Red Tail Run Golf Course with a 68. To date, he has hit fourteen holes in one.
Rogers has also been involved with the Boys and Girls Club of Decatur, PGA of America and Chicago District Golf Association. He is especially proud of his work with First Tee of Decatur, a junior golf program.
Today, Rogers is the full-time golf pro at Decatur’s Red Tail Run golf course. He was previously golf pro assistant to Richie Hammel at Fairies Golf Course and assistant golf pro at Hickory Point Golf Course.
Rogers earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education, secondary teaching, from Millikin. His sister is Kim Rogers Dodenhoff ’81 and his brother is Kraig Rogers ’87.
Larry Rule ’62 of Decatur will be inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame for his outstanding Millikin baseball career.
A transfer student who came to Millikin after his freshman year at the University of Illinois, Rule played only three seasons for the Big Blue but managed to set several baseball records, two of which remain unbroken today, more than 45 years later. He still holds the record for both the highest season batting average (.492) and career batting average (.410). Moreover, his .492 season batting average was the highest batting average of any player in Illinois that year and among the top five averages in the nation. He holds the Big Blue record for most doubles in a game, with four against Elmhurst in 1960. In addition, Rule held the records for most season doubles, hitting 19 in 18 games, and most career doubles, with 32 in 53 games, until both records were broken in 2003 by Travis Beer ’03, who hit 20 season doubles in 39 games and 48 career doubles in 146 games. Rule also hit an impressive 77 career base hits, almost half of which were for extra bases. In 1961, he led the Big Blue to an undisputed CCIW conference title with a batting average of .397, at least 49 points higher than anyone else on his team. In two of his three years, he had the most at-bats, and in the third year, he placed second. He played every inning of every game during his three-year career.
Rule earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Millikin and was a member of Delta Sigma Phi fraternity. He retired in 1997 as senior buyer from Decatur’s Bridgestone/Firestone plant after 34 years of service, and he is currently a substitute teacher for the Decatur School District. His interests include hunting, fishing and golfing. Rule has five children: son, James, and daughters Elizabeth, Stephanie, Pamela and Jennifer Rule ’05. Other Millikin relatives include his brother-in-law, Don Walker ’63, and his granddaughter, Jessica Colebar ’09.
Stacey Sparks ’92 of Bloomington, Ill., will be inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame for her outstanding Big Blue softball career.
In her two years on the team, Sparks accomplished a number of feats, including setting four records that still stand today: a season record 14 doubles her senior year; a season batting average of .467 and 43 RBIs in a season, both set during her junior year; and a season record of 10 home runs in only 38 games, also set during her junior year. During her junior year, she was named to the NCAA Division III All-American first team, was the NCAA Division III national home runs leader, and was named to the All-Midwest Region first team and Midwest Region all-tournament team. That same year, she was named the CCIW’s all-conference first team and shared the 1991 CCIW records for doubles (7), and RBIs (16). She also was named the team’s MVP that year. Sparks continued to play with vigor into her senior season. As co-captain, she made the All-Midwest Region first team, the CCIW all-conference first team and the NCAA Division III All-American second team. She batted .407, making her the first Big Blue player ever to have back-to-back .400 seasons. In her final season, Sparks notched 38 RBIs and achieved a career batting average of .439.
Sparks also played basketball during her junior year at Millikin., where she set the then CCIW record for three-point goals percentage with 45 percent.
After Millikin, Sparks coached girls basketball at West Lincoln Junior High School and was assistant women’s basketball coach at Lincoln Land Community College, where she helped lead the team to a record winning 21-9 season. She also coached various YWCA and summer youth basketball and softball teams, including a stint coaching youth softball in Bloomington-Normal in 2005 and 2006. She has also done radio play-by-play for the Lincoln High School Lady Railers basketball team.
Sparks earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from Millikin and also completed an associate’s degree in journalism at Illinois Central College. Today, she is a commercial underwriter for Country Insurance. She is a member of the Big Blue Club, a United Way volunteer and remains active in softball by playing on teams in her area. She also has volunteered for the Country Youth Golf Classic and the State Farm Rail Golf Classic. Sparks’ cousin, Tiffany Conaway ’06, is also a Millikin graduate.