46 | MAY 12 • 2022

O

ne of the most anticipated annual
events on the area’s sports calen-
dar is returning after a two-year
absence.
The Michigan Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
banquet, last held in 2019 before it was can-
celed in 2020 and 2021 by the COVID-19
pandemic, will be held Oct. 24 at a site that
will be announced soon.
Don Rudick, executive director of the
Michigan Jewish Sports Foundation, which
oversees the Hall of Fame, said this year’s
Hall of Fame inductees won’t be separated
into classes of 2020, 2021 and 2022. They
will all be 2022 honorees.
So will the Pillars of Excellence recipi-
ents, Dr. Steve and Evelyn Rosen Stars of
Tomorrow scholarship winners and Jewish
News High School Athletes of the Year, who
also are honored at the banquet.
The banquet will look much like it has in
previous years.
“We want to re-start a tradition. The
banquet is so well organized. Why change
something that’s working?” Rudick said.
Applications for the Hall of Fame, Pillars
of Excellence, Stars of Tomorrow scholar-
ships and Athletes of the Year are on the
foundation’s website, michiganjewishsports.
org. The applications can be filled out
online, which is something new.
There’s no need to fill out another applica-
tion if one was turned in the past two years.
“But you can if you want,
” Rudick said.
The 2020 banquet was a goner because of
the virus, but there was hope the 2021 ban-

quet could be held.
“Then there was a virus surge in the
spring,
” Rudick said. “That put the kibosh
on the banquet. There were just too many
risks to hold it.
”
The first Michigan Jewish Sports Hall
of Fame class was the 1985 group of Hank
Greenberg, William Davidson, Benny
Friedman and Harry Newman.
Larry Stark was inducted in 1986.
He was a tennis standout at Berkley High
School and Michigan State University and
a nationally ranked tennis and squash player.
Now the boys tennis coach at Frankel
Jewish Academy, he’s taken the Jaguars to
the Division 4 state tournament five times in
his seven years in charge of the team.
Stark is glad to see the Hall of Fame ban-
quet return. He’s been to many of them.
“The banquet is a great event,
” he said. “
A
lot of very interesting people are there, and it
raises money for the foundation.
”
Rob Landaw was a Pillars of Excellence
award recipient in 2016. That was the same
year Rudick received the award, in part for
his extensive involvement with the JCC
Maccabi Games.
The award, first presented in 2012, goes
to folks who have contributed to sports in a
variety of ways including coaches, officials,
administrators and media members.
Landaw has been a softball umpire in the
area for more than 40 years. He’s been the
umpire-in-chief for the Inter-Congregational
Men’s Club Summer Softball League for
many years.

He’s also glad the Hall of Fame banquet is
back.
“I was in seventh heaven to be honored at
such a wonderful event,
” he said. “I’m sure
there are a lot of well-deserving people out
there have honors coming their way this
year and in future years.
”
Stars of Tomorrow scholarships are
awarded to high school seniors who have
excelled athletically and academically.
The scholarships were funded originally
by a donation made in honor of Dr. Steve
Rosen, a Michigan Jewish Sports Hall of
Fame member who died in 2016.
He was a track star at Mount Clemens
High School and the University of Michigan.
The foundation’s 31st annual Hank
Greenberg Memorial Golf and Tennis
Invitational will be held June 6 at Franklin
Hills Country Club in Farmington Hills,
returning to its usual date after being can-
celed in 2020 and held in the fall in 2021.
Honorees include Baseball Hall of Fame
catcher Ted Simmons, a Southfield High
School graduate, who will receive the Hank
Greenberg Memorial Lifetime Achievement
Award.
Openings remain for individual golfers
and foursomes. The deadline is May 20. Go
to the foundation’s website or Facebook page
or call Rudick at (248) 390-5981 for more
information.
The invitational benefits the Karmanos
Cancer Institute at the Lawrence and Idell
Weisberg Cancer Treatment Center in
Farmington Hills.

Please send sports news to stevestein502004@yahoo.

com.

Michigan Jewish Sports
Hall of Fame banquet will
return in October.

Hall
Doors
Open Again

STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

SPORTS

Coach Larry Stark (center) and his Frankel
Jewish Academy boys tennis team celebrate
qualifying for the state tournament last fall.

Umpire Rob
Landaw makes
a call during a
softball game
at Keith Sports
Park in West
Bloomfield.

ROB LANDAW

RICK DORN