The Carbon County Sports Hall of Fame will hold its 27th Annual Induction Ceremony on Sunday, May 29, at the Franklin Township Fire Company hall.

Doors will open at 12:30 p.m. and the banquet will begin at 1:45 p.m.

Tickets to the dinner program are $35 for adults and $15 for children under 12, and can be purchased from the following committee members: Danny McGinley, 570-325-3550, Vince Spisak, 570-645-4542, Art George, 610-826-2830, Jake Boyer, 610-751-6634, Trevor Lawrence, 570-645-4722, Bill Gardiner, 570-669-6564, Bob Gelatko, 570-645-8652, and Evan Evans, 570-645-7716.

Inductees were selected in 2020 but because of COVID-19, no ceremonies were held in the past two years. They include:

Coaldale

– Gene Collier, Bob “Bogie” Griffiths and Bernie Radocha.

Jim Thorpe

– August “Matt” Long, Jim McHugh and Eric Schrantz.

Lansford

– Michael Lukac Jr., Brian Raabe, George Neyer and Peter Prosper (George LaRover).

Lehighton

– Suzanne (Rehrig) Howland, Tom Keer and George E. Zellers Jr.

Nesquehoning

– Dr. Michael S. Bales, Gerry M. Farnsworth and Dr. Richard G. Miller.

Palmerton

– Jeff Dobias, Amanda (Samok) Rex, Rodney Strohl and George Schmidt.

Summit Hill

– Robert Bydlon, Joseph Gillespie and David McAndrew.

The Coaldale inductees include:

Gene Collier

Coaldale native Gene Collier has written on sports, politics and general interest topics for newspapers in Philadelphia, New Jersey and Pittsburgh for going on 45 years.

His athletic accomplishments were mostly modest, aside from winning the 1965 batting title in the Coaldale Little League (.604) and starting on the defensive line for Panther Valley in the only non-losing season of his high school career (1970).

A journalism graduate of Penn State, he has appeared multiple times in The Sporting News compendium of Best American Sportswriting and Associated Press rankings of the top 10 columnists in the country.

Twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, he has covered a range of events, from the Masters to the Kentucky Derby, from the Miss America Pageant to the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, from the Oscars to a dozen or more championship fights and bowl games, as well as the NBA finals, seven NHL finals, seven World Series and 16 Super Bowls. He has won national awards both for sports writing and humor writing.

Collier has written two one-man plays, “The Chief,” about the life of Pittsburgh Steelers’ founder Art Rooney, and “The Play With Rocky Bleier,” in which the former Steelers great plays himself on stage. “The Chief” remains the most successful play in the 45-year history of the Pittsburgh Public Theater.

A late career swerve into stand-up comedy has been less successful, although he has appeared in comedy clubs coast-to-coast, and has even performed in some of them.

Bob “Bogie” Griffith

A natural-born leader and a gifted all-around athlete, Bob “Bogie” Griffith was co-captain of the last Coaldale High School football team in the 1963 season and co-captain of his Moravian College football team in the 1967 season.

At both Coaldale and Division III Moravian, he was a tough, agile, intelligent and mobile tackle.

While at Moravian, he lettered all four years and was named to the All-Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) team twice. He was also honored as the ECAC Player of the Week during both his sophomore and junior years.

In one game that Moravian played against Wagner College from Staten Island, New York, he was matched up against Little All-American tight end Richie Kotite, who later played with the New York Giants and then became head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. Following the game, Kotite shook Bogie’s hand and said, “You are the toughest guy I’ve ever played against during my four years of college.”

During the two seasons that he was a starting offensive and defensive tackle for the Tigers, his teams compiled a combined record of 21 wins and 2 losses.

On the field, he was a key figure in the Tigers’ success. When you view game films from those two seasons, you will see that he never, ever was pushed backwards from the line of scrimmage, whether he was playing offense or defense. In the final game of the Tigers’ undefeated, untied season of 1962, versus Lansford, he recovered a critical Panther fumble to help stop a Panther rally late in the close, hard-fought 14-7 Tiger victory.

Off the field and in the locker room, he was a key ingredient to the team chemistry that ensured that magnificent 11-0 season and the 10-2 season that followed. His unique sense of humor was contagious and unparalleled and was effectively instrumental in keeping his teammates loose and relaxed during the pressure-filled atmosphere of a season.

Bogie also displayed his agility while playing basketball for several years for the Tigers. He was also the starting pitcher on opening day for the “Colts” in Coaldale’s first-ever official Little League game in 1958. During that inaugural Little League season, he batted a respectable .310, and, as a flame-throwing pitcher, he struck out 61 batters in 37 innings, which averages to 1.6 strikeouts per inning.

He also served one year as an assistant football coach at Dieruff High School for the legendary “Jeep” Bednarik.

Bernie Radocha

Bernie Radocha played football and basketball and ran track for Coaldale High School. He then went on to play basketball for Stevens Trade School, and, after graduating there, coached all levels of baseball, including American Legion ball.

While attending Coaldale High, he played four years of football and was second in the area in scoring in his senior year. He started on offense and defense and kicked field goals, extra points and kickoffs for the Tigers, and was selected to the Schuylkill-Carbon County Football All Star Game in 1954.

Bernie played four years of basketball for the Orange and Black, averaging 22.6 points per game in his senior year. The highlight of his basketball career was when he scored the winning baskets to lead Coaldale to the Black Diamond “B” title in a 62-58 victory.

He continued his basketball career at Stevens in Lancaster, where he was named captain of the team in his senior year, and also played in the Panther Valley Senior League, where he once scored 51 points in a game and averaged 21 points per game throughout the season.

He ran track for the Tigers as well, competing in the 440-yard run, and also ran a “leg” of the team’s mile-relay squad that participated in the Penn Relays.

Bernie also played Legion baseball for both Coaldale and Lansford.

After graduating from Stevens, he coached all levels of baseball, from midgets to American Legion teams.