TriCounty Bob Darling's Richwoods Knights captured the school's 1st sectional title since 1992 enroute to a 4th place finish in the boys IHSA state tournament.
Darling, coming here from Decatur McArthur, posted a 26-7 campaign to help push his current 5 season record at the northside school to an impressive 90-47. He won the hearts of fans statewide by rewarding his non-playing seniors with all the playing time in the state tourney consolation game.
Bob's high school career record now stands at 138-82 in a total of nine seasons
Currently on the PGSL board of directors, he established and coached three Amateur Softball Association teams for three age groups.
He coached in-house PGSL softball teams and coached a summer All-Star team of 15-16 year olds that won a state tournament in 1996 and finished fourth in 1997. He also assisted with various levels of basketball for PGSL.
After several years in retirement he is still donating a ton of time, money and equipment to many sports programs in the area.
He is still the official scorekeeper for Bradley's women's basketball team and is heavily involved at Manual as an assistant softball coach along with being scorekeeper and statistics keeper.
Coach, scorekeeper, public address announcer, statistician, organizer - you name it and Dale White has done it, and is still doing much of it, to help the boys and girls of Peoria develop the enjoyment of sports.
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Neve Harms Award
The Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame Neve Harms Award, formerly the Peoria Advertising and Selling Club's Annual Meritorious Service to Sports Award, was named the Neve Harms Award in 1966 and for a very good reason.
 As Director of Proctor Recreation Center, Harms observed the need for all youths to experience participation in sports activities, and not just the few who excelled. He, therefore, adopted a firm policy which assured that all youths would have an opportunity to play in games of the various sports controlled by Proctor Center. This plan met with much success and certainly with acceptance by parents whose children became more interested in sport activities at Proctor and consequently made good use of their free time. Neve carried through this policy when he was appointed Superintendent of the Peoria City Recreation Department which later became part of the Peoria Park District. In addition, he also developed a system of recognition for all youths so that each young person could feel good about his or her efforts. This kind of interest in all youths regardless of ability came from a most competitive and outstanding athlete. Neve was a four-sport player at Manual High School and a three-sport letter winner at Bradley University. He was a member of the 1929 Manual High School State Championship Basketball team.
Awards prior to 1981 were offered through the Peoria Advertising Club, rather than the Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame. We don't have biographies for these individuals. If anyone would be able to provide the bios that were written by the club at the time of the awards, we would very much appreciate receiving them for posting. We are also missing the Bruce Saurs' bio that was written in the 1991 Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame Banquet book, and we would like to receive it also. We are specifically interested in the bios written at the time of the awards, not more or less current. Please contact Rick at rkestner@pekinhigh.net. |
Event Links
Newsletters/Banquet Programs2018 Newsletter2018 Hall of Fame Program 2017 Newsletter 2017 Hall of Fame Program 2016 Hall of Fame Program 2016 Newsletter 2015 Newsletter 2015 Hall of Fame Program 2014 Hall of Fame Program Listing 2014 Newsletter 2012 Newsletter 2011 Newsletter 2010 Newsletter 2009 Newsletter Mission StatementThe first official Board of Directors meeting was held October 14, 1979. Officers were elected. Early decisions determined that the Hall of Famers would be from the Greater Peoria Area; the name would be The Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame; its purpose would be to promote and encourage the many varied sports programs in our area, to share with the area the pride we have in the accomplishments of area athletes, and to honor those men, women and teams contributing to our enjoyment and rich sports history.
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