Other Hall of Fame

Longtime Journal Star sportswriter Dick Lien was respected throughout the journalistic world for his writing talent, especially in the world of basketball.

While he covered a variety of sports, basketball was his first love and whenever he got a chance he was at courtside whether it was high school, college or pro competition.

He started his journalistic career at the Journal Star while still in high school at Peoria Central and continued on the staff on a part-time basis during his four years at Bradley University.

Upon graduation, he was assigned to cover the Bradley basketball team on a full-time basis, an assignment that lasted from the Joe Stowell era through the years of Dick Versace and into the first few seasons of Stan Albeck.

He became the paper's sports columnist in the early 1990s but had only a few years to use his great writing skill in that assignment before his untimely death in December of 1994 while with Bradley on a road trip.

A true perfectionist, Lien excelled at all facets of the newspaper business, being known as an outstanding layout man when assigned to the desk from time to time, and also at tutoring the large number of part-time writers on the staff each year.

He covered many NCAA Final Fours and has a column entitled "John Wooden Makes a Fist" included in the book "Best Sports Stories of 1972."

He was inducted into the Bradley Athletic Hall of Fame in 1997, being honored with a picture because of his national reputation.