A few months ago, I received an unexpected, early-morning text message.

At 6:07 a.m. one weekday morning, former legendary Hall athlete, state champion and Class of 2020 NewsTribune Sports Hall of Fame inductee D.J. Glynn reached out with a question.

“Are we ever going to have the Hall of Fame banquet?”

His question could not have been more timely or challenging to answer.

It’s the question we’ve asked ourselves for months and something we wrestled with since the start of the pandemic. With the virus running rampant and with gathering limits in place since March 2020, our June 2020 in-person induction banquet had to take a back seat as real life took over. We sat and watched, patiently waiting and wondering what would happen with our beloved event.

We didn’t want to cancel the Hall of Fame, an event so successful the first year in 2019 that afterward we had people reaching out to us with nominees, info and excitement. But we also didn’t want to wait forever to hold our second induction banquet.

Now, however, with life starting to return back to normal, I am finally able to answer D.J.’s question – Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021.

Nearly 19 months after I first contacted DJ and all the Class of 2020 inductees, we are able and planning to honor those who have made such an incredible impact on our area sports scene with an in-person induction banquet.

While final details are still being hashed out, we will hold our event the evening of Sept. 23 at the Illinois Valley Super Bowl in Peru. We are planning to allow fans and spectators at the event, but we will have limited seating given the virus has still not completely subsided.

Our Class of 2020 has been renamed the Class of 2020/21, and almost every inductee I’ve contacted so far is planning to come to the event, some who live close and some who live far away.

Our Class of 2020/21 includes 15 inductees. They are:

• former Ottawa/IVCC coach Dean Riley

• L-P alumnus Mike Goff

• L-P alumnus Gary Novak

• St. Bede alumnus Ken Gorgal

• Hall’s D.J. Glynn

• Putnam County alumnus Jerry Zielinski

• DePue’s Ron Zagar

• Mendota’s Ray Jauch

• Princeton’s Joe Ruklick

• Streator’s Alexandria (Mogill) Hay

• the 1985-86 Ohio Boys Basketball Team

• Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Mary Dagraedt

• Legacy Individual Award recipient Streator’s Lowell “Pops” Dale

• Legacy Team Award recipient 1945 Walnut Football Team

• Distinguished Media Award recipient former WLPO broadcaster Art Kimball.

It is our intent to select our Class of 2022 later this fall, return our in-person induction banquet to June 2022 and continue with our banquet every June going forward.

The excitement thus far has been great, as our inductees are excited to celebrate with us and some are excited to reconnect with names they’ve known from years gone by.

Public tickets for the event will go on sale later this month and can be purchased at https://shawlocal.com/hof21. We will have our Hall of Fame reintroduction announcements starting the week of July 26 in the newspaper and on social media. Legendary former WLPO and IHSA sports broadcaster Lanny Slevin will return to emcee our event.

We hope you can attend our in-person banquet on Sept. 23 to honor and celebrate all of our inductees. I know, at the very least, D.J. would like to see you there!

• Jared Bell can be contacted at (815) 220-6953, or at jbell@shawmedia.com.