Delaware Sports Museum & Hall of Fame announces 2023 class
Nine prominent men and women whose outstanding accomplishments in the world of athletics have brought distinction to Delaware over the last half-century have been selected for induction into the Delaware Sports Museum & Hall of Fame.
These standouts will be honored during a Thursday, May 18 banquet at the Chase Center on the Riverfront in Wilmington.
Tickets to the 47th annual banquet are $75 each with tables of eight available for $550. Social hour, silent auction and memorabilia display will begin at 5:30 p.m., followed by the dinner and ceremony at 6:45.
Tickets can be purchased online at desports.org/events or by sending a check made out to DSMHOF and addressed to DSMHOF, 801 Shipyard Drive, Wilmington, DE 19801. The deadline for reserving tickets is Monday, May 12.
Advertising opportunities for the souvenir program are also available. Contact DSMHOF Executive Director Scott Selheimer at desports@desports.org for details.
The 2023 inductees are:
Chris Anderson
Chris Anderson, the most successful Delaware amateur golfer of the past 70 years, had an accomplished professional career.
Anderson won the Delaware Open seven times over 20 years, more than any other golfer. He won in 1983, 1985, 1988, 1990, 1992, and after returning to local play, in 2003 and 2004. He is the only Delawarean to win the Philadelphia Amateur in its 125-year history.
After graduating in 1984 from the University of Virginia, where he was team captain, he turned professional, becoming a club pro at Bidermann Golf Club and later at Delcastle Golf Club.
In 1991, he won the Founders Club Professional Golf Association Match Play Championship at PGA National Golf Club. In 1992, he joined the Ben Hogan Tour and won the Variety Club Tournament of Champions of Philadelphia and finished second in a playoff in the Fort Wayne Open. He also played on the Hogan Tour in 1996 and 1997.
Anderson also played on the Canadian PGA Tour in 1988 and qualified for the 1996 PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky. After resuming his amateur status, he was Delaware Amateur champion in 2005.
As an A.I. du Pont High School freshman, he won the Delaware Junior championship in 1977. Golf Digest listed him as one of Delaware’s top three golfers ever, with DSMHOF inductees Porky Oliver and Dave Douglas.
Kwame Harris
Newark native Kwame Harris started 55 games in the National Football League as an offensive tackle for six years with the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders, after being drafted in the first round (26th overall) of the 2003 NFL Draft. He started 37 consecutive games, beginning in the 2004 season.
Twice named first-team All-PAC-10 at Stanford University, he won the Morris Trophy as the league’s top offensive lineman in his senior year of 2002. The 6-foot-7, 320-pounder was named honorable mention All-American as a senior in 2002 and was a two-year starter at right tackle for the Cardinal.
He played seven games at left tackle as a freshman, when he was the team's top reserve offensive lineman.
Earning first-team all-state honors three times, he was named Delaware’s Offensive Player of the Year as a senior in 1999, when he paced Newark to the first three of its unmatched five consecutive state football championships under coach Butch Simpson.
The first lineman to be named Delaware’s high school Offensive Player of the Year, he was named a high school All-American by both USA Today and Parade Magazine.
Christina Hillman
Christina Hillman was a two-time NCAA champion and a seven-time first-team All-American in the shot put at Iowa State University, and was named Delaware Athlete of the Year.
At Iowa State, the Dover native was the NCAA champion in both the indoor and outdoor shot put events in 2014. She was a three-time Big 12 Conference champion in the event and earned first-team All-American honors at seven NCAA championship meets.
She was selected as Women's Track & Field Academic All-American of the Year for 2016 by the College Sports Information Directors of America and was four times named first-team Academic All-Big 12. She still holds the Iowa State shot put record (59-feet-6 ¾-inches).
At St. Thomas More, she became the most decorated high school shot putter in Delaware history. She won the Penn Relays and the New Balance Indoor Nationals in 2011; finished second in the Outdoor Junior Nationals in Eugene, Ore., throwing 50 feet; and was third in the New Balance Outdoor Nationals. She was a three-time state champion and holds the state record (49-feet-2-inches). She was also a three-time state discus champion.
The Delaware Sportswriters and Broadcasters Association named her Delaware Athlete of the Year in 2014.
Ruth LaJoie
Ruth LaJoie, a longtime official in field hockey and basketball, has been honored at a national level for her service as a referee and advocacy for women’s sports.
She received the Delaware Pathfinder Award in 2006 from the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport, and the DIAA State Award for Outstanding Service from the National Federation of High School Sports in 2017.
She coached many sports over four decades as a Delaware educator, and helped launch girls’ track in Delaware in 1971. As head of the Delaware Board of Women’s Basketball Referees, she created a pioneering sportsmanship award. A Penns Grove (N.J.) High School graduate, she played basketball, tennis and field hockey.
During her years at West Chester University, she played field hockey, basketball, lacrosse and tennis, making the U.S. Reserve team in field hockey. She was inducted into the school’s athletic hall of fame in 2007.
When LaJoie was girls’ basketball coach at Conrad High School, she noted that the boys’ basketball coach received twice the pay assigned to her position, and strived to persuade the Conrad Area School Board to adopt a nondiscrimination policy and equal pay for equal coaching positions.
Ray Peden
After a stellar scholastic career, Ray Peden became a champion in open-water swimming. In 1986, he became only the second Delawarean, and 288th human, to swim the English Channel.
In 2010, Peden took first place in the Ocean Water Swim Around Key West, Fla., completing the 12.5-mile course in 4:44. In 2015, he was the 2.5-kilometer champion in the 60-64 age group in the U.S. Masters Open Water National Championships. He finished in the top three in the Great Chesapeake Bay Bridge Swim (4.4 miles) six times. In 1984, he set the American record in the 26.2-mile marathon swim, and in 2004 was third (45-49 age group) in the U.S. Masters open water title.
Trained at Wilmington Aquatic Club, Peden captained Salesianum High School to its first state swim title in 1973. He later captained the York College swimming team four years, setting an incredible 42 pool records.
He was also on the first relay team to cross from Cape Henlopen to Cape May, N.J. The five-member team braved a shark scare and a tow that sent them six miles off course, navigating 17 miles in 6:08.
Retired after 29 years with Delaware State Police, Peden is an NCAA swimming official. He officiated the U.S. Open Water National Championship and World Championship Trials in 2013 and 2015. In 1996, he received the Order of the First State, Delaware’s highest civilian honor.
Ginger Smith
Ginger Smith was Delaware’s preeminent female sprinter in the 1960s and the first Delaware runner to qualify for the Olympic Trials, reaching the finals in four events.
The first Delaware woman to run at the Penn Relays in 1964, she starred in three victorious events in the rain-soaked 1966 relays, anchoring Tower Hill School to the high school championship in the 4-by-100-yard relay, leading the Delaware Track and Field Club to the 1966 championship, and winning the 440-yard dash in 58.9 seconds.
As a 10th-grader in 1964, she became the first Delaware runner to qualify for the Olympic Trials, where at age 16, she made the finals in the 80-meter hurdles, and the 100-, 200- and 400-meter dashes. Later that summer, she led the Delaware Track and Field Club to the Middle Atlantic title by winning the 80-meter hurdles and 440-yard dash, and the 4-by-100 relay.
In the 1965 AAU National Championships, she was second in the 50-yard hurdles (7.1). She defeated a star-studded field to win the 440 at the 1966 Inquirer Games in 60.5 and set state high school records in the 100-yard dash (11.2) and 440 (59.6) that lasted for a decade. As a student at Stanford University, which did not have a women’s track team, she competed for the Millbrae Lions Track Team, and won the California 100-yard championship in 1967.
Joe Tiberi
One of the top boxers in Delaware history, Joe Tiberi had an amateur boxing record of 44-4-2 with 31 knockouts, followed by a professional record of 18-5-2 with 13 knockouts during the 1970s and ’80s. He fought eight undefeated boxers, beating five of them.
In his first professional bout, he knocked out veteran welterweight Prince Nikita Tarhocker of New Jersey at Fournier Hall. He won seven consecutive bouts before losing to undefeated Mike Piccioti in Upper Darby, Pa. He then rolled off six consecutive wins, including a fourth-round knockout of undefeated Marciano Bernardi in Totawa, N.J.
Tiberi usually fought in his opponent's backyard and thus was the underdog. He knocked out New England welterweight champion Fernando Fernandez, who was 22-0 with 19 knockouts, at the Boston Garden. Fighting at 159 pounds, he was a second-round knockout victor over Keb Lomax, a middleweight with a 9-2 record.
He defeated North Philadelphia's Mike ''Youngblood" Williams (16-0 with 12 knockouts) on ESPN. Tiberi dropped Williams, who then quit in the sixth. Tiberi beat Rusty Rosenberger (19-1, 11 TKOs) in a 10-round decision, followed by a 10-round decision over Feliciano Citron (13-0, 8 TKOs). His last 14 opponents had a combined record of 146-10-4.
He moved on to a successful career as a trainer, working with many of the top young boxers in the state out of the Delaware Swim & Fitness Center in Pike Creek.
Charles Wahlig
Charles Wahlig won national speed skating and dance competitions, coached teams that dominated international competitions for several decades, served as president of USA Roller Sports for eight terms and owned three Delaware roller rinks.
The only person to have won gold medals in Senior Speed and Senior Dance at national and world levels, he coached more than 1,000 state, regional, national and world champions. In his last years, he trained with his sons and completed 10 sprint triathlons.
In his youth, he won the USA National Senior Dance and National Speed Skating championships (1957), won the Senior Dance nationals with a new partner (1958), and took second place in the world speed competition in New Zealand (1959).
When he moved to Delaware in 1970, he turned to coaching. He devised training, conditioning and racing methods that resulted in gold medal success for American skaters. He coached the U.S. Pan American Games team in 1979. He coached for more than 30 years, was a member of the USA Roller Skating Board of Directors for more than 20 years, and served on the International Federation of Roller Skating’s Speed Skating Committee, including as vice president.
Wahlig, who passed away in 2007, is the only person inducted into the USA Roller Sports Hall of Fame as an athlete (1983), as a coach (1993) and for distinguished service (1996).
Paul Worrilow
Paul Worrilow played eight years in the NFL after a decorated career at Concord High School and the University of Delaware. He was named Delaware’s Athlete of the Year for 2013 and played for the Atlanta Falcons in the 2017 Super Bowl.
Worrilow was a starting linebacker for the Falcons for three seasons after making the team as an undrafted free agent, and later he was a two-time team captain. In his 2013 rookie season, he was the Falcons’ leading tackler and was named to Mel Kiper Jr.’s All-Rookie Team.
He played in 76 career games with 52 starts, compiling 415 total tackles, 15 thrown-for-losses, four sacks, four forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries and two interceptions. His 142 tackles in 2014 ranked fifth in the NFL.
At the University of Delaware, he was named third-team All-American by The Sports Network in 2012, when he was selected team MVP and received the Edgar Johnson Award for demonstrating the characteristics of hard work, dedication, fairness and striving for excellence. He led the Blue Hens’ 2010 national championship finalists with 113 tackles, and graduated fifth in UD history with 377 career tackles.
At Concord, he was first-team all-state on both offense and defense, led the Raiders to the 2006 Division II title, and was the state’s defensive Player of the Year in 2007.
