The history of sports in Northern Kentucky goes back a long way. A very long way. Decades. Centuries.
We know you’ve seen these lists before, but this is a different and unique way of presenting our “50 sports icons in Northern Kentucky” as we’ll provide you one per day over the next 50 days.
Hall of Fames are everywhere in NKY, the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame, High School Athletic Directors Hall of Fame, NKU, Thomas More and local high schools all have something to recognize their past.
We’ll preface this series by saying this, some of you may disagree with who should or shouldn’t be in the top 50 and that’s fine. Plenty are in the Hall of Very Good, but we feel these 50 are the one’s who stuck out to us.
A weekly roundup of NKY sports headlines right to you every Monday at noon.
Sports Editor Evan Dennison spoke and conferred with several local NKY sports history buffs to get their opinions and lists of their own and who should be “locks” for the 50 sports icons. We compiled each list and came up with the 50 of our own (maybe cheated a little by putting families in as one) to present over the next 50 days.
Hope you enjoy as summer time rolls on!
The 38th of the 50 sports icons is Joan Mazzaro, who guided a dominant Notre Dame Academy volleyball team in the 1980s.
JOAN MAZZARO
Joan Shadley Mazzaro-Epping started the Notre Dame Academy volleyball dominance in 1979 and continued it through the 80s.
The KHSAA didn’t hold a volleyball state championship until 1979, Mazzaro’s Pandas the first to claim a state title. They weren’t done there, winning five in her tenure from 1979-88. The Pandas were a fixture in the state championship game in the 80’s, winning four more titles (three in a row from 1982-84 and then again in 1987) and finishing runner-up twice (1985-86). State titles didn’t stop there for Mazzaro, leading the Pandas to two state golf titles in 1982 and ’83.
Mazzaro coached five sports in the 13 years she was at Notre Dame, also heading the basketball, cross country and swimming programs. Mazzaro was a standout athlete at Mount St. Joseph where she was a co-captain on the national finalist volleyball team and high scorer on the basketball team. She was later inducted into the Mount St. Joseph Hall of Fame and is a member of the Northern Kentucky Athletic Directors Hall of Fame and the LaRosa Sports High School Hall of Fame.
Her dominance in playing and coaching makes her a prominent figure in women’s sports and was a big advocate for them when they weren’t as popular as they are now.
See the 50 sports icons on a day-to-day basis over the next 50 days
— Day 1:
Dave Cowens
— Day 2:
Shaun Alexander
— Day 3:
Homer Rice
— Day 4:
Dicky Beal
— Day 5:
Jared Lorenzen
— Day 6:
Jim Bunning
— Day 7:
Tom Ellis
— Day 8:
Nate Dusing
— Day 9:
Jim Connor
— Day 10:
Steve Cauthen
— Day 11:
Irv Goode
— Day 12:
Stan Steidel
— Day 13:
Kenney Shields
— Day 14:
David Justice
— Day 15:
Morgan Hentz
— Day 16:
Eddie Arcaro
— Day 17:
Nancy Winstel
— Day 18:
Steve Flesch
— Day 19:
Donna Murphy
— Day 20:
Randy Marsh
— Day 21:
Mike Yeagle
— Day 22:
Derrick Barnes
— Day 23:
Dale Mueller
— Day 24:
Dave Faust
— Day 25:
Kirsten Allen
— Day 26:
The Oldendick family
— Day 27:
Martin “Mote” Hils
— Day 28:
Nell Fookes
— Day 29:
Owen Hauck
— Day 30:
Becky Ruehl
— Day 31:
Tom Thacker
— Day 32:
Sydney Moss
— Day 33:
Bob Schneider
— Day 34:
The Walz family
— Day 35:
John Toebben
— Day 36:
Pat Scott
— Day 37:
Bob Arnzen
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