Banquet tickets are now available for $55 per person, or attendees may purchase a table for eight for $440, with proceeds from the event going to benefit DSC athletic scholarships. For reservations or more information, please contact Derek Dawes in the DSC Athletic Community Engagement office at (435) 879-4295/dawes@dixie.edu.
The 2011 class includes legendary head football coach Greg Croshaw, former Dixie College men’s basketball player and baseball coach and Major League Baseball all-star Bruce Hurst, former men’s basketball star Marcus Banks, and former women’s soccer head coach Heather Mendenhall Dahl.
Established in 2007, the DSC Athletics Hall of Fame was created to honor past student-athletes, coaches and administrators who built the foundation for the proud and rich tradition of Dixie athletics. With addition of the 2011 class, the DSC Athletic Hall of Fame has 19 members.
2011 DIXIE STATE ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME CLASS
Marcus Banks
Men’s Basketball
A 2001 graduate of Dixie State College, Marcus Banks enjoyed his best year in a Rebel uniform as a sophomore when he helped lead his club to a 36-2 record and a third place overall finish at the NJCAA National Tournament. Banks was named Region 18 Player of the Year in Region 18 and was a first-team NJCAA all-American selection after averaging 17 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game. He won the Bud Obee award, which is given to the best player under 6-foot-1 in the junior college ranks
Banks went on to play for the United States at the 2001 COPABA (Confederation of Pan American Basketball Associations) Tournament. Following that tourney, he went to UNLV, where he was a two-time Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year honoree. He was a member of the MWC All-Academic team in both seasons and graduated with a degree in sociology. Banks was selected by the Memphis Grizzlies with the 13th-overall pick 2003 NBA draft. He played for seven teams in his eight-year NBA career, including stops in Boston, Minnesota, Phoenix, Miami, Toronto and New Orleans.
Greg Croshaw
Football
One of the most successful football coaches in NJCAA history, Greg Croshaw patrolled the Dixie State sidelines for 24 years (1982-2005) and compiled an overall record of 214-56-1, making him the third winningest coach in NJCAA history. Along the way he led the Rebels to 17 conference titles and 19 appearances in the Dixie Rotary Bowl with 14 bowl victories in tow. His teams finished ranked in the top-3 nationally 15 times, including a pair of national runner-up finishes in the final polls.
Over the span of his career, Croshaw coached 36 NJCAA first-team all-Americans and four NJCAA players of the year, while he boasted the nation's top running back nine times. Croshaw won 10 or more games 12 times, including five 11-1 campaigns, and never suffered a losing season in his 28-year Dixie career.
Croshaw is a 1970 graduate of Weber State University and he completed work on his Master’s Degree at BYU in 1975. This past spring Coach “Crow” returned to the JUCO coaching ranks as the new head coach at Mesa (AZ) Community College, where he begins the 2011 campaign needing just 36 coaching victories to become the all-time winningest coach in NJCAA history. In addition, he served as head coach of the St. George Blitz, a semi-pro football team in the Rocky Mountain Football League in 2009-10, and was the defensive coordinator at Pine View High School from 2007-10.
Heather Mendenhall Dahl
Women’s Soccer
Though she was only head coach of the DSC women’s soccer program for two seasons, Heather Dahl laid the foundation and the tradition of winning and excellence that the program still enjoys today. In 1998, Dahl took a program that had been in existence for just two years and turned it into an NJCAA national power, leading the Rebels to a SWAC and division title and a #5 ranking in the final national poll. Dahl repeated that feat in 1999 with another conference and division crown and led Dixie to a #3 final ranking.
Not only did Dahl’s charges do the job on the pitch, her player also got the job done in the classroom as several players went on to earn national and Academic All-American recognition.
After coaching at Dixie State, Dahl returned to her native Las Vegas to serve as an assistant coach at UNLV. Dahl is a 2000 graduate of BYU, where she earned her bachelor's degree in psychology. She was a three-year starting forward for the Cougars from 1993-96 and led the team in scoring her sophomore season.
Bruce Hurst
Basketball/Baseball
From Flood Street in St. George to Fenway Park, Bruce Hurst lived the dream of every kid that not only grew up in Utah’s Dixie, but the entire country. At age 17, Hurst was a number-one draft pick (#22-overall) of the Boston Red Sox in 1976, and made his Major League debut with the club in 1980. During the offseason as he toiled in the minors, Hurst returned to St. George, enrolled at Dixie College, and played on the Rebel basketball team.
His Major League career spanned 15 seasons and he finished with 145 victories. Hurst pitched for nine seasons in Boston and helped lead the Red Sox to the 1986 American League pennant. He posted a 2-0 record with a 1.96 ERA in the World Series, but Boston lost to the New York Mets in seven games. Hurst made his only All-Star Game appearance in 1987, and enjoyed his best year as a big leaguer in 1988, when he posted an 18-6 overall record with a 3.66 ERA with 166 strikeouts in 216.2 innings. The Red Sox advanced to the postseason that year as well, but came up short against Oakland in the ALCS. He jumped to the National League in 1989, where he went 15-11 with a career-low 2.69 ERA as a member of the San Diego Padres. Hurst also played for the Colorado Rockies and Texas Rangers before retiring in 1994.
In 1994, Dixie State’s baseball program played its first baseball game in its new home named after the Major Leaguer, Bruce Hurst Field. Two years after leaving the game, Hurst returned to St. George served one season as Dixie State head baseball coach in 1996. He was inducted into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2004 and in 2005, Hurst joined former Major League player and manager Jim Lefebvre on the coaching staff of the Chinese National baseball team, for which he served as pitching coach.
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