CLEVELAND — This fall, the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame will add four more members. On Thursday, the Hall of Fame announced that former Cleveland Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar, Olympic gold medalist pole vaulter Katie Nageotte, Elyria High School volleyball head coach Carol Russo and Cleveland Guardians radio play-by-play announcer Tom Hamilton will comprise its 2022 class.
The class will be inducted on Tuesday, October 18 at the Cleveland Marriott Downtown at Key Tower presented by Union Home Mortgage and supported by Discount Drug Mart. Information for those interested in attending the event can be found at www.clevelandsportshall.com.
About each inductee
Bernie Kosar
A native of Boardman who starred at the University of Miami (Fla.), Kosar infamously navigated his way back to Northeast Ohio via the NFL's Supplemental Draft in 1985. In nine seasons with the Browns, Kosar established himself as one of the most popular players in franchise history while helping guide the team to three AFC Championship Game appearances.
Following his time in Cleveland, Kosar won a Super Bowl as a member of the Dallas Cowboys roster before finishing his career with the Miami Dolphins. In retirement, he remains a consistent presence around the Browns organization.
Katie Nageotte
A native of Olmsted Falls and graduate of Olmsted Falls High School and Ashland University, Nageotte won the gold medal for pole vaulting at the COVID-delayed Olympic games in 2021 in Tokyo. In doing so, she became just the third American woman to win the gold medal for pole vaulting in the history of the event.
In 2022, the 31-year-old Nageotte won the World Championships with a vault of 15-11. She is currently training to compete in the Paris Olympics in 2024, where she could become the second woman ever to win consecutive gold medals in the pole vault.
Carol Russo
Over the course of two decades, Russo transformed volleyball into Elyria High School’s most successful sport and one of Ohio's most respected programs. Altogether, Russo's teams won district championships 14 times, in addition to 18 conference titles across four leagues (Buckeye, Erie Shore, Lake Erie and Pioneer), with the 1996 Pioneers amassing a 28-1 record en route to becoming the first Elyria volleyball team to win a state semi-final game and play for the state championship.
Over the course of a 27-year coaching career that began at Mayfield and ended at Elyria Catholic, Russo totaled a career record of 575-126. In 2012, she was inducted into the prestigious AVCA (American Volleyball Coaches Association) Hall of Fame.
Tom Hamilton
Hamilton joined Herb Score in the Cleveland Indians' radio booth in 1990 and has been a staple of the city's airwaves and baseball scene ever since. Now in his 33rd season of calling games for the now-Guardians, Hamilton has called 94 postseason games, including three World Series (1995, 1997, 2016).
Hamilton's 33-year tenure is tied with TV color commentator Rick Manning for the second-longest in franchise history, trailing only Score's 34 years. He currently calls all 162 regular-season and 15 spring training games alongside Jim Rosenhaus on Newsradio WTAM 1100, 100.7FM WMMS and the 30-station Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network.