The Hutchinson Community College Quarterback Club has announced that Steve Fritz will be the 12th member inducted into the Quarterback Club Hall of Fame.
The induction ceremony for the former HCC basketball and track and field great will be at halftime of the Blue Dragon men’s basketball game against Barton Community College on Feb. 18 at the Sports Arena. The game is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m.
Fritz will be only the second Blue Dragon athletic to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame, joining quarterback Shaun Hill, who was the 2011 HOF inductee.
The other Quarterback Club Hall of Fame members are Charles Sesher, Sam Butterfield, Bill Goldsmith, Ruby Munzer, Terry Masterson, John Matous, Gary Bargen, Dave Farrar, Willie Adkins and Gene Keady. Masterson was a player (football and track) and was a longtime coach at Hutchinson.
The Gypsum, Kan., native played basketball and competed in track and field for the Blue Dragons from 1986 to 1988.
Fritz hit the game-winning shot – converting a conventional three-point play with 22 seconds remaining – to defeat Kankakee 76-74 in the 1988 NJCAA Tournament championship game, giving the Blue Dragons its first men’s basketball national championship. Fritz was voted onto the Blue Dragons’ all-time 75th Anniversary basketball team in 2006.
Later in 1988, Fritz won the NJCAA decathlon national championship for the Blue Dragons, one year after taking fifth in the nation in the decathlon.
After HCC, Fritz went to Kansas State University and competed for the Wildcats in 1989 and 1990. Fritz was the Big Eight decathlon record holder (7,924 points) and was a two-time All-American, finishing sixth in the 1989 NCAA decathlon and fourth in the 1990 national championships.
Fritz then turned to international competition, earning a spot on the U.S. national track and field team 10 times.
The former Blue Dragon’s crowning international achievements came in 1996 and 1997.
At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Fritz missed a medal by a mere 20 points, finishing fourth by scoring a career-best 8,644 points.
Fritz was the U.S. national champion in the decathlon in 1997 and was fourth at the World Championships that same year.
Already a member of the Kansas State Hall of Fame, Fritz has been an assistant track coach at Kansas State for the past 18 years as the throws coach.