Water Ski Racing’s Hall of Fame Inductees

Chuck Stearns, Mike Avila and Marsha Fitzgerald – As in most sports, water ski racing has seen its fair share of accomplished athletes over the years. Each club, region and nation have their own way of recognising their accomplished people but in 1968, something different happened and the American Water Ski Educational Foundation was chartered as not-for-profit public foundation dedicated to the encouragement, education and preservation of water skiing. A part of this is The Hall of Fame.

Read some of the AWSEF plans on their web site here

Only a small handful of people from water ski racing have been inducted into the Hall of Fame. Getting there is no easy feat and certain requirements need to be met before even considering embarking on the task of proposing someone for induction to the Hall of Fame.

I know that certain individuals have put in huge amounts of time, in their effort to get water ski racers inducted and the latest success is with Marsha Fitzgerald, for whom it took three years of hard work by Cheryl Ruston and others to persuade a 10 member committee, that Marsha was indeed worthy of her place in the Hall of Fame.

There are individual efforts being made right now to see other worthy names from water ski racing get inducted into the Hall of Fame. It’s not an easy task as they compete with nominees from all the other water ski disciplines, but persistence and the right approach can pay off.

The IWSF Hall of Fame is housed at the USA Hall of Fame but they are separate awards.

Support the Hall of Fame and become a member

Marsha joins ski racing’s Chuck Stearns who was inducted in 1982 and Mike Avila who was inducted in 2002. You can read more about each of these most accomplished water ski racers here:

Chuck Stearns

Mike Avila

Marsha Fitzgerald

These water ski racers join the full list of water skiing’s Hall of Fame inductees:

1982
Willa Cook
Ralph Samuelson
Richard Pope Sr.
Chuck Stearns
Dan B. Hains
Charles R. Sligh Jr.
Liz Allan Reid

1983
Jack Andresen
Bruce Parker
Leland G. Sutherland
William P. Barlow Sr.
Don Ibsen

1984
Charles Tilgner
Fred Wiley
Warren Witherell

1986
Wayne Grimditch
Barbara Cooper Heddon

1987
Mike Suyderhoud
Joe Cash

1988
Ricky McCormick

1989
William D. Clifford
Richard D. Pope Jr.

1990
Jack Walker