Homecoming weekend is a time for proud graduates to come back to the school they once attended.
For eight select alumni, the weekend was a time to return to the UB campus to receive an honor and reminiscing.
The 36th UB Athletics Hall of Fame took place Friday night at Alumni Arena in front of family, friends and athletics supporters.
The night kicked off with a dinner and cocktail reception provided by Campus Dining & Shops in the Alumni Arena lobby. Attendees wined and dined on hors d'oeuvres and drinks while the women's tennis team, the reigning Mid-American Conference champions, helped provide a friendly atmosphere.
The induction ceremony took place on the arena floor after about 100 attendees satisfied their appetites. It was a great night to kick off a weekend of events, which included numerous Homecoming and Family Weekend activities.
"This is my third year in row hosting the Hall of Fame ceremony and it's one of the best events on campus all season long," said Paul Peck, sports anchor for WIVB and the voice of Buffalo Bulls football. "What a perfect weekend to have this event tied with everything else that's going on."
Ronald Balter was the only non-athlete inducted during the ceremony. Before he graduated in 1980, he was a student manager for the UB Football team for many semesters. Balter won the Russell Gugino Award, which honors people who have made significant contributions to the athletics program.
"The best thing I had at Buffalo was the athletics," Balter said.
He is now a member of the Blue and White Club, composed of athletic supporters who donate to the program.
"I was encouraged to become the student manager, and through that job I had a good relation with all the coaches and players," Balter said.
The ceremony continued with all the inductees reminiscing publicly about their time at Buffalo. A sense of closeness bound the audience together as the speakers shared humouros moments from their past.
Among the new Hall of Fame members is Mike Groh, a former star on the baseball team who ranked in the top 10 for batting average in Division 1 in 1978. He remembers the adjustments he made when he became a collegiate athlete.
"Like most athletes going to UB, I was a pretty good athlete in my high school, only to learn very quickly that when you get to the college level, you're just one of the guys," Groh said.
Some of the inductees were visibly flattered by the induction.
Mike Reilly, a former UB head athletic trainer, gave an emotional speech detailing the 26 years he worked at UB. With his self-diagnosed "long-term memory," Reilly remembers everything, even his first experience with the athletics program.
"When I started, we were probably the lowest of Division 1 schools in terms of money; we didn't have any. But I met a lot of Division 1-class people and shared great times with them," Reilly said.
Memories were re-kindled thanks to the ceremony. Ron Brandt, a 1972 alumnus who made the NCAA championships as a star wrestler with the Bulls, said he was immediately taken aback when he received the call notifying him of his induction.
Coming back to the school only helped him recall those precious moments.
"I had an opportunity to reconnect with people that I haven't seen in 36 years after the calls and the e-mails went out," Brandt said. "I was able to see my old roommate for the first time in a while, and he still looks the same."
Moments like this that made the ceremony special for the eight new hall-of-famers. Reflecting and thinking over the times spent at UB, while returning to campus had the inductees thankful to be back.
Photo: Breadchastick / Wikimedia Commons
