39th Stafford H. 'Pop' Cassell Hall of Fame Class to be Inducted Saturday

Jan. 15, 2008

WASHINGTON - The American University Department of Athletics and Recreation will honor the athletic achievements of Gabrielle Csepe, `96, Scott Pearson, '98, and Stacey Siu-Butt, '98, with induction to the Stafford H. "Pop" Cassell Hall of Fame as its 39th class. The ceremony will take place Saturday, Jan. 19, at 6 p.m. and will be held in the University Club at Mary Graydon Center on AU's main campus.

The Stafford H. Cassell Hall of Fame was created in 1969. Sponsored by the Cassell Family, the Hall of Fame was developed to recognize the achievement of individuals associated with American University Athletics and Recreation. The Hall of Fame's first induction class included basketball and football standouts W. James Birthright and Bruce R Kessler, football, track and boxing star Joseph P. Carlo, and former Athletics Director, head coach, and three-sport athlete Hugo "Dutch" Schulze.

This years inductees, Csepe, Pearson and Siu-Butt, each made countless contributions to the women's swimming team, men's soccer team, and field hockey team, respectively. Csepe holds the distinguished honor as AU's first female All-American and is still the only All-American and Olympian from the women's swimming team. Pearson is among AU's top-10 in career goals, career assists, career points, single-season goals and single-season points. Siu-Butt remains to this day the most prolific scorer in AU field hockey history with 247 career points on 103 career goals and 41 career assists.

Saturday's program will begin with opening remarks made by Master of Ceremonies Charlie Lydecker '85, Director of Athletics and Recreation Keith Gill and University President Dr. Neil Kerwin, '71. Mike Godzwa will perform the invocation before dinner which will be followed by a video tribute to the Hall of Fame's namesake, Stafford H. "Pop" Cassell. The Inductions will take place following the video and the night will conclude with closing remarks made by AD Keith Gill.

A second, limited quantity of seats have been made available for Saturday. For more information on the ceremony or to purchase tickets, please contact the development office at 202-885-3104 or by e-mail at EaglesClub@american.edu. To view an invitation to the ceremony, click here.