Crist, Johnson, Swanson To Be Inducted In Dec.

Three Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame enshrinees will be adding another entry on their impressive athletic resumes later this year.

The late Chuck Crist, Bruce Johnson and Mel Swanson will be inducted into the 10th annual Section VI Hall of Fame during ceremonies Dec. 6 at The Columns Banquets in Elma.

The announcement was made Thursday by Section VI executive director Mark DiFilippo.

The Section VI Hall of Fame was established to honor and recognize those, within its organization, who excelled in their roles as athletes, administrators, coaches, officials or contributors who have provided meritorious service.

Crist, Johnson and Swanson are certainly deserving.

- Crist: A 2015 CSHOF inductee, Crist had a decorated athletic career, beginning as a four-sport athlete at Salamanca Central School.

He chose basketball over football at Penn State University where he was captain his senior year. Incredibly, he earned a free-agent NFL tryout, which began a seven-year career that ran from 1972-78 with the New York Giants, the New Orleans Saints and the San Francisco 49ers.

- Johnson: A former physical education teacher and athletic director at Frewsburg Central School, the Jamestown native has been the swimming coach for the Bears and their merged program since 1977. Along the way, he has recorded more than 950 career wins, dozens of Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association team championships, and sent many swimmers to the state championships. In addition, he was the Section VI girls swimming committee chairman, a member of the New York State girls swimming committee for 25 years and the meet director for the state girls championships for 10 years. Johnson was inducted into the CSHOF in 2023.

- Swanson: A 2015 CSHOF inductee, Swanson coached at Sherman Central School for nearly 40 years, collected 607 career wins as the girls basketball coach; served as the school’s athletic director for nearly 20 years; and, at various times, also coached junior varsity football; boys junior high, junior varsity and varsity basketball; girls junior high, junior varsity and varsity basketball; boys varsity baseball; and varsity golf.

Other members of the Class of 2024 are Carlissima Cutona, Joseph Jastrzemski, Larry Jones, Joe Licata, the late Kevin McNamara, Jon Roth, Don Scholla and James Starks Jr.

CSHOF inductees who have already been enshrined into the Section VI Hall of Fame are Jenn Suhr, Tom Priester, Wally Huckno, Cheryl Bailey, Bob Barlette, Bill Bergey, Jehuu Caulcrick, Tim Nobles and Walt Thurnau.

The Dec. 6 banquet will begin at 5:30 p.m. with a cash bar and dinner followed by the induction ceremony. Dinner reservations are $45 per person and $25 for children ages 4-12. Reservations and ticket purchase deadline is noon Nov. 24 and can be done online at https://gofan.co/event/1567478.