Two-sport All-Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference honorees Tim Battaglia (baseball and football) and Barry Fermanich (baseball and basketball), All-American women's basketball forward Lindsey Dietz, Hobey Baker Memorial Award winner Junior Lessard (men's hockey), U.S. Olympic ski jumper and two-time Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference golf champion David Hicks, and record-breaking softball first baseman Angie (Macioce) Jones will be paid a lasting tribute for their exemplary contributions to University of Minnesota Duluth athletics this Saturday (Jan. 14)  when they become the newest additions to the UMD Athletic Hall of Fame.

The 19th UMD Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Banquet will take place at the Holiday Inn and Suite's Lake Superior Ballroom in downtown Duluth. The event kicks off with a 12:00 p.m. lunch followed by a 1 p.m. induction program. Jim Rich, a native of Duluth who is now the sports director at Fox 9 TV in Minneapolis/St. Paul, will serve as the Master of Ceremonies. Rich was the television voice of UMD hockey during the better part of the 1980s with KBJR-TV, where he also served as sports director. For ticket information, click here.

The six inductees will also be recognized as a whole during the first intermission of the UMD-St. Cloud State University men's hockey game that evening.

Battaglia not only started four years in both baseball and football for the Bulldogs, but attained All-Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference recognition twice in each of those sports. He concluded his playing days on the UMD diamond as the school's all-time batting average leader, hitting at a .411 clip (a mark no Bulldog has since eclipsed) and career total base record holder.  As a junior outfielder in 2003, Battaglia became the first Bulldog ever to attain American Baseball Coaches Association All-American first team status and was also selected the ABCA's NCAA II Central Region Player of the Year (a program first) that spring after batting a personal-best .455 and setting what were then single-season records for hits (71), hitting streak (22 games), runs batted in (65) and total bases (130) and matching club marks for home runs (15), fielding percentage (1.000) and games played (47).  Voted the NSIC's 2003 Position Player of the Year after leading the circuit in hitting, Battaglia also made quite an impact with his pitching prowess and currently holds down the No. 2 spot on UMD's all-time shut out list with five. The Cloquet, Minn., native served in a team captaincy role in 2004  -- one year after helping lead the Bulldogs to the NSIC regular season title and a first-ever berth in the NCAA II Tournament. When he hung up his collegiate football cleats for good following the 2003 season, Battaglia had caught more more lifetime passes (189), for more yards (3,685) and more touchdowns (38) than any Bulldog in program history. In addition to those three records (which all still stand), he held seven other UMD pass receiving and scoring marks, including standards for catches in a game (12) and season (60), which he did with a 2003 club that ranked fourth among all NCAA II schools in rushing offense. The only football Bulldog to date to be bestowed with the NSIC's Glen Galligan Award for academic and athletic achievement (2003), Battaglia was the first UMD player to eclipse the 1,000-yard plateau for pass receptions, doing so as both junior and senior. He placed 11th nationally (NCAA II) in pass receiving yards per game (101.7 ypg) during his final Bulldog go-around in 2003 en route to securing d2Football.com All-Midwest Region (first team), Football Gazette All-Midwest Region (second team) and Daktronics Division II All-Midwest Region (second team). A 2003 Harlon Hill Trophy Top 24 finalist and  two-time All-NSIC football honoree (first team in 2002 and second team the ensuing year), Battaglia was a fixture on a quartet of Bulldog teams that compiled a 35-11 overall record, made two post-season appearances (including their inaugural NCAA II playoff outing) and collared one NSIC title (2002). In the summer of 2004, Battaglia was selected by the Cleveland Indians in the 50th round of the  Major League Baseball Draft -- just days after earning a professional tryout with the National Football League's Dallas Cowboys.

Dietz, a native of Elk River, Minn., is one of just two, three-time basketball All-Americans UMD has ever produced and also holds the distinction of being the only Bulldog to finish as the team scoring leader for four straight seasons. As a senior co-captain in 2005-06, she secured a spot on the NCAA Division II Kodak/Women's Basketball Coaches Association All-America First Team for the second winter in row and landed her third consecutive Daktronics All-American citation (second team in 2006, first team in 2005 and third team in 2004). That followed up a junior season in which she was selected the North Central Conference Player of the Year and collared the first of two All-NCC citations. The NCC's top point producer in both 2004-05 and 2005-06 and the NSIC Player of the Year as a sophomore, Dietz currently occupies the No. 2 spot on UMD's all-time scoring charts with 2,115 points in 104 games (a 20. 3 points per outing clip) and is the owner of six Bulldog records, including field goal accuracy in a single season (.664 set in 2005-06) and most free throws made (678) and attempted (721) in a career. Dietz's accomplishments in the classroom were equally impressive as evident by the  3.97 cumulative grade point average she maintained as a mathematics and psychology double major. In addition to receiving the prestigious ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American Player of the Year award for a successive second season in 2005-06, Dietz was bestowed that same year with the NCC Stan Marshall Award (which was presented annually to one male and one female senior student-athlete who distinguish themselves through academic performance, athletic ability and community activities). On top of this, she earned both the UMD Outstanding Senior Female Athlete Award and the E.L. "Duce" Rasmussen Award (UMD's top scholar-athlete) for 2005-06.

Fermanich, who was born and raised in Antigo, Wis., never missed a start in the Bulldog backcourt for four seasons and in the last of those (1991-92), collared both Northern Intercollegiate Conference Player of the Year and NAIA District 13 Player of the Year honors  The two-time All-NIC guard (first team as a senior and honorable mention the year prior) established four UMD career records that have yet to be broken -- assists (559), steals (225), games played (127) and games started (127). He also captained UMD to both its fourth successive NIC championship and NAIA National Tournament berth in 1991-92 while pacing the Bulldogs in scoring with a career-high 13.2 points per game average. During Fermanich's stay with the basketball Bulldogs, UMD posted a 103-26 overall mark and went 43-5 in conference play. A member of UMD's All-75th Anniversary Basketball Team (which was done in 2005 in a vote of Bulldog alumni), Fermanich closed the books on his collegiate baseball playing days in 1992 with a third straight All-NIC citation. He was deployed as a shortstop, third baseman and left fielder with the baseball Bulldogs and ranked first among his teammates in hitting during his sophomore and junior years. In 1992, he helped lead the Bulldogs to their first-ever NIC championships and later that spring was given UMD's Outstanding Male Senior Athlete Award.


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Hicks is the the only Bulldog to capture a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference individual title twice, claiming the crown outright in 1967 after finishing as the meet's co-medalist the previous year. He also qualified for two straight NAIA Tournaments (1966 and 1967) and went on to enjoy a successful run as an amateur golfer before receiving his PGA Class A professional membership (he was a member of the PGA Tour in 1982). The winner of the 1987 Wisconsin PGA Match Play Tournament and 2001 Wisconsin State Senior Open runnerup, Hicks served as the PGA club professional at the Hillcrest Country Club in Eau Claire, Wis. (1983-85), the Cherry Hills Golf Course (1987-92) and Idlewild Golf Course in Sturgeon Bay, Wis. (1993-95), the Luck (Wis.) Golf Course (1996-97) and the Saddle Ridge Golf Course in Portage, Wis. (1998-2001). He took over as the golf course director at the Willowbrook Country Club in Auburndale, Fla., where he worked from 2001 until his retirement in 2013. A UMD skiing letterwinner as well, Hicks captured the U.S. National Ski Jumping Championship title in 1965 after placing second in the junior division at that event two years earlier. He competed for the U.S. ski jumping team at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria and, as that meet's youngest competitor (18 years old), tied for 29^th and was second among Americans. In 1965, he received the United States Ski Association's (USSA) Beck Award, which is presented annually  to a competitor based on outstanding performance in international competition during that season. (Other past winners include the likes of Lindsey Vonn, Picabo Street, Phil Mahre, Billy Kidd and 1995 UMD Athletic Hall of Fame inductee Gene Kotlarak).  Hicks, who took first in the Master's division at the 1987 U.S. National Ski Jumping Championships, is a member of the U.S. Ski Jumping Hall of Fame, the Eau Claire Ski Club Hall of Fame and the Duluth Denfeld High School Hall of Fame.

Jones played an integral part in UMD's conquest of four consecutive NSIC titles (going 41-3 in the process) and its first-ever trip to the NCAA II regionals (1996).  The Proctor, Minn., native certainly saved some of her best softball for last as during her farewell season (1998) she did quite a quite a number on the UMD record books, setting team single-season marks for batting average (.503, which remains the program's all-time high), runs batted in (50), total bases (107), doubles (15), put outs (362), and slugging percentage (.728). For her efforts, Jones was picked as the NSIC Player of the Year while also achieving All-NSIC distinction for the third straight year. Jones, who continues to occupy the top spot on the Bulldog career charts for batting average (.441), slugging percentage (.638) and on-base percentage (.454) was the1997-98 recipient of UMD's Outstanding Female Senior Athlete Award.






Lessard put an exclamation point on a remarkable senior season in 2003-04 by laying claim to college hockey's highest honor -- the Hobey Baker Memorial Award. The right winger out of St. Joseph deBeauce, Quebec, topped the NCAA in scoring (63 points), goals (32), and power play tallies (14) that winter while helping lead the Bulldogs to a 28-13-4 overall record and their first NCAA Frozen Four appearance in nearly a generation. Besides being selected as both the USCHO.com and insidecollegehockey.com National Player of the Year, Lessard also was an American Hockey Coaches Association All-American first team honoree and a member of the all-tournament team at the NCAA  Frozen Four as well as at the NCAA Midwest Regional. A little less than two weeks after his college play days were over, Lessard, who was voted UMD's Outstanding Male Senior Athlete for 2003-04, signed a free agent contract with the National Hockey League's Dallas Stars. A member of the 21-player All-DECC team (voted on by Bulldog hockey alumni in 2010), Lessard proceeded to skate in 27 games over three NHL seasons with the Stars (2005-08) and the Tampa Bay Lightning (2007-08). He spent a total of eight years playing professionally, including five in the American Hockey League, before retiring in 2012-13.




The UMD Athletic Hall of Fame celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2016 and, with the addition of this distinguished group, consists of 132 individuals representing 21 sports.