Bryant Athletics announces 2021 Hall of Fame Class
SMITHFIELD, R.I. – The Bryant University Department of Athletics is pleased to announce the addition of eight new members and one team into its prestigious Athletics Hall of Fame in 2021.
The eight-member Class of 2021 includes Kevin Brown '13 (baseball), Alex Francis '14 (men's basketball), Kevin Massa '15 (men's lacrosse), Eimear Black '14 (cross country / track & field), John Wilbur '87 (cross country / track & field), Kundayi Mawema '10 (field hockey), 2005 Men's Basketball Team, and former president and first lady Ron and Kati Machtley. Each will be officially inducted the Hall of Fame Dinner on Saturday, April 30, 2022 at the George E. Bello Center on the Bryant University campus.
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One of the all-time best baseball players to wear the Black & Gold, four-time All Northeast Conference selection Kevin Brown '13 enters the Hall of Fame after a stellar career with the Bulldogs. The NEC Rookie of the Year in 2010 and NEC Player of the Year in 2013, Brown was a first-team All-Region selection and third-team All-American selection in 2013. Brown never missed a game in his Bryant career, starting in all 227 games. During Bryant's 2013 NEC Championship season, Brown led the team in batting (.367), home runs (7), walks (47), on-base percentage (.498) and steals (23). He reached base safely in 16-straight at-bats – two shy of the NCAA Division I record. He had three hits and drove in the winning run in Bryant's win over Arkansas in the NCAA tournament, the first Division I NCAA win in school history.
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Arguably the best player in the storied history of Bryant Basketball, Alex Francis '14 is only the third player in school history to score more than 2,000 points during his career and only the sixth player in Northeast Conference history to reach the 2,000-point mark. The NEC Rookie of the year and two-time first team all-conference selection, averaged 17 points per game during his career and shot 54.3 percent from the field in 123 career games. A First Team All-District selection by the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) and National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), Francis scored 43 points against Long Island University in 2011 – tying him for the 11th most in NEC history and the most by a Bryant player in DI program history.
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Considered the best-ever face-off man in college lacrosse history, All-American Kevin Massa '15 set several school records during his career at Bryant including career face-off wins with 1,118 and ground balls in a career with 755. During his career, Massa helped elevate Bryant University lacrosse on the national stage with several brilliant performances in the NCAA tournament. As a sophomore, Massa went 22-of-23 from the faceoff X with eight ground balls in Bryant's first-ever NCAA tournament appearance at top-ranked Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. A year later, in a rematch at Syracuse, seeded second nationally, Massa won 14-of-23 face-offs to help lead the Bulldogs to a first-round upset of the Orange and advance to the NCAA quarterfinals. The first four-time all-conference selection in Northeast Conference history, Massa was a three-time all-American selection and two-time NEC Player of the Year. He concluded his career with several NCAA records, including: career faceoffs won (1,118), career faceoffs taken (1,639), career ground balls (755), career ground balls per game (9.93), single-season ground balls (231), single-season ground balls per game (12.16), single-game faceoff winning percentage (1.000).
As a senior, Massa helped lead Bryant to a third straight NEC Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance, winning 241-of-360 faceoffs (66.9 percent) with 160 groundballs. He was selected by Charlotte in the Major League Lacrosse Draft and is currently on the Hounds' active roster.
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A standout member of the Bryant University cross country and track & field teams Eimear Black '14 set five school records during her track & field career and graduated as the holder of the Bryant Cross Country course record, which she set during her junior season. A native of Glengormley, Ireland, Black captured the 10,000 meter championship at the Northeast Conference Outdoor Track & Field meet with a school record time 35 minutes, 56.94 seconds – winning the event by over a minute. She would go on to place second in the 5,000 meters (17:28.45). During her junior cross country season, Black was named the Northeast Conference Women's Cross Country Athlete of the Year after taking home first-place at the conference meet with a time of 17:34 and earned All-NEC honors for the second year in-a-row. During her junior outdoor season, Black set school records in the 3,000, 5,000 and 10,000 meters and earned a sixth-place finish in the 5,000 meters at the NEICAAA's with a school record time of 9:49.69. Black would repeat as the champion of the NEC Cross Country Championships as a senior, winning the event by over a minute, and went on to earn All-Region honors with a 21st place finish.
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Transferring to Bryant to pursue a degree in accounting, John Wilbur '87 established himself as one of the all-time greats in Bryant cross country / track & field history. A former individual winner at the Northeast-10 Conference Cross Country Championship, Wilbur shattered the school record in the 800 meters in 1986 by an incredible 10 seconds, eclipsing the old mark of 1:59.9 with a blistering time of 1:49.74 – a record that would not be broken for the next 35 years. His time in the 800 earned him a trip to the NCAA Championships in Los Angeles.
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A four-year starter in goal for the Bulldog field hockey team, Kundayi Mawema '10 recorded 31 wins during her career and led the Bulldogs to postseason berths in each of her first two seasons.
The Harare, Zimbabwe native recorded an astonishing 4921 minutes between the pipes and holds an all-time program record with 552 career saves. Mawema posted a .754 career save percentage in 74 appearances and 69 starts donning the Black and Gold, and she enjoyed arguably her best year as a senior, boasting a .795 save percentage that ranked her eighth in the nation.
Mawema was a 2007 Northeast-10 Conference Second Team selection after posting a 12-7 record in Bryant's final year at the Division II level, and in 2009 earned the program's first-ever All-Northeast Conference honor at the Division I level, garnering a second team accolade for her 7-10 record and nationally ranked goals against average and save percentage.
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It's been 16 years since the historic run to the NCAA Championship game for the Bryant University men's basketball team and in 2021, they will become only the second team to be inducted into the Bryant Athletics Hall of Fame.
After falling in the final seconds in the NCAA regional final a year earlier in 2004, the 2005 team opened the year with exhibition games at the University of Maryland and defending national champion UConn Huskies. The strong preseason tests proved beneficial as the Bulldogs won 19 games during the regular season and were selected once again for the NCAA Division II championship regional, this time hosted by Bentley.
The Bulldogs knocked off each of the three regional conference champions, in Adelphi in the first round, Bloomfield in the semifinals, and rival Bentley – a team that was ranked No. 1 nationally earlier in the season and were the top seed of the regional, 74-64 in the regional championship to punch their ticket to North Dakota for the NCAA Division II Elite Eight.
Bryant never trailed in all three regional contests. Hall of Famer Mike Williams '04, the conference defensive player of the year, pulled down 35 rebounds and blocked 19 shots in three regional tournament games.
At the Elite Eight, hosted by the University of North Dakota, the Bulldogs earned an opening round win over Mount Olive in quarterfinals and followed with a 60-55 win over Tarleton State in the national semifinals to earn the right to play for the Division II National Championship.
In the final, a game that was broadcast live on CBS, the Bulldogs would fall 63-58 to a tough Virginia Union squad.
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Behind the leadership and vision of President Ronald K. Machtley and First Lady Kati Machtley, Bryant University enjoyed unprecedented growth academically and athletically during their 23 years at Bryant and was the catalyst in transforming Bryant from a regional business college to a national-ranked, world-class university. Named President in 1996, Bryant Athletics saw the addition of football, men's lacrosse, women's lacrosse, field hockey and swimming & diving during in the late 90's and early 2000's and become a regional power at the Division II level. In 2012, Bryant's varsity athletics program joined the Division I Northeast Conference and continued the success, winning 20 conference titles and sending 21 teams to compete in the NCAA Division I Championships over the next nine years.
Members of the Bryant Athletics Hall of Fame are elected every two years into five different categories: student-athletes, coaches and administrators, teams, contributors, and legacy. The Class of 2021 brings Hall of Fame membership to 165 since its inception in 1987.