Eagle athletics alumni have a new reason to be proud: a new $50,000 Hall of Fame housed in the gymnasium to honor their achievements. The installation was funded by Terilyn Walker ’92, whose father Kenneth Allen Walker was a booster of CUI men’s basketball.

“I just felt compelled to carry on my dad’s legacy and make a home for it at my alma mater,” says Walker, who serves as CUI’s Dean for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.

Walker, who passed away in 2015, was a real estate developer and basketball enthusiast who played in the Senior Olympics and won multiple gold medals. He also played pick-up games at Concordia’s gym in the mornings and was friends with Greg Marshall, CUI’s former basketball coach.

Walker, his daughter, played volleyball at CUI for two years and earned the MVP award and Coach’s Award her senior year. She was determined to use some of her inheritance to create “a home to honor those who valued excellence in their sport,” she says. “That’s the tagline of my dad and the Hall of Fame: ‘Excellence on and off the court.’”

That’s the tagline of my dad and the Hall of Fame: ‘Excellence on and off the court.'

The Hall of Fame was designed by CUI alum and former student-athlete Amanda Koman ’15 with the Temeka Group.

“Amanda captured our university’s athletics spirit, our honoring of our Lord, and honoring my dad,” Walker says. “If my dad were alive today he would be so proud.”

Walker donated another $50,000 to scholarships for athletes. “When I walk through that gym and see our student athletes honored, then look to the basketball floor—that was my dad’s sport, and where I played volleyball,” Walker says. “It’s just incredible.”

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About Ann Ashmon

Ann Ashmon is the Director of Communications at Concordia University Irvine.

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