The Nebraska High School Hall of Fame Foundation Board of Directors has approved the appointment of Larry Munksgaard as its new executive director.
    The action came at the board of directors’ December meeting in York. Munksgaard replaces Randy Bates, who resigned in May.
    “I have a passion for halls of fame,” said Munksgaard, who is the chairman of the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association Hall of Fame. He also helped create the Lincoln Southeast Hall of Fame, which held its first inductions in January of 2010. “I’m really proud of what we have in both of those situations,” he said. “I really feel strongly that it’s important to recognize the history of sports whatever level it is.”
    Munksgaard brings nearly 20 years of involvement in Nebraska high school sports to the post. He was the athletic director at Lincoln Southeast from 1996 to 2010, and the Hall of Fame honored the Knights for a decade of excellence in the 1990s.
    While at Lincoln Southeast, Munksgaard was a driving force behind establishing the statewide sportsmanship summit, now in its ninth year, and the Sportsmanship Awards at the boys and girls state basketball tournaments.
    Prior to his tenure at Lincoln Southeast, Munksgaard was athletic director at Cedar Falls High School in Cedar Falls, Iowa, for 15 years.
    The Hall of Fame Foundation is a non-profit organization operating for more than 20 years with the idea of preserving the history of high school sports. It makes several awards annually honoring individuals and teams and has inducted more than 300 athletes, coaches and/or contributors at its annual induction ceremony. Its goal is to establish a Hall of Fame facility that will preserve the rich heritage of Nebraska high school athletics and serve as a repository for memorabilia in the Nebraska School Activities Association office building at 500 Charleston St., Lincoln.
    Finding the funding necessary to open the Hall of Fame’s Exhibit Hall is the biggest challenge facing Munksgaard and the foundation.
   “Getting the exhibit hall up and operating, that would be without question the No. 1 goal,” Munksgaard said. “The induction ceremony and the selection process have been really well done. … Those things are pretty well established. We need to get the exhibit hall going so people can come and see the people who have been enshrined and the other parts of the Hall of Fame we want to see get going.”

The Nebraska High School Sports Hall of Fame Foundation
inducted 13 athletes, five coaches, two contributors and
two officials at its Sept. 25 induction ceremony 
at the Lied Center in Lincoln.  
Information about the honored has been 
placed  under 2011  in the various award categories.

Inductees Joanne Kappas (left) 
and Jessica Haynes 

Inductee Dean Brittenham (right),
 with president Jack Guggenmos

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