Lendrum and five others to be inducted into BKW Hall of Fame
That ‘47 look. Hall of Fame inductee Arlene Lendrum was still Arlene Karl, when she posed, fourth from left, with the football cheerleaders of that post-war year. For the rest of her life, she never stopped cheering on BKW teams. From left:Irene Atkins, Peggy Filkins, Dorothy Scheffel, Arlene Carl, Margaret LaGrange, Dorothy Pitcher, Eleanor Bassler, and Ruth Kocis.
BERNE — A woman who gave her whole hearted support to female athletics in the Berne-Knox-Westerlo School District is to be honored posthumously at the second annual induction ceremony of the BKW High School Athletic Hall of Fame next Thursday.
As a member of the district’s board of education for 27 years until 1981 — and its president for several terms — Arlene Lendrum tirelessly supported the expansion, improvement, and fair funding of the female side of the school’s athletic endeavors. She herself had been a Berne-Knox football cheerleader in the 1940s.
Rooting for her own daughters who competed in BKW athletic programs was the personal side of her principled commitment to equal opportunity for female athletes.
She told The Enterprise in 1990, “Bringing the girls’ sports program at BKW up to parity with the boys’ was a long and expensive process. It meant adding a bit to the budget but we did it over a number of years.”
An award presented at every BKW commencement ceremony to the OutstandIng Female Athlete is named for Lendrum. She died in 1996.
Nadine Bassler, currently one of two deans of students at Voorheesville’s Clayton A. Bolton High School and senior class advisor, will also be honored. After making her mark as a student athlete in several sports at BKW, Bassler went on to the State University of New York at Brockville to prepare to teach physical education.
She taught physical education for many years at Voorheesville, has served as the district physical-education coordinator, and coached women’s basketball and softball teams as well as the Guilderville swim team. A softball team she coached went to the state playoffs three years running. Hall of Fame organizer Dennis Barber calls Bassler “a very fine athlete.”
Another reach back in time singled out Water Eaton, a long-time BKW social studies teacher and track and cross-country coach, who will also be inducted this year. An Enterprise report in May 1978 recounted the outstanding performance of BKW runners at the Middleburgh meet, under his tutelage. Records were broken.
He coached a 1986 BKW cross-country team that was undefeated, the league champion, and the Section 2 C-D-E champions as well.
Eaton served as assistant director of the New York State Public High School Athletics Association in early 1990s. He also coached the BKW debate team and served as advisor to the Honor Society.
Finally, the Hall of Fame reaches back to the mid-1930s to honor two athletes from the Depression era, John O’Brien and Fritz Kilian. Organizer Dennis Barber describes them as “early basketball stars” for BKW.
Like all new Halls of Fame, this one-year-old has a lot of catching up to do, by making sure to honor those whose claims to fame were staked decades ago.
A plaque honoring each inductee will be permanently displayed in a showcase near the entrance to the gymnasium.
The Hall of Fame showcase already displays the seven inductees from the Hall’s freshman year.
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The induction ceremony will be held on Sept. 29 at 6 p.m. at the Berne-Knox-Westerlo Secondary School Cafeteria.