Goodrich, Taylor to be inducted into Auburn-Lewiston Hall of Fame
AUBURN, Maine — Six individuals with connections to Bates College athletics will receive recognition Sunday when the Auburn-Lewiston Sports Hall of Fame holds its annual induction ceremony at Lost Valley.
The list is headed by two men who will be formally inducted into the Hall: the late track and field star Peter Goodrich ’89 and Jim Taylor, equipment manager in the Bates Department of Athletics.
Goodrich, a five-time All-America thrower at Bates, where he also won six NESCAC championships, was a passenger on a plane flown into the World Trade Center in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. (Read the Bates Magazine story about Goodrich’s widow, Rachel Carr Goodrich ’90, from the Fall 2006 issue.)
Taylor will be inducted into the Hall not for his longtime service to Bates, where he has served as equipment manager and has also been an assistant football coach. (Read the Bates Magazine story about Taylor from the Summer 2004 issue) Rather, he joins the Hall as a 26-year veteran baseball umpire ranging from Little League to NCAA Division I. Taylor, who once was Director of Athletics at Lewiston High School, was the president of the Central Maine Board of Baseball Officials and chaired the Maine Baseball Umpires Association.
“It’s nice to be appreciated. All I did was call balls and strikes,” Taylor told the Lewiston Sun Journal this week. “It’s a great honor. A lot of people on this wall are people I know and have a lot of respect for. I’m humbled.”
Three Bates student-athletes who will graduate in May will receive the Chamber of Commerce President’s Award at the ceremony in recognition of their outstanding athletic careers at Bates. They are: Meg Coffin (Westford, Mass.), a two-time All-American in both basketball and soccer; Noah Gauthier (Amherst, N.H.), a three-time All-America thrower and the 2008 NCAA champion in the indoor weight throw; and Ricky Weisskopf (San Salvador, El Salvador), the greatest squash player in Bates history, who has won All-America honors in all four years of his career.
A fourth Bates student-athlete, men’s track and field team member Tom Esponnette ’11 (Auburn, Maine), will also receive a President’s Award for his standout career at Edward Little High School.
Read the Sun Journal story about the Auburn-Lewiston Sports Hall of Fame ceremony.