Photos: From Top Down - Ducky Carmichael, Jack Holloway, Mary Schilly-Knisely, Jim Smith (Courtesy of Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame)

WILMINGTON, DE -- Four University of Delaware graduates will be inducted into the Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame Wednesday night in a ceremony at the Chase Center on the Wilmington Riverfront.

Among the 12 inductees are former Blue Hen football and baseball player Donald “Ducky” Carmichael, longtime state high school wrestling coach and 1968 UD graduate Jack Holloway, national-calibre distance runner and 2004 UD Athletics Hall of Fame inductee Mary Schilly-Knisely, and former Blue Hen basketball and baseball standout Jim Smith.

Others set to be inducted will be longtime state high school basketball coach Lou Bender, nationally-recognized martial arts instructor Jim Clapp, standout high school athlete and coach Ron Dickerson, collegiate All-American field hockey player Brenda Becker Ferris, multi-sport high school standout Doris Callaway, standout high school athlete Aubrey Hudson, former North Carolina State All-American football player Jim Oddo, and business leader, auto racing and horse racing supporter John Rollins.

A standout athlete at Wilmington’s P.S. duPont High School, Carmichael moved on to the University of Delaware where he competed in football and baseball. He lettered for three seasons as a halfback and defensive back in football for head coaches Bill Murray and Dave Nelson in 1949-51, leading the 1949 squad to a mark of 8-1 and six straight wins.

He intercepted eight passes in 1949 and rushed for 229 yards as a senior in 1951. In baseball, Carmichael lettered three seasons as an outfielder under head coach Shack Martin and batted over .300 each year. He led the team to an 13-6-2 record as a senior in 1952. He was an All-State football player in high school and was offered pro football tryouts by the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants.

Holloway, a 1968 graduate of UD, coached wrestling at William Penn High School for 25 years with a record of 297-35, including 14 unbeaten seasons. His 297 wins is a state record, he led his squads to seven state titles, and he coached 39 individual state champions. He was named state Coach of the Year seven times and national Coach of the Year in 2000 and was inducted into the Delaware Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2003.

A record-setting standout for the first UD track and field teams, Schilly-Knisely moved on to a stellar career as one of the top distance runners in the United States. A native of Wilmington, DE and a 1981 Delaware graduate, she twice competed at the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) outdoor nationals for the Blue Hens in the mile run in 1979 and 1980, placed fifth in the 1,500 meters at the 1980 EAIAW outdoor regionals, and established still-standing school records in the indoor 880-yard (2:17.9) and mile (4:51.6) runs and in the outdoor 880-yard run (2:21.0) and 1,500 meters (4:23.0).

She later enjoyed outstanding success as one of the world's top distance runners. She competed at the U.S. Olympic Trials three times, won a gold medal in the 3,000 meters at the 1987 Pan Am Games, and was national champion in the 3,000 meters at the U.S. Track and Field Outdoor Championships in 1986 and 1987.

Smith was a standout at P.S. duPont High School in Wilmington before embarking on an outstanding two-sport career in basketball and baseball at Delaware. He was only the second Blue Hen basketball player to total more than 1,000 career points and was a first-team All-Middle Atlantic Conference selection as a junior and senior during the 1955-56 and 1956-57 seasons. He set what was then a Carpenter Sports Building single game scoring record with 43 points against Swarthmore.

Playing for the Hens’ baseball team, Smith was one of Delaware’s top hitters, batting .354 as a junior and .323 as a senior. He was named to the NCAA District Two All-Star team as a senior in 1958, and led the NCAA in triples during the 1957 season. Smith then played one year in the Philadelphia Phillies’ farm system, batting .284 for High Point in the Class B Carolina League before returning to Wilmington and enjoying an 18-year semi-pro baseball career