A banquet in his memory is held every year in memory of the late Keith Ryan, a popular sportscaster who spent nearly a quarter century promoting local sports in Lake County. Proceeds will be applied toward two $1,000 scholarships for CLC students – one for a student pursuing a career in print or broadcast communications and the other for a sophomore student athlete. Since the scholarship banquet’s inception, more than $60,000 has been raised for journalism students and student-athletes. In addition, a total of 131 individuals have been inducted into the two halls of fame (Lake County High School Sports Hall of Fame & Waukegan Sports Hall of Fame) including the following from the NOA.

 

YEAR

 

RECIPIENT

2003

 

Lee Mieure

2004

 

Tom Kinkelaar

2005

 

Bill Swanson

2006

 

Fred Swanson

2007

 

Dick Kessler

2008

 

Bob Brown

2009

 

Tom Baba

2010

 

Jim Bernardi

2011

 

Peter King

2012

 

Don Swanson

2013

 

Jerry Grunska

2014

 

None Awarded

2015

 

None Awarded

2016

 

Mike Geske

2017

 

Jerry Blum

2018

 

Darnell Jones

2019

 

Mark Thompson

2020

 

John Widmayer

2021

 

None Awarded

2022

 

George Lewerenz

2023

 

Mike Babicz