Before he was the sports agent for some of the biggest stars in the NFL, Eugene Parker was an outstanding athlete at Concordia.
So Parker and 14 other former Concordia standouts were inducted Friday as part of the inaugural class of the Concordia Athletic Hall of Fame in a ceremony at Parkview Field.
“It is a special honor to be a part of the charter class for the Hall of Fame,” Parker said by phone Thursday. “And they thought enough of me to include me in that.”
Parker, who was not in attendance to receive his plaque and ring along with the other recipients, was a standout basketball player for the Cadets in the early 1970s and led Fort Wayne in scoring in 1973 and 1974.
That led to a four-year starting career at Purdue, where he scored 1,430 points.
Parker was drafted by the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs and played with Athletes in Action before going to Valparaiso University to get his law degree.
He moved into professional sports management and founded Maximum Sports Management, where his clients include Hines Ward, Larry Fitzgerald, Ray Lewis and future NFL Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith, who will be inducted at Canton, Ohio today.
“It is amazing how life takes different directions,” Parker said.
“I was committed to being the best I could be at that time, and as other opportunities continued to grow, I used the same commitment and principles that I did on the basketball court to succeed in other areas.
“Sometimes because (clients) are so young when they come into professional sports, they have some growing and maturing to do, and you want to help them to mature but at the same time it is a very competitive in terms of getting clients.
“You have to strike the right balance between the recruiting and still maintaining that respect where you can mentor them properly.”
Fellow Hall of Fame inductee Jack Massucci, a baseball coach at Concordia for 37 years before retiring in 1996, was equally as honored – and humbled – as Parker.
“It is something I think Concordia has needed for quite awhile,” Massucci said Friday of the Hall of Fame.
“Being on the inaugural 15 kind of blows my (mind). I don’t know if I am worthy of it, but I am accepting of the honor.”
Current Concordia athletic director Dean Doerffler came up with the idea for the Hall of Fame after being asked for ideas on how to celebrate the school’s 75th anniversary.
“In athletics, we thought it would be neat to start a Hall of Fame,” Doerffler said.
“We have a real rich tradition in athletics and (Friday) we get to honor a lot of those people who have helped mold and shape that.”
A committee of eight people was formed and after it originally wanted to induct 10 people, the hall class was expanded to 15.
Recipients will receive a plaque and a ring, with a duplicate plaque being displayed in a future Hall of Fame room or area at the school.
