Mullan heads Delco Hall Chapter class
SPRINGFIELD » Michael Mullan is enjoying retirement after 40 years as the tennis coach at Swarthmore College.
And, yes, at 73, the twotime PIAA singles champ from Springfield (1965, 1966) and one-time U.S. Open qualifier (1978) still plays the game he loves.
“I’m a member of Idle Hour (Tennis Club in Drexel Hill),” Mullan said Sunday. “I’m trying to play ITF (International Tennis Federation) senior tournaments, 70 and over.”
Mullan was one of nine people inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame Delaware County Chapter Sunday at Springfield Country Club.
Also inducted were Michael “Duke” Callahan (NBA referee), Jill Davis (lacrosse), Michele Doyle (lacrosse), Harry Jones (multiple sports), brothers Charles “Buff” and Wilbur Kirkland (basketball), Maureen Logan (basketball) and Brett Moyer (lacrosse).
Interboro’s Stephen “Ziggy” Andrews received the Eddie Coyle Aware for physically challenged athletes. Garnet Valley’s Max Busenkell and Kaitlyn Stankavage were named the Kelly and Bo Ryan Scholar Athletes of the Year.
Interboro’s Matthew Atansiu and Kelsie Robinson were the recipients of the Andy Talley Humanitarian Award for their volunteer work. Marple Newtown graduate Weronika Slupianek received the Special Olympics Award, and Charles “Chas” DeFeo earned the Agnes Stegmueller Award for contributions to youth in the community.
Mullan compiled a 421354 record in 40 years as the head coach of the Garnet (1979-2018). His teams won three Division III national championships (1981, 1985, 1990), finished second in 1989 and third four times (1984, 1986, 1988, 1991). He coached 52 All-Americans and was named ITA Division III Coach of the Year in 1986. He also holds Doctors of Philosophy in history and sociology and is a member of Swarthmore’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology.
In 2000, the Michael Mullan Tennis Center at Swarthmore, which has three courts and a fitness center, was named in his honor.
“One of Swarthmore’s generous benefactors, Jerry Kohlberg, a graduate of Swarthmore put it together,” Mullan said. “Just like almost all of his gifts, he put somebody else’s name on it. He contributed funds for a lot of different sporting activities at Swarthmore, but his heart was in tennis. …
“He named the scholarships not after the Kohlberg family, but after his roommate at Swarthmore, the Evans Scholarships. He gave a building for social sciences and humanities. His family
finally said, ‘Jerry, come on.’ It’s Kohlberg Hall, one of our most popular buildings. That’s the kind of guy he was.”
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Callahan spent 29 years as an NBA referee. All that time he was simply known by his nickname, which goes back a long time.
“I think it was back in the fourth grade with my brother Richie,” Callahan said. “There was a janitor at Our Lady of Fatima (in Secane). He said, ‘I think you’re going to be just like Duke,’ and it stuck.”
The Cardinal O’Hara grad officiated 1,626 regular-season games, 225 playoff games and 21 games in the NBA Finals
before retiring after the 2018-19 season. Yet he is still involved with developing G League officials.
“What the G-League consists of is that our referees are looking to the WNBA or the NBA or both,” Callahan said. “… I’m just very fortunate after 29 on the floor to have the opportunity to come back and help out.”
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When he first starting playing basketball at Cheyney, no one called Charles Kirkland by his nickname. That would eventually change.
“That was by accident,” Buff Kirkland said. “Harry McLaughlin came up to Cheyney one time and we were playing and he hollered, “’ey Buff.’ Nobody else knew that but him and some of the guys from Chester. Jimmy Wilson heard it, and that’s all it took.
“Ever since then it’s been Buff. Jimmy Wilson wouldn’t call me anything else.”
Neither Buff nor his brother, Wilbur, played at Chester, but that did not prevent them from finding success in college or professionally. Buff was a first-team college division (now Division II) UPI All-American as a senior and was selected by the Milwaukee Bucks in the eighth round of the 1972 draft (No. 129 overall). He played in the Eastern Basketball League and eight seasons in Holland, where he made the All-Defensive team seven times.
Wilbur earned All-America honors at Cheyney and was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pipers of the ABA in 1969. After serving in the U.S. Army, Kirkland played eight seasons in Greece, Italy and Switzerland.
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Jones was a three-sport standout at Nether Providence, earning seven letters in football, basketball and baseball, with All-Delco honors in basketball. He went to Western Kentucky where he was the first Black player on the Hilltoppers’ baseball team.
He led the team in hitting as a sophomore (.333) and was awarded a scholarship. He batted .317 as a junior and .368 as a senior. Jones earned
All-Ohio Valley Conference honors three times.
He credits his father, Harry L. Jones, with instilling the drive to be successful.
“When I was going into high school,” Jones said, “he told me, ‘This is what you’re going to have to do. I won’t wish you good luck because that’s 50-50. You have to take charge and leave no doubt. You have to be one of the five (starters) in basketball, one of the nine in baseball and one of the 11 in football.’”
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NOTES » Davis was a twotime All-Delco lacrosse player at Ridley and the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year at La Salle. She is a special education teacher at Ridley. … Doyle retired in 2014 after 32 years at Penncrest, where she coached field hockey, basketball and lacrosse and served as the school’s athletic director. She was a member of West Chester’s 1979 NCAA championship lacrosse team and played for Team USA in the 1982 World Cup. Doyle was inducted into the U.S. Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2016. … Logan earned All-Delco honors in basketball before an outstanding career at St. Francis (Pa.). She still ranks first in career steals (354), second in assists (522) and 20th in scoring (1,122). … Moyer earned All-Delco, All-State and AllAmerican honors and guided Ridley to a pair of state titles. He earned All-America honors at Hofstra and went on to play professional lacrosse.