COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Former Chadron State College All-American football player Casey Beran has been selected as the third Eagle player to enter the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Hall of Fame.
Beran, who played for the Eagles from 1995 to 1999, was the first CSC player to earn both All-American and Academic All-American honors. He’ll be inducted into the RMAC Hall during ceremonies July 12th in Colorado Springs.
A native of Sargent who played 8-man football in high school, Beran was a 3-time RMAC First-Team pick and the league’s 1999 Defensive Player of the Year. He was also named to the RMAC All-Century team in 2009 as one of the top 12 defensive players in RMAC history.
Now an orthopedic surgeon for Alegent Creighton Clinic in Omaha, Beran says that while he was “really excited” to learn of his selection to the RMAC Hall of Fame, he sees the honor as a tribute to how good the Eagles and coaches were when he played.
He says it isn’t an individual honor to him “because it makes me think of all l the great players I played with. They made what I did possible.”
Beran…whose younger brother Cory ended his own CSC career a year ago with RMAC and All-American honors himself…was part of the first 3 Eagles teams to win or share the RMAC title and the first two that reached the NCAA D-II playoffs.
As a senior, he was named a Football Gazette and USA Football First Team All-American and a Second-Team choice for the Daktronics and Associated Press Little All-American teams. He owned the CSC career record for most sacks when he graduated at 36.5, and also had 38 quarterback hurries and caused 7 fumbles.
Head coach Brad Smith…himself a member of the RMAC Hall since 2011 and the league’s Century coach…also put Beran to use on offense as a fullback and he scored 7 touchdowns as a junior and 4 as a senior.
Beran majored in human biology and graduated Magna Cum Laude in the spring of 1999, the same year he was Chadron State’s male RMAC scholar-athlete. He went on to attend the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where he graduated in 2004 and began his medical residency.
The other Chadron State athletes in the RMAC Hall of Fame are tight end Joe Planansky…the first Eagle to enter in 2005…and linebacker Kevin Homer…inducted in 2007.
The only other football player entering the RMAC Hall in 2013 is Colorado Mines quarterback Chad Friehauf…winner of the 2004 Harlan Hill Trophy as the best player in NCAA D-II and another member of the RMAC All-Century team.
Entering from Adams State is track star Brenda Jarvis-Eriksson…a three-time NAIA National Champion and 16-time All-American as a middle distance runner and hurdler between 1983 and 86.
Crystal Krebs is the first softball player and first UC-Colorado Springs athlete to make the Hall. A 2-time All-American, 2-time RMAC Player of the Year, and NCAA Division II Catcher of the Year in 2004, Krebs set a new NCAA Division II home run record with 25 in 48 games in 2005.
Metro State’s Mark Worthington was the NCAA D-II Player of the Year as a senior in 2005 and helped lead the Roadrunners to the national title as a part-time starter as a freshman. He played for his native Australia in the Beijing and London Olympics, and is currently playing professionally in Serbia.
Two former Adams State coaches are part of the Class of 2013. Frank Powell began the school’s wrestling program in 1961 while still an undergraduate and coached the team for 9 years…highlighted by back-to-back NAIA national titles in 1968 and 1969, teams that are already in the RMAC Hall.
Richard Ulrich followed Powell as the Adams State wrestling coach and led the program to the RMAC title all 9 of his years there and to a trio of NAIA national titles.
Rounding out the 2013 RMAC Hall honorees are three Adams State national championship teams: the 1990 wrestling team, which claimed the school’s 8th title in the sport, and the 1990 and 1992 men’s indoor track teams, the first RMAC teams to win NAIA titles in that sport.
The 11th annual RMAC Hall of Fame ceremony will be Friday, July 12 at the Colorado Springs Marriott Hotel. Social hour begins at 5 p.m., followed by dinner at 6. A table of 10 can be purchased for $500. Individual reservations are $55 prior to July 5.
The 2013 RMAC Hall of Fame class was chosen by a committee comprised of Patti Arnold, Eric Danner, Marv Kay, Todd Kelly, Con Marshall, Joan McDermott, Sarah Meier, Larry Mortensen and Smith.