'You never truly leave this place': MSU Athletics Hall of Fame welcomes nine new enshrinees

East Lansing — Leave it up to Draymond Green to sum up what it means to become a Hall of Famer at Michigan State.

“I think one thing is you never truly leave this place,” Green said Friday night as the 2022 class was getting set to be enshrined. “You move on and go out after the dreams and other things. But to the root, to the core of who you are, it always comes back here to being a Spartan.”

It was a common theme as inductee after inductee talked about what Michigan State meant in their lives.

Bob Steele, a track and field All-American in 1966 and 1967, choked back the emotion while Karen Langeland, the longtime women’s basketball coach and administrator, presided over a roving party made up of a large group of friends and former players.

“It’s almost overwhelming,” Langeland said as two members of her first Michigan State team looked on — fellow inductee Kathy DeBoer and Carol Hutchins, the recently retired Michigan softball coach who entered Michigan State’s Hall of Fame last year after playing softball and basketball as a Spartan.

Langeland and DeBoer were among the five women inducted on Friday, joined by Joan Garety (women’s golf, 1974-78), Laura Heyboer (women’s soccer, 2008-11) and Kalisha Keane (women’s basketball, 2007-11). It’s the first time Michigan State has inducted more women in a class than men, a fact not lost on those who were honored, fitting that it comes during the 50th anniversary of Title IX

“It’s about time,” Langeland said with a mischievous grin. “But I had the pleasure of running the Hall of Fame (as an administrator) and I’m aware there weren’t very many women. This is a huge step forward for Michigan State and I hope they continue to do that because there have been great women athletes come through here.

“(DeBoer and Hutchins) are two really good examples. They were on my first team and played together so they know what it was like and both have been in athletics from that point on. They understand where they were and how far they’ve come, but that there is also a lot more to do.”

Green, of course, was the star of the night. He was a three-time Big Ten champion during his four seasons at Michigan State (2008-12) and played in two Final Fours. As a senior, Green earned national player of the year honors from the National Association of Basketball Coaches while also being named the Big Ten Player of the Year and the Big Ten Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year.

But it’s his accomplishments since that have made him a household name, a winner of four NBA championships as a member of the Golden State Warriors, the most recent coming early this summer.

That success, Green said, is owed in large part to what he learned at Michigan State playing for Tom Izzo.

“I came to this campus and I thought I knew how to work hard because I was good at basketball,” the Saginaw native explained. “I’m like, ‘I know what it takes.’ Then (strength and conditioning coach Mike Vorkapich) puts me on a warm-up set of bench press and I threw up. On a warm-up set of bench press I'm at the trash can to start my first day on campus. But to play for Coach Izzo, it’s never good enough. You just get through it and you ultimately learn to trust that he's going to do the right thing by me. And then even in life you realize it's really never enough, and what he was preparing me for was to take on life after Michigan State. I’m so thankful to have played under a leader like Coach Izzo, who preached hard work, who taught hard work.

“So there are two things I took away from all this — how to work hard and how to be a man. I walked on this campus thinking I knew all the answers, that I had all the answers. I left this campus a better man and that, to me, is why I'll always return.”

Green and Steele helped round out the class that included former football stars Herb Adderley and Greg Jones. It was revealed on Friday that Adderley (1957-60), who died in 2020, had turned down a spot in the Hall multiple times, instead deferring to teammates he believed deserved the spot despite the fact he is a three-time Super Bowl champion and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

“My dad was very humble,” said Adderley’s daughter, Toni. “He felt he had accomplished everything. … But today, he would have been extremely proud. He deserved it and he knows that he did.”

Jones was a part of the foundation of coach Mark Dantonio building Michigan State football back into a Big Ten power. His freshmen season of 2007 was Dantonio’s first and by his senior year, the Spartans were Big Ten champions.

A year later, Jones won a Super Bowl ring with the New York Giants and on Friday he wore that ring along with his Big Ten title ring.

“I remember in 2007, walking down this hallway for the first time and wondering if I would have an opportunity to make it (into the Hall of Fame),” said Jones, a two-time All-American. “So it means a lot. … I’m just so appreciative to be here at this point in time.”

mcharboneau@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @mattcharboneau