Bemidji State unveils 2026 Athletic Hall of Fame class
Bemidji State added seven names to its Hall of Fame class, pushing the total to 217 and setting up a Dec. 5 induction in Bemidji.
Bemidji State Athletics added seven more names to a tradition that has been building since 1978, unveiling its 2026 Athletic Hall of Fame class and setting the induction ceremony for Dec. 5 in the Beaux Arts Ballroom on campus. The announcement turns Alumni B-Club and Athletic Hall of Fame Weekend, set for Dec. 4-5, into a reunion point for former Beavers and a reminder that the university’s sports history still helps shape its identity in Bemidji.
The 2026 class includes four student-athlete inductees, Kristi Buerkle, James Ellisor, Erin (Cody) Read and Joe Remitz. It also includes Roger Demaris as a Legacy Inductee in wrestling, David Heiss as the Alumni Coaching Achievement Award honoree, and Mark Shanfeld as the John S. Glas Honorary Letter Winner. Bemidji State said the class reflects the Hall of Fame’s broad structure, which recognizes student-athletes, coaches, teams and contributors whose impact has stretched beyond a single season or score.
With the new class, the Hall of Fame’s totals will reach 217 individuals, 25 BSU coaches, 27 teams, 12 Alumni Coaching Achievement Award honorees, 13 John S. Glas Honorary Letter Winners and three Legacy Inductees. The program’s category system shows how Bemidji State has worked to preserve not only statistics and championships, but also the harder-to-measure influence of older eras that still echo through Beaver athletics. For a university whose sports identity remains closely tied to campus life and alumni loyalty, that history still carries weight.
The annual selection process runs through the BSU Alumni B-Club, which accepts Hall of Fame nominations by Jan. 1 each year. Recent classes show how the recognition has expanded: the 2025 class included five individuals, four men’s hockey championship teams and Dr. Tom Richard, while the 2024 class included seven individuals and introduced Donette Swanson as the program’s first-ever Legacy Inductee. By placing Demaris, Heiss and the rest of the 2026 class into that lineage, Bemidji State is linking present-day Beavers to the alumni, coaches and teams that helped define the program for nearly five decades.
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