“You probably think about 50 different words, but for me, it (was) probably accomplished,” Respert said. “I feel accomplished, and all the waiting and the discipline of when it’s my turn to really go out and be prepared then to show people seems to have paid off. You do things, especially in sports, because you’re trying to reach a level, and I’m happy that this was never the final focus for me. It wasn’t the destination.”

With his mother sitting right next to him, he said that he wouldn’t be where he is today without his family and teammates.

“My family has always been very important and very integral to my success,” he said. “My parents always taught me if you were going to do it, then do it. If you really love it and you want to go after it, then go ahead and give it your all.”

Respert said this was something he really took to heart throughout his career.

“I wasn’t the fastest or quickest or most athletic guy, but I knew that I surpassed a lot of people just by sheer outworking people who were in the same boat as I was,” he said.

When Clinton Jones heard that he was going to be inducted into the hall of fame, it brought tears to his eyes, but he knows he didn’t do it by himself.

“It’s a great honor, but it’s not really about me; it’s about how to show my gratitude to so many people who helped me along the way,” Jones said. “Nothing that I did, I did by myself. Football is a team sport, track is a team sport and life is a team sport.”

The three-year letterwinner played football for Duffy Daugherty from 1964-66 and added it is a great honor to be recognized alongside teammates such as George Webster, Charles “Bubba” Smith and Gene Washington in the hall of fame.

Respert and Jones join football star Carl Banks, golfer Emily Bastel, women’s basketball, softball and volleyball player Diane Spoelstra and men’s gymnastics coach George Szypula as members of this year’s class.

“This is, without a doubt, one of my favorite nights of the year because it’s an opportunity to get together the past, present and future that we all speak to,” athletic director Mark Hollis said. “It kind of talks to the greatness that intercollegiate athletics brings to a campus.”