Eight-time Mount Marathon champion Bill Spencer and famed mountaineer Vern Tejas were the two individuals elected to the 2012 Alaska Sports Hall of Fame on Monday. Spencer was also an Olympic nordic skier, while Tejas became the first person to make a solo ascent of Mt. McKinley and climbed the peak over 50 times.
The 2012 sporting event inductee is the Gold Medal Basketball Tournament, held annually in Juneau for more than 60 years. The event is huge for Southeast Alaska and rural Alaska communities.
The sports moment inductee is UAF's victory in the 2002 Top of the World Classic basketball tournament. That year, the Nanooks became the first and still only Division II college program to win a tournament comprised of otherwise Division I teams.
The class of 2012 will be inducted sometime in February.
