MOBILE, Ala. — Ronnie Arrow, the winningest men’s basketball coach in school history, and track and field standouts Olga Mencnarowska and Tonny Okello will be inducted into the South Alabama Athletic Hall of Fame, the university announced Monday.
Both Mencnarowska and Okello competed at the NCAA Championships during their Jaguar careers. The induction ceremony is scheduled for Sept. 26 at the Laidlaw Performing Arts Center on campus, and the three will also be recognized at halftime of South Alabama’s football game against North Carolina State that day at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
The 2015 class brings the total number of former student-athletes, coaches and administrators in the South Alabama Athletic Hall of Fame to 71.
Ronnie Arrow
Arrow coached the Jaguars in two stints, the first from 1988 to 1995, for a total of 12 full seasons and two partial seasons. According to the university, he compiled a 211-161 overall record and a 126-48 mark in Sun Belt Conference play. He holds the school records for total and conference wins and held the Sun Belt record for coaching victories at the time of his retirement.
Arrow was named Sun Belt Coach of the Year three times. His 1988-89 team went 23-9 in a season that included the only NCAA Tournament win in program history, an 86-84 victory over Alabama.
He returned the Jaguars to the NCAA Tournament in 2007-08, when South Alabama won a school-record 26 games, went 16-2 in conference play and received its first at-large bid to the tournament.
Under Arrow, South Alabama won two Sun Belt regular-season championships, two conference tournament titles and a regular-season division title. Thirteen of his players earned All-Sun Belt honors a combined 18 times.
Olga Mencnarowska
Mencnarowska lettered for the South Alabama women’s track and field team from 1996 to 1999. As a senior, she helped the Jaguars win their first league titles at the Sun Belt Indoor and Outdoor Championships.
She became the first woman in school history to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. At the 1999 Sun Belt Outdoor Championships, she was named Outstanding Meet Performer and was the top scorer after winning the heptathlon and long jump, finishing third in the javelin and tying for fourth in the 100-meter hurdles. She advanced to the national championships in the hurdles.
Mencnarowska finished her career with a conference record of 13.35 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles, which remains the school record. She still ranks among the top 10 in school history in the heptathlon, 60-meter hurdles, javelin and long jump.
She earned all-conference honors eight times, was named a third-team CoSIDA All-American in 1998 and was selected to the Sun Belt’s 30th Anniversary All-Time Women’s Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Teams.
Tonny Okello
Okello was a four-time All-American and earned all-region honors in each of his three cross country seasons. He was named to the Sun Belt’s 30th Anniversary All-Time Men’s Cross Country, Indoor Track and Field and Outdoor Track and Field Teams.
He earned All-America honors in cross country in 2004 and 2005, finishing 41st at the national meet as a senior, and in the 5,000 meters at the 2006 and 2007 NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Okello won seven individual Sun Belt titles and earned all-conference recognition 18 times over three seasons. He won the conference cross country championship in his first appearance at the meet and finished second in each of the next two years.
At the 2005 Sun Belt Indoor Championships, he was named the most outstanding track performer and top point scorer after winning the mile, 3,000 meters and 5,000 meters and helping South Alabama to the team title. He received the same honors at the Sun Belt Outdoor Championships that spring. In his final season, he helped the Jaguars earn a share of the conference indoor title by placing in the top three in the mile, 3,000 meters and 5,000 meters.
