The Howard Payne University Sports Hall of Fame today announced its 2011 class which will be officially inducted at banquet on the evening of October 15th as a part of the Howard Payne homecoming festivities.

This year’s Howard Payne sports hall of fame class includes Jerry Miller class of 1966, Melinda (Venable) Kirst class of 1978, and Stuart Burleson class of 1988.

Jerry Miller

A 1966 graduate of Howard Payne, Jerry Miller was an All-conference and Honorable Mention All-American linebacker on the football field. For a short time also participated in track, baseball, and basketball for the Yellow Jackets. He was drafted into the NFL by the Denver Broncos but went on to sign with the Houston Oilers.

He went into coaching after a knee injury cut his career short. He become the all-time winningest six-man football coach in Texas and was later was inducted into the Texas Six-man Football Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.

Melinda Kirst

Melinda Kirst was a member of the first Howard Payne women’s volleyball team in the mid 70’s. She also played a key role in bringing intercollegiate women’s sports to Howard Payne serving on the HPU intercollegiate sports committee as a student. She was co-captain of the HPU volleyball team two seasons and was named outstanding hitter her junior and senior year. She graduated in 1978 and went on to start three HS volleyball programs around the state amassing nearly 500 career wins. She is one of only at handful of women to be a high school athletic director in the State of Texas.

Stuart Burleson

A 1988 graduate, Stuart Burleson was one of the last scholarship athletes at Howard Payne. He excelled on the football field being named All-conference as a wide receiver, braking four HPU receiving records in his time. He was also the first HPU receiver to have over a 1,000 receiving in a season. In track, he was a national qualifier in the decathlon and still the HPU record holder in the high jump at 7 feet 1 and ¼ inches. He was a five-time national track qualifier (4 outdoor and 1 indoor) and a two-time NCAA II All-American in the high jump.

Full biographical information on all the inductees will be released in the months to come.