BROOKLYN, N.Y. - Five former student-athletes will be enshrined as the newest members of the LIU Brooklyn Athletics Hall of Fame, the athletics department announced Tuesday. Walter Bustamante (Men's Soccer), Michael Campbell (Men's Basketball), Dawn Coleman (Women's Basketball), Charles Jones (Men's Basketball) and Martina Wagner (Volleyball) comprise the 2018 inductees, who will be honored at halftime of the men's basketball game against Central Connecticut State on Saturday, January 27. An awards reception will be held at the Kumble Theater, Friday, January 26.
Bustamante graduated as one of the best to take to the pitch for the Blackbirds. An NSCAA first team All-America selection in his junior season, he was also the Northeast Conference Player of the Year in 1994, a three-time All-NEC first teamer, and an All-New York Region first team selection. He led the Blackbirds in scoring for two straight seasons, and still ranks in the top ten on the all time scoring list, with 39 career goals.
Having gone on to play professionally for the MetroStars and Alianza of Peru, Bustamante also still holds an LIU men's soccer program record with 33 career assists.
One of the lynchpins of the 1996-97 Northeast Conference championship men's basketball team, Campbell played two seasons with the Blackbirds and teamed with classmate and fellow inductee Charles Jones to comprise one of the top scoring duos in the country. A two-time first team All-NEC honoree and fourth team All-Met selection as a junior, Campbell scored 1,190 points to rank among the top 25 all-time at LIU Brooklyn.
An athletic wing that created havoc defensively, the Brooklyn native ranked seventh in the nation in steals his junior season and 11th as a senior in the same category. Also a sharpshooter from beyond the arc, Campbell hit 111 three-pointers during his career and scored 20-plus points in 34 games over two seasons. Following his time with the Blackbirds, Campbell would go on to win Nike's Battleground One-on-One Tournament in New York City in 2002, earning him a one-year shoe deal with the famed footwear company. He would also play professionally for the USBL's Brooklyn Kings and ranked second in the league in scoring at 22.4 ppg.
Graduating as of the most prolific scorers in LIU Brooklyn women's basketball history, Coleman racked up 1,343 career points in her time as a Blackbird. The leading scorer in school history at the time, she currently ranks fifth in the record books. A second team All-NEC honoree, she averaged 13.0 points per game and 3.6 rebounds per game in her career.
Coleman still holds the LIU women's basketball single game record for both points scored and field goals made, with her 40-point effort against Fairleigh Dickinson on January 13, 1996. She also ranks third in program history for free throws made (299), and sixth all-time in career three-pointers made (140).
Though he only played two seasons for the LIU Brooklyn men's basketball team, Jones still ranks as one of the best to ever step foot on campus. Jones led the nation in scoring in both of his two seasons at LIU, becoming only the seventh player in NCAA history to do so. He graduated with 1,772 career points, a total that ranks fourth on the all-time list to this day. A two-time NEC Player of the Year and the 1996-97 Haggerty Award winner as Metropolitan Player of the Year, he was also named the 1997 NEC Tournament MVP and honorable mention All-American. One of only six players to ever lead his conference in both scoring and assists, he led the Blackbirds to 42 wins, consecutive NEC regular season crowns and the NCAA Tournament in 1997.
Jones averaged 30.1 points per game in his first season, which is still an LIU record, and just one of six single-season records that he still holds today, including points in a season (903), field goals made (338), three pointers made (116), and steals per game (2.9). Jones' career stats are also still ranked in the top ten in program history in scoring average (1st - 29.5 points per game), field goals made (3rd – 640), three-pointers made (3rd – 225), assists (6th – 360) and steals (10th – 157). Jones went on to play two years in the National Basketball Association with the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Clippers.
Wagner was one of the key members of the first three NEC championship volleyball teams in LIU history from 2005 to 2007, helping establish over a decade of dominance for Blackbird volleyball, including 11 titles over a 14-year span. Despite playing just three seasons for LIU, she graduated as the program leader in nearly every offensive category, and still ranks in the top ten to this day. Wagner holds the program records for service aces in a single match (12), a single season (115), and in a career (292), and is third all-time in kills in a career (1,652), fourth in total attacks (3,918), and sixth in career digs (1,207).
A unanimous selection for NEC Player of the Year in 2006, she was a three-time first team All-NEC honoree, and was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Team in 2006. She is one of only two players in program history to record more than one triple double in her career, with two, and holds three of the top ten spots on the program's kills in a single season list, including third in 2006, with 598 kills that year.
For more information on attending the awards reception and induction, click here, email bklynalumni@liu.edu or call 718-780-6562.