Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame | Columnist Larry Stone article in April 6, 2019 Seattle Times

Story by Stew Salowitz, Illinois Wesleyan University

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -- Jack Sikma, who graduated from Illinois Wesleyan in 1977 and went on to be a seven-time National Basketball Association all-star, has been selected for induction for the 2019 class of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
 
Sikma's selection, along with the entire Class of 2019, including those elected by international and veterans' committees, was announced on ESPN2 on Saturday, April 6, as part of the NCAA Final Four weekend in Minneapolis, Minn. The 2019 induction ceremony for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame is scheduled for Sept. 5-7 in Springfield, Mass.

Sikma is the school's all-time leading scorer (2,272 points) and rebounder (1,405) and, in each of his last three seasons, the Titans won College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin championships and advanced to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics tournament in Kansas City.
  
At Illinois Wesleyan, Sikma was a three-time NAIA All-American and was the top vote-getter as an Associated Press College Division All-American as a senior when he averaged 27.0 points and 15.4 rebounds. In four years his teams went 83-32 and he was chosen as the CCIW most outstanding player for three straight years. He was inducted into the Small College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017, the NAIA Hall of Fame and was a member of the NAIA 50th & 75th All-Anniversary Teams.

He was also a two-time Academic All-American and was selected in 1999 to the CoSIDA Academic All-American Hall of Fame.
 
The No. 8 pick in the first round of the 1977 NBA draft by the Seattle SuperSonics, Sikma scored 17,287 points and got 10,816 rebounds in the NBA and was a key player on Seattle's 1979 NBA championship team. He holds Seattle's team records for rebounds (7,729) and free throws made (3,044).

Sikma is the only center to have led the NBA in free throw shooting percentage, converting 92.2 percent in 1987-88 with the Milwaukee Bucks and his jersey has been retired both by Illinois Wesleyan and the Seattle SuperSonics.
He has worked as an assistant coach for Seattle, Houston and Minnesota and currently serves as a coaching consultant for the Toronto Raptors.
 
In addition to Sikma, the other 2019 inductees are Paul Westphal (player), Bobby Jones (player), Sidney Moncreif (player), Vlade Divac (player), Teresa Weatherspoon (five-time WNBA all-star), Linda Price (Wayland Baptist women's college team), Al Attles (contriibutor), Carl Braun (player), Chuck Cooper (player), Bill Fitch (coach), 1957-59 Tennessee A&I (team).
The College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) was founded in 1946 and currently services nine member institutions including Augustana College (Rock Island, IL), Carroll University (Waukesha, WI), Carthage College (Kenosha, WI), Elmhurst College (Elmhurst, IL), Illinois Wesleyan University (Bloomington, IL), Millikin University (Decatur, IL), North Central College (Naperville, IL), North Park University (Chicago, IL) and Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL). During the 2017-18 academic year, the CCIW honored over 2,100 academic all-conference recipients, 15 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, 28 CoSIDA Academic All-District recipients, and over 100 all-Americans.