Running back Scotty Caldwell, volleyball star Chris Rudiger and sprinter Gwen Clardy were inducted into the UT Arlington Athletic Hall of Honor in September.

Scotty Caldwell

Also honored were members of the 1980-81 men’s basketball team, which finished 20-8 and earned UT Arlington’s first berth in the National Invitation Tournament, and the 1994-95 women’s track team, which won both the Southland Conference indoor and outdoor championships.

One of the top running backs in UT Arlington history, Caldwell finished a four-year football career by earning SLC Offensive Player of the Year honors as a senior in 1984.

He holds school records for touchdowns in a career (32) and a season (13 in 1982). He also set the school standard for most rushing attempts in a game with 34 against McNeese State in 1984.

Caldwell is second to Derrick Jensen on the school season and career charts for total rushing yards. He played two years with the Detroit Lions in the National Football League and now works for an executive search firm in Germany.

Chris Rudiger

Rudiger played at UT Arlington from 1986-89 and was a key performer on the 1989 volleyball team that reached the NCAA Final Four. She played on SLC championship teams all four years.

As a senior, she earned second-team All-America honors and was first-team all-conference and all-South Region. She was named to the NCAA all-South Regional Tournament teams in 1988 and 1989.

Rudiger shares the school record for most digs in a match with 41 against Penn State in 1989. She also ranks in the top 10 in several career categories, including digs (sixth), kills (eighth), service aces (eighth) and kill attempts (ninth).

She is head volleyball coach at Keller Central High School. She previously was head coach at Mansfield Summit High School and an assistant coach at Texas Christian University.

Clardy earned All-America honors in 1993, ’94 and ’95 in the 100- and 200-meter events and again in the 100 in 1996 at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. She was All-America in the 1995 NCAA Indoor 200 meters.

Gwen Clardy

In 1994, she was high scorer at the SLC Outdoor Championships. She helped guide the team to indoor and outdoor conference titles in 1995, winning the indoor 200 that year. She won the conference outdoor 200 in 1993 and ’94 while also winning the 100 in 1994.

Clardy was on four relay teams that hold school records, and she ran the second fastest times in school history in the 100 and 200. She is third on the school’s all-time list in the 400 meters.

She and her husband, Sidney Ross, live in Arlington, where they are raising two children, daughter Aubrenique, 8, and son Jamari, 1.

 

— Jim Patterson