By Ralph Derickson

The inductees are former UK basketball coach Joe B. Hall, NFL player Dermontti Dawson, Kentucky state official Mary Moore Helm, U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland and Queens College president Billy O. Wireman.

UK President Charles T. Wethington Jr. and College of Education Dean Shirley Raines will induct the new Hall of Fame members just before tip-off of the UK - Arkansas basketball game.

Coach Hall headed the UK Wildcat men's basketball team for 13 years and won an NCAA Championship in 1978.  He earned his bachelor's degree from the College of Education in 1955, returning to the university to complete his studies after a tour of Europe with the legendary Harlem Globetrotters exhibition basketball team.  Hall recently retired as a bank vice president in Lexington.

 The other new members of the Education Hall of Fame are:

n              Dermontti Dawson, a star center for the National Football League's Pittsburgh Steelers.  Dawson, a Lexington native, was an All-SEC player in his second year as a starting right guard for UK's football team.  He received a UK degree in kinesiology and health promotion from the College of Education in 1995;

n              Marlene Moore Helm, a native of Buffalo, N.Y., who received a master's degree in education as a reading specialist in 1976 and a doctorate in education administration and supervision in 1990.  She is secretary of the Kentucky Education, Arts, and Humanities Cabinet;

n              U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, who was born in Lucasville, Ohio, has represented Ohio's Sixth Congressional District since 1992.  He received a doctorate in counseling psychology from the UK College of Education in 1980.

n              Billy O. Wireman, president of Queens College in Charlotte, N.C.   Wireman received a master's degree in educational administration from UK in 1957.  His doctorate is from Peabody College, Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, Tenn.

Induction into the Hall of Fame is the highest honor bestowed by the UK College of Education on its graduates or individuals who have completed significant coursework in the college.