The 2025 Buena Vista University Athletics Hall of Fame Class has been announced with four new individuals and one team being officially inducted during a formal banquet on Friday, September 26.
This year’s class includes: Dan O’Hern ‘79, Jennifer (Einck) Irvine ‘03, Jestin Hulegaard ’08, Luke Probasco ‘11 and the 2011 Baseball Team.
O’Hern was a member of the men’s basketball team for the Beavers from 1975-79. He was a three-time All-Conference player, including back-to-back First Team selections to close out his career. He played on a conference championship team in 1976 and would rank in the top-10 on the program’s all-time career list in points (6th; 1,544). His 654 points scored as a senior during the 1978-79 season remains the second-highest total all-time.
(Einck) Irvine was a four-year standout on the women’s golf team from 2000-03. She would go on to capture individual conference titles as both a freshman and senior, finished runner-up as a sophomore and took ninth as a junior. Irvine helped lead the Beavers to the team championship in three of the four years while it was third in the other. As a senior, she went on to be named the Iowa Intercollegiate Conference (IIAC) Most Valuable Player and closed out her career by earning All-American accolades as both a junior and senior.
Hulegaard was a four-time All-American at 133-pounds for Beaver wrestling team (2005-08). He placed in the top-5 of the NCAA DIII Tournament in three of those years, including a third-place finish in 2006. The team landed a top-25 overall national team finish three times in his career, including a seventh-place finish in 2007. Hulegaard earned an IIAC individual championship as a junior in 2007.
Probasco was a stand-out starting pitcher for the Beaver baseball team under current head coach Steve Eddie from 2008-11. He was a two-time First Team All-Conference performer as both a junior and senior and also landed All-Region accolades by the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) in both years, including First Team honors as a senior. The righthander helped lead the Beavers to the regular season and tournament titles in 2010 as well as a College World Series berth in 2011. He finished his career ranked second all-time on the program’s career wins list with 23 and in innings pitched with 229.2.
The 2011 Baseball Team went 34-18 overall and set what was then a program-record for wins in a single season. It finished runner-up in the regular season conference standings at 16-8. Despite going just 1-2 in the conference tournament, the Beavers earned an at-large berth in the NCAA Regional Tournament where it’s storied postseason run began. It went on to capture the regional title with a pair of wins over No. 20 Carthage College in the championship round to advance to the CWS. It then knocked off two more top 25-ranked teams to begin the series before suffering back-to-back losses, including a heartbreaking walk-off 3-2 defeat against Chapman University with a berth into the championship round on the line. The team had seven all-conference performers and five all-region selections, led by Second Team All-American and BVU Hall of Famer Brad Blum. The 52 games played remains a school record while the 511 hits set a new record which has since been surpassed (2023).
Following the official induction ceremony, the group will again be recognized during halftime of the Homecoming football game versus Simpson College on Saturday, September 27. Kickoff inside of J. Leslie Rollins Stadium is at 1 p.m.
