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Sports hall of fame for chamber's former chief

Russ Sloan will be honored for his athletic feats in Missouri.

By NICK JOHNSON
Published February 11, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG -- Russ Sloan is going to be among the stars today.

The former president of the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce, under whose leadership helped the city bring BayWalk and the Devil Rays, is being honored for his achievements - on the field.

For his athletic achievements, Sloan will be inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

Having spent nearly 20 years in athletics and 20 years running chambers, Sloan will be honored for a career that includes being a four-sport letterman in high school, an All-Conference defensive end at the University of Missouri and playing in two bowl games in 1960.

He went on to coach high school football before becoming head football coach at Northeast Missouri State University, where his team won three consecutive conference championships.

"From a personal honor standpoint, few things would compare with this," Sloan said of his induction.

Ironically, Sloan is the executive director of the Florida Sports Hall of Fame and is working on a project to obtain a permanent home for the organization, which has moved to St. Petersburg from Lake City.

Bernie Young, who was chairman of the Chamber of Commerce for the 1999-2000 year and served as the interim president after Sloan left, said she knew that Sloan had a previous coaching career.

"It was really hard not to," Young said. "Every story he told in the chamber started with, 'When I was a coach.' "

Young said that one of the many accomplishments Sloan made while in the chamber was the Entrepreneurial Academy, which helps aspiring entrepreneurs with a variety of skills needed to start a successful business.

The academy still meets three times a year and draws a variety of different people to the chamber.

Leroy Sullivan Jr., a chamber member who served as a volunteer chairman under Sloan, noted Sloan's commitment to education in St. Petersburg and the state of Florida while he was president.

"He constantly sounded the alarm bell for improving our education system," Sullivan said.

Despite his many accomplishments and the honor of being inducted into the hall of fame, Sloan said it is the emotional relationship between player and coach that he values most.

He is expecting about 50 former players to attend today's ceremony.

"There's nothing that a coach values more than relationships with former players," Sloan said.

"The honors are nice, but the relationships are better."

[Last modified February 11, 2007, 09:59:10]