Hall of Fame
Credit Joe Shankland, along with his 1982-83 teammates, with starting something big, something really BIG. That historical year was Shankland's first at St. Francis after transferring from Joliet Junior College, where he was an all-region and two-time all-conference selection. Not only did the Saints defend the program's first CCAC crown that season, but they also earned their inaugural NAIA District 20 golf title and first-ever bid to the NAIA National Tournament. One year later, the story was the same, championships at both the conference and district levels and another berth in the NAIA finals. Today, those numbers have jumped to seven conference crowns, ten top finishes in district play and an identical ten national tournament appearances for the program. The latter ten showings, it should be noted, are the most amongst the 12 sponsored sports at St. Francis, which as a whole has spun out 60 national tournament qualifiers through the years. And it was Shankland and company that got the ball rolling. Both a two-time all-CCAC and all-District 20 selection, Shankland punched CSF's ticket to each of the first two national tournament appearances by gaining medalist honors at the district tournament in the spring of 1983 and then placing third overall one year later. The Saints went on to record their best-ever finish during that initial finals showing placing 21st, but came up just short of making the two-day cut. Shankland himself nearly played on, but also just missed the individual cut by two strokes firing a first-round 73 and a 77 on the second day. In 1984, CSF placed 22nd in the finals with Shankland shooting 74 and 79 for a 153 two-day total. For his two-year career, Shankland averaged 79.5 strokes per meet. Not bad numbers considering that he never took up golf at Joliet Catholic High School, rather opting to play basketball and football. A 3.32 student during his four semesters at St. Francis, Shankland earned a Bachelor of Science in Management in 1984.
