Vonnie Gros To Be Inducted Into Philly Sports Hall of Fame

PHILADELPHIA – The Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame announced its newest class last week, which included former West Chester University field hockey head coach Vonnie Gros.
 
Gros, a legend in the game of intercollegiate field hockey, coached the Golden Rams' field hockey squad for 13 years (1964-1976) amassing an overall record of 100-7-16 while winning a pair of AIAW national championships in 1975 and 1976. She also mentored the women's lacrosse team at West Chester from 1964 to 1973, authoring a record of 37-5-4. She was an All-American in both field hockey and lacrosse while playing collegiately at Ursinus College. Gros already belongs to the U.S. Field Hockey Hall of Fame (1988), West Chester University Athletics Hall of Fame (1988) and the Chester County Sports Hall of Fame (2010).
 
Gros is one of three females in this year's class – the 13th such class to be inducted since the hall's inception in 2004 – raising the total of females enshrined to 20, along with the three AIAW national championship basketball teams from Immaculata University in the 1970s. Seven of those 20 individual women in the hall of fame have ties to West Chester University.
 
Gros engineered a 29-game unbeaten streak at West Chester spanning three seasons (1972-74) and an amazing 18-game winning streak over her last two campaigns on the Golden Rams' sideline (1975-76). From 1972 through 1976, Gros' field hockey teams lost just one game. She went on to coach Team USA in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, bringing home the bronze medal – the only field hockey medal in Olympic history for the United States – with a nucleus of the roster made up of former West Chester University student-athletes.

The Hall of Fame induction ceremony is set for Nov. 3 at the Hilton hotel on City Avenue. The rest of the inductees include: the 1966-67 76ers; Al Severance, Brian Dawkins, Bruce Harlan, Charlie Manuel, Chris Short, Dick "Hoops" Weiss, Jeff Chandler, Jimmy Watson, George Orton, Goose Goslin, Herman Taylor, Marilyn Stephens, Steve Fredericks and Sylvia Wene Martin.