WEATHERFORD, Okla. – On behalf of the SWOSU Athletic Hall of Fame Committee, Athletic Director Todd Helton has announced that three former Bulldog standouts have been selected for induction in the Class of 2022. Those individuals selected to join this prestigious group are Mark Bay, Clarke Hale, and Carly Zak.
The 2022 Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, August 19, inside the Pioneer Cellular Event Center. The 16th Annual SWOSU Athletic Auction will commence one day later on Saturday (Aug. 20) where the inductees will be recognized again.
A limited number of tickets and tables for the Athletic Auction are still available for purchase can be bought by contacting the SWOSU Office of Institutional Advancement at 580-774-3267 or e-mailing Ms. Allie Hoang, SWOSU Advancement Coordinator for Athletics, at allison.hoang@swosu.edu.
Mark Bay patrolled the gridiron for SWOSU at linebacker from 1987-90, culminated by his dominant senior season that earned him First Team NAIA All-American honors and the Defensive Player of the Year for District IX. He ended his career with 308 total tackles, a number that would lead SWOSU's NCAA Division II era today. When asked about a favorite memory he has from his playing days, Bay said accidentally entering the wrong huddle during the annual Blue & White Scrimmage Spring Game after getting a concussion. Bay played under former head coach and 2016 SWOSU Athletics Hall of Fame inductee Paul Sharp, and gives thanks to another Bulldog coach, Rocky Powell, who he says helped mentor and teach him. He is a proud SWOSU Football alumni who still totes the bulldog blue. Bay went on to graduate from SWOSU with a degree in Physical Education and has been self-employed as the owner of Bay Metal Design and Powder Coating. He met his future wife Kerie, who graduated from SWOSU with a pharmacy degree, on a blind date while in Weatherford and went on to have four kids – Jake, John, Jena, and Josh.
Clarke Hale was a standout on the men's basketball team in the late 2000s and a two-time team captain for the Bulldogs. He played three years of his eligibility in a SWOSU uniform after transferring from Louisiana Tech and made the All-Lone Star Conference (North Division) Team in all three seasons – first as an honorable mention followed by back-to-back second team honors. Hale held SWOSU's all-time scoring title in the NCAA Division II era for over a decade, until it was recently overtaken just this past season in 2022. During his senior campaign in 2009, he was named to the All-Tournament Team following the Lone Star Conference Tournament and was also the team's most valuable player. Perhaps his most memorable moment sporting the bulldog blue was knocking down a buzzer-beating shot to defeat rival Central Oklahoma (UCO) in the semifinals of the conference tournament that allowed SWOSU to advance to the championship game. By the time his career was over, Hale's name rested atop the SWOSU record book in many statistical categories during the NCAA era including points scored, three pointers made, free throw percentage, games started, minutes played, and games won. As a student at SWOSU, Hale also was responsible for rechartering the Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) fraternity and becoming president of that student organization. He graduated from SWOSU with a degree in Business Management and went on to obtain a master's degree in Sports Business. He owned and operated a Farmers Insurance agency in Dallas, Texas for seven years after college before returning to work for SWOSU. Present day, Hale is the Associate Director of Institutional Advancement for the university and lives in Oklahoma City with his wife Kayla, a SWOSU alum, and two sons, Holt and Slate.
Carly Zak came to Weatherford and SWOSU volleyball as a freshman and spent all four years of her collegiate career dominating for the Bulldogs. As a member of the Great American Conference 2010s All-Decade team, her impact on the SWOSU volleyball program was obvious. She was part of many SWOSU program 'firsts' including being the first four-time All-GAC selection, the first All-Region selection, and a member of the first SWOSU volleyball team to compete in the NCAA Tournament. Zak still holds SWOSU's career record for kills to this day and, while competing, also held the career record for the conference. She earned conference or region awards in every season she played, beginning with being named the GAC Freshman of the Year in 2013. Following a pair of Second Team All-GAC selections as an underclassman, she upgraded to First Team All-GAC honors as an upperclassman which included a unanimous first team nod as a senior. She was a 2015 Second Team D2CCA All-Central Region selection and improved her region status to First Team in 2016. Within SWOSU Athletics, Zak received back-to-back Female Athlete of the Year honors that coincided with her success during the '15 and '16 seasons. She also garnered All-GAC Tournament Team accolades twice in her career and was named the Oklahoma Volleyball Player of the Year by OklahomaSports.net in 2016. After graduating from SWOSU in 2016 with a bachelor's degree in Management, she moved to Tennessee to begin a career in events and marketing which she continues to do to this day. She loves keeping up with SWOSU Athletics online and checks in with Coach Collins occasionally for any other SWOSU news she might need. When reminiscing on her career, Zak says she's proud of her personal accomplishments, but the 2015 GAC Tournament Championship was by far her favorite memory as a Bulldog. She is now the first volleyball player to be inducted into the SWOSU Athletics Hall of Fame.
