PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — The Presque Isle High School Athletic Hall of Fame committee has announced its Class of 2015 inductees.
This year’s induction class include athletes Richard Drummond (Class of 1989) and Eric Wieder (Class of 1979), as well as administrators Franklin Cunningham and Frank Keenan.
Drummond was a standout basketball player who was a two-time Big East All-Conference player and made the Bangor Daily News all-tournament team his junior and senior years. He was also a Bangor Daily News all-state second team selection his senior season. Drummond helped lead the Wildcats into the Eastern Maine finals on two occasions. In soccer, he was a four-year player who was the recipient of the Butch Shaw Award as the top Class A player in Aroostook County his senior year.
Drummond played two years collegiately at UMPI, went on to teach physical education and coach at Penquis Valley Middle School and Noble Middle School before entering into administration. He served as athletic director at Noble High School from 2000-05 and at Portland High School from 2005-10 and has the same role in his current position for RSU 14 in Windham.
A decade earlier, Wieder was a dominant inside player for the Wildcat basketball team. He was the Aroostook County MVP his junior and senior years and made the Bangor Daily News all-state first team as a senior and was a second-teamer as a junior. He holds Presque Isle High School records for rebounds in a season (279) and in a single game (22). He scored 1,056 career points, making the all-tournament first team his senior year and also earning honorable mention for the National High School Boys’ Basketball All-American Team.
He went on to star at the University of Maine at Farmington, where he led the Beavers in rebounding all four years, was team MVP his final three seasons and finished his career fourth on the school’s all-time scoring list with 1,442. He was inducted into the UMF Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003.
Cunningham, the namesake of the former junior high/middle school building in Presque Isle which initially housed the high school, served as the PIHS principal from 1923-65 and was employed by the SAD 1 district for a total of 42 years before his retirement.
Long recognized as one of the top principals and educators in the state, Cunningham was always a huge proponent of athletics, consistently attending sporting events and encouraging athletes to do their best. He developed challenging game schedules that included contests against large schools such as Bangor, Cony of Augusta, Deering of Portland and Westbrook. He was a pioneer in reviving girls’ basketball at the school and was principal when boys’ soccer was initiated. He is also a member of the Maine Sports Legends Hall of Honors. He passed away in 1977 at the age of 82.
Keenan served as the athletic director at PIHS from 1983-91. He was instrumental in the formation of the Big East Conference, which allowed Wildcat teams to compete within its division against similar-sized programs in the Bangor area after smaller Aroostook County schools had dropped them from their schedule. He was also in charge when the Wildcat hockey program was created.
Keenan went on to serve on multiple Maine Principals’ Association committees during his tenure, including the Maine Interscholastic Athletic Administrators executive committee and the basketball, golf and classification committees, all of which he chaired. Keenan was also previously inducted into the Maine Sports Legends Hall of Honors.
The induction ceremony will be Friday, Jan. 16, 2015 at the Northeastland Hotel. For more information, contact Jim Carter at 551-3452 or Mark White at 764-6507.
