Six Inducted Into BYU Hall of Fame

The BYU Athletic Department inducted five former athletes and one former broadcaster into its Hall of Fame on Sept. 24. Former student-athlete inductees included Olympians Guard Wayne Young (men’s gymnastics) and Anu Kaljurand (women’s track and field), All-Americans Oswald “Ossie” Antonetti (men’s volleyball) and Maren Hendershot McCrary (women’s soccer) and record-holder Larry Carr (football). Former Electronic Media Relations Director and Cougar sports broadcaster Jay Monsen was also inducted.

Below are biographical sketches of all six inductees.

Oswald “Ossie” Antonetti

Men’s Volleyball

During his college and professional career – which has extended to the coaching ranks – Oswald I. Antonetti, or “Ossie”, has carried the tradition of Cougar volleyball throughout the world and continues to pass on the values he learned during his time at Brigham Young University.

As a member of the Cougar volleyball team from 1996-1999, Antonetti led the team in kills for three seasons and was a two-time All-American. His first All-American honor came when he was named to the second team as a junior in 1998, while averaging 5.32 kills and 2.44 digs per game. As a senior, Antonetti accomplished a goal he set for himself early in his BYU career by leading the Cougars to the 1999 NCAA Championship while also earning first-team All-America honors.

A successful college career led directly into a pro career for Antonetti, and he was named the Athlete of the Year in Volleyball by the Olympic Committee of Puerto Rico in 2000. His next stop was in Europe as a member of the Swiss League, where he was named Best Attacker in 2001. The following year, Antonetti made the Superliga All-Star team in Spain. During his volleyball tours throughout Europe, Antonetti remained a member of Puerto Rican professional volleyball league and was a league champion every season from 2001-2005.

Since retiring from professional volleyball, Antonetti has continued to spread his knowledge of the sport in the coaching ranks. Currently the Head Coach of Indios de Mayaguez, a Puerto Rican men’s professional volleyball team, Antonetti also spent two seasons as an assistant coach for the Cal Poly women’s volleyball team.

In Puerto Rico, Antonetti works actively in the community to build interest in the sport of volleyball. Antonetti offers free volleyball clinics to the youth of the island and has been doing so for five years in an effort to introduce volleyball in every corner of the island. For two years Antonetti was the director of Liga de Pueblos, a league to develop the game of volleyball within each municipality of Puerto Rico. Antonetti also worked as an Ambassador of the Central American Games held in Puerto Rico in 2010.

A 1999 graduate in philosophy, Antonetti currently resides in Puerto Rico after spending six years in Europe since his time at BYU. He lives with his wife of 10 years, Rosaura, and the couple has three children: Leandra, 7; Ignacio, 2; and Zoe, 5 months.

Larry Carr

Football

Success can mean many things and be measured in myriad ways, but no matter what way you look at it, Larry Carr has worked and found success in many facets of his life.

A linebacker on the football team from 1972-74, Carr was a three-year starter for the Cougars, earning All-WAC First Team as a team captain and coaches’ team defensive MVP his senior year. Carr helped BYU advance to its first-ever bowl game, earning 10 tackles in the Cougars’ Fiesta Bowl appearance.

Carr still holds numerous records at BYU, including most tackles per game (12), most defensive points per game (23), most career interceptions among linebackers (8) and third-most career tackles ever at BYU, racking up 389 stops in just three seasons.

After a solid collegiate career, Carr’s on-field success continued on to the Canadian Football League (CFL) where he played for two years as a member of the Calgary Stampeders, including being named to the Western All-Star Team in 1974.

Carr left the CFL and returned to BYU to further his education. After initially graduating with a bachelor’s degree in physical education, Carr earned a master’s in physical education with an emphasis in analysis of movement in 1978 and a PhD in 1980 in exercise physiology, graduating with honors.

With a doctorate degree in hand, Carr’s extended time at college continued at Oakland University-Michigan where the student turned professor, eventually becoming the department chair and graduate coordinator.

Ever learning, Carr became a National Board Certified Teacher in 2003, earning the highest certification available for public school teachers. He is currently employed by the Los Angeles Unified School District as a department chair.

Through it all, Carr has been blessed with a 38-year marriage to the former Laurie Isaacman. They are the parents of four children – Brian, Kristen, Jami and Michael – and have eight grandchildren with one on the way.

Anu Kaljurand

Women’s Track & Field

Anu Kaljurand is used to making an impact on those around her. From the time she signed on to become the only athlete from the USSR to compete for BYU to her recent involvement in several Estonian sports organizations, Kaljurand has always been a leader.

While a member of the BYU track and field team from 1990-1993, Kaljurand led the team with dominance on the track and helped solidify the Cougars as one of the top teams in the NCAA. During her sophomore and junior seasons, Kaljurand helped Coach Craig Poole and her teammates finish in the top 10 at the NCAA Outdoor Championships for the first time in program history.

Individually, Kaljurand is one of the most decorated athletes in BYU track and field history. Kaljurand earned All-American honors each season during her four-year career. In 1992, during her junior season, Kaljurand won the NCAA Outdoor National Championship in the heptathlon with 6,142 points, then the second-most points in NCAA history.

The four-time All-American also competed for her home country of Estonia in the 1992 Olympic Games and placed 17th in the heptathlon. Later that year, Kaljurand was named the Sportswoman of the Year in Track and Field by the Utah Network of Girls and Women in Sport.

After her career ended at BYU, Kaljurand remained in Utah and earned her MBA from Westminster College in Salt Lake City in 1997 before returning to Estonia. Since moving back to her home country, Kaljurand has become a member and leader in several Olympic and community organizations.

Kaljurand’s official work title lists her as the Head of Marketing of the Estonian Olympic Committee, but she participates in much more. She is currently a member of the Advisory Board of the First Lady’s Cultural Foundation of Estonia and the Estonian Olympians Association, as well as a board member at the Nmme Sports Club. Kaljurand is also a founding member of the Board of the Estonian Athletes Association and organizes a yearly auction to support families of tragically deceased athletes.

A 1993 BYU graduate, Kaljurand received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Russian and currently resides in Estonia. Kaljurand and Marko Turban, who also competed in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta for Estonian, have two children, Lilian Turban, born in 2001, and Henri Turban, born in 2004.

Maren Hendershot McCrary

Women’s Soccer

Three-time All-American women’s soccer player Maren Hendershot McCrary took BYU’s motto of “Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve” to heart after graduating from the university with a degree in Communications and a minor in P.E./Coaching in 2000.

McCrary is now the girls’ varsity head coach at Bellevue West High School in Nebraska and a youth girls’ coach for the Phoenix Soccer Club where she has the opportunity to influence young soccer players.

While at BYU from 1996 to 2000, McCrary (then Hendershot) played in a total of 95 games, taking 277 shots and netting 52 goals. Her 52 career goals is still the second highest in BYU soccer history.

BYU was still a part of the Western Athletic Conference during McCrary’s freshman, sophomore and junior years, with the Cougar soccer program at the forefront. In those three final years with the WAC, the Cougars consistently had a 19+ win season with McCrary’s freshman season still holding BYU’s longest winning streak of 14 games.

McCrary was named to the WAC First Team three years in a row. In 1999, after the birth of Mountain West Conference, she was named to the MWC First Team. After scoring 14 goals her senior season, McCrary was also named an NSCAA All-American and invited to play in the Adidas summer league.

As a major asset to BYU’s dominant transition to the MWC, McCrary was acknowledged as a two-time All-Tournament MVP in her junior and senior seasons, and the MWC Player of the Year after just one year of play in the new conference.

In the year following her graduation from BYU, McCrary played in the Division I East/West Senior All-Star Game and was drafted by the Carolina Courage to play in the 2001 inaugural season of the Women’s United Soccer Association, which has since evolved into the Women’s Professional League in operation today.

McCrary continues her service to her community by hosting free soccer clinics to introduce soccer to kids and adults who are new to the game, participating in D.A.R.E. and children’s literacy programs, playing in the Mia Hamm Cancer Fundraiser charity game and directing dozens of youth soccer camps in different states.

McCrary and her husband Josh, a current U.S. Air Force pilot stationed at Offutt AFB, live in Bellevue, Nebraska, with their two children Cumorah Cathryn, 3, and Jordan Calai, 1. McCrary says she enjoys her full-time job as a mother and part-time job coaching soccer.

Guard Wayne Young

Men’s Gymnastics

During his collegiate and professional gymnastics career, 2004 Olympic Silver Medalist Guard Wayne Young has continued demonstrating BYU’s pursuit of excellence.

Young made a difficult decision, passing up attending hometown University of Oklahoma to join the Cougars. He was able to follow in his father Wayne Young’s footsteps and continue a family tradition at BYU. Young’s father was a gymnast at BYU and later went on to be the men’s head coach at BYU from 1979 to 1987. The senior Young is a member of the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame and a former 1976 Olympian.

While attending BYU from 1996 to 2000, Guard Young was a six-time NCAA All-American. During his junior year, Young won the NCAA Championship in the vault and repeated as vault champion his senior year.

Young was a three-time member of Team USA at the World Championships and contributed to a team Silver medal in 2001. He was also a member of the 2004 Olympic Team that won the Silver medal in Athens, Greece, which he names as one of his greatest accomplishments. Young has also been a 10-year member of the USA Gymnastics National Team.

Following a career competing, Young has been a judge for NCAA men’s gymnastics and other national events. He has participated as a USA Gymnastics junior boy’s clinician and mentor. Young has also served as a representative on the Governor’s Fitness Council of California. He has frequently been featured as a guest speaker at community clubs, schools and other youth events.

After earning a degree in journalism at BYU, Young worked as an assistant coach for the University of Oklahoma’s gymnastics team, helping them to three different national titles.

In 2007, Young founded Youngsters, Inc., a children’s gymnastics center in Yuba City, Calif., which focuses on physical development and building self-confidence. He is also the current head boys’ coach at Byers Gymnastics in Elk Grove, Calif.

Young and his wife Alisha currently live in Yuba City and have two boys and a baby girl. Young values the lessons he learned in the gym as a child and now hopes for all children that he works with to have that same opportunity.

Jay Monsen

BYU Sports Broadcaster

In 1992 during halftime of a BYU men’s basketball game, Jay Monsen was given a special plaque in recognition and appreciation for reaching a grand total of 2,000 career sports broadcasts. Monsen has added to that total since then. From 2002 to 2010 he broadcast a total of 227 BYU women’s basketball games on BYU Radio.

He received a degree in Communications from BYU in 1957. From 1972 to 1984 he worked for BYU Broadcast Services and became the “Voice of Cougar Sports” for KBYU. During his time there, he served as the KBYU Radio/TV News Director and later was promoted to Assistant Director of Broadcast Services.

His career at BYU continued when he joined the athletic department as the Electronic Media Relations Director in 1984. He remained with the Sports Information office until his retirement in 1998. That same year, he was the “Y Lighter” at the Sept. 12 home football game

Prior to arriving at BYU, Monsen was the press secretary for Utah Congressman Gunn Mckay for two years. He also worked at KSUB radio in Cedar City where he was the news and sports director and the play-by-play announcer for high school and Southern Utah University sports. In 1971 he received the Sports Magazine Service Award for developing and helping with the growth of athletics in southern Utah.

The College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) presented Monsen with a 25 Year Award in 1999 for a quarter century of service to the sports information profession. This past March he was named to the Utah Sports Hall of Fame.

Monsen has been involved in numerous community services throughout his life including the Kiwanis Club, a State GOP delegate, the American Red Cross, the Boy Scouts of America and the Chamber of Commerce. He was also a member of the Cougar Club Board of Directors for some 20 years representing broadcasting for the board.

Jay and his wife Lauretta currently reside in Mt. Pleasant, Utah. They have been married for 53 years and have seven children, 35 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren.