Wally Akervik

2022 Inductee
Wally Akervik was born in Duluth, Minn., and was a four-sport athlete at Duluth Central High School, helping his Trojan team reach the Minnesota State High School Hockey Tournament.
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Ann Ninnemann

2022 Inductee
Ann Ninnemann was born in St. Paul, Minn., and began playing ringette at the age of four.  By her own admission, she played ringette through the sixth game and then hesitantly transitioned to ice hockey in the seventh grade.

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Pat "Duffy" Dyer

2022 Inductee
Pat “Duffy” Dyer was born in Virginia, Minn., and played youth hockey in that Iron Range community.  After high school, he graduated from UW-Superior with a bachelor’s degree in Medical Technology and would go on to a long career at St. Luke’s Hospital in Duluth.
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Rebecca Hamilton-Hildebrandt

2022 Inductee
Rebecca Hamilton-Hildebrandt (or “Coach Becky” as she is better known locally) was born and raised in Sauk Prairie and began playing hockey in 1982, the first year that Sauk Prairie had a hockey association.
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  • Gregg Nelson 2011

Gregg Nelson

Nelson was born in St. Paul, Minn., where he played youth hockey in Hayden Heights and was a member of the St. Paul City champion team.  He moved to Fond du Lac while still in grade school and continued his youth hockey with Don Kohlman as his coach, playing in the very first WAHA Bantam State Tournament.  Following high school at Fond du Lac Goodrich High School, Nelson went on to play college hockey for “Badger Bob” Johnson at the University of Wisconsin.  As a right wing for the Badgers, Nelson played in 85 games, scoring 29 goals and 23 assists.  Following his collegiate career, Nelson played for the Dayton Gems in the International Hockey League, and for the Green Bay Bobcats, Iron Rangers and Waterloo Blackhawks in the USHL.

His professional career involved managing the rink and coaching the high school team in Beaver Dam for seven years, and 13 years as the arena manager at the Naga-waukee Park Ice Arena, where he started and ran the WAHA Adult State tournament.   As an arena manager, Nelson served two different terms as the president of the Wisconsin Ice Arena Managers Association (WIAMA).

Nelson spent many years involved with WAHA, and was one of its first Coaching Directors, a position he held for eight years.  Among other duties in this position, he was responsible for player evaluations that led to Central District and National camps.  In later years, Nelson became a Learn to Skate instructor in the Milwaukee area, where he touched countless youth hockey players as they began their hockey playing careers.

Nelson has involved himself with other sports as well, coaching girls softball, youth baseball and soccer.  He and his wife Lynne have two sons, Noah and Ben.