For DePaul legend Allie Quigley (2004-08) and the university’s athletic department, having women’s basketball head coach Doug Bruno present at the 2024 DePaul Athletics Hall of Fame ceremony made the evening on Friday all the more special.
“I could go on and on about Coach Bruno, but looking back, I appreciate how he coached us as people the most,” Quigley said in her acceptance speech. “And my favorite coach quote, ‘Wake up in the morning with a smile on your face and show the world you’re beautiful.’”
Bruno, who was sidelined with health complications before the women’s basketball season, made his first public appearance at the event since his September health incident, watching his former player tell stories of her DePaul career.
Quigley said during her first season with the Chicago Sky in 2013, Bruno sat courtside at almost every game to cheer her on. Quigley, an integral part of the Sky’s 2021 WNBA Championship team, said she “couldn’t write it any better,” having returned to Chicago after several years overseas and seen her college coach and former teammates supporting her in person.
Photo by Ryan Hinske
Quigley is one of just four DePaul women’s basketball players to have scored over 2,000 points as a Blue Demon. She joined five other 2024 inductees: Lindsay Chouinard Platt, Drake Diener, Melissa Fraser, Karen Loiacono and Tim Nedow.
Chouinard Platt pitched for DePaul softball from 1999 to 2003 and is the only Blue Demon to earn NCAA Tournament All-Region MVP twice in her illustrious collegiate career. She holds five DePaul career pitching records to this day. After leading the Blue Demons to a Women’s College World Series appearance in her first year, Chouinard Platt attributed her success to the pride and “blue collar” approach to the game.
“Ultimately, it was about the standard at which we held ourselves, and I still feel myself circling back to that standard in my life, to be a Hall of Famer in every way,” Chouinard Platt said.
Diener, now the men’s basketball coach at Marian University, is DePaul men’s basketball’s all-time three-point baskets leader and free throw percentage leader. His four-year career, spanning from 2001 to 2005, was marked by a NCAA Tournament second round appearance during his junior season.
Fraser is a former track and field superstar who still holds the conference record for the longest javelin throw, 54.14 meters, at the 2012 Big East Outdoor Championship. The Canadian’s five-year career at DePaul from 2007 to 2012 was marked by five Big East All-Academic nods.
Another DePaul track and field star from Canada, Nedow, is alike to Fraser in that he still holds a conference record of his own —- the Big East indoor shot put record. After his DePaul career which spanned from 2009 to 2012, Nedow became a two-time Olympian, qualifying for the 2016 and 2020 games in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo, respectively.
Finally, Loiacono was the 2024 recipient of the Dr. Robert Hamilton Special Service Award along with her induction. Like Bruno, Loiacono could be considered a lifelong Blue Demon. After beginning as a women’s basketball and softball player at DePaul, Loiacono started working in the Athletic Department in 1986 and retired from the University in 2023.
“[Loiacono’s] impact on not only the athletic department but the university at large is one that has been felt for nearly 50 years and will be felt for many, many more years to come,” said DePaul public address announcer and event emcee Zach Zaidman. “Her legacy is felt by the many relationships forged with student council colleagues, community members, along with graduate assistants, student workers whom she mentored throughout her tenure … Loiacono embodies what it means to be a Blue Demon in everything she has given to this institution.”
Photo by Ryan Hinske
The six inductees were recognized and celebrated at the DePaul men’s basketball game Saturday and the women’s basketball game Sunday to round out the weekend.
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