Illinois Fighting Illini men's gymnastics

The Illinois Fighting Illini men's gymnastics team represents the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and competes in the Big Ten Conference. The Fighting Illini have been invited to 47 NCAA tournaments and have won 10 team NCAA championships, which is second most all-time only to Penn State Nittany Lions' 12 team titles. Additionally, the Fighting Illini have won an all-time record 53 individual NCAA titles.[3]

Illinois Fighting Illini men's gymnastics
Founded	1898
University	University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
Head coach	Justin Spring (5th season)
Conference	Big Ten
Location	Champaign, Illinois
Home arena	Huff Hall (Capacity: 3,800)
Nickname	Fighting Illini
Colors	Orange and Blue[1]
National championships
1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1950, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1989, 2012
NCAA Tournament appearances
1938, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1981, 1984, 1988, 1989, 1993, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019[2]
Conference championships
1935, 1939, 1941, 1942, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1981, 1983, 1988, 1989, 2004, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2018

The Illini hold their competitions at George Huff Hall on the Champaign side of campus, and the team trains and holds practices at the Kenney Gym on the Urbana side of campus.[4]

History

Coaching history

Illinois Coaches since 1930

Coach	Years	Record	Conference record	Conference titles	NCAA titles
Hartley Price	1930–1948*	150–41*	62–31*	4	4
Charlie Pond	1949–1973	319–152–1	116–59	11	4
Yoshi Hayasaki	1974–1993 1996–2009	762–444–2	132–80	6	1
Don Osborne	1994–1996	47–58	7–9
Justin Spring	2010–present	87–23–1	29–11–1	3	1
Totals		1,365–728–4	378–239–1	24	10

• No competition from 1943–1946 due to World War II.

All-time record against current NCAA teams

Opponent Won Lost Tied Percentage Air Force 11 1 0 .917 Army 12 0 0 1.000 California 16 15 0 .516 Illinois-Chicago 63 16 0 .797 Iowa 139 78 0 .641 Michigan 116 79 1 .594 Minnesota 143 91 0 .611 Navy 5 0 0 1.000 Nebraska 28 23 0 .549 Ohio State 97 71 1 .577 Oklahoma 8 35 0 .186 Penn State 30 50 0 .375 Stanford 15 17 0 .469 Temple 19 2 0 .905 William & Mary 3 0 0 1.000 Totals 705 478 2 .596

Players

NCAA individual event champions

Illinois has had gymnasts win a record 53 NCAA individual championships.[3]

1938: Joseph Giallombardo – All-Around 1938: Joseph Giallombardo – Tumbling 1938: Joseph Giallombardo – Flying Rings 1939: Joseph Giallombardo – All-Around 1939: Joseph Giallombardo – Tumbling 1939: Marvin Forman – Long Horse 1940: Paul Fina – All-Around 1940: Harry Koehnemann – Side Horse 1940: Joseph Giallombardo – Tumbling 1940: Joseph Giallombardo – All-Around 1941: Caton Cobb – Side Horse 1941: Caton Cobb – Parallel Bars 1941: Jack Adkins – Tumbling

1942: Caton Cobb – Side Horse 1948: Gay Hughes – Trampoline 1948: Joe Calvetti – High Bar 1950: Irving Bedard – Tumbling 1952: Frank Bare – Side Horse 1952: Bob Sullivan – Tumbling 1953: Bob Sullivan – Floor Exercise 1954: Dick Browning – Tumbling 1956: Don Tonry – All-Around 1956: Dan Lirot – Tumbling 1957: Frank Hailand – Tumbling 1957: Abie Grossfeld – High Bar 1957: John Davis – Side Horse

1958: Abie Grossfeld – High Bar 1958: Abie Grossfeld – All-Around 1958: Abie Grossfeld – Floor Exercise 1958: Frank Hailand – Tumbling 1959: Don Tonry – Floor Exercise 1960: Alvin Barasch – Tumbling 1960: Ray Hadley – Floor Exercise 1962: Mike Aufrecht – Side Horse 1963: Hal Holmes – Tumbling 1969: John McCarthy – Long Horse 1980: Dave Stoldt – Pommel Horse 1984: Charles Lakes – High Bar 1998: Travis Romagnoli – All-Around

1998: Travis Romagnoli – Vault 2004: Bob Rogers – Pommel Horse 2004: Justin Spring – High Bar 2005: Justin Spring – Parallel Bars 2006: Justin Spring – Parallel Bars 2006: Justin Spring – High Bar 2008: Paul Ruggeri – High Bar 2009: Paul Ruggeri – High Bar, Parallel Bars 2009: Daniel Ribeiro – Pommel Horse 2011: Tyler Mizoguchi – Parallel Bars 2011: Daniel Ribeiro – Pommel Horse 2012: C .J . Maestas – Still Rings 2012: Paul Ruggeri – Vault 2013: Fred Hartville – Vault 2014: Jordan Valdez – High Bar 2015: C.J. Maestas – High Bar 2016: Brandon Ngai – Pommel Horse

Nissen Emery Award

The Nissen-Emery Award is annually awarded to the best overall male senior collegiate gymnast in the United States. The award recipient must not only excel athletically as a gymnast, but also must display outstanding sportsmanship and scholarship throughout his college career.[5] The award was created in 1966 and is men's gymnastics' equivalent to college football's Heisman Trophy.

• 1989: David Zeddies
• 2006: Justin Spring
• 2010: Luke Stannard
• 2012: Paul Ruggeri

Nissen Emery Finalists[5]

1980: Butch Zunich 1981: Steve Lechner 1986: Joe Ledvora 1988: Tigran Mkchyan 1989: David Zeddies 1993: Ricardo Cheriel 1995: Brian Kobylinski

1998: Jon Corbitt 1999: Kyle Zak 2000: Travis Romagnoli 2001: Leo Oka 2002: J.G. Ketchen 2004: Bob Rogers 2005: Ben Newman

2006: Justin Spring 2008: Wes Haagensen 2010: Luke Stannard 2011: Danial Ribeiro 2012: Paul Ruggeri 2013: Yoshi Mori 2016: Logan Bradley

Illinois Olympians

1940 Tokyo: Paul Fina – Olympics cancelled due to World War II 1956 Melborne: Abie Grossfeld 1960 Rome: Abie Grossfeld 1960 Rome: Don Tonry

1988 Seoul: Dominick Minicucci 1988 Seoul: Charles Lakes 1992 Barcelona:Dominick Minicucci 2008 Beijing: Justin Spring – Bronze Medal-Artistic Team All-Around

References

1. "Illinois Digital Style Guide". July 21, 2016. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
2. "All-Time Championsship Records and Results" (PDF) (Press release). NCAA. December 16, 2019. Retrieved December 16, 2019.
5. College Gymnastics – Nissen Emery Award. Indianapolis, IN: USA Gymnastics. 2013. Archived from the original on 2012-08-23. Retrieved 2013-12-18.