On Oct. 15, the athletics department will release the Lab Athletics Hall of Fame, a pre-recorded video featuring seven of Lab’s greatest former athletes with interviews from the living inductees about their athletic achievements and their contributions to life at the Laboratory Schools. 

The 2020 inductees include alumni John Davey, 1956; Arne Duncan, 1982; Andy Rosenband, 1988; Chris Harper, 1992; Alexis Jenkins, 2009. An overview of the athletic achievements of 1924 alumnus George Lott, who died in 1991, will also be given.

Dave Ribbens, athletics director, organized  the Hall of Fame with the hope that current students would recognize the importance of remembering alumni athletes. 

“I think it serves a purpose of inspiring our current students. I think it is important that our current students realize there is a rich past and that they are part of something that is bigger than what is happening at this moment in Lab history,” Mr. Ribbens said. 

Inductee Arne Duncan said his participation in athletics at Lab helped in furthering his education outside the classroom.

“The basketball court, for me, was the best classroom,” said the former Chicago Public Schools CEO and U.S. Secretary of Education, “and just learning all the life lessons of how to follow, how to lead, how to handle pressure, how to handle adversity, how to handle tough situations, how to handle failure, how to be resilient, and just all those things have been formative in who I am.”