Football | September 27, 2019

KALAMAZOO, Mich. - The Western Michigan Division of Intercollegiate Athletics will induct the 2019 Hall of Fame class on Friday, Sept. 27, at the Fetzer Center. The inductees will also be honored the following day on Saturday, Sept. 28 during halftime of Western Michigan football's game against Central Michigan. This week www.wmubroncos.com will take a closer look at each of our inductees: Shawn Faulkner (football), David Gennero (men's tennis), Frederika Girsang (women's tennis), Bill Horn (ice hockey), Shaylen Jackson (volleyball), and Jeff Zylstra (men's track & field and cross country).

Shawn Faulkner
Shawn Faulkner starred for the WMU football program from 1980-84. The Broncos had four straight winning seasons with Faulkner leading the rushing attack. He was named Second Team All-Mid-American Conference in 1982 and was a First Team All-MAC selection in 1983. That 1983 season he set the single-season record for rushing yards with 1,668, a record that still stands today. He finished that season second in the nation with 154.0 yards rushing per game and was third in the nation in all-purpose yards with 172.6. He holds the single-game record for rushes with 47 and remains fourth all-time in career rushing attempts with 761. Faulkner is fifth all-time in career rushing with 3,327 yards. 

Q&A With Shawn Faulkner

Q: What was your reaction when you found out you were being inducted?
I was pretty excited. The way it happened was that they called my wife first and then she called me to tell me that I was going to be inducted. She was really excited, even more so than me to be honest because I was sort of in shock at first. I thought about it later and realized that I had put up some big numbers during my time there and it's a really awesome feeling. 

Q: Do you have some favorite memories from your time competing at WMU?
Those first three weeks of the season when I was leading the nation in rushing was pretty cool. I had a friend call me up around that time to tell me that he saw Brent Musenberger on television talking talking about early hype for the Heisman and he brought up my name with the other stat leaders at that time. It was a great feeling to even have Brent talking about me and to have my name in the same discussion as that award even though it was early on in the season.

Q: Who were some of the people at Western Michigan that made your time memorable? 
My teammates, that was my family. We did four years together and most, if not all of the freshman class I came in with stayed the entire time. There was also some upperclassman, like Larry Caper, who also played a big part in my development on the field and made my time at Western special. 

Q: Have you kept up with the program since you left?
I'm down in Florida now so everyone around me is big on the Seminoles and the Gators, but I check in to see how they are doing from time to time. When coach Fleck had those guys locked in a few years ago I definitely kept an eye on their progress and seeing them go undefeated that year was pretty awesome. Being a running back I've check in with Jarvion Franklin and LeVante Bellamy and the numbers that they put up over past few seasons. 

Q: What has life been like for you since leaving Western Michigan?
I went into the pros after my time at Western, I was in the early days of the USFL back in the mid 80's. That experience gave me a great opportunity to travel and see some things around the country. In terms of the work field and my post-football career I applied a lot of what I learned from the education and football experiences at Western to my career, which I feel pretty good about.