Rochester Quarterbacks Club Hall of Fame class to be inducted next month

The Rochester Quarterbacks Club has announced its 2023 Hall of Fame class, a diverse class which includes longtime soccer coach Tom Kane, basketball standout Alia (Fischer) Keys, soccer and triathlete star Ruth Brennan Morrey and Jeff Teal, a former star hockey player and golfer.

The late Pat Lund is the recipient of the Ben Sternberg Award for his outstanding contributions to sports within the Rochester community.

The class will be inducted at the annual sports awards banquet on Monday, April 10 at the Empire Event Center. The banquet will start at 5:15 p.m. with a social hour, followed by dinner and program at 6:30 p.m.

Tickets are $25. They can be obtained from the following Quarterbacks Club members — President Jeff Whitney (jewhitney@rochesterschools.org), Tony Goergen (507-990-9452), Rick Rathbun (507-261-6020), Harry Muellner (507-951-0453) or Jerry Williams (507-288-9214).

A brief look at the inductees:

Kane started his soccer career in 1984, coaching at the recreational, traveling, and premier levels for boys and girls. He held positions in the RYSA board for seven years, including President for two years.

In 1994 he organized and managed the boys and girls club soccer teams at Lourdes, including the 1995 and ‘96 seasons. In 1997 he became Lourdes’ first boys varsity coach, and from 1997 to 2020 the Eagles compiled a record of 387-89-35, winning 19 HVL titles in a 20-year span.

His teams also won 14 Section 1A titles with three State Championships (1998, 1999, and 2012), while compiling a 3-0 record in state finals. They also finished third four times with state participation an additional 7 times. Kane has the only boys or girls’ soccer team in southern Minnesota to have won a State Championship.

He was named Section 1A coach of the year 10 times, Minnesota Private School Coach of the Year three times by the National High School Soccer Coaches Association, Region 5 (an eight-state Midwest Region) Coach of the Year, and a finalist for National Coach of the Year.

He served for 25 years on the MSHSSCA Board and was the Section 1A coaches representative. He was inducted into the Minnesota State High School Soccer Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2013 and the Lourdes Hall of Fame in 2022.

Kane and his wife Carmen are retired and have three children and six grandchildren.

A 1996 graduate of John Marshall High School, Alia Fischer Keys helped lead the Washington University (St. Louis) women’s basketball team to three straight national championships and three consecutive University Athletic Association (UAA) titles in 1998, 1999 and 2000.

As Washington’s starting center, she was a three-time Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) National Player of the Year and three-time UAA Player of the Year. Keys also won the Honda Award in 1999-2000 as the top female athlete in Division III for all sports.

She was named a finalist for the NCAA Woman of the Year in 2000 and was an NCAA Top VIII Award winner in 2001. When she graduated, she held Washington University’s career record for points (1,974), rebounds (969) and blocked shots (219), and set the single-season record for points (626) and scoring average (20.9) in 1997-98. Washington U. posted a 107-9 (.922) overall record in her four seasons with the Bears.

Keys is a wife, mother and educator of the Creighton Model Fertility Care System in St. Louis. She and her husband Tim have been married for almost 20 years and are the proud parents of six children: Isaac (15), Dominic (13), Michael (10), Xavier (8), Annelise (4) and Chiara (2). As co-coaches of their kids’ teams, Alia and Tim enjoy teaching the next generation and have a lot of basketball in their future.

Brennan Morrey graduated from Mayo High School in 1994. As a four-year varsity soccer starter, she scored over 90 goals. She set a school record of 35 goals her senior year—the second-most in the state. She played Division I soccer at the University of Wisconsin, a top-20 program. While a Badger, Ruth started as a freshman and scored two goals to win the 1994 Big

Ten Conference championship. The Badgers were regular season Big 10 champions twice and ranked as high as eighth in the country during her four years.

Brennan Morrey played semi-professional soccer and subsequently found success in marathon running and professional triathlon. She qualified and ran in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in 2000 and 2020, at ages 23 and 43, with her personal best marathon time of 2:43:48 arriving at age 43.

In 2011, she won the amateur triathlon world championships and became a professional triathlete. From 2012-2017, she recorded 10 top-five finishes and competed in the professional division at the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. She was the 2014 Ironman Kansas champion, U.S. Duathlon national champion, a two-time USA Elite Duathlete of the Year winner, and bronze medalist at the Duathlon World championship in Switzerland.

Brennan Morrey is a soccer coach and works as a mental skills coach for youth athletes. She and her husband, Mark, have three teenage children.

Teal played hockey and golf at John Marshall and the University of Minnesota. He earned seven letters at JM, three in hockey and four in golf. Teal was a key member of the 1977 JM state championship hockey team and the 1978 team that returned to the state tournament. He was named to the All-State First Team in 1978.

After graduating from JM in 1978, Teal attended the University of Minnesota on a hockey scholarship and was on the 1979 NCAA championship team, part of the 1981 NCAA runner-up team and an alternate captain on the 1982 team.

Teal was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens 82nd overall in the 1980 NHL draft and signed with them in 1982. He played a total of 204 games as a pro, six in the NHL with Montreal, and in 1985, he won the AHL Calder Cup with the Sherbrooke Canadiens.

After his playing career, he was heavily involved in the Minnetonka Youth Hockey Association. He coached for nine years and served as its Hockey Development Director from 2008-2022.

As a golfer, Teal was the 1977 Minnesota Golf Association Junior Player of the Year. He has won four state golf championships and has been runner-up in numerous others and has competed in nine USGA Championships.

He has been married to his wife Lori for 39 years, and they have two children, Jack and Elissa, and reside in Excelsior, Minn.