There were times when Holly Rowe was sick with stage 4 cancer that she wondered if she was living her life the right way.
“I tried to imagine what my day or month or week would look like if I was going to die soon,” the University of Utah graduate said earlier this year as she gave the commencement speech at her alma mater. “And I realized that I was living like that already. I would not change a thing.”
The way Rowe has lived and worked will now be immortalized in the Utah Sports Hall of Fame.
The longtime ABC and ESPN broadcaster will be one of five new inductees honored Monday at the Little America Hotel in Salt Lake City.
Mary Kay Amicone
The Murray High product played softball at Weber State and the University of Utah. She went on to win more than 800 games during her softball coaching career. Amicone led the Weber State Wildcats to 10 Big Sky championships before retiring in 2024. She also coached at Salt Lake Community College and the BYU Cougars at different points. Additionally, Amicone was the first woman to coach a Utah high school baseball team when she took the job at Jordan.
John Buck
At Taylorsville High, Buck led his teams to two state titles in the late 1990s. He was then drafted out of high school by the Houston Astros in the seventh round of the 1998 Major League Baseball draft. Buck spent 11 years in the majors, playing for Kansas City, Toronto, Miami, the New York Mets, Pittsburgh, Seattle and the Los Angeles Angels.
Wally Joyner
The Georgia native played first base for the BYU Cougars from 1981-83 before spending 16 seasons in the major leagues. He had a career .289 batting average and more than 2,000 hits over 2,033 games with the Angels, Padres, Royals and Braves. Joyner went on to work as a hitting coach after his playing days ended.
Stew Morrill
Morrill played basketball at Provo High School and went on to become a legendary coach in Logan, where he led the Aggies for 17 years (1998-2015). Morrill retired with a 620-294 coaching record, including a 402-156 record at Utah State University.
Holly Rowe
