Hall of Fame
Sue Perkins, 2006 - Sue Perkins came to Western Illinois after a prep career at Prophetstown High School that included four years of track, three years of basketball, two years of volleyball and year of cross country. In the classroom, she was a National Honor Society member who graduated third in her high school class.
On the track, she was the 1981 Class A state high jump champion and finished second in the same event two other times during her career. Her athletic and academic honors continued at Western Illinois as she graduated cum laude in 1986, capping a track and field career in which she twice qualified for the NCAA Division I nationals as a high jumper.
Perkins advanced to the 1985 national Outdoor championships and followed that with an appearance in the 1986 Indoor championships. The two-time all-conference honoree also won the collegiate division at the Kansas Relays and finished third at the Drake Relays in 1985.
Perkins set the Western Illinois women’s Outdoor record with a jump of 6’0” in 1985 as a junior, and then as a senior set the school’s Indoor record of 5’11.25”. Both records still stand to this day. By the time her career was over in 1986, Perkins held the 'Top 10' Outdoor high jump marks in school history.
