This 2023 Marquette Oldtimers softball team defeated visiting Negaunee at Hurley Field in Marquette last August. Among the team members is soon-to-be inducted Ed Bernard into the USA Softball of Michigan Hall of Fame. He is seventh from right, in the back with sunglasses on. From left are Rick Schwemin, player-manager Fred Hume, Bruce Wood, Leo Smith, Joe Darcy, Jay Kilmer, Tony Erspamer, Pedro Flynn, Jim Constance, Greg Sutherland, Ed Bernard, Daryl Hamari, Joe Stupsky, Jerry Nobert, Tom Sullivan, Don O’Neal and Rich McCarthy. (Photo courtesy Anne Erspamer)

MIDLAND — A longtime Marquette player will join two other Upper Peninsula residents as half of the six-member 2024 class to be inducted into the USA Softball of Michigan Hall of Fame.

Ed Bernard of Marquette will also be among the four to be honored in the Player category when the induction ceremony is held on Saturday, Oct. 5, at the H Hotel in Midland. With tickets going on sale from Aug. 20 to Sept. 15 at $50 per person, a social hour begins at 5 p.m. with the ceremony to follow.

The other U.P. residents to be inducted are Candy Swetkis of Escanaba, also in the Player category, and Mark Sirk of Sault Ste. Marie in the Meritorious Service category.

The three Lower Peninsula inductees are David Kwaiser of Birch Run and Harvey Miller of Ludington in the Player category, and Rick Versalle of Muskegon in the Meritorious Service category.

Bernard’s biography on the USA Softball of Michigan news release states that he began playing softball in the 1970s and continues well into the 21st century, spanning four decades. It also mentions that he has been a pitcher for 52 years, including 46 years in area leagues.

In his playing career, his teams have totaled about 500 wins, starting in the Superior Fast Pitch League in Marquette County with some of the best teams in this area.

He had six perfect games, a dozen no-hitters, 25 MVP awards, five state championships and four runner-up finishes at state championships.

Bernard, who was a pitching coach at Marquette Senior High School for a decade, also had 10 U.P. championships and five national championship appearances, including a second-place finish at the finals held in Minot, North Dakota and a third place in Aurora, Colorado.

He added in a third-place finish at an International Softball Congress World tournament, twice being honorable mention on national All-American teams

While Bernard played on a good team, it lacked a quality pitcher, so he stepped up and began to teach and practice pitching until he mastered it, according to USA Softball of Michigan.

His teams began winning more than they lost, and his teams went on to play in tournaments held downstate and in Wisconsin and Canada.

He has figured his win-loss total is 927-421 with an earned-run average of 3.01.

Swetkis, who died in April 2022, played fastpitch for 36 years and in more than 1,000 games, including at least a dozen state tourneys and two being state championships.

USA Softball of Michigan noted how remarkable that was as she was a self-taught player prior to the federal Title IX being in force. Instead, she taught herself and many other female players through coaching clinics, umpire training and whatever else was needed to be make softball accessible to girls and women, including serving as a local commissioner for the Michigan Amateur Softball Association.

Her team coming from Escanaba would play in Petoskey-area tourneys with just Swetkis as a pitcher.

She continued to make contributions to the game for 57 years until 2021.

Sirk was lauded for his meritorious service that began right out of high school in 1976 until today, including as an umpire from 1977 to 2019, president of the Sault Men’s Slowpitch Softball League from 1982 to 2018, and as a field maintenance groundskeeper for the Soo league from 2010-21.

Most of his days he played in the Sault Ste. Marie area, though in 1991 and 1992, he worked at the Standish prison north of Bay City and played in leagues there while coming back to play in three-quarters of his Soo-area league games.

He won a national championship in 2018 in Burlington, North Carolina, on the Yoopers and Trolls 60-over AA Senior team.

Service-wise, he was appointed the commissioner of District 22 — the whole U.P. — in 1996 and has continues in that role today. He also served on the Executive Committee of the USA Softball of Michigan board from 2006-10 and never missed meetings that were always held in Midland or Lansing.

Twice a recipient of the Commissioner Award of Excellence, he also has served on the Slow Pitch Appeal Committee since 2018.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.