Saint Joseph’s Baseball to Host Lead-Off Dinner and Hall of Fame Induction

The Saint Joseph’s baseball program will host its annual Lead-Off Dinner and Hall of Fame Induction on Saturday, January 31, 2026 at the Marriott Philadelphia West in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.

Stefan Kancylarz ’15, Don DiJulia ’67, and Jim Brown ’76 will be inducted into the Saint Joseph’s Baseball Hall of Fame, while longtime team bus driver Vance Devlin will receive the Harry Booth ’62 Award. The Hawks will also honor their 2025 team award winners and the 2026 squad will be introduced. The 1971 Team will celebrate its 55th anniversary at the event as well, while Gregg Murphy ’93, a fixture on the Philadelphia sports broadcasting scene, will return as the master of ceremonies for 2026.

“The Lead-Off Dinner has been a staple of our program,” head coach Fritz Hamburg said. “The event is a wonderful way to kick off the upcoming season while celebrating our Hall of Fame inductees and our Booth Award winner. We are excited to welcome Hawk alum Gregg Murphy back to lead our program. I appreciate and want to thank our development team, which spends important time helping to organize the event; it’s an significant celebration for our program and we always look forward to it being a great night.The prospect to connect former players, parents and friends of the program is so instrumental in the pride and growth of any program.”

Kancylarz is one of the “Iron Men” of Saint Joseph’s baseball, one of just six hawks to appear in more than 200 games in the Crimson and Gray. Between 2012 and 2015, he played in 202 games, tied for fifth-most in program history, and holds the single-season record for games played with 56, set in 2012. A two-time All-Big 5 third baseman, he was also a First Team All-Atlantic 10 and a Second Team ECAC All-Star selection in 2014 when he helped lead the Hawks to a program-record 35 wins. Kancylarz was the team’s Rookie of the year in 2012 and played a key role as the Hawks reached their first-ever Atlantic 10 Championship that season; he was also a member of two Liberty Bell Classic championship squads in 2012 and 2014.

A native of