By Randy Whitehouse,Staff Writer

AUBURN – Irene Bureau had given her husband a choice – baseball or hockey.

It was an easy choice for Normand Bureau, whose first love was hockey. It was also a choice that helped lead him to induction in the Auburn-Lewiston Sports Hall of Fame.

Four inductees, among them three Lewiston natives and the first inductee whose claim to fame was tennis, entered the Hall at its 22nd annual awards and induction banquet Sunday evening at Lost Valley. Joining Bureau were William B. Lever, Fern Masse and William “Bud” Schultz.

Bureau, a former state trooper and Androscoggin County Sheriff, may not have rewritten hockey history in the area if his new bride hadn’t given him an ultimatum.

“When we got married, I was playing hockey and I was playing baseball,” Bureau said. “She said, You know, you’ve got a family. You’ve got to choose one or the other. Either play baseball or play hockey.’ So I left baseball.”

A star at St. Dom’s, Bureau would go on to skate for Bates Manufacturing, the Waterville Bruins and the L&A Twins, for whom he was also the first president and manager. He scored 201 goals in Senior Hockey, averaging 20 goals a season (including one double hat trick against the Berlin Maroons) and led two senior teams to national tournaments in Minnesota.

Later, he steered Lewiston High School to the state championship in his first year as hockey coach in 1976. He also served as director of the U.S. Amateur Hockey Association for 13 years, was Referee-in-Chief for 10 years and officiated high school, Maine Nordiques and Maine Mariners games.

Schultz, the only non-Lewiston native in the quartet, is the first inductee honored primarily for his exploits on the tennis courts.

Long-time Bates tennis and basketball coach George Wigton called Schultz the greatest player in the history of Maine college tennis and one of the best ever in New England. He said Schultz, a four-time singles title winner at Bates, resurrected the Bates tennis program, and paved the way for several All-Americans who followed him to the Lewiston college.

“Bud raised the tennis program from obscurity to prominence,” Wigton said. “He put Bates on the college tennis map.”

Schultz, who was also an outstanding basketball player under Wigton, credited his former coach with helping him reach his full potential.

“This is the moment that I finally can thank him,” said Schultz, a member of the New England Tennis Hall of Fame. “He helped me understand what a work ethic was. He helped me when things weren’t so great. He helped me to understand that the sky was the limit and he helped me to find that path that I took.”

Schultz reached the NCAA Division III singles final and qualified for the Division I tournament his senior year at Bates. As a professional, he played in eight Grand Slam tournaments, upsetting sixth-seeded Aaron Krickstein in his first match at Wimbledon in 1985. That same year, he reached the third round of the U.S. Open before John McEnroe knocked him out of the tournament. He peaked professionally in 1986, reaching his career best 39th ranking on the ATP Tour.

Lever was one of the top-ranked golfers in the state in the 1950s, reaching several semifinals and one final in the Maine Amateur. He was also a six-time member of Maine’s Tri-State championship team between 1951 and 1985 and served as president of the Maine State Golf Association in 1959 and 1960.

Lever, who worked in insurance, sometimes found keeping his clients happy on the golf course more challenging than playing in tournaments, so he always lived by one mantra.

“If you can’t break 90, you’ve got no business on a golf course. If you can break 90, you’ve got no business,” he said. “It was a balancing act that I somehow managed to maintain.”

Masse balanced playing, coaching and administration with distinction. A baseball and basketball standout at Lewiston High and Gorham State Teachers College (now the University of Southern Maine), he was a four-year starter throughout high school and college. He was also a vital cog on several amateur baseball teams, including the Bates Mfg. team that reached the Amateur World Series in 1954.

He coached basketball for 23 years at LHS, winning 250 games and Western Maine championships in 1965 and 1966, and was known as “the dean of Western Maine coaches.” He then served as the school’s athletic director for 11 years, overseeing the development of Franklin Pasture.

“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the kids I coached over the years,” he said. “I’m real honored. I’m not sure I’m deserving, but I’m real honored.”

A dozen high school and college athletes received the Chamber President’s Award Sunday night – Bryan Lambert, Anne Martin, Monica Morin, Chantal St. Laurent, Vanessa Williamson, Olivia Zurek, Kris Bennett, Ryan Guerin, Lindsey Visbaras, Michael Burke, Matthew Nadeau, and Adam Wilding.

The annual “Flashback to Fame” team award went to the 1960 Lewiston High School state football champions.