FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Fairfield University Athletics is proud to announce the eight inductees who comprise the Hall of Fame Class of 2025. Rob Gariano '10 (baseball), Peter Gillen '68 (service to athletics), Felicitas Heinen '15 (field hockey), Derek Needham '13 (men's basketball), Kate Riitano '00 (women's lacrosse), Dan Sauter '12 (men's tennis), Roger Yergeau '73 (service to athletics) and the 1965-66 Men's Basketball team will be enshrined on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025.
 
Registration for the Jan. 18 event is now open. The ceremony will be held on-campus at the Dolan School of Business prior to a 2 p.m. men's basketball game at Leo D. Mahoney Arena.
 
No pitcher has thrown more innings or started more games for Fairfield Baseball than Rob Gariano '10. The standout hurler toed the rubber for 323.1 innings, racking up a program record 293 career strikeouts. Gariano tossed 12 complete games among his record 49 career starts. He ranked third all-time with 17 wins at the time of his graduation and still stands seventh all-time. Gariano was a two-time All-MAAC First Team honoree and the 2010 MAAC Preseason Pitcher of the Year.
 
After graduation, Gariano was drafted by the San Diego Padres and made 16 appearances on the mound in the club's Minor League system.
 
Peter Gillen '68 was a three-year varsity student-athlete in basketball and baseball. After graduating cum laude in 1968, he began a career in coaching at Brooklyn Prep before entering the college ranks at the University of Hawai'i in 1975. After 10 seasons as an assistant coach, he became the head coach at Xavier University in 1985. In nine seasons at Xavier, he won five Midwestern Collegiate Conference (now the Horizon League) Championships and five MCC Coach of the Year Awards. He went on to coach Providence for four years, including a trip to the 1997 Elite Eight – and completed his career on the sidelines at Virginia for seven years. He led the Cavaliers to the 2001 NCAA Tournament, rounding out his career total at nine trips to the "Big Dance" as well as seven appearances in the NIT. Gillen was also an assistant coach for USA Basketball's "Dream Team II" that won gold at the 1994 FIBA World Championships.
 
Since retiring from coaching, Gillen is an analyst for CBS, where he remains a vocal ambassador for his alma mater on television, social media and as a consistent attendee at Fairfield Basketball games and practices. He is a former trustee of Fairfield University.
 
Felicitas Heinen '15 graduated as the all-time leading scorer in Fairfield Field Hockey history, and still ranks second all-time with 44 goals and 111 career points. She is also fourth all-time with 23 career assists and shares first place on the career charts with nine game-winning goals for the Stags. She scored 16 goals and 38 total points in both 2012 and 2013 – setting and then tying the Fairfield single-season scoring record.
 
In each of her four seasons playing for Head Coach Jackie Kane, she earned All-America East and All-Region laurels, including three selections to the First Team by both organizations. Heinen was also the 2014 America East Defensive Player of the Year.
 
A four-time All-MAAC honoree, Derek Needham '13 ranks fourth all-time in Fairfield Men's Basketball history with 1,875 career points. He is also second in three-pointers (281), third in assists (537), third in steals (193) and fifth in made field goals (528). After earning MAAC Rookie of the Year honors in 2009-10, Needham's breakout campaign came in 2010-11 when he earned All-MAAC First Team, NABC All-District First Team and All-Met Second Team while leading Fairfield to a program-record 25 wins, including a 15-3 MAAC record and a MAAC Regular Season Championship.
 
Needham capped his career with All-MAAC Second Team and NABC All-District Second Team laurels in 2011-12 and 2012-13. He has played professional basketball for over a decade, currently competing for Besiktas Emlakjet in Turkey.
 
Kate Riitano '00 needed only two seasons with Fairfield Women's Lacrosse to stake her claim as one of the top defensive players in program history. A transfer from George Mason, Riitano set a pair of single-season records in 1998 that still stand today, posting 64 caused turnovers and 4.27 caused turnovers per game. She recorded 45 more caused turnovers in 1999 to set the program record with 109 in her career, a number that still slots second on the Fairfield career charts. Riitano remains first all-time with 4.19 caused turnovers per game and ranks third with 3.50 ground balls per contest.
 
An All-MAAC First Team selection in both of her seasons at Fairfield, Riitano and the Stags won the conference with a perfect 6-0 league record in 1999.
 
A four-time All-MAAC honoree throughout his career, Dan Sauter '12 amassed records of 74-41 in singles and 87-44 in doubles for Fairfield Men's Tennis. He garnered All-MAAC First Team Doubles honors in both 2009 and 2012, Second Team Singles in 2009 and Second Team Doubles in 2011.
 
Sauter capped his career as the MAAC Championship MVP, winning at #1 singles and doubles in both the semifinal and final rounds of the MAAC Tournament, leading Fairfield to the conference crown. As a team, Fairfield Men's Tennis went 61-24 overall in dual matches and 20-3 in the MAAC in four years with Sauter in the lineup.
 
Roger Yergeau '73 was one of the founding members of Fairfield Men's Lacrosse, established as a club team in the fall of 1971 and first taking the field in the spring of 1972. Yergeau served as the first Vice President of Men's Club Lacrosse and later as Club President for the Stags under the direction of Head Coach Ken Gilstein. As an alum, Yergeau established a weekly newsletter originally intended just for his fellow founding members. With the growth of Fairfield Men's Lacrosse – attaining Division I varsity status prior to the spring of 1993 and winning its first conference championship just three years later, the weekly report has grown to a distribution of more than 250 alums, parents, and fans.
Yergeau is retired after more than 30 years in the insurance industry, earning professional designations as a CLU, ChFC and AEP. He has completed 20 marathons and won the 50-mile Metropolitan Championship in Central Park in 1982.
 
The 1965-66 Fairfield Men's Basketball Team put together one of the finest seasons in program history. The Stags went 19-5 in that campaign, including a 13-game winning streak that still stands today as the program's all-time best. Notable wins in that campaign include victories over Xavier, UMass, Holy Cross, St. Bonaventure and eventual NIT quarterfinalist Boston College. Three of Fairfield's five losses came to teams that reached the NCAA or NIT postseasons, including nationally-ranked squads #4 Saint Joseph's and #6 Providence.
 
In an era where the NCAA Tournament was comprised of only 22 teams and the NIT featured 14 teams – both with no automatic bids – the NIT selection committee stated that Fairfield was the "first team out" of the tournament. The 1965-66 Fairfield team featured future Hall of Famers William Jones, Michael Branch, Patrick Burke, Charles Phillips, James Brown, Peter Gillen and Head Coach George Bisacca.
 
 
Click here to nominate an individual or a team for the 2026 Fairfield Athletics Hall of Fame.