University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire

John Jahnke ranks among the top five baseball players in 11 offensive categories including the career record for batting average at .392. Because the sport was dropped, Jahnke did not get to finish his collegiate career. But the two-year all-conference outfielder was on Blugold teams that won back-to-back Northern Division titles with 15-1 records and compiled a 69-46 overall record during his three seasons of play. As a sophomore in 1994, Jahnke led the Blugolds to their best record in school history at 28-11 including a 15-1 mark in conference play. That season, he hit .438 with an .806 slugging percentage that included a school record 11 home runs. The following season, he set school records for runs scored and runs batted in. Jahnke was a two-time team MVP and the WSUC Northern Division batting champion in both 1994 and 1995. He was named to the NCAA Midwest Region First Team in 1994 when he also earned All-American honorable mention. He helped the Blugolds qualify for the NAIA tournament in 1993 and the NCAA regional in 1994. He also did some pitching, fashioning a 3-1 record with a 3.00 ERA in 1995. That season, he hit for the cycle in a game against Superior when he also had 10 RBI. He played for the Eau Claire Cavaliers from 1994 to 1996, helping them win three straight CABA World Series titles. He set single season records for hits, doubles and batting average.

Jahnke graduated from UWEC in 1997 with an advertising emphasis in journalism. While looking for work in the advertising field, he substitute taught for a year in his hometown of Oconto Falls and was offered emergency licensure to teach Special Education the following year. He completed his teaching licensure in 2000 and received his master’s degree from UW-Oshkosh in 2004.  At the time of his induction, he had taught at Washington Middle School in the Oconto Falls School District, where he heads his school’s Special Education Department, since 1998. Jahnke has been a varsity assistant with the Oconto Falls football and baseball teams. He has also coached his son’s and daughter’s basketball teams and volunteers with the local Little League, Babe Ruth and American Legion teams. He is a WIAA and American Legion umpire and does radio broadcasts for Oconto County high school baseball.