Men's Soccer Augsburg University Sports Information Department

Auggie alum Jim Agre named to CSC Academic All-America Hall of Fame

Jim AgreMINNEAPOLIS -- Augsburg University alumnus Dr. Jim Agre '72, who was a pioneering player and later coach during the formative years of the Auggies' men's soccer program, will be inducted into the College Sports Communicators Academic All-America® Hall of Fame this summer, it was announced on Wednesday.
 
Agre is one of four outstanding student-athletes to be in the 2026 class of the CSC Academic All-America® Hall of Fame, which will be honored during a ceremony during the CSC Unite '26 Convention on June 8 at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, Nev. Other inductees in the CSC Academic All-America® Hall of Fame Class of 2026 are former NFL player and broadcaster Sam Acho (Texas '10), five-time U.S. Olympic track and field high jumper Amy Acuff (UCLA '97), and volleyball player Therese (Dorigan) Cullen (Elmhurst '88).
 
Agre is an "Honorary Academic All-America® Hall of Fame" inductee, since his collegiate career pre-dated the Academic All-America® program in men's soccer. Since 1952, the CSC Academic All-America® program is considered the highest honor to be bestowed upon collegiate student-athletes for academic and athletic excellence.

Including this year's class, a total of just 182 individuals from all NCAA and NAIA divisions are Academic All-America® Hall of Fame members, with just 23 from NCAA Division III institutions. Agre is the first inductee ever from an Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference institution.
 
Agre was a chemistry and biology major at Augsburg, graduating with a 3.76 undergraduate grade-point average and earning Dean's List honors every semester. He later earned his master's and doctorate degrees from the University of Minnesota Medical School.
 
"As a graduate of Augsburg University, it is a privilege and a great honor to be selected for induction into the College Sports Communicators Academic All-America® Hall of Fame. I am truly grateful to the selection committee," he said in a CSC news release. "Back in 1968, when I was a freshman at Augsburg and a member of the original Augsburg men's soccer team, I would never have dreamed that in the future I would be selected as an Academic All-American."
 
Jim AgreAgre was a central defender for the Augsburg men's soccer team during its first four years of existence (1968-71), part of a group of students that helped form the team. He started every match and played every minute of action during his four-year career, earning All-MIAC honors in 1969, 1970 and 1971, serving as team captain in his junior and senior seasons. The Auggies went 15-10-3 during his final three seasons. He was inducted into the Augsburg Athletic Hall of Fame in 1993.
 
In 1974, he was named as the Auggies' third head coach in program history, replacing legendary mentor Rolf Eriksen. He coached the team for two seasons, finishing 24-5-2 with MIAC regular-season championships both years. He was named NAIA District 13 Coach of the Year in 1974, leading the Auggies to the NAIA regional finals. When Eriksen returned for his second stint as head coach of the Auggies in 1976, Eriksen served as an assistant coach for six seasons (1976-81), while he pursued his medical degrees at the University of Minnesota. He also served as an assistant coach at Augsburg in 2019 under current head coach Greg Holker.
 
After finishing medical school in 1976 and serving his graduate fellowship at the University of Minnesota, he joined the faculty in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Wisconsin Medical School (1984-97), where he performed groundbreaking research on the late effects of polio, postpolio syndrome and recovery. He has published more than 90 professional papers on polio and postpolio treatment, exercise physiology and rehabilitation medicine.
 
His medical specialty focuses on recovery of individuals who have experienced severe loss of function due to illness, helping to restore function and quality of life. He and his colleague, Arthur A. Rodriquez, received an award from the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation PMR Education and Research Foundation for the best paper published in 1990 by a PM&R physician.
 
He later served in private practice in northern Wisconsin (1997-2008), and also served as a coach for the Conserve High School boys' soccer team in Land O'Lakes, Wis. (2002-07). In 2008, he returned to the University of Minnesota Medical School, where he served as a professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation/Department of Rehabilitation Medicine until his retirement in 2020.
 
Agre is part of a legendary family at Augsburg: His father Courtland L. Agre was the longtime chair of the Augsburg chemistry department and a beloved professor; his brother Peter Agre '70, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2003, is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Medicine and director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute; his brother Mark Agre '81 is a rehabilitation medicine specialist in St. Paul, Minn.; and his sister Anetta Agre '69 was a longtime elementary teacher in the Minneapolis, Minn., school system.
 
"I am so very grateful to Augsburg for the education it provided me," Agre said in the CSC news release. "This helped me in my development to become the person I became."
 
In 2020, Agre and his wife, Brenda Gauvin-Chadwick, gave a $1.25 million estate gift to the Augsburg StepUP program, a unique and nationally-renowned comprehensive residential program for college students in recovery from alcohol and drug abuse. He currently serves as a member of Augsburg StepUP Advisory Board.
 
An avid cross country skier for more than 50 years, participating in roughly six races each year, he has skied in more than 40 Mora Minnesota Vasaloppet ski races, more than 30 American Birkebeiner races, 26 Swedish Vasaloppet races and 14 Norwegian Birkebeinerrennets. He has served on the volunteer medical staff at Loppet Nordic Racing events in the Twin Cities, and in the World Cup races at Theodore Wirth Park in Minneapolis in February 2024.
 
Created in 1988, the College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-America® Hall of Fame recognizes former Academic All-Americans who received a college degree at least 10 years prior, have achieved lifetime success in their professional careers, and are committed to philanthropic causes. Honorees are chosen each year by a select committee of CSC members, leaders, and past Academic All-America Hall of Fame inductees. College Sports Communicators was founded in 1957 and is a 4,700-plus member national association for strategic, creative and digital communicators across intercollegiate athletics in the United States and Canada. From its founding in 1957 until 2022, the organization was known as College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
 
Since its inception, the Academic All-America® Hall of Fame has recognized U.S. Senators and Representatives, military heroes, attorneys, physicians, college presidents, Nobel Prize recipients and leading figures of corporate America. There has also been a fair share of sports legends including Bill Walton, Pat Haden, Lynette Woodard, Steve Young, Brock Strom, Joe Theisman, Lynn Barry, Cris Collinsworth, Bill Bradley, Bernie Kosar, Tracy Caulkins-Stockwell, Merlin Olsen, Danny Ainge, Drew Brees, Jennifer Rizzotti, Danny Wuerffel, Shane Battier, Derrick Brooks, Heather O'Reilly and Peyton Manning.