Legendary Quincy newspaperman among IBCA Hall of Fame Class of 2022 inductees

QUINCY — A legendary Quincy newspaperman, a Carthage radio voice and an all-stater from Warsaw are among the inductees in the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame Class of 2022, the association announced Monday.

Former Quincy Herald-Whig sports editor and executive editor Don Crim will join Keith Yex in being inducted into the media category. Ashley Brownlee Krynski will be inducted in the player category.

The induction ceremony is set for April 30, 2022, at Redbird Arena on the Illinois State University campus.

Crim joined The Herald-Whig in 1979 after graduating from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He spent 17 years in the sports department, including 10 years as sports editor, winning 21 statewide awards for column writing, feature writing, investigative reporting and page design. 

Crim was named the Herald-Whig’s news editor in 1996, managing editor in 2001 and executive editor in 2015. Crim retired from the newspaper business in 2018.

Yex is the co-owner of TheSportsYex, a streaming service featuring play-by-play of prep sports in Hancock County, and writes for the Hancock County Journal-Pilot. He spent many years as a radio voice for WCAZ, calling most, if not all, of the Carthage and Illini West football and girls basketball championships. He has been involved in the media business for more than 30 years.

Brownlee, a 5-foot-7 guard, enjoyed a highly decorated career at Warsaw. She scored 2,212 career points — the most in program history — to go along with 705 rebounds, 437 assists and 296 steals in four varsity seasons. As a junior, Brownless averaged 25.1 points, 9.1 rebounds and four assists per game.

As a senior, Brownlee averaged 21.7 points, 7.0 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 3.9 steals before suffering a knee injury in mid-January that required surgery and sidelined her the remainder of the season. She played two seasons at Quincy University before transferring to Iowa Wesleyan College.

She was a four-time first team All-West Central Conference pick, a three-time IBCA all-state selection and a three-time first-team Quincy Herald-Whig all-area choice.