EDISON, N.J. – Niagara basketball alums Marshall Wingate and Kathryn Rafter will be a part of the 2015-16 MAAC Hall of Fame Honor Roll Class announced by the league on Monday. The honorees will be enshrined in "The MAAC Experience" exhibit at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Oct. 17.

Each member institution of the MAAC honors one male and one female from its basketball "family" as part of the 2015-16 induction class. A dinner event will be on Saturday, October 17, 2015 at the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame Court of Dreams to recognize the Honor Roll inductees.

Each honoree will be profiled in the game program for the 2016 MAAC Basketball Championships, and will also be featured in a video display at "The MAAC Experience."

One of the top Niagara scorers of all-time, Marshal Wingate (1968-72) averaged 17.1 points per game, 5.5 rebounds per game and shot 49.4 percent from the field in 85 career games at Niagara. He surpassed the 1,000-point mark in a 73-72 win over Canisius in his senior season; he concluded his career ranking in the top-10 in the scoring list with 1,456 points and is now ranked 13th all-time. Wingate was a member of Niagara's first NCAA Tournament team in 1970, playing in all three games as a sophomore. He was a key figure on the 1972 team that advanced to the NIT finals where NU fell to Maryland despite a 30-point game by Wingate. He scored 92 points in Niagara's four-game NIT tournament run. Wingate was a fourth-round choice of the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1972 NBA draft and was inducted into the Niagara Athletics Hall of Fame in 1984.

Kathryn Rafter (1971-75) was a true pioneer for women's athletics at Niagara University as she helped lead the initiative to have women's sports officially sanctioned at Niagara. In 1974, Rafter became the first female student elected to the Athletics Advisory Council as the University, including assistance from men's basketball head coach Frank Layden, helped implement Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. There was no official team when Rafter arrived to Niagara as freshman in 1971; over the next three seasons, Rafter and her teammates played against well-established and funded teams while proudly wearing the men's discarded practice jerseys on game days. By the time of her senior season in 1974-75, the team had uniforms, a travel budget and an official coach, but was still not on scholarship. In the spring of 1975, women's basketball and swimming were the first programs to offer scholarships which went into effect in 1977. Rafter was college roommates with Mary Roickle, who later coached Niagara from 1976-80 and was a part of the 2013 MAAC Hall of Fame Honor Roll.