Francis Marion University athletic officials recently announced that former men’s soccer defender Kirk Bevington and baseball pitcher Erin Jones are the newest inductees into the FMU Athletic Hall of Fame for 2015.
Bevington starred on four Patriot soccer teams between 1998 and 2001, including the 2000 squad that spent two weeks ranked No.1 in the nation and reached the NCAA Division II national quarterfinals.
Bevington, a native of Westerville, Ohio, was a two-time All-Region and All-Peach Belt Conference selection, and garnered third-team All-American honors as a junior. He helped Francis Marion to a four-year mark of 56-18-6, including a three-year stretch (1999-2001) that saw the Patriots appear in 22 of 23 national Top 25 polls.
Bevington appeared in 79 career matches – his 79 career starts is still a school record – and tallied five goals and three assists from his defender position. He helped anchor a defense that allowed only 85 goals in 80 matches and that posted 31 shutouts.
He helped FMU capture the 1999 Peach Belt Conference Tournament championship. The following year, FMU won the PBC regular-season title, registered a school-record 17-match winning streak, and ended the year ranked No.6 nationally with a 17-3-1 record. Bevington converted the deciding kick in a penalty-shootout win over Clayton State in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. The Patriot defense ranked 10th nationally in shutout percentage (.476) and recorded a school-record 10 clean sheets.
At the conclusion of the 2000 season, he garnered All-America, All-Region, and All-Conference recognition.
He was tabbed the team Most Valuable Player in 2001, while also gaining All-Conference and All-Region accolades.
He graduated with a B.S. degree in history and was named to the Peach Belt Conference Presidential Honor Roll four times and the FMU Swamp Fox Athletic-Academic Honor three times. Bevington was a member of Phi Alpha Theta national honor society in history.
Following his playing career at Francis Marion, Bevington played one season with the Cincinnati Riverhawks of the USL Division I’s A-League.
Bevington currently resides in Carmel, Ind., and is director for Cydcor, LLC – a company he has been with for six years.
Bevington and Jones join 41 current members in the FMU Athletic Hall of Fame.
