From the archives: Brooke Taft Robbins competes on the balance beam, one of the events in which she held a UVM record score upon graduating in 1990.

When Brooke Taft Robbins '90 saw her father and grandfather's inductions into the UVM Athletic Hall of Fame, she never thought she'd join them as the institution's first three-generation family. The odds of that happening seemed remote when she arrived on campus with no plans of joining the gymnastics team despite having just completed a celebrated prep career.

"I had gone back and forth and decided that I would concentrate on being a student and was already playing field hockey," said Taft Robbins, now a first-grade teacher at Essex Elementary. "Nini Anger, the assistant coach at the time, literally sent some of my future teammates to fetch me. I looked up one day during practice to see three tiny women in leotards waving me over. I am eternally thankful that they did. It was the experience of a lifetime."

When Taft Robbins, whose sister Heather Taft '94 is being considered for induction into the UVM Hall for track and field, graduated with a degree in business administration, she held every school record in women's gymnastics. She established all-time record scores in the floor exercise, balance beam, vaulting, uneven bars and all-around, and became the first UVM gymnast to be named to the ECAC All-Conference team in 1989. The following year, she was named all-around alternate to the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships and was a member of the Catamount team that won the National Association of Women's Gymnastics Academic National Championship.

"I am proud of my personal accomplishments, but when I think about UVM gymnastics I think about the lifelong friendships I made and how I always knew my teammates were there for me. They still are," said Taft Robbins, recalling a recent reunion in Burlington with seven members of the team and Anger. "We sat at a table toasting each other, toasting our friendship."

Taft Robbins, who earned her post-graduate teaching certificate at UVM in 1993, joins her father, Jeff Taft '68, a former soccer player who was inducted in 1981, and grandfather, Chester M. Taft '33, a former football standout, who was inducted in 1977. "The fact that I'm joining both my grandfather and father on the wall puts a sentimental spin on the induction that's really hard to explain," said Taft Robbins, who competes in local triathlons and half-marathons and is a varsity field hockey umpire. They both taught me that sportsmanship comes above all else. I like to think that I emulated both my father and grandfather during my time at UVM."

Taft Robbins will be inducted into the hall on Saturday, Oct. 3 with five other former Catamount standouts at the 41st Annual Hall of Fame Dinner at the Sheraton Burlington Hotel and Conference Center. The 2009 inductees are Gordon Allen '97 (men's lacrosse); Ethan Barlow '96 (baseball); Erik Nelson '98 (men's basketball); Lori Taylor '98 (women's basketball); and Laurie Woelfel '97 (women's swimming and diving). For longer bios of each athlete, visit the athletics website.

Tickets to the dinner may be purchased through the UVM Athletic Ticket Office in Patrick Gym (1-866-4CAT-TIX). For more information on the UVM Athletic Hall of Fame, contact Ben Dickie in the athletic communications office, (802) 656-1188, bdickie@uvm.edu.