Dixon HS Athletic Hall of Fame

09/09/2026

The Dixon High School Athletic Department is cordially inviting all Hall of Famers as well as all alumni back to DHS to attend the annual Homecoming football game on Friday night, September 25 at 7:00 PM.

All DHS Alumni will be admitted free of charge to the game.

In addition to the game, this 2026 Homecoming night will kick off the exciting stadium renovation plans and fundraising efforts.

We encourage all Dukes & Duchesses of the past to be on hand at this memorable event for the future!

09/01/2026

The Dixon High School athletic department and HOF committee are looking for current/updated contact information for the following past inductees into the Dixon High School Athletic Hall of Fame. If you are an inductee or have an e-mail address of an inductee as follows, please forward the e-mail address to:

[email protected]

Jacob Hey
Heather Holm
Clyde Ruffin
Chris Shaw
Tammy Turner
Jim Witzleb
Ben Brokaw
Jeff Clausen
Roger Coleman
Lexy Duncan
Mitchell Homb
Ryan Matha
Tara Michels
Joe Roth
Rick Reubin
Dave Keeley
Phil Keeley
Sarah Schulze
Ron Semetis
Amanda Kent
Chris Bishop
Kasey Ferrigan
Juli Yount
Jodi Yount
Sarah Collins
Tom Evett
Becky Fisher
Joe Jacobs
Jenny Koch Kirchner
Larry & Louise Reed
Simon Thorpe
Ted Trulock
Brooke Bailey
Jim Mercer
Brad Kipping
Mike Swinton
Dianne Biggs
Rob Willey
Kyle Whitson

08/21/2026

Good luck to the 2026 Dixon High School football team as they begin their new season! The Dukes will aim for their 12th consecutive IHSA playoff appearance! Here is a look at some of the all-time great ball carriers!

06/05/2026

05/31/2026

05/26/2026

Congrats to the Dixon Dukes boys track team which recently claimed the IHSA Class 2A Sectional championship. This puts the 2026 team in an elite club matching only the 1971 team under Coach Jack Jordan and the 2001 squad under Coach Rich Lawton as the only Sectional/District level champs in school history. Good luck at the upcoming IHSA State Finals in Charleston!

03/05/2026

Rob Willey (Football) Class of 2000 - Inducted February 7, 2026

As a two-year starter at both running back and as punter, Rob Willey was the offensive engine behind the powerful DHS football team of 2000 and the emerging team of 1999. During his junior season, he was the Dukes’ leading rusher with 630 yards and helped return Dixon football to a winning 5-4 record. Following that season, he was selected by NCIC coaches as the first team all-conference punter and a second team choice at running back. However, it was the following year as senior in 2000 when Willey burst into Dixon football history breaking Roger Coleman’s 30-year-old single season rushing mark by carrying the ball for 1,646 yards and helping lead the Dukes to a 9-2 record, the program’s most wins since 1936. He also set a new single game rushing record with 306 yards on just 17 carries versus Ottawa. His five touchdowns that night also helped him in setting a new single season touchdown record by season’s end with 22 total scores. Willey also put up a 210 yard effort on the ground versus LaSalle-Peru. Capping it off, on October 27, 2000, Willey helped lead Dixon High School to its first ever playoff win in school history – a 34-8 trouncing of Rochelle at A.C. Bowers Field.

After his senior season, he was named a first-team all-conference selection at both running back and punter as well as the NCIC Conference Co-Player of the Year and his team’s Most Valuable Player. As of 2026, Willey stands at #6 on Dixon's all-time leading rushing list with 2, 276 yards. Willey also participated in track for three years and at the NCIC meet his junior year, took second in the triple jump and was a member of the conference champion 800m relay team. After high school, he played football briefly at the University of Kentucky in the Southeastern Conference.

Visit the Dixon HS Athletic Hall of Fame online at 61021.touchpros.com

03/03/2026

Diane Biggs (Volleyball/Basketball) Class of 1984 - Inducted February 7, 2026

Diane Biggs was a standout two sport athlete in both basketball and volleyball during the early 1980’s. She was a four-year player on the Duchesses varsity basketball team and helped lead Dixon to one of its best stretches in program history going 95-16 during her career including NCIC conference titles her freshman, sophomore, and senior seasons. As a freshman, she was a contributor to the Duchesses first ever Sweet 16 team. As a sophomore, she was a starter and key member of the 1981-82 team which took third place in the IHSA Class AA State Finals in Champaign. She was voted as a second team choice for the 1982 Class AA All-Tournament team. The following year as a junior, Biggs helped lead Dixon to an 18-6 record. As a senior, after leading Dixon to a 23-4 mark and averaging 16 points per game and 12 rebounds per game, she was selected as a unanimous first team all-conference choice, a member of the Rockford Register Star all-area team, and chosen as her team’s MVP. Biggs finished her basketball career as Dixon’s third leading scorer in program history at that time - just shy of 1,000 career points. On the volleyball court, she was a three year varsity starter and as a senior in the fall of 1983 helped lead the Duchesses to Regional, Sectional, and Supersectonal titles enroute to the only appearance in program history at the IHSA State Class AA State Volleyball Finals in Springfield. Following high school, Biggs received a scholarship to play basketball at the University of Illinois – Chicago.

Visit the Dixon HS Athletic Hall of Fame online at 61021.touchpros.com

03/02/2026

Mike Swinton (Football) - Class of 1978

In an era when the run game still dominated high school football in Illinois, Mike Swinton was setting passing records as the quarterback for the Dukes from 1975 to 1977. As a sophomore, Swinton took a few snaps as the varsity signal caller but it was during his junior year where he took over as varsity starter and begin to establish himself as one of the better throwers in northern Illinois. Just weeks into the ’76 season, Swinton burst onto the scene passing for almost 400 yards over Dixon’s first three games. He then passed for 224 yards in a week four game against Streator. At the time, it was the second best single game passing total in school history behind only John Wooten’s 246 yard effort set twenty years earlier in 1956. Swinton also threw for 173 yards later in the season vs LaSalle-Peru and finished his junior year with a then single season Dixon passing record of 1,192 yards, bettering the mark of 1,177 set by Skip Jones in 1967. His single season record went on to stand for 25 years until finally broken in 2001. He was voted by coaches as a unanimous first team NCIC all-conference selection at QB. The following year as senior and Dukes’ co-captain, Swinton threw for 845 yards and was again unanimously chosen as the first team quarterback in the all-conference voting. His final three year varsity total of 2,085 yards also lasted as the Dixon career passing record for nearly 25 years. Swinton also was a member of the 1977-78 Regional championship Dukes’ basketball team which went 19-10 and advanced to the Sectional final.

Visti the Dixon HS Athletic Hall of Fame online at 61021.touchpros.com