Membership in the Butler Area Sports Hall of Fame will swell to 290 next month when seven more sports legends are inducted at the 40th annual Butler Area Sports Hall of Fame Banquet April 30.

The inductees at 2005 event at the Butler Days Inn are Charles "Mickey" Deahl, Ray Prokopchak, Ed Erdos, Tom Paserba, Joe Malis, Bill Stanley and the late Ralph Ifft.

Nominations for induction come from the public and the Hall of Fame's board of directors. A person isn't eligible for the Hall until his or her high school class has been graduated for 10 years.

Here are capsule biographies of this year's inductees:

The 1932 Zelienople High graduate played football and basketball and was an all-section center in basketball his senior year.He attended the University of Akron and played professional baseball during college. He played pro ball with eventual major leaguers Whitey Ford, Frankie Gustine, Joe Collins and Allie Reynolds.While in the military, he was an officer in charge of athletic competitions and supervised exhibition tours of celebrities Bob Hope, Mickey Rooney, Joe Louis, Billy Conn and Debbie Reynolds, among others.

The 1951 Butler graduate was the basketball team's leading scorer his junior and senior seasons. He went on to play football, basketball and baseball in the service and was an Air Force all-star selection.Prokopchak was selected on the 1952 and 1953 Butler YMCA basketball teams that competed in the national YMCA tournament. He went on to coach junior high basketball and baseball in the Tempe, Ariz., area.

Also a 1951 Butler graduate, he painted a mural at the high school (now junior high) that remains there today. He went on to college at Edinboro, played basketball and ran track there, and was valedictorian of his graduating class, completing a four-year degree in two years.A sandlot baseball pitcher from 1940 to 1960, Deahl was scouted by the Pittsburgh Pirates. He's also won numerous golf, bowling and table tennis trophies over the years.

A 1962 Butler graduate, Erdos played four years of basketball and went on to Slippery Rock State College, where a knee injury curtailed his basketball career and steered him toward swimming.He went on to become a Pennsylvania State College swimming champion and became an assistant professor, swimming coach, pool and aquatic specialist at Edinboro University.

The 1970 Butler graduate was a track and field standout with the Golden Tornado. He ran a leg on Butler's 1969 1,600-meter relay team that still holds the fastest time in Butler County history.Paserba attended Slippery Rock State College and was a member of its 1972 state championship team. He participated on a mile relay team that won the Penn Relays in consecutive years. He went on to coach numerous youth sports.

The 1978 Slippery Rock High School graduate owns the school's single-season basketball scoring record of 540 points. He played on a Rockets team that won 25 consecutive games.Moving on to Clarion University, he ranks fifth all-time in career points there with 1,411 and owns the school's record for points in a season at 622, free throws made in a career at 385 and free throws made in a season at 182.

The 1980 Butler graduate was a standout gymnast, winning WPIAL and PIAA championships on the pommel horse. He set the school scoring record in that event.While at Penn State University, Stanley achieved All-American honors on the pommel horse and statistically ranked No. 1 in the NCAA in the event in 1984. He scored a perfect 10 during the 1983 NCAA Team Championships.