WATERLOO - Homecoming means football and school rivalries to many.

Athletic glory fades, though, as the education students received grows in value after high school. So West High School officials today are shifting some of homecoming's attention to four alumni who have built successful lives and careers.

The alumni were inducted into the West High Academic Hall of Fame this morning during an all-school homecoming pep assembly. They include 1966 graduate Dr. Jane Rohlf, 1980 graduate J. Scott Raecker, 1984 graduate Lt. Col. Timothy Lawrence and 1996 graduate Dr. Rachel Allbaugh.

Later this fall, plaques honoring the four will be placed in the newly remodeled foyer of West's auditorium, where the Academic Hall of Fame is planned.

"We feel really great about the four inductees we have," said Principal Gail Moon. She added that the induction ceremony coincided with the pep rally "so that (students) understand our whole purpose is for academics."

The hall of fame is an initiative of West's site council and Academic Booster Club. The area in the foyer will be patterned after West's Athletic Hall of Fame.

The four were chosen from 12 nominees.

"Our guidelines were up to five alumni and one staff member" to be inducted every year, said parent Ann Richter, who helped establish the hall of fame. "We didn't have any staff member this year."

Rohlf, a doctor, is president and chief executive officer of Premier Research, a New Jersey company that conducts research in adult diseases and provides medical care to uninsured and underinsured inner city residents. Raecker, of Des Moines, is a member of the Iowa House of Representatives and executive director of the Institute for Character Development at Drake University.

Lawrence is director of the Space Systems Research Center and assistant professor in the department of astronautics at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado. Allbaugh, a doctor of veterinary medicine, is an assistant professor of veterinary ophthalmology at Kansas State University's department of clinical services.

"I think that's what the hall of fame is all about, people who have made some significant contributions," Moon said. "Sometimes academics is that quiet contribution you make out in society."

"This is not about making a lot of money," Richter added. Rather it's about "doing something significant for their communities. Hopefully, these people will be inspirational to the student body."