MARQUETTE, Mich. - The Northern Michigan University athletic department is excited to announce they will be inducting 6 individual athletes and the 1978-79 Wrestling team into the NMU Sports Hall of Fame. 

Abdulbari Musa Ansari, who competed as Al Washington at Northern, was a four-year letter winner in track and field from 1960 to 1964.

He set Northern records in the 60-yard (6.0 seconds), 100-yard (9.6) and 220-yard (21.5) dashes. His 60-yard dash record came at a 1961 meet at Central Michigan University and tied the American and world records. That same year, he also represented Northern at a competition at Madison Square Garden.
 
Musa graduated in 1964 with a bachelor's degree in Mathematics and Sociology. After graduation, he taught math in Detroit Public Schools, was an Assistant Branch Manager for Detroit Bank and Trust, and helped administer the 1970 Detroit/Winsor International Freedom Festival before beginning 25 years with the Michigan Civil Service Commission. In 1983, he completed a master's degree in Public Administration (concentration: mediation and arbitration) from the University of Detroit. Then, while working full time, he entered Thomas Cooley Law School where he earned his Juris Doctorate in 1990. While remaining at Civil Service, Musa opened a solo law practice. Musa would also serve on numerous religious and community service boards. And, he was an assistant track coach for the Lansing (Mich.) Track and Field Club. 

With 48 years of public service, he is three-times retired: from the Michigan Civil Service Commission as Director of Central Data Processing in 1997, as Regional Human Rights Manager for the Commonwealth of Virginia in 2006, and finally in 2012 as Director of Community Support Services for the Jefferson Area Board for Aging (JABA) in Charlottesville, Virginia. Musa made the 5th Pillar of Islam Hajj Pilgrimage visit to the Ka'bah in Mecca, Saudi Arabia in 2007, and, with his wife Dianne, made the Umrah Pilgrimage visit to the Ka'bah in 2009. 

He and Dianne (a U.P. native of Engadine), who have lived on a 50-acre farm homestead in Buckingham, Virginia, have been married for 58 years and have 5 children, 16 grandchildren, 3 great-grandchildren.