2024 INDUCTEES

For Nicole Carroll destiny came down to one throw. She needed to win the javelin competition at the Olympic trials to make the U.S. team and compete in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. To relax she whistled. When her name was called to make her sixth and final throw of the competition, Carroll flung the javelin farther than she ever had before, 188’ 11”, more than a foot farther than her closest competitor.

For Carroll, competing in the ’96 Olympic Games was a crowning achievement in a remarkable ascension. As a high school student in Alameda, she had been more interested in cheerleading and student government than sports. Carroll did join the track team and dabbled with the shot put and discus, but it was after being encouraged to enroll at San Mateo College and try the javelin that her focus changed. In her sophomore season, she won the javelin at the state championships and then enrolled at Fresno State.

As a Bulldog Carroll won the Big West Conference title and was twice an all-American. Following graduation, her skills continued to grow. Carroll was 4^th in the 1993 USA Track and Field national championships and competed for the United States in the World University Games. In 1994 she finished second in the national championships with a personal best of 185’ 4”. A year later Carroll competed for the U.S. in the World Championships.

1996 took her to track and field’s peak, the Olympic Games. Two years later she again won the national championship and represented the U.S. in the Goodwill Games.

One of the greatest Fresno State track and field performers of all time, Carroll told San Francisco Chronicle sportswriter Scott Ostler that for her success has “never come easy. I’m a hard worker. I believe work prevails.” Carroll is married to Mike Lewis, has received a master’s degree in psychology, and coaches javelin throwers at the College of San Mateo.

Few people have lifted more people from despair and brought renewed meaning and fulfillment to so many as Marilyn Hamilton.

Born in Dinuba, Hamilton was National Raisin queen in 1966 and later taught home economics and art at Kingsburg High School. She enjoyed skiing, jogging, racquetball and tennis. Then on August 25, 1978, her life changed forever. A hang-gliding accident left Hamilton a paraplegic.  As she lay in a hospital bed her uncle, Bill Hamilton, himself a quadriplegic, arrived with inspiration. “You can do anything,” he said. “You’re bright. You’re adventurous. Don’t let that spirit die.” Hamilton took his words to heart.

Hamilton prodded two innovative friends, Jim Okamoto and Don Helman, to shift their talents to producing a better wheelchair. Wheelchairs of the day were bulky and cumbersome. They weighed fifty pounds on average and were made of stainless steel. Hamilton suggested they instead use lightweight aluminum. Two years later the trio produced QUICKIE, a twenty-six-pound chair that was nimble, easier to maneuver, and far more suitable to activities such as sports. Sales took off, growing from five a week in 1981 to 100 a week in 1983. By their tenth year in business, sales surpassed $40 million.

Hamilton was able to resume sports activities. She twice won the national wheelchair tennis singles and doubles titles. In four consecutive years she won the downhill and slalom in the national disabled skiing championships using a sitski. In 1982 Hamilton finished second to win the silver medal in the 2^nd World Ski Sports Championship for the Handicapped.

Her work has produced a bevy of awards. Hamilton has been honored at the White House and the Smithsonian Institution.  She is most proud of the impact her work has had on people’s lives. “Miracles,” she said in a 1998 interview with Sanford Nax of the Fresno Bee, “can be disguised through tragedy.”

Entering the 1984 season little was expected of the Fresno State volleyball squad. The program had finished the previous season with a 12-12 record. Prognosticators pegged the Bulldogs for a fifth-place finish in the NorPac Conference.

Leilani Overstreet did not agree with the naysayers. The Fresno State head coach gave her players homemade buttons that read, “Make Our Mark.” That is exactly what the Bulldogs did.

Early in the season, the Bulldogs made believers of their opponents by reeling off six straight wins. In late October the team earned the first national ranking in the program’s history at number 19. Two weeks later they blitzed the 7^th-ranked team in the country, San Jose State, for their 23^rd win of the season, a new school record. The win pushed Fresno State into first place in the NorPac.

The team finished the regular season 24-12. They ranked 19^th in the nation and for the first time in school history advanced to the NCAA regionals.

In the semi-finals of the Northwest Regional Fresno State produced a thrilling five-set win over the third-ranked team in the nation, Cal Poly. It was a result the San Luis Obispo Tribune called one of the biggest upsets in the history of the NCAA tournament. The following night the Bulldogs were eliminated from the postseason by San Jose State.

In all the 1984 Bulldogs established twenty-seven new school records. Ruth Lawanson was named a first-team All-American. Overstreet was chosen National Coach of the Year. Upon conclusion of their remarkable season, Overstreet and her players turned their buttons upside down so it appropriately read “Wow.”

One of the greatest and most electrifying running backs in Fresno State history, Ryan Mathews unique combination of power, speed, and elusiveness made him a Bulldog record setter and twice a 1,000-yard rusher in the National Football League.

When Mathews arrived at Fresno State from West Bakersfield High, he was chiseled physically and emotionally tough as well. Raised by a loving single mother, Mathews endured the ignominy of homelessness early in his youth.

It was during his junior season as a Bulldog that Mathews erupted into one of the best running backs in the country. Against Boise State in September 2009, he rushed for 234 yards and scored three touchdowns on runs of 69, 68, and 60 yards. His outburst vaulted Mathews into the national rushing lead. It was a position he held for four weeks until he suffered a concussion and missed two games.

Mathews finished his junior season with 1,808 yards and 19 rushing touchdowns. He was named a second-team All-American by Associated Press and Sports Illustrated magazine. At the conclusion of the season Mathews declared for the N.F.L. draft. He left Fresno State with a school record 36 career touchdowns and 3,280 yards rushing, second only to Ron Rivers 3,479. “A running gift,” wrote Fresno Bee columnist Matt James of Mathews whom he said was “as bold a runner as this stadium has seen, a combination of power and speed that comes along once a decade.”

Mathews was a first-round pick in the 2010 NFL draft. He was selected 12^th overall by the San Diego Chargers. In his second season he rushed for 1,091 yards, scored six touchdowns and played in the Pro Bowl all-star game.  Two years later, in 2013, Mathews rushed for 1,255 yards and scored six times. He spent 5-years with the Chargers before joining the Philadelphia Eagles via free agency.

During his second season with the Eagles Mathews suffered a significant neck injury that ended his career. He chose to make a 20-acre spread near Ramona, California his home and coaches high school football.

Saturday, June 14, 1964, was a historic day for Fresno State. On that day the Bulldogs track and field team won the school’s first-ever national championship, the NCAA college division title. The catalyst for that triumph was Sid Nickolas.

Born in New Orleans, Nickolas moved as a young child with his parents and eleven siblings to Vallejo. When he reached Vallejo High School he blossomed into a three-sport standout.

Nickolas excelled as a football running back, and a forward in basketball, and was one of the premier high school long jumpers in the country. As a senior, he was named a high school All-American.

At Vallejo Junior College he recorded the best junior college long jump mark in the nation and was coveted by a bevy of colleges and universities. Fresno State’s coach Dutch Warmerdam won the battle.

Early in his junior season at Fresno State Nickolas broke the school record in the long jump. In his senior year, he shattered the mark by eight inches when he sailed 26’ 2 ½” which was the second-best mark in the country.

In the California Collegiate Athletic Association championship meet Nickolas won four events and was named the Most Outstanding Athlete.

In the NCAA college division championships Bulldogs won five events. Nickolas triumphed in three of them. He sailed 26’ in the long jump, more than a foot better than the second-place competitor. He clocked 13.9 to win the 120 high hurdles, ran the third leg on Fresno State’s victorious 440-yard relay team, and then was third in an event he rarely competed in the triple jump. Nickolas scored an astounding 28 ½ of Fresno State’s 85 points to lead the Bulldogs to the school’s first national championship.

Nickolas took high expectations into the long jump at the Olympic trials later that summer. In an intense competition, he fouled on his first two jumps then took a tentative approach on his third jump and fell far short of what was required to make the US Olympic team.

In the years that followed his athletic endeavors Nickolas worked with the Fresno Parks and Recreation Department. He later returned to Vallejo and worked with the parks and recreation department there. For two years Nickolas exercised another skill, singing, as a member of the popular group, The Platters.

On June 9, 2023, Nickolas succumbed after a fight with cancer.

Finding a backyard volleyball net after a family move changed the course of Vicki Samarin’s life. Samarin was born in Kerman but at a young age, her family moved to Reedley where volleyball was a popular sport. The Samarin’s new house came with a volleyball net in the backyard. Backyard games with friends became common. It wasn’t long before Vicki flourished.

In high school at Immanuel Academy, she was an all-league player. Collegiately she played at Reedley College, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, then followed her brother Mark to Liberty University in Virginia. She joined the program as a walk-on. Soon after she received a scholarship and was one of the team’s best players.

In 1988 Samarin became an assistant coach at Selma High School. After one season she was named head coach. In five seasons she won three league titles.

By now married to Tim and with two young sons, Samarin moved back to her hometown as head volleyball coach at Kerman High School. Over the next ten years her teams won 8-league championships and in back-to-back seasons, 1998 and 1999 the Lions won the Division-4 Valley title.

Following the 2003 season Samarin stepped away from coaching to watch her oldest son play club volleyball at UC Santa Barbara. Two years later she was lured back to coach at Clovis East High School. The school had never won a league match in its six-year existence. Samarin built the program into a winner. In 2015 Clovis East went 33-9, and won the Tri-River Athletic Conference title, and Division-1 Valley championship.

Following the season Samarin stepped away from coaching to watch her youngest son, Aaron, play for Ohio State. She cheered as he helped the Buckeyes to the NCAA championship.

Six months later Samarin learned she was suffering from amyloidosis – a rare disease for which there is no cure.  On April 1, 2017, Vicki Samarin succumbed to the disease. In a book about his wife that he co-authored with David Smale, Tim Samarin wrote, “Cancer won the set, but Vicki won the match because of the impact she had in other people’s lives.”