2023 TEAMS TENNIS 1968 FRESNO STATE MEN’S TENNIS In May of 2019, the Fresno State men’s tennis team played in the NCAA Tournament for the 14th time in program history. It turned out to be 14 times in a span of only 25 years, though, because the Bulldogs’ first NCAA Tournament appearance was in 1994.…
2023 SOCCER INDUCTEE JAIME RAMIREZ On November 7th, 2015, the Fresno Pacific men’s soccer team defeated Dixie State. That win clinched a Pacific West Conference title for the Sunbirds; it also happened to be the 300th win at FPU for head coach Jaime Ramirez. Born in Mexicali, Mexico, just south of the U.S. border, Jaime…
2023 COACHING BASKETBALL ROLLAND TODD On April 21st, 1970, Rolland Todd was just 35 years old when he was hired to be the first-ever head coach of the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. The Trail Blazers were one of three expansion teams to enter the NBA in 1970. Todd coached them for their first 138 games,…
2023 COACHING BASEBALL JAMES PATRICK On May 22nd, 2019, the Clovis High School baseball team defeated Frontier, 14-3, to win the Division I Central Section championship. It was the ninth section championship in Cougar history; it was also the last game in the coaching career of James Patrick. The first game in the coaching career of…
2023 TRACK & FIELD INDUCTEE TODD REICH The modern Olympic Games have always featured track & field. Known as “athletics,” it dates back to 1896. Exactly 100 years later, in the summer of 1996, Todd Riech became a part of Olympic history. Riech grew up in Hot Springs, Montana. A small town of only a…
2022 COACHING-BASEBALL INDUCTEE RON SCOTT From 1958-2022, the Fresno City College baseball team had just two head coaches: Len Bourdet and Ron Scott. Bourdet won 722 games and four state championships before retiring in 1988. Scott took over in 1989, and he won a state championship in 1992. He also won a total of 1,100…
2022 COACHING-WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL INDUCTEE MARIAN BATTLES Marian Battles was 23 years old when she accepted a job at Kerman High School in 1978 to be both an English teacher and a coach. And not the volleyball coach, but rather an assistant swim coach and the junior varsity basketball coach. “They needed coaches,” said Battles, who…
2022 BOXING INDUCTEE MAC FOSTER On April 1st, 1972, Muhammad Ali won a 15-round fight in Tokyo by unanimous decision. His opponent was Mac Foster, whom Ali predicted he would beat in five rounds. And via knockout. Mac Foster was born in Louisiana in 1942. And “Mac” is short for “MacArthur”; he was named after…
2022 GOLF INDUCTEE KATHLEEN MCCARTHY In the early 1980s, the best place to find Kathleen McCarthy was at San Joaquin Country Club. She was there almost every day, especially in the summers when she estimates that she spent between six and ten hours each day on the course. Believe it or not, Kathleen McCarthy did…
2022 BASKETBALL INDUCTEE CONNIE GOOCH In 1975, Connie Gooch became the first woman from Fresno to receive a full college scholarship to play basketball. Believe it or not, she had only been playing the sport for two years. Connie Gooch was born in France in 1957. The daughter of a sergeant major in the army,…