2006 FOOTBALL TEAM INDUCTEE 1961 FRESNO STATE MERCY BOWL FOOTBALL They were known then-and forever-as the Mercy Bowl team. Alternating “red” and “blue” teams led by quarterbacks Beau Carter and Jon Anabo, they went undefeated and helped raise $125,000 for victims and survivors of the Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo football team plane crash the previous…
2005 FOOTBALL INDUCTEE RYAN WETNIGHT It was always the same refrain and Ryan Wetnight used it as an incentive to prove his detractors wrong. And prove it he did, by playing tight end at Fresno City College, Stanford University, and then for the Chicago Bears. “The knock on me was that I was too small…
2005 FOOTBALL INDUCTEE ANTHONY WASHINGTON Anthony Washington was born to be a football player and was a standout on every step of the ladder from Spartan League to Fresno High School, Fresno City College, University of California, Fresno State, and finally the big prize, the National Football League. Washington had the physical body college and…
2005 SOFTBALL INDUCTEE GENA STRANG-BEHRENS Gena Strang-Behrens, the first Fresno State athlete to earn All-American honors three years in a row, was a key member of the Bulldogs when they emerged in the 1980s as a national softball Powerhouse. During Strang-Behrens’ four-year career at Fresno State University 1985-1988 the team compiled a record of 202-64-1.…
2005 COMMUNITY LEADER INDUCTEE LARRY SHEHADEY Larry Shehadey moved from selling soap to purchasing a major interest in Producers Dairy in 1949 and realized the American dream. Although Shehadey played baseball and football well enough to be inducted into the San Francisco Polytechnical High School Hall of Fame, the Great Depression made college not an…
2005 VOLLEYBALL-TENNIS-BASKETBALL INDUCTEE GEORGE SARANTOS Born and raised in Fresno, George Sarantos has stated that Dickey Playground was his second home. He spent every spare hour of his childhood at Dickey and learned to play everything from basketball to ping pong. What he didn’t learn there were volleyball and tennis-the two sports in which he…
2005 COACHING-WATER POLO & SWIMMING INDUCTEE ARA HAIRABEDIAN Few people have had such an impact on the so-called secondary sports programs at Fresno State than Dr. Ara Hairabedian, whom everyone called “Coach.” He also could have been named “Mr. Olympian” due to his trips to six Olympiads starting with Mexico in 1968. He traveled to…
2005 BASEBALL TEAM INDUCTEE 1958 FRESNO HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL Were they the best? Most experts will tell you that they were certainly the best in California and many claim they were the finest ever fielded by a high school. The latter probably would be up for debate and difficult to measure, but not many teams…
2005 SOFTBALL TEAM INDUCTEE 1950-54 SELMA-HOAKS PACKERS SOFTBALL It was the heyday of softball and several of the best teams in the nation were based in California, three in the Central Valley alone. The Hoak Packers were actually an offshoot of the Kingsburg Merchants, who had been organized by Fresnan Hal Britton, who became the…
2004 BASKETBALL INDUCTEE MAURICE TALBOT Maurice “Mighty Mo” Talbot was born and raised on a 28,000-acre cattle ranch between Porterville and Springville in Tulare County, and didn’t play his first basketball game until high school. He was a star at Porterville High and Porterville Junior College before launching a record-breaking three-year career at Fresno State.…