2004 TRACK & FIELD INDUCTEE DOUG FRALEY Winning an NCAA Division I championship in any field is an incredible thrill. Just a fraction of millions of student-athletes who have participated in college sports make it all the way. Doug Fraley not only did it once, he did it three times. Doug’s future as a world-class…
2004 FOOTBALL TEAM INDUCTEE 1972 FRESNO CITY COLLEGE FOOTBALL The quarterback for the 1972 Fresno City College football team, Rick Jelmini, described the secret to their gridiron success this way: “I think the best thing about us was that there really wasn’t one big star in every game; we just were a team that learned…
2003 COACHING-SWIMMING INDUCTEE GENE STEPHENS Gene Stephens certainly was one of the most influential people in the sport of swimming and water polo in San Joaquin Valley history. Not only did he teach hundreds of youngsters how to swim in his First Street pool, but he also founded the Fresno Swim Club. His teams from…
2003 SWIMMING INDUCTEE SYBIL SMITH Sybil Smith was an athlete with a unique record. The San Joaquin Memorial swim star was the first African-American woman to place in the top eight at the NCAA Championships, and in doing so, became the first female All-American swimmer in Boston University History. Smith was just five years old…
2003 COMMUNITY LEADER INDUCTEE ELMER RICHTER There are few major building projects on the Fresno State University campus, athletic or academic, that don’t contain the fingerprints of Bud Richter. One prime example is Bulldog Stadium, where Richter and his wife, Jan, provided an anonymous gift of $500,000 in seed money to help school president Dr.…
2003 SOFTBALL INDUCTEE MARTHA NOFFSINGER-O’KELLEY In 1986, Martha Noffsinger, a Southern California softball sensation from Edison High School in Huntington Beach, was sought after by many colleges around the country. The talented shortstop chose Fresno State because she wanted to play for Margie Wright and liked the Fresno area. As it turned out, Bulldog fans…
2003 BASEBALL INDUCTEE MARK GARDNER Mark Gardner, formerly of Clovis High and Fresno State, pitched for thirteen years in the major leagues and continued in the sport as the bullpen coach for the San Francisco Giants. Always a fan favorite, Gardner was also respected by his teammates, who voted him the winner of the Willie…
2003 AUTO RACING INDUCTEE DALE DRAKE Born in Reedley in 1901, Dale Drake was a person who loved adventure and lived life fully on his own terms. His father, J.A. Drake, made a living as a blacksmith, but was also a man who liked to build things and became interested in a turn-of-the-century invention, the…
2003 BASEBALL TEAM INDUCTEE 1951 FRESNO STATE BASEBALL They swung wooden bats, wore classy-looking wool uniforms, and played a few military and professional teams. Their coach, Pete Beiden, was the best teacher of baseball fundamentals that Fresno has ever seen and all the starters came from the San Joaquin Valley. The 1951 Bulldog baseball team…
2002 FOOTBALL INDUCTEE VESTEE JACKSON JR. Vestee Jackson Jr., a quick and promising tailback from McLane High School, made the switch to cornerback at the University of Washington and parlayed his extraordinary talents into a successful, eight-year National Football League career. Blessed with skills that evoked memories of his father, Vestee Jackson, Sr., who starred…