1981 MANAGER ML BASEBALL INDUCTEE BOBBY COX Bobby Cox, the winningest manager in Atlanta Braves history, reminisced in the Braves dugout, “Selma and Fresno were as good a place to grow up as a kid could ever want. It was a sports-orientated farming area. You could play a high school football game on Friday night…
1980 COACHING-BASKETBALL INDUCTEE JERRY TARKANIAN Few coaches have gained the national and international renown of Jerry Tarkanian. He is undoubtedly one of the most recognizable figures in his chosen sport and remains an unparalleled champion in the eyes of even the most scrutinizing of basketball fans. It’s quite common to hear that someone has given…
1980 FOOTBALL INDUCTEE JACK E. HORNER Jack Horner took a long trip to enroll at Fresno State College and he arrived just in time to play a major role on coach Stan Borleske’s unbeaten 1930 Bulldog football team. Old-timers insist that he was the finest Bulldog “linebacker” of his era. Borleske received a tip from…
1980 BOWLING INDUCTEE VINCE B. HAYES Vince B. Hayes was one of the true pioneers in California bowling history. Hayes earned the nickname, “Mr. First,” because he was an adventuresome innovator. He was one of the State’s first bowling proprietors, starting in Los Angeles and continuing in San Francisco before moving to Fresno in 1935…
1980 GOLF INDUCTEE SHELLEY HAMLIN Shelley Hamlin was seventeen in 1966 when she played in her first U.S. Women’s Open. The Roosevelt High School student was the low amateur and finished ninth. That’s only a dim memory now for the thirty-year LPGA veteran who retired from the tour in 2002. Hamlin lives in Laveen, a…
1980 BASEBALL INDUCTEE PAT CORRALES Pat Corrales marked his fiftieth year in professional baseball in 2008. He has served as a player, scout, coach, and manager in the pro ranks of our national pastime. Pat was the catcher on the legendary Fresno High School baseball team of the late 1950s. “I think we lost one…
1979 COACHING-BASEBALL INDUCTEE KEN ZENIMURA Nicknamed the “Dean of the Diamond” in Kerry Yo Nakagawa’s superb book Through a Diamond: 100 Years of Japanese American Baseball, Kenichi Zenimura, a five-foot dynamo and native of Hiroshima, Japan, earned the title with room to spare. He was a player, an organizer, a manager, a husband, and a…
1979 SOFTBALL INDUCTEE BERTHA P. REAGAN TICKEY Bertha Reagan Tickey was one of the greatest pitchers in women’s fast-pitch softball history with eleven national championships, but she is most proud of the title, “World Softball Ambassador.” Tickey promoted fast pitch softball in China, Japan, Netherlands, Italy, and Australia. “This [Path for the Gold] tour was…
1979 COACHING-BASKETBALL INDUCTEE JOE KELLY He was called “Barkin’ Joe” Kelly when he was a star guard for the University of Southern California. But for those who knew him best, his coaching behavior was not that of a barker. Kelly was raised in Wisconsin where he played on the unbeaten state champion Madison High School…
1979 FOOTBALL INDUCTEE MALCOLM FIESE Malcolm Fiese played for Slip Madigan, one of the most colorful football coaches in California history, at St. Mary’s College in Moraga. The Gaels, nicknamed the “Galloping Gaels,” made history when they traveled east and beat one of the great Fordam teams. The team traveled by train and it was…