1965 FOOTBALL INDUCTEE WALTER H. BYRD, SR. As a youngster, Walt Byrd was always at the head of his class when it was it came to athletics. So it wasn’t surprising that he was a dominant player at the high school and collegiate levels. Old timers extol the achievements of this spunky 5’8″, 155-pound halfback…
1964 COACHING-FOOTBALL INDUCTEE ERWIN GINSBERG Erwin Ginsburg was one tough customer. In his days at Tulare High School before graduating in 1922, he racked up All-Conference honors in football, basketball, and track. He was always known for his work ethic and his “all for the team” attitude. At Fresno State College, he was a multi-year…
1964 COMMUNITY LEADER INDUCTEE JOHN EULESS John M. Euless was the right man at the right time with the right connections when professional baseball returned to Fresno in 1941. This was the year that the California League was created and Fresno was selected to be one of the franchise team locations. Euless, who was raised…
1964 TRACK & FIELD INDUCTEE GORDON DUNN Gordon Dunn had two nicknames in various stages of his life. He was “Slinger Dunn” at Stanford University and “No Fun Dunn” while mayor of Fresno as he waged a relentless war on city vices. Dunn was born in 1912 in Portland, Oregon, but the family moved to…
1964 COACHING-FOOTBALL INDUCTEE JAMES BRADSHAW Jimmy Bradshaw earned his nickname because of the way he outran tacklers at the University of Nevada and later in semi-pro and professional football. Bradshaw had a keen football mind honed from a year under the University of Illinois coach Robert “Bob” Zuppke and as an eight-year assistant to Stanford…
1964 COACHING-FOOTBALL INDUCTEE STAN BORLESKE Stanley Evans Borleske was recruited by the legendary University of Michigan coach Fielding “Hurry Up” Yost and became an outstanding end in 1909, his sophomore season with the Wolverines. Borleske was involved in an extraordinary collegiate football game in October of his first season. It was momentous for Notre Dame…
1964 COACHING-BASEBALL INDUCTEE PETE BEIDEN John Peter Beiden, a Russian immigrant, was hooked on baseball from the first time he was asked to catch at seventeen and he loved the game throughout his lifetime. Beiden became a legend in a most self-effacing way with his own “Beidenese” language that very few could understand, but everyone…
1963 AUTO RACING INDUCTEE CHARLES STEVENSON Although he was born in Montana, rugged Charles “Chuck” Stevenson wound up in Fresno where he graduated from driving street rods to steering hopped-up stock cars around dirt tracks to piloting precision-tuned Formula I machines at “The Brickyard” against some of the best drivers of the 1950s and 1960s.…
1963 TRACK & FIELD INDUCTEE ANCEL ROBINSON Ancel Robinson set the Fresno State high hurdles record of 13.6 seconds in I958 and it wasn’t broken until 1994. The CIF state champion in the highs and lows in his senior season at Selma High School didn’t confine all his time to track and field. In the…
1963 BASEBALL INDUCTEE JIM MALONEY Jim Maloney’s early influences in the world of sports were his dad and his Little League coach, Hal Bicknell. “I was ten years old and I was dreaming already about playing in the big leagues.” He was a multi-sport athlete at Fresno High School, winning top honors as a power…