1964 COACHING-FOOTBALL INDUCTEE “JIMMY” 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 “CHUCK” 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…
1963 DIVING INDUCTEE RUTH HUFFMAN (NURMI) The first female to be inducted into the Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame, Fresno High graduate, Ruth Nurmi-Huffman competed at a high level in diving for three decades. Nurmi’s high point came in 1933 when she won the National AAU Junior Diving Championship. Two years later, she placed third…
1963 BASEBALL INDUCTEE DICK ELLSWORTH Dick Ellsworth can’t recall a time when he wasn’t throwing something at a stationary object. Ellsworth said. “I was blessed with a good natural throwing motion, so it was always fun to throw something.” The tall Ellsworth converted that smooth left-handed throwing motion into a thirteen-year major league career that…
1963 FOOTBALL INDUCTEE BOB BAXTER Fresno State College has had many great athletes but none has ever equalled the record set by its first great all-around athlete-Bob Baxter. In four years between 1922 and 1926, Baxter won 12 varsity letters in four sports. The record has never been equalled nor, in this day of specialization,…
1962 RIFLE SHOOTING INDUCTEE HENRY WRIGHT Henry Wright was a precision mechanic by trade and developed into a master of precision with a target rifle as a hobby. Wright is one of a handful of Fresnans to achieve national recognition in any category of shooting. He won three National Gallery Rifle Championships and represented California…