1961 FOOTBALL INDUCTEE I. F. TOOMEY Nearly 40 years after his graduation, I.F. (Crip) Tooney is still rated one of the top football players ever produced in the San Joaquin Valley. Born in Fresno on Nov. 10, 1895, Toomey won 10 letters in four major sports and was noted for his ability in track as…
1961 SPORTSWRITER INDUCTEE RUBE SAMUELSON This 1919 Fresno High School graduate became the first sports writer and author to be inducted into the Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame. Samuelson rightfully earned the title “Mr. Rose Bowl” after covering the game for three decades. His book The Rose Bowl Game recounted the first fifty years of…
1961 BOXING INDUCTEE FRANK MANFREDO The dean of California’s boxing and wrestling referees until his retirement earlier this year, Frank Manfredo estimates he officiated more than 3,500 matches in 35 years as “the third man in the ring.” Born in Tyler, Pennsylvania, January 28, 1893, Manfredo was a top boxer himself. A tough featherweight, he…
1961 COACHING TRACK & FIELD INDUCTEE J.FLINT HANNER For thirty-five years as Fresno State track and field coach, John Flint Hanner produced five NCAA champions and seven world record holders. His crowning achievement was helping to found the West Coast Relays and installing the lightning-fast clay track in Ratcliffe Stadium. Hanner directed the WCR which…
1961 FOOTBALL INDUCTEE JOHNNY BAKER Johnny Baker, an outstanding athlete at Kingsburg High School, etched his name in USC Trojan football history books in 1931 when he booted a thirty-three yard field goal to beat Notre Dame in South Bend and end a twenty- six game Irish win streak. The victory propelled the once-beaten Trojans…
1960 GOLF INDUCTEE CHARLES SEAVER Charles Seaver was the finest amateur golfer to ever call Fresno home. He was a good friend, a gentleman, and a links legend in California. For years, Seaver was a Northern California Golf Association official before becoming president of that group in 1980. He was a Walker Cup golfer at…
1960 ATHLETIC ADMINISTRATOR INDUCTEE EMORY RATCLIFFE Although his own playing career ended nearly six decades ago, Emory Ratcliffe has probably made the greatest contribution of any one man to athletics at Fresno State College. As the organizer and coach of many of Fresno State’s early athletic teams, as coach (for a brief period) of FSC’s…
1960 BASEBALL INDUCTEE HUBERT BENJAMIN LEONARD Hubert “Dutch”Leonard experienced a baseball season in 1914 that modern day major league pitchers can only dream about. The Ohio native who was raised in Fresno forged a win/loss record of 19-5 for the second place Boston Red Sox, but that wasn’t the eye-popping statistic. What really turned heads…
1960 TRACK & FIELD INDUCTEE RAFER JOHNSON Fresno County native, Rafer Johnson won gold and silver medals in the Olympic Games decathlon, but his legacy will include being one of the founders and ongoing leaders of the Special Olympics. Johnson, a very giving person, was on the original board that created the Special Olympics in…
1959 TRACK & FIELD INDUCTEE CORNELIUS WARMERDAM Cornelius “Dutch” Warmerdam was one of the most humble, self-effacing athletic greats that anyone could ever meet. His close friend, Payton Jordan, who was a top sprinter at USC and later an outstanding track and field coach at Stanford University, made this statement: “Dutch was the truest and…