A SELL OUT - 2005 San Jose State University Sports Hall of Fame ceremonies

A SELL OUT - 2005 San Jose State University Sports Hall of Fame ceremonies

For reservation information, contact Sheri Bragg at sbragg@email.sjsu.edu or call (408) 924-1692.

Bill Walsh
Eddie Baza
Vinnie Bradford
Steve Hamann
Guy Liggins
Keith Nakasone
Peter Schifrin
Wanda Thompson
For reservation information, contact Sheri Bragg at sbragg@email.sjsu.edu or call (408) 924-1692.

Olympic Games team members, national champions, student-athletes whose records have stood the test of time and the school’s only alumni in the Pro Football Hall of Fame comprise the San Jose State University Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2005.

Women’s fencer Vincent (Vinnie) Bradford, men’s fencer Peter Schifrin, water polo goalkeeper Steve Hamann and judo player Keith Nakasone were members of previous United States Olympic Games teams. Schifrin, Bradford and Nakasone were national champions in their respective sports. Wrestler Eddie Baza, the late Guy Liggins, a wide receiver on the 1986 and 1987 football teams, and guard Wanda Thompson of the women’s basketball teams, set San Jose State career records in their respective sports that still stand today. These seven individuals will be inducted into the San Jose State University Sports Hall of Fame.

Bill Walsh, the three-time Super Bowl winning coach of the San Francisco 49ers and a member of the school’s Sports Hall of Fame, will be recognized as a "Spartan Legend."

Ceremonies for the eight honorees will take place, Friday, September 2, at the Barrett Ballroom in the Student Union on the San Jose State University main campus. A 6:00 p.m. reception precedes a 7:15 p.m. dinner. Induction ceremonies follow.


San Jose State University Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2005

Eddie Baza (1979-82 wrestler, Sunnyvale, Calif.)

Eddie Baza is one of three two-time All-America wrestlers in San Jose State University history and one of the linchpins of the Spartans’ national success in the sport in the early 1980’s. A competitor in the 126, 134 and 142 weight categories, he excelled in the 126-pound division his freshman and sophomore seasons of 1979 and 1980 before moving up to the 134-pound weight class for his junior and senior seasons in 1981 and 1982. The four-time Pacific Coast Athletic Association champion, arguably, had his greatest success in the 134-pound division. A 1981 San Jose State University "Scholar-Athlete," he was named the conference’s "Wrestler of the Year" in 1982. Baza and San Jose State made their presence known at the 1981 and 1982 NCAA Championships. The Spartans placed higher than any other California-based school finishing 23rd at the 1981 and ninth, San Jose State’s best finish ever, at the 1982 NCAA Championships. Baza earned his first All-American honor in 1981 finishing fifth at 134 pounds. The following year, he was fourth in the same weight class. Baza completed his career as the school leader in mat victories posting a 133-27-1 win-loss record in college competition. The Sunnyvale, Calif., resident has been a United Parcel Service employee for the past 22 years.

Vincent (Vinnie) Bradford (1975-78 women’s fencer, San Antonio, Texas)

Vinnie Bradford had a 15-year run as a national championship fencer starting with her days in Junior Olympic competition in the early 1970’s. Bradford competed for San Jose State University from 1975 through 1978 earning All-American honors four times, winning the National Collegiate individual championships in 1975 and 1978 and helping the Spartans capture the team title at the national meet all four years. Bradford became the first woman to win four U.S. National Championships in women’s epee dominating the event from 1983 through 1986. She added a fifth national championship as the 1984 women’s foil champion. The 1984 Olympian was a member of five U.S. World Fencing teams from 1979 through 1984 and three Pan American Games teams. The 1984 and 1986 U.S. Fencing Association’s "Athlete of the Year" was a bronze medal winner at the 1987 Pan American Games in women’s epee. The 1999 inductee into the United States Fencing Association’s Hall of Fame is one of most sought-after teachers of the sport. In 2001, she earned "Master’s Certification" from the U.S. Fencing Coaches Association. An assistant professor of physical education at Palo Alto College in San Antonio, Texas, she is head of the San Antonio Community Olympic Development Program.



Steve Hamann (1970-71 men’s water polo, Cobb, Calif.)

Steve Hamann, rated the top water polo goalkeeper in the world twice during his amateur career, was the Spartans goalkeeper during the 1970 and 1971 seasons. The transfer from the College of San Mateo made an immediate impact earning All-American honors in 1971 as the Spartans’ last line of defense. He keyed San Jose State’s second-place finish at the 1971 NCAA Championships and third-place standing the following season. His outstanding career lasted well past his days as a Spartan. The nine-time AAU All-American was a member of the U.S. national team from 1972 through 1984. He was the goalkeeper for the 1980 U.S. Olympic team and three Pan American Games squads from 1975 through 1983. The 1979 and 1983 United States Pan American Games men’s water polo teams won the gold medal. He continued to compete at a world-class level in age-group competitions. His teams have captured gold medals in the 35, 40 and 45-and over age groups. Hamann was named the 1993 National Masters Championships "Player of the Tournament" and the 1996 World Masters "Most Valuable Player.". A member of the California Community College Water Polo "Hall of Fame," he was inducted into the U.S. water Polo Hall of Fame in 1994. He has coached waster polo at the high school and college levels locally for more than 25 years and continues to offer clinics in the sport.

Guy Liggins (1986-87 football, deceased)

The late Guy Liggins was a two-time, first-team All-West Coast selection for the San Jose State football teams of 1986 and 1987. The Spartans won 20 games, two conference championships and one California Bowl title during his Spartan playing career as a wide receiver. Liggins, a transfer from Southwestern College in San Diego, played a key role in San Jose State’s memorable 45-41 win over Fresno State in 1986 setting regular-season school records with 15 receptions for 203 yards. He would go on to finish the regular season as the first player in school history to exceed the 70-reception mark with 72 catches for 982 yards. Liggins topped those numbers as a senior with 77 receptions and was the national leader in receiving yardage with 1,208. He remains the school leader in career receptions with 149 and ranks among the top-30 pass catchers in NCAA Division I-A history for average number of receptions per game. He went on to play in the 1987 Blue-Gray Classic and the 1988 Japan Bowl and East-West Shrine Game. Liggins signed a free agent contract with the San Francisco 49ers in 1989, but health issues abruptly ended his playing career. Guy pursued a career in hotel management until his death in 1998 at age 31 due to a massive heart attack.




Keith Nakasone (1974-78 men’s judo, San Jose, Calif.)

Keith Nakasone was the United States’ top male judo player in the 132-pound division in the 1970’s. A student at San Jose State from 1974 through 1979, he was the "Collegiate Player of the Year" in 1978 and 1979 and a three-time champion at the National Collegiate Judo Championships. Nakasone was a four-time 132-pound champion at the United States National Championships. His best year in competition may have been in 1978 when he placed first at the U.S. Olympic Committee’s National Sports Festival and the Pan American Games and was named to the World Judo Championship team. The fifth-degree black belt was named team captain of the 1980 U.S. Olympic judo team. After his completing his competitive career, he went on to serve as a San Jose State University assistant judo coach. He is a noted clinician who remains active in the sport as a member of the Northern California Development Committee for California Judo, Inc. In 2000, he was honored at the Japanese-American National Museum dinner for "Celebrating the American Spirit of Sport." The 1979 San Jose State University graduate and resident of San Jose serves as a project manager for Applied Materials.

Peter Schifrin (1978-82, men’s fencing, Santa Rosa, Calif.)

Four-time All-American Peter Schifrin was a member of the San Jose State University fencing teams from 1979 through 1982. The 1984 U.S. Olympics team member established himself as a national-caliber fencer in his high school days winning the junior national championship in 1976 and 1977. Schifrin was a gold medal winner at the 1979 Pan American Games and a member of the 1979 and 1981 U.S. World University Games teams. Schifrin amassed a 266-35 win-loss record at San Jose State. He concluded his college career as the school’s first NCAA champion when he captured the 1982 title in the men’s epee. A fine arts major and an exceptional student, he received a prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship Award and went on to earn a master of fine arts degree from Boston University. He has established himself as a renowned sculptor based in Santa Rosa, California. Schifrin has exhibited in San Jose, San Francisco and Boston and has two sculptures positioned in the vicinity of San Francisco’s Union Square.

Wanda Thompson (1978-81, women’s basketball, San Pablo, Calif.)

One of only two players in the history of San Jose State University women’s basketball to be named an all-conference selection four times, Wanda was a guard on the highly successful teams of the late ‘70’s and early ‘80’s. Thompson and her teammates averaged 19 wins a season from 1978 through 1981 and had 20-plus win seasons in 1979 and 1980. She set and still holds the San Jose State career records for assists (742) and steals (434). Thompson is the only basketball player at the school, male or female, to be credited with more than 100 steals in a season twice and more than 150 assists in a season four times. While she specialized in setting up her teammates, Thompson was a capable scorer, too, setting the single-season school record for field goal accuracy that stood for six years. She was a second-team all-conference choice three times and a first-team all-conference honoree in her junior season of 1980.

Bill Walsh (1952-53, football, Spartan Legend, Stanford, Calif.)

Inducted into the San Jose State University Sports Hall of Fame in 1980, Bill Walsh is this year’s "Spartan Legend" honoree. The one-time end on the 1952 and 1953 Spartan football teams mastered the coaching profession. He is credited with developing quarterbacks such as Ken Anderson, Dan Fouts, Joe Montana and Steve Young, specifically, the "West Coast" style of offense, in general, and championship football teams for the ages. His early career included serving as a San Jose State graduate assistant, a successful high school coach at Washington Union High School in Fremont and as an assistant coach under Marv Levy at California and John Ralston at Stanford. Walsh moved into professional football coaching as an assistant with the Oakland Raiders, Cincinnati Bengals and San Diego Chargers. At age 47, he returned to Stanford for the first of two head coaching assignments. Two trips to bowl games in two seasons preceded an unprecedented 10-year run of franchise success with the San Francisco 49ers. San Francisco was a three-time Super Bowl winner in the 1980’s with Walsh in charge. After three years as a television football analyst for NBC, he returned to Stanford for a second stint as its head coach. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1993 and has received numerous forms of recognition locally, regionally and nationally. Presently, Walsh serves as a special assistant to the athletics director at Stanford University.