Aug. 16, 2018
SAN JOSE, CA -- The San Jose Sports Hall of Fame will mark its 24th year of honoring South Bay sports legends when it inducts four new members on Wednesday, November 14*, at the SAP Center at San Jose. The inductees hail from the upper echelon of collegiate, professional and/or Olympic competition. Although from different sports in different eras, they have made a lasting impact both on and off the field of play.
The San Jose Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2018 Inductees are:
Dr. Harry Edwards: San Jose State two-sport student-athlete, sports sociology pioneer and founder of the Olympic Project for Human Rights
Pat Hurst: U.S. Women's Amateur champion, NCAA Women's Golf individual and team champion, six-time LPGA Tour winner and Major Champion
Mark Langston: Former San Jose State and Major League Baseball All-Star Pitcher, seven-time Gold Glove Award winner and three-time American League strikeout leader
Evgeni Nabokov: San Jose Sharks Star Goaltender, Franchise Record Holder, All-Star and Olympian
"San Jose's incredibly rich and diverse sports history makes the Hall of Fame selection process very difficult each year," said Charlie Faas, Chairman of the San Jose Sports Authority Board of Directors. "The Class of 2018 is a wonderful representation of the deep and meaningful impact athletes and coaches with South Bay connections have made in their respective sports, locally, nationally and internationally. We are excited to welcome these four remarkable individuals into the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame."
Each inductee will be recognized with a bronze plaque permanently installed on the concourse at the SAP Center at San Jose. Including the 2018 inductees, there will be 110 South Bay sports icons enshrined in the Hall of Fame. The annual induction is an event of the San Jose Sports Authority, San Jose Arena Authority, SAP Center Management/San Jose Sharks, and the City of San Jose. The event benefits Special Olympics Northern California and high school sports programs. ? Executive Director John Poch of the San Jose Sports Authority states, "The San Jose Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2018 represent all that we value, including integrity, work ethic, sportsmanship, and excellence. Individually and collectively, their accomplishments, both in the Bay Area and across the world of sport, are the stuff of legend. We look forward to honoring their legacies in November at our Hall of Fame induction ceremonies at the SAP Center at San Jose."
The November ceremony kicks off with a reception followed by dinner and induction ceremony. Individual tickets begin at $300 each; sponsorship and table packages are available starting at $3,000. For information and to purchase event tickets call (408) 288-2936.
About the San Jose Sports Authority
The San Jose Sports Authority is a non-profit organization whose mission is to increase the City of San Jose's economic development, visibility, and civic pride through sports. Serving as the City's sports commission since its inception in 1991, the Sports Authority has provided leadership and support to attract and host hundreds of sporting events in San Jose and the South Bay. The Sports Authority also supports and operates community, youth and amateur sports programs, including the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame and the REACH Youth Scholarship Program. To learn more, visit www.sjsa.org.
San Jose Sports Hall of Fame / Inductee Bios
Dr. Harry Edwards
Harry Edwards was born in St. Louis. After an outstanding career at East St. Louis High, he graduated in 1960 and was awarded an athletics scholarship to San Jose State University, where he was a three-year starter on the basketball team and a school record-setting discus thrower for the track and field team. He graduated in 1964 with high honors and subsequently was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship and a University Fellowship to Cornell University where he completed a M.A. and a Ph.D. in sociology.
Dr. Edwards has a long and storied history of activism focused upon developments at the interface of sport, race, and society. He ultimately called for a Black athlete boycott of the United States 1968 Olympic team in large part to dramatize the racial inequities and barriers confronting Blacks in sport and society. The movement resulted in demonstrations by Black athletes across the nation and ultimately at the Mexico City games -- a movement commemorated by a 24-foot high statue on the campus at San Jose State University.
Years later, Dr. Edwards was to become a consultant on issues of diversity for all three major sports. He was hired by the Commissioner of Major League Baseball in 1987 to help with efforts to increase front office representation of minorities and women in baseball. He also was with the Golden State Warriors of the NBA from 1987 through 1995, specializing in player personnel recruitment and counseling.
In 1986, he began work with the San Francisco 49ers in the area of player personnel and counseling programs. The programs and methods that he developed for handling player personnel issues were adopted by the entire NFL in 1992, as was the Minority Coaches' Internship Program developed by he and Coach Bill Walsh to increase opportunities for minority coaches in the NFL.
Dr. Edwards, a scholar-activist, is the leading authority on developments at the interface of race, sport, and society and was a pioneering scholar in the founding of the sociology of sport as an academic discipline. He holds the title of Professor Emeritus in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. He has written scores of articles and four books: The Struggle That Must Be, Sociology of Sport, Black Students, and The Revolt of the Black Athlete. Much of his scholarly work is connected to the Institute for the Study of Sport, Race and Society located at San Jose State University.
Pat Hurst
Two-time first-team All-American Pat Hurst competed for the San Jose State University women's golf team during the 1988 through 1991 seasons.
With the last shot of the 1989 NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championships, a three-foot par putt at the Stanford Golf Course's 18th hole, San Jose State won the second of its three team national titles in a five-year span (1987, 1989, 1992) and Hurst became the NCAA individual champion. With Hurst in the lineup, the Spartans never finished lower than sixth place at an NCAA Championship. She won at least one tournament in each of her four seasons as a Spartan, and her eight tournament victories is fourth-best at San Jose State.
After completing her college career, Hurst joined the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) in 1995 and was named the Tour's Rookie of the Year. As a professional, she earned six Tour victories including the 1998 Dinah Shore Kraft Nabisco Championship - one of the LPGA's four "major" titles. As of July 1, 2018, Hurst still ranked 33rd on the LPGA career money winning list.
A U.S. Girls Junior and U.S Women's Amateur champion, Hurst is a member of the San Jose State Sports Hall of Fame, California Golf Hall of Fame, and the National Golf Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Five times, Hurst has represented the United States as a player at the Solehim Cup. She compiled a 10-7-3 record and earned 11.5 points in her five appearances. Hurst was a member of a winning USA team four times (1998, 2002, 2005, 2007).
The past two Solheim Cups (2015, 2017), Hurst has served as the assistant captain to Juli Inkster. Both times, the United States was victorious.
Mark Langston
A San Diego, Calif., native, it was in Santa Clara County that Mark Langston found his love for baseball. At Santa Clara's Buchser High, he was a two-sport star athlete excelling in soccer and baseball. Though San Jose State had an outstanding soccer program coached by San Jose Sports Hall of Famer, Julie Menendez, the tall southpaw was the Spartans' most noteworthy baseball player during the 1979 through 1981 seasons playing for Gene Menges.
He became the Spartans' number-one starter as a sophomore. The 1980 first-team All-Northern California Baseball Association pitcher was a second-team All-American selection by The Sporting News his junior season and struck out 235 batters in 251.2 innings pitched in his three seasons at San Jose State.
Langston embarked on his 16-year Major League Baseball career after the Seattle Mariners used the 35th overall selection in the second round in the 1981 draft to select him. No other San Jose State baseball player before or since was selected higher in a MLB draft.
He reached the Major Leagues in 1984 with Seattle, won 17 games that season and was the runner up for the American League Rookie of the Year award. He would lead the American League in strikeouts three times in his first four seasons and finish in the top-10 nine times overall. His slider was considered to be the best in baseball during the decade of the 1980's. By the time he concluded his career pitching for six different teams, he had a 179-158 win-loss record and 2,464 strikeouts. He and Mike Witt teamed up for the fifth combined no-hitter in Major League Baseball history on April 11, 1990 against Seattle.
The four-time all-star was the American League starting pitcher in the 1993 All-Star Game and was one of the best fielding pitchers ever. He was awarded seven Gold Glove awards -- the fifth most all-time by a pitcher.
Langston is currently a broadcaster for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Evgeni Nabokov
Nabokov holds nearly every major San Jose Sharks franchise goaltending record, including games played (563), wins (293) and shutouts (50). He also finished his remarkable career ranked 18th on the NHL's all-time wins list (353). Nabokov appeared in 86 Stanley Cup Playoff games and helped lead the Sharks to two of their three franchise Western Conference Final appearances (2004, 2010). In 697 career NHL games with San Jose, the New York Islanders and Tampa Bay Lightning, Nabokov posted a 353-227-29-71 record, with a 2.44 goals-against average, a .911 save percentage and 59 shutouts.
A native of Kazakhstan, Nabokov was originally selected by the Sharks in in the ninth round (219th overall) of the 1994 Entry Draft. In his first NHL start on Jan. 19, 2000, he made 39 saves and dueled future Hall-of-Famer Patrick Roy to a 0-0 tie in Colorado. In 2001, Nabokov's first full NHL season, he received the Calder Memorial Trophy as the league's Rookie of the Year. He was also named goaltender of the 2000-01 NHL All-Rookie Team and was selected to play in the NHL All-Star Game.
During the 2007-08 season, Nabokov finished as runner-up for the Vezina Trophy, which is given to the NHL's top goaltender. He was also named to the 2007-08 NHL First All-Star Team and made another NHL All-Star Game appearance. His 46 wins and 77 appearances that season were the third-most wins and appearances in a single-season in NHL history. Nabokov was known for his stick handling skills and against Vancouver on March 10, 2002, became just the seventh NHL goaltender in history to score a goal--and the first to score while his team was on a power play.
Internationally, Nabokov represented Russia multiple times, serving as Russia's starting goaltender in the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics. He also was in goal for Russia in two World Championships in 2008 and 2011, leading the team to a gold medal in 2008. He was named to the tournament's all-star team and earned the best-goaltender trophy.
Nabokov has remained in the Sharks organization for the past several years. He serves as a development and goaltending coach, working with the organization's goaltending prospects to assist in the development of their skills and technique.