April 23, 2002

BERKELEY - Key members of past football and men's basketball national championship teams, a pair of Pac-10 Players of the Year, two NCAA track and field champions, and perhaps the finest American female water polo player of the past two decades, have all been selected for induction into the California Athletic Hall of Fame this fall, the school announced today.

The Class of 2002 includes football standouts Perry Schwartz and Mike Pawlawski, basketball star Al Buch, former Major League baseball shortstop Rod Booker, track and field All-Americans Martin Biles and Ed Miller, and former USA national team water polo captain and swimmer Lynn Wittstock.

Formal induction ceremonies for this prestigious group are scheduled for Friday evening, Sept. 27, at the annual Hall of Fame banquet in Haas Pavilion on campus. They will also be honored at halftime of the Bears' home football game against Washington State at California Memorial Stadium the following afternoon, Sept. 28

With the addition of seven members, Cal's Hall of Fame now features 178 individuals and five crews. The school's Hall of Fame was inaugurated in 1986, with this year's group representing the 17th class of inductees.

Schwartz, the only member of the class to be honored posthumously, was a former Rose Bowl hero who earned first team All-America recognition on California's 1937 football team that posted a 10-0-1 record. A multi-faceted athlete who also twice lettered on the Cal tennis squad, he was named to the Pacific Coast Conference and All-Coast first teams as a two-way player. Perhaps his finest moment came in the 1938 Rose Bowl, when he caused an Alabama fumble by hitting the Crimson Tide's punt returner so hard the ball fell loose. The play set up the Golden Bears' first touchdown in a 13-0 victory in Pasadena. Schwartz went on to play football professionally with the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1938-42.

One of Cal's winningest quarterbacks of the modern era, Pawlawski engineered the Bears to bowl games in each of his two seasons as a starter in 1990 and '91. As a senior, he won Pac-10 Co-Offensive Player of the Year accolades in leading the Bears to a 10-2 record and No. 7 national ranking-the school's best mark in 41 years dating back to Pappy Waldorf's 1950 team that posted a 9-1-1 record.

Pawlawksi, now a local broadcaster for FOX Sports' California Sports Magazine weekly television show, completed 60.4 percent (191-of-361) of his passes for 2,517 yards and 21 touchdowns as a senior. He carved up Clemson for 230 yards (21-of-32 passing) with no interceptions in a 37-13 win in the 1992 Citrus Bowl. He threaded 194 of 325 attempts for 2,241 yards and 18 TDs as a junior in propelling Cal to a 7-4-1 mark and 19-17 victory over Wyoming in the 1990 Copper Bowl. Concluding his career with a 17-6-1 record as a starting college quarterback, Pawlawski later played one NFL season with Tampa Bay before starring for the Albany Firebirds in the Arena Football League for several years. He finished his professional career as the starting quarterback for the 2001 San Francisco Demons of the XFL, a league that folded after one season.

Buch (pronounced BUCK) served as team captain of Cal's 1959 national championship team. He was a driving force behind the Bears' 25-4 season, which included a 64-58 win over Cincinnati and Oscar Robertson in the NCAA semifinals and a 71-70 victory over West Virginia and Jerry West in the NCAA final. Buch, a first team All-Pacific Coast Conference choice who averaged 9.2 points per game as a senior, scored 18 points against Cincinnati in the semifinal game. He also averaged 9.5 points per contest as a junior in 1957-58, and was voted as one of five members of the National Association of Basketball Coaches' Silver Anniversary All-America Team, an honor based on basketball and lifetime achievements. Buch later built a highly successful tire business, EMPCO Industries, based in Glendale, Calif.

Booker, who batted .315 as a slick fielding All-American shortstop as a senior, was named Pac-10 Co-Player of the Year in 1980 after leading Cal to a 44-23-1 record and a share of the Pac-10 championship. He set a school record by playing in 68 games in '80, as he led the Bears to a third-place finish at the College World Series that year. Booker, also a first team NCAA District 8 selection as a senior, went on to play in the Major Leagues with the St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies from 1987-91.

One of Cal's all-time great javelin throwers, Biles won NCAA championships in the event in both 1940 and '41. He set the school and Edwards Stadium record with a throw of 227-11 in 1941, and later enjoyed an outstanding amateur career with the Olympic Club. Biles won national AAU championships in 1943 and '44, and placed sixth in the 1948 London Olympics after finishing first in the U.S. Olympic Trials in Evanston, Ill. A retired Colonel in the U.S. Air Force, he once served as Division Director of the Atomic Energy Commission and earned a Ph.D. in engineering from North Carolina State. He served as an assistant professor on Cal's engineering faculty in the 1950's.

Miller won the 1976 NCAA decathlon title with a school-record 7,443 points, an effort that broke the existing Cal mark that had stood for 42 years. After graduation, he posted a career-best of 7,708 points in 1980. Miller currently serves as assistant coach on Cal's track and field team, where he has helped developed two NCAA decathlon champions in Chris Huffins (1993) and Bevan Hart (2000). Huffins also won the bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

While she earned All-America honors twice in swimming (1982 and 1984) at Cal, Wittstock's greatest successes came in water polo, where she was generally regarded as one of the finest players in America for the better part of two decades. She played on Cal's club water polo team from 1981-84 and participated on the USA National Team from 1984-98. Wittstock, a Berkeley native who competed in four World Championships, served as the USA National Team captain from 1987-90 and 1992-98. She capped her international career by being elected as flag bearer for the USA delegation at the Opening Ceremonies of the 1998 World Aquatic Championships. During her career, she was named United States Olympic Committee Water Polo Athlete of the Year three times (1993, '95 and '96) and was nominated for the 1996 Sullivan Award as the nation's top amateur athlete.