May 1, 1997

Nine Former Athletes Named to Cal's Athletic Hall of Fame

BERKELEY, Calif. -- Former Olympic champion and world record holder Matt Biondi heads a class of eight former Golden Bear athletes and a team physican who were announced today as the 1997 selections to Cal's Athletic Hall of Fame. The group will be formally inducted on Friday, Oct. 10, in the annual banquet at the Central Park Restaurant in the Kaiser Center in downtown Oakland. They will also be honored at halftime on Oct. 11, during the Bears home game against the Washington Huskies.

The class of '97 brings the total number of athletes enshrined in Cal's Hall of Fame to 138 individuals and four crews, each of whom represent the best of Cal's rich athletic heritage. The Cal Hall of Fame was inaugurated in 1986.

Biondi, who stared in the 1984, '88 and '92 Olympics, will be joining fellow Olympic gold medalist Joy Biefeld (Fawcett), whose women's soccer team captured the gold in Atlanta this past summer. The seven other former athletes selected for 1997 include former football coach Leonard "Stub" Allison, water polo great Peter Asch, basketball star Phil Chenier, rugby and football standout Gary Hein, football legend Jesse "Duke" Morrison, longtime team physician Dr. Jerry Patmont and Olympic half-miler Jerry Siebert.

Probably the greatest freestyler in American history, Matt Biondi has an amazing 11 Olympic medals to his credit. Biondi also set 12 world records during his swimming career and claimed nine individual NCAA records along with a pair of NCAA relay records. He continues to hold the American records in the 100-yard freestyle (41.80) and the 200 freestyle (1:33.03), a decade after he set them. Biondi also holds the Pac-10 record with a 19.15 clocking in the 50-yard freestyle and won an Olympic bronze medal on the United State's 400 free relay team while a freshman at Cal. He came back to capture gold medals in 1988 in the 50 free and 100 free, along with a silver in the 100 butterfly and a bronze in the 200 free, while taking home a gold in both the 400 free relay and 400 medley relay for the U.S. Biondi again returned for the 1992 Olympics and won the silver medal in the 50 free and won a gold in the 400 free relay for the United States.

A key member of the United State's gold medal-winning women's soccer team, Joy Biefeld Fawcett has been one of the country's top soccer players for the past decade. Biefeld lettered at Cal four years from 1986-89 and earned national Player of the Year honors in 1987 and '88. She holds the Bears career record for goals, assists and points with 55 goals, 23 assists for 133 points. Biefeld had a school-record 23 goals in 1987 as a sophomore and led Cal to two consecutive third place finishes in the NCAA Tournament in '87 and '88. She has been a starting defender on the U.S. National Team since 1987 and scored the game-winning goal for a 1-0 American victory over Canada in the 1993 CONCACAF Championship. Biefeld married husband Walter Fawcett in 1991 and will be starting her third season UCLA's head women's soccer coach this fall.

Leonard "Stub" Allison coached at Cal for 10 years and compiled a 58-42-2 overall record, leading the Bears to a 13-0 Rose Bowl victory over Alabama in 1938. It remains Cal's last Rose Bowl victory. Allison saw duty in World War I and was nicknamed "Top Sarge." He coached the Bears "Thunder Teams" including the 1937 team which posted a 10-0-1 record and finished as the No. 2 ranked team in the nation in the final AP poll, and National Champions by the Newspaper Enterprises Association. Among the All-Americans Allison coached were Bob Herwig, John Meek, Sam Chapman, Vic Bottari, Larry Lutz, Perry Schwartz, Vard Stockton and Bob Reinhard.

Peter Asch lettered on the Cal water polo team for three years between 1967 and '69, earning All-America honors each of those three years. Asch stood out on the 1969 team that finished second in the first ever NCAA men's water polo championship. He was Cal's team captain in '68 and '69 and a member of the 1972 U.S. Olympic team and the 1971 and '75 Pan American Games teams. Asch helped the United States win a bronze medal in the 1972 Olympics and a Pan Am Games gold medal in '71. He also was a part of the bronze medal U.S. team at the 1973 World Championships. Asch was the U.S. Water Polo Player of the Year and was the sport's Sullivan Award Nominee in 1975. He is a 1984 inductee in the U.S. Water Polo Hall of Fame and a 1987 inductee in the International Water Polo Hall of Fame.

Averaging 14.9 points a game over his two-year career (1970-71) as a Golden Bear, Phil Chenier is tied for the eighth-best career scoring average at Cal. He also ranks No. 6 on the Bears career assist list with an average of 4.0 per game (114 in 28 games). Chenier averaged 18.3 points per game during the 1970-71 conference season and scored 32 points against Washington in 1971. He had averaged 10.3 points as a sophomore in 1969-70, but really came on as a junior in helping the Bears turn around a 11-15 club to a 16-9 record, averaging 16.8 points a game. Chenier earned first team Pac-8 honors in 1971 and entered the NBA after his junior season. He went on to a distinguished nine-year pro career with the Washington Bullets. As a Bullet, he was a three-time All-Star selection and just recently concluded his 13th straight season as Washington's TV analyst for HTS and WBDC-50.

One of Cal's finest rugby players who also lettered four years in football, Gary Hein was a four-time All-American in rugby and captured the Woodley Award as the top collegian in 1987 and '88. Hein helped the Bears to national collegiate titles in 1985, '86 and '88, and was the Daily Cal Male Athlete of the Year in 1987-88. He was a member of the U.S. National Team (Eagles) from 1986-94, was captain of the U.S. Sevens in 1992 and '93 and helped the Old Blues to a national club title in 1992. Hein was a member of the Oxford University Rugby Club from 1989 to '91 and was the first American (along with Cal teammate Don James) to play in the Oxford-Cambridge match in both 1989 and '90 since Army's Pete Dawkins in 1959. He started two years at cornerback at Cal and earned honorable mention Pac-10 honors as a senior.

Jesse "Duke" Morrison, football star in the early 20s, is Cal's all-time record holder in several categories, including most touchdowns in a career (42) and most points in a season (131 in 1922, which also led the nation that year). Morrison's 277 career point total was a Cal school record for over 70 years, until broken by Doug Brien in 1993. He was a three-year letterman at fullback, leading the Bears to a 27-0-2 record from 1920-22. Morrison earned third team All-America on the Walter Camp team in 1922.

A popular figure around the Cal Athletic Department for over three decades, Dr. Jerome Patmont served as Cal Team Physician from 1961 through 1991, and ended up staying as team physician in 1992, after his actual retirement. Renowned in sports medicine, Patmont was a member of the medical staff of the 1975 Pan-American Games in Mexico City and was a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic medical corps. He served as the official physician of the Japan Bowl for 13 years and has been a long-time member of the Bear Backers.

One of the world's top half-milers, Jerry Siebert competed at Cal from 1959 and '60 and was on two U.S. Olympic teams in the 800 both in 1960 and in '64. Siebert placed sixth in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and was part of a world record two-mile relay team in 1960, along with Cal teammate Jack Yerman. He won the national AAU 880 title in 1962 and finished second in the NCAA 880 race in 1960.

1997 California Hall of Fame Inductees

Name                       Sport(s)                Year(s)
Leonard "Stub" Allison     Football Coach          1935-44
Peter Asch                 Water Polo              1967-69
Joy Biefeld (Fawcett)      Soccer                  1986-89
Matt Biondi                Swimming, Water Polo    1984-87
Phil Chenier               Basketball              1970-71
Gary Hein                  Rugby, Football         1983-87
Jesse B. "Duke" Morrison   Football                1920-22
Dr. Jerry Patmont          Team Physician          1961-92
Jerry Siebert              Track & Field           1959-60