Tyler McGee
The stars of Pierce’s athletic past were honorred March 29 at the Woodland Hills country club.
The Pierce athletic department opening its first hall of fame inducted 12 members into the inaugural class.
The class included Ray Bishop, Denny Crum, Doug DeCinces, Marv Dunphy, Geri Fiorello, Erwin Goldbloom, Mark Harmon, Erik Kramer, Bob Lyons, Ken Stanley, Paul Xanthos and Barry Zito.
To start the day’s festivities there was a Golf Tournament and raffle drawing. Prizes for the raffle included bottles of wine, rounds of golf, gift cards, autographed memorabilia and bags.
The dinner was started off by a movie composed of history of Pierce athletic photos daring back to the schools inception to today. To go along with the movie was music being played by.
Also announced at the dinner was the male and female athlete of the year along with the Scholar athlete of the year. Male athlete of the year was given to football player Coleman Edmond who is going to the University of California Berkeley. Female athlete of the year was given to Stephanie Cubias who is going to California State University Bakersfield. Scholar athlete of the year was given to tennis player Ari Cohen.
Hall of fame inductee Barry Zito was not able to attend to the dinner because of his schedule with the San Francisco Giants. Zito’s sister Sally Zito was there to represent his induction into the hall of fame. It was also announced by athletic director Bob Lofrano who also coached Zito while at Pierce that Zito had started a scholarship worth 5,000 dollars for a baseball player at Pierce who needs financial help.
Inductions were run in alphabetical order starting with former football coach Bishop who died in 2008 and ended with former starting pitcher Zito who was not in attendance.
All inductees kept their stories light hearted with the sporadic joke but every inductee repeated the same theme. Every inductee talked about how much of an opportunity it was coming to Pierce.
From Crum who attended Pierce in the 1950’s and coached in the 1960’s to Harmon who attended Pierce in the early 1970’s both preached about the academic side of attending Pierce.
Crum talked about how he was groomed by then basketball coach Collins Jones and teachers before moving on to UCLA to play under the legendary Bruins coach John Wooden.
Former wrestling coach Erwin Goldbloom talked about the youth of the people that were coaching at the same time as he was. Goldbloom said that himself, Crum and Ken Stanley, shared the small office looking into the south gym.
“We were all just young,” said Goldbloom saying how Stanley and Crum sharing the small office with three desks in it constantly elbowing each other.
The dinner honoring Pierce’s athletic past by reminiscing stories of recruitment to Pierce or a player they coached at Pierce or a former teammate being recruited to a university.
Also brought up at the dinner was a piece of cement that is going to be stored in the hall of fame showcase. A piece of cement with Mark Harmon’s name on it as well as teammates and the Brahmas score of a 55-7 win over Bakersfield on it.
When Harmon was talking during his induction speech took no credit of it and also said he had no knowledge of it until then.
“I’m not dumb enough to put my name in cement,” said Harmon during his speech.
Several inductees talked about the honor in being in the Pierce hall of fame.
Crum talked about how he is a member of allot of hall of fame’s but gave strong words about the Pierce honor.
“There’s nothing I’m more proud of than this,” said Crum who is also a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
The strongest words of the night came from Paul Xanthos’ widow Kiki Xanthos.
“This tonight, is the ultimate gift you could have given him,” said Kiki Xanthos with tears in her eyes while struggling to finish words.
Denny Crum sprays sand as he takes a chip shot from the bunker on the 13th hole during the Pierce Hall of Fame golf tournament at the Woodland Hills Country Club, March 29. (Louie Heredia / Roundup )
