SAN BRUNO, Calif. --- The West Coast Conference will induct its seventh annual Hall of Honor class on Saturday, March 7 at the Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas, Nev. Ten individuals, one from each member institution, will be honored as part of the 2015 West Coast Conference Men's and Women's Basketball Championships.
"The West Coast Conference continues to be recognized for the great success of its athletics programs and achievements of its student-athletes, coaches and administrators," said West Coast Conference Commissioner Lynn Holzman. "The 10 inductees in the 2015 Hall of Honor class have brought significant honor to themselves, their institutions and to the Conference. We are truly humbled to have this opportunity to salute their accomplishments."
The 2015 WCC Hall of Honor class includes: BYU's Aleisha Cramer Rose (Soccer), Gonzaga's Jason Bay (Baseball), Loyola Marymount's Rick Adelman (Basketball), Pacific's Elaina Oden (Volleyball), Pepperdine's Dane Suttle (Basketball), Portland's Jim Sollars (Basketball), Saint Mary's Odell Johnson (Basketball), San Diego's Scott Thompson (Basketball), San Francisco's Jim Brovelli (Basketball) and Santa Clara's Bud Ogden (Basketball).
The Hall of Honor class will be formally inducted at the WCC Hall of Honor Brunch on Saturday, March 7 at 9 a.m. PT at the Mardi Gras Ballroom in the Orleans Hotel and will be honored during a halftime ceremony.
Tickets to the WCC Hall of Honor Brunch & Induction Ceremony are available to the public for $40 and may be purchased online using the Hall of Honor Ticket Form on WCCsports.com. Tickets must be purchased by Thursday, February 27.
A limited number of all-session passes for the 2015 West Coast Conference Men's and Women's Basketball Championships are available. For more information on the purchasing all-session passes for the tournament and where to stay, click HERE.
Bud Ogden, Santa Clara University
Bud Ogden was a catalyst for the Santa Clara men's basketball team amidst one of its most successful runs in program history. He proudly represented the Broncos from 1966-1969 and led Santa Clara to NCAA tournament appearances in 1968 and 1969. Ogden was named to the WCC All-Conference first team in 1968 and 1969, which followed a second team selection in 1967. Furthermore, Ogden was honored as an All-American selection in 1969 by the Helms Foundation and the USBWA as he led the Broncos to a No. 3 national ranking.
Ogden etched his name in the Santa Clara and WCC record books as one of the all-time greats. His 55 points against Pepperdine in 1967 still ranks tops amongst single game scoring performances at Santa Clara and is the third most all-time in a WCC game. Three other Santa Clara records he holds from that game include most points in a half, most points by a sophomore, and most field goals scored in a single game. Ogden ranks 14th in Santa Clara history with 1,437 points scored and sits 10th all-time in rebounds with 694. Ogden's scoring average of 18.2 points per game ranks third all-time in Santa Clara history.
The Bronco teams on which he played were known for scoring big and winning even bigger. The '67-'68 team averaged the most points in school history at 83.8 points per game. That team also ranks fifth in school history with 22 wins. The '68-'69 Broncos have the most single season wins in school history with 27 victories. Ogden graced the cover of Sports Illustrated for the February 1969 issue as the Broncos advanced to the elite eight of the NCAA Tournament that season.
After finishing his Santa Clara career, Ogden was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 13th pick of the first round in 1969. This was Ogden's second time being selected in the professional draft, as he was picked in 1968 by the Seattle Supersonics before choosing to return to Santa Clara for his Senior season. For his athletic accomplishments, Ogden has been selected into the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame and the Santa Clara University Athletic Hall of Fame. To further honor his great Bronco legacy, Ogden's No. 34 jersey hangs in the rafters of the Leavey Center and was raised on February 5, 2007.
Aleisha Rose Cramer, Brigham Young University
Aleisha Cramer Rose was a soccer phenom long before arriving in Provo. She was the third youngest player to ever suit up for the U.S. National Team at the age of 16 and was named National High School Player of the Year in 1999 before starting her BYU career in 2000. In her four years at BYU (2000-03), Rose never scored fewer than six goals and never had fewer than nine assists in a single season. She was a four-time All-American, including three first-team awards and was named the 2000 ESPN/Soccer Times National Freshman of the Year. As a sophomore in 2001, she was named the Chevy Young Female Athlete of the Year by the U.S. Soccer Federation.
Rose led BYU to four straight MWC titles, four trips to the NCAA tournament and was a two-time candidate for soccer's highest national honor, the Hermann Trophy. As a senior, Rose set the BYU career assist record and the single-game assist record on the same September night against Southern Utah. Her four assists against the Thunderbirds pushed her past Michelle Jensen Peterson to No. 1 on the career list. Neither record has been seriously threatened in the decade since she graduated. The team went on to reach the NCAA Elite Eight for the first time in program history, beating Colorado, Idaho State and Villanova before finally losing to Connecticut on the road. Rose is still the BYU career leader in NCAA tournament assists.
Her playing career ended after her senior season as she had previously decided to give up playing on the U.S. Women's National Team for personal reasons. She earned 16 caps for the senior national team in her career.
Rose began her coaching career the season after she graduated and she can still be found on the sidelines as an assistant to BYU head coach Jennifer Rockwood. Rose graduated in April 2005 with a degree in marriage, family and human development.
Jason Bay, Gonzaga University
A junior transfer from North Idaho College, Jason Bay needed just two years to leave his mark on the Gonzaga baseball program. The outfielder provided much-needed pop to the Bulldog lineup, tallying a .374 career batting average and 35 home runs in 1999 and 2000. Both marks are among the Zags' top-10 career totals, and many of Bay's other numbers still hold up 15 years later.
The slugger still owns two of the highest season home run totals in program history, ranking third and fifth in the category. During his first year in school, he tallied 74 RBIs – second-most in GU history – and as a senior, he led the entire West Coast Conference with a .388 batting average. Due to his impressive slugging numbers, Bay became the first Zag to earn consecutive First Team All-WCC honors, and in 2007 he was one of three Zags named to the conference's 40th Anniversary Baseball Team. With the deceptively speedy Bay manning centerfield, the Zags went on to win 27 and 28 games in 1999 and 2000, respectively. Additionally, the squad finished second in the conference during both of Bay's years, at that point the highest conference finish since 1989.
After his time at Gonzaga, Bay went onto have a prolific MLB career. He made his big-league debut in 2003 and earned National League Rookie of the Year honors a year later. Throughout his 11-year big league career, he was named to the All-Star Game three times: twice with the Pittsburgh Pirates and once with the Boston Red Sox. Bay played 1,278 major league games, amassing 1,200 hits and 222 homers, more than any other Gonzaga alum.
The native of Trail, British Columbia, also represented Canada in the 2006 and 2009 editions of the World Baseball Classic.
Rick Adelman, Loyola Marymount University
Rick Adelman led the Lions in scoring his junior and senior seasons and was the seventh player in Loyola history to reach the 1,000-point plateau. He was only the third player in school history to finish the season with a point per game average over 20 points (21.0). The two-time all-conference selection was the winner of the John Donovan Memorial Trophy, winning the WCC Player of the Year honor in 1967-68.
He graduated in 1968 and was drafted in the seventh round (79th overall pick) by the San Diego Rockets. He played until 1975 for the Rockets, Portland Trail Blazers, Chicago Bulls, New Orleans Jazz and the Kansas City-Omaha Kings. During his NBA playing career, Adelman averaged 7.7 points and 3.5 assists per game.
He went into coaching in 1977, and had a long career as a coach in the NBA, which included stints with Portland Trail Blazers (1988-93), Golden State Warriors (1995-97), Sacramento Kings (1999-06), Houston Rockets (2007-11), and the Minnesota Timberwolves (2011-2014). He finished with a record of 1,042-748 in the NBA (58.2 percent) and earned 79 wins in the playoffs, leading Portland to the NBA finals in 1989-90 and 1991-92. Adelman ranks eighth in career NBA victories and is 10th in playoff wins (79).
Elaina Oden, University of the Pacific
Elaina Oden is remembered as one of the most decorated women's volleyball players in University of the Pacific history. Oden was the key player on Pacific's back-to-back NCAA national championship teams. Highlights of those seasons included defeats of UCLA and Stanford for the NCAA title in 1985 and the steamrolling of Texas and Nebraska en route to the 1986 crown.
Oden is Pacific's all-time single season hitting percentage leader (.380 in 1985) and she was named PCAA Most Valuable Player in 1985. Until recently, Elaina held the Pacific single season kill record (547) and the all-time career kills mark (1,485). Oden's .357 hitting percentage in 1986 places her third on Pacific's all-time list.
In leading the Tigers to back-to-back NCAA Championships, Oden was named an All-America at the middle blocker position in both 1985 and 1986 as the Tigers amassed a combined record of 75-6. Volleyball Monthly recognized her as its 1986 National Player of the Year. Elaina added a third All-America honor in 1989, helping the Tigers to a record of 29-5. She is one of three Tiger volleyball players to have their jersey number retired by the Pacific Athletic Department.
When it comes to career records, the seven-year member of the United States National Team currently ranks second in career hitting percentage (.341), third in digs (1,229), third in block solos (138), fourth in block assists (396), and fourth in total blocks (534). In addition, Oden set the Pacific freshman record of 547 kills in 1985.
During her tenure on the U.S. National Team, Oden played in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, and the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. She also competed in the 1986 Goodwill Games and the 1986 World Championships. Elaina was a member of the U.S. Junior National Team in 1985 and was nominated for the NCAA's Broderick Award in 1985 and 1986.
Dane Suttle, Pepperdine University
For more than 30 years, one man's name – Dane Suttle -- has stood atop the list that marks the all-time scoring leaders in Pepperdine men's basketball history. Suttle, a 6-foot-3 guard, came to Pepperdine as a freshman in 1979-80 after earning All-City honors at Fremont High School in Los Angeles. Four years later, Suttle finished up as the school's all-time leader in points, field goals made, assists, steals and games played.
While most of those records have been broken in the decades since, Suttle still holds the scoring mark with a total of 1,701 points. After averaging 23.4 points per game as a senior in 1982-83 – the third-best average in school single-season history and a figure that ranked him 14th nationally – Suttle was named All-American honorable mention by the Associated Press and shared the West Coast Conference's Player of the Year award.
Suttle also averaged 16.8 points as a junior, leading to All-WCC first team honors, and 15.1 as a sophomore.
Only five players in Pepperdine history have scored at least 40 points in a game, and Suttle accomplished the feat when he poured in 41 points in a 101-92 victory at rival LMU during his senior year.
Over his four seasons playing for head coach Jim Harrick, the Waves went 75-39 (.658), won at least a share of three WCC regular-season titles and advanced to the postseason three times. Pepperdine appeared in the NIT his freshman year and in the NCAA Tournament when he was a junior and senior.
Suttle was taken by the Kansas City Kings in the seventh round of the 1983 NBA Draft, and he would play two seasons for the Kings. In his best-ever game he scored 26 points at Detroit during his rookie campaign. For his career he averaged 5.6 points in 46 games. Suttle, who returned to Pepperdine to earn his bachelor's degree in physical education in 1994, has three children: Cache, Audom and Dane Jr. (the last of which was a four-year letter-winner at Pepperdine who graduated in 2012).
Jim Sollars, University of Portland
Long-time University of Portland women's basketball head coach Jim Sollars retired following the 2013-14 season, ending a 28-year run at the helm of the Pilots. Sollars, who compiled nearly 400 wins with the Pilots and won 565 games overall as a collegiate head coach, was a five-time West Coast Conference Coach of the Year and he led the Pilots to four consecutive NCAA Tournaments during the mid-1990's.
Sollars, who also served the university as a history professor during his first 11 years on The Bluff, ended his career second all-time in WCC wins with 166. He won 388 games at UP, compiled 411 victories overall at the NCAA Division I level, and posted a 565-513 career record as a collegiate head coach. Under Sollars' leadership at Portland, 39 players earned All-WCC honors, four players were named the WCC Player of the Year, and he coached two Pilots (Laura Sale and Deana Lansing) to honorable mention All-America status. His players also consistently excelled in the classroom as he guided 41 WCC All-Academic Team selections, 14 CoSIDA Academic All-Region Team picks and one WCC Scholar Athlete of the Year, while two athletes earned first team CoSIDA Academic All-America honors.
Sollars arrived at UP in 1986 with ten years of previous head coaching experience. He led his 1987-88 team to a 17-11 record, a second-place WCC finish and garnered his first WCC Coach of the Year award. Sollars claimed the school's first WCC Basketball Championship (men or women) in 1991-92 and he was again named the WCC Coach of the Year, making him the first coach in the WCC to win the award twice. During the 1990's, Sollars had four consecutive NCAA Tournament berths (1993-97), including the first in school history in 1993-94. From 1993-99, Sollars and the Pilots compiled a 125-51 (.710) record, including a 27-3 mark during the 1996-97 season, the program's best since joining the NCAA Division-I ranks.
His 1993-94 team captured the WCC Tournament Championship to earn the school's first NCAA Tournament bid. Sollars guided the Pilots to NCAA at-large berths in 1995, 1996 and 1997. During that 1996-97 season, the team went 27-3 overall for the second-highest win total in program history, won a second-consecutive WCC Championship (the third overall during Sollars' tenure), became the first team in league history to go undefeated (14-0) in WCC play and was the school's first NCAA Division-I basketball team to earn a national ranking (highest rating No. 21 USA Today/No. 25 in the final poll). Sollars was named WBCA District-8 Coach of the Year and was WCC Coach of the Year for a fourth time.
Sollars nabbed his fifth and final league coach of the year honor in 2008-09 when he led the Pilots to the WNIT. A berth to the WBI followed in 2009-10, giving Sollars seven postseason trips during his storied career.
Prior to UP, Sollars coached at Wenatchee Valley Community College (1976-83) and Portland State University (1983-86). His Wenatchee program won six Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (NWAACC) regional championships and compiled a 154-25 record (.860). Besides building a basketball dynasty, Sollars was also the dean of WVCC's social sciences department for two years and its athletics director for one year.
Odell Johnson, Saint Mary's College
A 1958 graduate of Saint Mary's College, Odell Johnson played two seasons as a standout guard on the Gaels men's basketball team and was one of the top players in school history. Voted as the program's 10th best player ever in a recent All-Century honor team, he played in a total of 52 games and averaged 16.4 points per game, scoring a total of 851 points in two seasons. Odell's biggest game came in his first season with the Gaels, as he scored 40 points against Pepperdine on January 7, 1956 – still the second best mark in program history.
As a senior, Odell averaged 15.9 points and 8.7 rebounds per game while helping the Gaels post a 17-9 record and post a second place finish in the West Coast Athletic Conference with a 10-4 mark. An outstanding free throw shooter, Odell made 345 of 424 attempts from the foul line to shoot 81.4 percent from the line for his career. The Gaels posted a 33-19 record for a .634 winning percentage in Odell's two season's with the program.
After graduation, he became the first African American head varsity basketball coach between Los Angeles and San Francisco when he accepted a position as coach and math instructor at San Joaquin Memorial High School. After four years at San Joaquin and a stint with the Fresno Unified School District, he was appointed as the Executive Director of Trinity Street Community Center in West Fresno, which was selected as one of the top to programs nationally in President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty program.
In 1968, he returned to Saint Mary's as the Dean of Men. Two years later, when the College began accepting female students, he was promoted to Dean of Student Affairs and became one of just four African Americans in the national serving in this position at a predominantly white college. He later served in numerous administrative positions, including Vice President for Instruction at College of Alameda and an 18-year tenure as President of Laney College.
Johnson has been bestowed numerous honors over the years for his athletic, civic and community involvement and administrative achievements. He is a member of the SMC Athletic Hall of Fame, served on the school's Alumni Board of Directors and currently serves on the Board of Regents. In 1967, he was presented the Urban Services Award by Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and in 2006 earned the Leadership Award by the National Council for Black American Affairs.
Scott Thompson, University of San Diego
Scott Thompson turned in an outstanding basketball career for the Toreros and played a key role in guiding the University of San Diego to two NCAA Tournament appearances and two West Coast Conference Championships (1984, 1987). The 7-footer was the team's starting center all four years during his illustrious career at Alcala Park.
During his senior year he started all 30 games in leading the Toreros to a school-best 24-6 mark; a WCC championship 13-1 record; a perfect 14-0 home record; and to an NCAA Tournament berth. The Toreros won a school record fourteen consecutive games and finished the season ranked No. 1 in the nation in field goal percentage defense (.401). He averaged 15.9 points per game and 7.4 rebounds per game on his way to earning the West Coast Conference Player of the Year honor. He scored a career-best 31 points (at Utah) and grabbed a career-high 18 rebounds (vs. LMU). Additionally he collected his second straight team Most Valuable Player award.
The program's only 3-time All-West Coast Conference First Team selection, Thompson also earned WCC Freshman of the Year honors in 1983-1984 after helping lead the Toreros to the league title and to their first NCAA Division I Tournament appearance. Over his career Scott played in 113 games, starting the final 105 games he played in, with the team going a combined 77-36 (.681 winning percentage). He finished with a field goal percentage of .541 (567-1048) and free throw percentage of .728 (241-331). In the USD Torero Division I record book following his final season in 1987, Scott was first in blocked shots (183), second in rebounding (740) and third in scoring (1,379 points). He was inducted into USD's Chet and Marguerite Pagni Family Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000.
Jim Brovelli, University of San Francisco
Jim Brovelli has left an indelible mark on the West Coast Conference as both a student-athlete and coach. A former USF point guard from 1961-64, Brovelli helped the Dons to a 41-14 record, two conference titles and a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances in his final two seasons on the Hilltop. After spending time as an assistant coach under his mentor Pete Peletta, Brovelli was named head basketball coach at the University of San Diego where he guided the Toreros from a successful Division II program to membership in the West Coast Conference. In 1984, Brovelli led the Toreros to the WCC title and the program's first ever Division I NCAA Tournament berth. For his efforts, he was named the WCC's and District Coach of the Year. He left San Diego as the school's all-time winningest coach.
Brovelli returned to his alma mater for the 1985-86 season to usher in an new era of Dons basketball. The Dons posted back-to-back winning seasons in 1993 (19-12) and 1994 (17-11) and finished second in the league standings in '94. His 131 coaching victories rank fourth all-time among USF head coaches while his combined 76 triumphs in league play still rank 12th on the conference's all-time career list.
After leaving USF following the 1994-95 season, Brovelli was named director of player development for the Denver Nuggets in 1996 and later that season assumed the role of an assistant coach. He later joined long-time friend Bernie Bickerstaff as an assistant coach on the Washington Wizards and was appointed the team's interim head coach for the final 18 games of the 1999 season.
He wrapped up his coaching career following a one-year (1999-2000) stint as the head coach of the CBA's Sioux Falls Skyforce. A standout high school player at St. Ignatius Preparatory in San Francisco, Jim is a member of the San Francisco Prep Hall of Fame and has been inducted into both the USF and San Diego halls of fame.