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High school notebook: Shafter Hall of Fame to honor its first class
| Wednesday, Sep 24 2008 10:59 PM
Last Updated: Thursday, Sep 25 2008 7:35 AM
Before he became Shafter's athletic director, Doug Thompson was a freshman football coach, kicking around ideas with other assistants last spring.
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"Wouldn't it be cool to have an athletic Hall of Fame?" one of them said.
Shortly thereafter, Thompson interviewed for the AD job and sold the idea to the school district. He was hired and now, on Oct. 25 at the Shafter Veterans Hall, the first Hall of Fame class for an 80-year old school will be inducted.
"The guys were right: We needed to do it," Thompson said. "You look back at the '40s, the '50s, the '60s, we've produced some outstanding athletes out of Shafter."
Eleven of them will be inducted next month:
Salvador Palomo (class of 1944), a multi-sport athlete who dominated in football during World War II.
Tom Fletcher (1949), who went on to play football at Arizona State and coach at ASU, Missouri and for the New England Patriots.
The late Paul Cato (1951), who a football and track standout who went on to Fresno State.
Edward Ellis (1956), an elite running back and hurdler who competed at Arizona State before an injury cut his career short.
Jesse Bradford (1957), still a national-record holder in the 180-yard and 220-yard low hurdles (the events are no longer normally contested at the high school level).
Dick Witcher (1962), a junior-college All-American football player at Bakersfield College who later played in the Rose Bowl for UCLA and in the NFL.
Mark Larson (1965), a sharp-shooting basketball guard who attended what's now UNLV.
Jan Steubbe (1969), a Tyack Award winner who is now the athletic director at BC.
David Turner (1974), a premier running back who set the state yardage record at BC and later played for San Diego State and the Cincinnati Bengals.
Paul Bender (1980), Shafter's first discus state champion.
Claude Gilbert (coached from 1960-62), who went undefeated with the Generals in 1962 and later coached at BC, in major-college ball and the NFL.
After a social hour from 5:30-6:30, dinner will be served before a 7:45 ceremony on Oct. 25. Tickets are $30. For more information, contact Thompson at 661-746-4961.
HOLY BOWL TO ROLL SATURDAY
Garces will host each of Fresno-San Joaquin Memorial's fall sports teams Saturday to contest the annual "Holy Bowl."
Two trophies will be at stake: The Thez-Carroll Cup, awarded to the school with the most wins in all sports at the end of the school year (Memorial leads with victories in boys and girls water polo earlier this month).
The winner of the 7:30 p.m. football game will win the Bishop Donahue Trophy. Garces has won the last two meetings, 49-3 and 34-7.
Memorial and Garces, still the only two Catholic high schools in the Central Section, were founded in 1945 and 1947, respectively, by the Christian Brothers.
FORMER GARCES KICKER FINCH SETS RECORD AT D-II SW BAPTIST
Former Garces kicker Justin Finch set a school record with 11 extra points in Southwest Baptist's 83-6 victory against Bethany College in Bolivar, Mo., on Saturday.
Finch is 20-for-20 on extra points this year and missed his only field goal try, a 35-yarder, for the 2-2 Bearcats. SBU is a Division II independent that was playing Bethany (Lindsborg, Kan.), an NAIA school.