San Jose Sports Hall of Fame Announces Class of 2024

SJSHOF CLASS OF 2024 / DETAILED BIOS

John Arrillaga – Few people make the sort of enduring and indelible mark on their university that John Arrillaga achieved during his time at Stanford. He has been called the most influential figure in the history of Cardinal athletics. Arrillaga grew up in a blue-collar Southern California household before earning a basketball scholarship as a 6-foot-4 Stanford forward. In 1957, he famously led a comeback and scored the winning points with three seconds remaining in a stunning upset of the University San Francisco, then ranked No. 4 in the nation. A three-year starter, Arrillaga was named first team all-conference and a third team All American after the 1959-60 season. After graduation, he and partner Richard Perry founded one of the Santa Clara Valley’s most successful development firms as the region transitioned from fruit orchards to high-tech startups. Arrillaga used the knowledge and wealth he acquired to dramatically transform Stanford’s athletic plant into one the nation envied. Six different sports facilities are named after him and his family, along with numerous other Stanford projects and programs across the campus. He sponsored more than 300 scholarships and endowed several dozen, including those utilized by such well-known Cardinal athletes as golfer Tiger Woods, swimmer Katie Ledecky and football running back Christian McCaffrey. Arrillaga was also known for his personal touch in sharing his advice and acumen to each generation of Stanford student-athletes, sometimes during barbecues at his home for teams that had won national championships. His most famous undertaking was the personal supervision of Stanford’s new football stadium construction in 2006, which Arrillaga managed to finish in less than nine months so that the team would not miss any scheduled home games. In 2013, his $151 million donation to Stanford was the largest single such gift from a living individual to the university. In 2009, the school presented him its highest honor by awarding Arrillaga the Degree of Uncommon Man.

Robert Guerrero – As a young boy growing up in Gilroy, Robert Guerrero learned to box under the watchful eye of his father, Ruben, a former amateur champion in the sport. Early on, as Guerrero frustrated opponents with the way he eluded punches, he earned a nickname of “The Ghost.” He won a Junior Olympics gold medal at age 15 and turned professional three years later. Fighting at 126 pounds, he won his first 12 pro fights, including a 2004 technical knockout of former world champion Enrique Sanchez. Guerrero kept progressing up the featherweight ladder until 2006, when he defeated champion Eric Aiken in Los Angeles to claim the International Boxing Federation (IBF) featherweight title when Aiken failed to come out of his corner for the ninth round. Guerrero’s subsequent title loss to Orlando Salido was altered to a no contest after Salido tested positive for steroids following the bout. Guerrero then chose to move up a weight class to 130 pounds and in 2009 claimed the IBF Super Featherweight championship in a 12-round unanimous decision over South Africa’s Malcolm Klassen. A big money fight was scheduled next, against lightweight champ Katsidis of Australia, but fate intervened. Guerrero’s wife, Casey, was diagnosed with leukemia and informed that she needed a bone marrow transplant to survive. Guerrero took a one-year break from competition to see her through the procedure and recovery. With the transplant a success, Guerrero finally met Katsidis in 2011 for an interim title and won a 12-round decision. “The Ghost” next set his sights on the welterweight championship belt held by Floyd Mayweather. The matchup came together after Guerrero’s unanimous 12-round decision over title contender Selcuk Aydin at HP Pavilion (now SAP Center) in San Jose. In May of 2013, Guerrero’s much-anticipated bout against Mayweather took place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. “The Ghost” was a heavy underdog but earned international respect by holding his own for 12 rounds against Mayweather before losing on a decision. A dozen more fights followed for Guerrero, many of them nationally televised. They included a memorable and bloody 12-round decision against Japan’s Yoshihiro Kamegai in 2014, as well as a 2015 comeback victory over Aron Martinez in 10 rounds after Guererro had been knocked to the canvas in the fourth round. After “The Ghost” announced his retirement in 2017, the ring has lured him back more than once. But with his lifetime record of 38 wins, six losses and one draw, Guerrero’s championship reputation and legacy are secure.

Mike Holmgren – The Super Bowl triumphs of Mike Holmgren had modest beginnings. In 1975 at Oak Grove High School in San Jose, football coach Phil Stearns was tipped off about Holmgren, then a bright young assistant coach at another Bay Area prep program. Stearns hired the 27-year-old Holmgren as Oak Grove’s offensive coordinator. For the next six seasons, Holmgren gave Oak Grove’s opponents fits with an imaginative offense while also teaching history and performing in a faculty rock band with a 1950s repertoire and featured his vocals as “Manifold Mike.” After winning a 1978 CCS title with Stearns, Holmgren left Oak Grove in 1980 to join the San Francisco State coaching staff and a year later was hired to coach quarterbacks at Brigham Young University under LaVell Edwards. Holmgren helped the Cougars win the 1984 national championship as he developed future pros Steve Young and Robbie Bosco. San Francisco 49ers head coach Bill Walsh took note. In 1986, he hired Holmgren to coach the Niners’ quarterbacks. His six seasons with Joe Montana and Young, three of them after being promoted to offensive coordinator, helped produce two Super Bowl victories and the NFL’s top-ranked offense. The Green Bay Packers gave Holmgren his first head coaching opportunity in 1992 and by 1995 had steered the franchise to its first division title in 23 years. A year later, as Holmgren developed quarterback Brett Favre into a league MVP, the Packers won their first Super Bowl championship since 1967. Green Bay repeated as NFC champions in 1997. Two years later, Holmgren accepted the Seattle Seahawks’ offer to become their head coach and general manager, then built the organization into a perennial winner with five division titles and the Seahawks’ first Super Bowl appearance after the 2005 season. Holmgren is one of just seven men to coach two different franchises to a Super Bowl and was the first to post 75 NFL victories with two teams. He was Seattle’s all-time winningest head coach when he resigned following the 2008 season, concluding his combined overall career with a 174-122 won-loss record. Holmgren grew up in San Francisco, where he played quarterback at Abraham Lincoln High and earned a scholarship to the University of Southern California, where he was a member of the Trojans’ 1967 national championship team.

Kerri Walsh Jennings – No one was more influential in beach volleyball’s ascension as an Olympic sport than Kerri Walsh Jennings, who grew up in the South Bay but went on to conquer the world. Her three Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal as a USA athlete brought millions of television viewers to the competition and inspired millions of others to take up the activity on their local sand. At San Jose’s Archbishop Mitty High School, Walsh Jennings split her time between basketball and volleyball and led both teams to four straight Central Coast Section titles. The Mitty volleyball team also won three state championships, while the basketball team won three Northern California titles with one state championship. Her career continued at Stanford, where she was named a first team All-American all four of her years with the Cardinal, while contributing to two NCAA title teams. At age 22, Walsh Jennings made her first Olympic trip as a member of America’s indoor volleyball team in 2000 to Sydney. After the USA failed to win a medal as Walsh Jennings dealt with shoulder issues, she was approached by American teammate Misty May-Treanor to make the conversion to the beach game. Walsh Jennings accepted the offer. The twosome became the most successful duo in history. They blended brainy strategy and athletic talent to dominate their sport between 2002 and 2012, winning gold at the Athens, Beijing, and London Games. In the leadup to the Greece competition, Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor won 90 straight matches and never lost a set en route to the top step of the Olympic podium Kerri’s wedding to fellow beach volleyball player Casey Jennings followed in 2005, as Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor began another 112-match winning streak that concluded with 2008 Olympic gold in China against the host country’s top-ranked team, Tian Jia and Wang Jie. Over the next three years, Walsh Jennings gave birth to two children and was five weeks pregnant with her third in 2012 as she began her next Olympic quest with May-Treanor. They again outclassed the field at the scenic Horse Guards Parade grounds venue near Buckingham Palace in London. Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor won their 21 st straight match at the Games and defeated fellow Americans April Ross and Jennifer Kessy in straight sets for another gold medal. When May-Treanor subsequently announced her retirement, Walsh Jennings invited Ross to be her partner in the runup to the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. Following the birth of her third child, Walsh Jennings found quick chemistry with Ross as they qualified for the USA team. They reached the semifinals in Rio but lost to Brazil’s Agatha Bednarczuk and Barbara Seixas de Freitas. It was the only defeat suffered by Walsh Jennings during her entire Olympic career. Two days later, she and Ross won the bronze medal match over another Brazilian duo, Larissa Franca and Talita Antunes. At age 38, Walsh Jennings once more stood on the medal podium, wrapping up her final Games as the most decorated beach volleyball player, male or female, in the sport’s history.

ABOUT THE SAN JOSE SPORTS AUTHORITY

The San Jose Sports Authority is a non-profit organization whose mission is to increase the City of San Jose’s economic development, visibility, and civic pride through sports. Serving as the City’s sports commission since its inception in 1991, the Sports Authority has provided leadership and support to attract and host hundreds of sporting events in San Jose and the South Bay. The Sports Authority also supports and operates community, youth and amateur sports programs, including the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame and the REACH Youth Scholarship Program.