News from 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.
|
|
SAN JOSE SPORTS HALL OF FAME ANNOUNCES CLASS OF 2019
|
The San Jose Sports Hall of Fame will mark its 25th year of honoring South Bay sports legends when it inducts four new members on Thursday, November 14, at the SAP Center in San Jose. The inductees hail from the upper echelon of collegiate, professional and/or Olympic competition. Although from different sports in different eras, they have made a lasting impact both on and off the field of play.
The San Jose Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2019 Inductees are:
John Doyle: All American, MLS Soccer Star, Olympic and US National Team Member
John Dunning: US National Champion Volleyball Coach
Seana Hogan: Record Setting Cross Country Cyclist
Juli Inkster: All- American, Amateur and Professional Golf Champion
“San Jose’s incredibly rich and diverse sports history makes the Hall of Fame selection process very difficult each year,” said Charlie Faas, Chairman of the San Jose Sports Authority Board of Directors. “The Class of 2019 is a wonderful representation of the deep and meaningful impact athletes and coaches with South Bay connections have made in their respective sports, locally, nationally and internationally. We are excited to welcome these four remarkable individuals into the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame.”
|
Each inductee will be recognized with a bronze plaque permanently installed on the concourse at the SAP Center at San Jose. Including the 2019 inductees, there will be 114 South Bay sports icons enshrined in the Hall of Fame. The annual induction is an event of the San Jose Sports Authority, San Jose Arena Authority, SAP Center Management/San Jose Sharks, and the City of San José. The event benefits Special Olympics Northern California and high school sports programs.
Executive Director John Poch of the San Jose Sports Authority states, “The San Jose Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2019 represent all that we value, including integrity, work ethic, sportsmanship, and excellence. Individually and collectively, their accomplishments, both in the Bay Area and across the world of sport, are the stuff of legend. We look forward to honoring their legacies in November at our Hall of Fame induction ceremonies at the SAP Center in San Jose.”
The November ceremony kicks off with a reception followed by dinner and induction ceremony. Individual tickets begin at $300 each; sponsorship and table packages are available starting at $3,000. For information and to purchase event tickets call (408) 288-2936.
|
|
Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon Visits Downtown San Jose This Weekend
|
|
Get ready for California’s fastest half marathon this weekend! With its mostly fast and flat course the event has become a favorite for California-based runners looking to record personal bests. Also, this annual event is perfect for participants from around the country who want to enjoy San Jose' sights, sounds, and the live music and entertainment of our energetic city along the route.
Throughout the course, as past participants of other “Rock and Roll”-themed road races around the country know, there will be live bands playing for runners, as well as cheerleading stations where spectators can cheer on their friends and family running in the race. The course will close after four hours, so race organizers note that prospective runners should be able to complete the course within this time limit.
The race begins in downtown San Jose at the corner of West Santa Clara Street and Almaden Avenue. From there, the race course takes participants first through the downtown area, along 11th, 4th and 2nd Streets, and then along The Alameda. The finish line for the race lies just a few blocks from the starting line, at Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park. Make sure to stick around after the race for the
Rock ‘n’ Roll Concert Series
at Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park.
Prior to race day, Rock 'n' Roll San Jose features a two-day
Health & Fitness Expo,
free and open to the public. This expo features the latest running technologies, fitness apparel, health & nutritional information and interactive displays. Pick up some last-minute essentials before race day and be sure to visit the Brooks Official Merchandise Store. All runners must visit the expo to pick up their race number, gear bag and t-shirt. The Health and Fitness Expo will be held at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center (Hall 2-3) on Friday, October 4 from 1pm-6pm and Saturday, October 5th from 9am-5pm.
For more information about the San Jose Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon please visit the link below:
|
|
Discounted College Cup Tickets for Groups and Youth Soccer Leagues Still Available
Tickets for the 2019 NCAA Women’s College Cup at Avaya Stadium in San Jose are now on sale to the general public. The tournament’s two semifinal matches will take place on Friday, Dec. 6 and the final will take place on Sunday, Dec. 8. Tickets will grant access to all three matches.
The NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Tournament includes 64 teams that qualify by winning their respective conference tournament, claiming the conference regular season championship, or earning an at-large bid based on their regular season performance. Those 64 teams are divided into four sectional brackets, with the winner of each bracket reaching the NCAA Women’s College Cup at Avaya Stadium.
Tickets can be purchased online at
Ticketmaster
or by calling 800-745-3000. Groups of 10 or more can purchase discounted tickets by calling the Earthquakes Front Office at 408-556-7700.
For players and parents of youth soccer leagues, the Youth Ticket Initiative offers a discounted $20 ticket for all 3 games (2 Semi-Final matches, 1 Final). Also, tickets purchased using the link and code provided to each league will guarantee group seating together. Mid Field seats are still available. Please contact
darren@sjsa.org
to sign up your youth soccer league today!
|
|
Legendary Bay Area Sports Figure Coached Stanford and SJSU Football Programs
|
|
John Ralston, one of the San Francisco Bay Area's most popular and beloved college and professional sports figures, passed away peacefully in Sunnyvale, Calif., on September 14, 2019. Mr. Ralston's impact on the Bay Area sports scene spanned 60 years from his days as a linebacker on the 1947 through 1950 University of California football teams playing for legendary coach Lynn "Pappy" Waldorf" into the 21st century as a special assistant to the athletics director at San Jose State University.
He was best known as a football coach with a positive approach to life that took Utah State University, Stanford University and the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL) to unprecedented success. Mr. Ralston began his coaching career as an assistant football coach at San Lorenzo (Calif.) High in 1953 and spent two seasons at Mt. Diablo High before returning to Cal. He went to the University of California in 1956 as an assistant football coach and was on the staff for the 1958 Golden Bears' team that played in the 1959 Rose Bowl. He was the head coach at Utah State (1959-62), Stanford (1963-71), the Denver Broncos (1972-76), the Oakland Invaders of the United States Football League (1983-84) and San Jose State (1993-96). Combining his college and professional head coaching records, his teams amassed a 140-126-7 win-loss record. His Utah State teams played in the 1960 Sun Bowl and 1961 Gotham Bowl and his Stanford University squads won consecutive Pacific 8 Conference championships and Rose Bowls following the 1970 and 1971 regular seasons. The Broncos' first winning season in franchise history was in 1973, his second as a NFL head coach.
Mr. Ralston's coaching tree included former NFL head coaches the late Bill Walsh, Dick Vermeil, Jim Mora, Sr., Mike White, the late Rod Rust, the late Jack Christiansen and college head coaches the late Roger Theder, the late Tony Knap, Ed Peasley and Rubin Carter. His best-known players included 1970 Heisman Trophy winner Jim Plunkett at Stanford and Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive lineman Merlin Olsen at Utah State. His football experiences extended beyond coaching players and his assistants. He was the Denver Broncos' general manager and head coach. Mr. Ralston was a Philadelphia Eagles assistant coach to Vermeil in 1978. He was the vice-president of the San Francisco 49ers during the 1979 and 1980 seasons and the president of the Portland Breakers of the USF in 1984 and 1985. Mr. Ralston scouted for the Seattle Seahawks in 1988 and 1989 and served three years, 1990 through 1992, as the coordinator for Operation Discovery, a search for foreign-born football players of the World League of American Football. His search took him to the Soviet Union and a short-lived position as head coach of the Moscow Bears, the U.S.S.R's first professional football team.
|
|
Mr. Ralston's lengthy list of accolades includes induction into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1992; the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in 1996; the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1997; the San Jose Hall of Fame in 2001; and the sports halls of fame for San Jose State, Stanford, and Utah State. As a coach, Mr. Ralston was named Stanford's "Coach of the Century" when the university celebrated its centennial anniversary of football in 1991 and the 1973 United Press International's American Football Conference "Coach of the Year" in his second season with the Denver Broncos. Mr. Ralston is survived by his daughter, Terry (Ralston) Zaffonato, four grandsons, two granddaughters, and one great granddaughter. He was predeceased by his wife of 46 years, Patty (Ward) Ralston; a son, Larry; a daughter, Sherry (Ralston) Brown, the twin sister of Terry; and Virginia Fanelli, his life's partner following the passing of his wife Patty.
The native of Oakland, Calif., was born on April 26, 1927, and spent a portion of his youth in Norway, Mich. He graduated from the University of California in 1951. A World War II veteran, Mr. Ralston served in the Marine Corps, achieving the rank of corporal. He was stationed mainly on the S.S. Little rock in the South Pacific. A celebration of life for Mr. Ralston will be announced in the near future.
|
|
San Jose State and Stanford Athletics Make National Headlines
|
SJSU Football Earns Reveal Suits National Team of the Week
The San José State Spartans scored on DeJon Packer's 19-yard run with 1:13 left to break a 24-24 tie and win their first road game since 2016 and record their first non-conference road win since 2012, posting a 31-24 at Arkansas that superseded a host of other worthy candidates. For winning their first game over an SEC school, San José State (2-1) has earned the Reveal Suits National Team of the Week honor for games of the weekend of Sept. 21. San Jose State beat out other nominations schools Appalachian State, Pitt, ad UCLA to win the award. The Spartans started MW play at Air Force last Friday night with a 41-24 loss.
The Spartans return to CEFCU Stadium for Friday Night Lights this week against New Mexico in a Mountain West matchup. The Lobos enter the game with a 2-2 overall record and are playing their first MW game of the year.
Other fall sports in season are men's soccer, cross country, men's water polo, and women's volleyball. For ticket information to all San Jose State athletic events, please contact the Spartan Ticket Office at (408) 924-SJTX (7589) or visit SJSU Athletics
here
.
|
|
Stanford Women's Soccer Ranked #2 in NCAA
Fueled by another dynamic offensive performance from
Catarina Macario
, No. 2 Stanford controlled tempo throughout during a 3-2 victory at No. 3 USC in a highly-anticipated conference showdown. The Cardinal, which improved to 3-0 this season against ranked opponents, has now won eight of the last 10 against the Trojans. Meanwhile, Stanford booked an important victory in its quest for a fifth consecutive Pac-12 crown.
Stanford returns to action next week, hosting Washington State (Thursday, Oct. 3) and Washington (Sunday, Oct. 6). The Cardinal will be back on The Farm for the first time since Sept. 1. For more information on other fall sports, game times, and tickets visit
GoStanford.com
|
|
Santa Clara Men's and Women's Basketball Off To WCC Basketball Tipoff
Santa Clara men's and women's basketball will take part in the WCC Basketball Tipoff event this week at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. Head coach Bill Carr and senior guard Tia Hay will represent the women
Wednesday with the men featuring head coach Herb Sendek and junior guard Tahj Eaddy Thursday.
Wednesday at 1 p.m. Carr and Hay will be interviewed live on WCCSports.com and Sendek and Eaddy will be interviewed Thursday at 11:45 a.m.
Both teams will be featured on WCCsports.com for a live interview featuring fan questions. Fans can post questions to the WCC Facebook page or tweet them using the hashtag #WCCHoops.
|
|
San Jose Giants 2019 Season Recap
The San Jose Giants finished the 2019 regular season with a 66–73 record and qualified for the playoffs as the wild card team in the North Division. It marked the first time since 2016 that the Giants reached the postseason. San Jose was swept three-games-to-none by the Visalia Rawhide in the best-of-five North Division Series.
The Giants won 10 of their final 12 games of the regular season to reach the playoffs. San Jose won a season-high eight consecutive games from August 22–29 to vault to the top of the North Division wild card standings. The Giants clinched a playoff berth with a victory over the Stockton Ports on the final day of the regular season (September 2). San Jose finished the year 1 1/2 games ahead of the Modesto Nuts in the wild card race.
The Giants ranked fourth in the eight-team California League in batting average (.250) and sixth in runs scored (4.5 per game). San Jose’s 115 home runs was second-most in the North Division (behind Modesto) and ranked fourth overall in the league. San Jose’s 3.95 team ERA ranked fifth in the California League and was the club’s lowest mark since the 2015 season. The Giants pitching staff also allowed the third-fewest home runs (97). San Jose’s 1,308 strikeouts ranked second-most in team history (record: 1,345 strikeouts in 2015). Giants starting pitchers had a 4.19 ERA this year compared to a 3.68 ERA for the bullpen.
Full San Jose Giants 2019 recap
:
The 33rd season of San Jose Giants baseball begins on Thursday, April 9 in Lancaster. The opening week features a seven-game road trip to Lancaster and Rancho Cucamonga. San Jose’s home opener at Excite Ballpark is scheduled for Friday, April 17 against the Lake Elsinore Storm. The schedule features holiday home games on Memorial Day (Monday, May 25), Father’s Day (Sunday, June 21) and Independence Day (Saturday, July 4).
The 2020 schedule can be found
here
.
Game times and a full promotional schedule will be announced at a later date.
|
|
Earthquakes Look Forward to Decision Day
The San Jose Earthquakes fell 1-0 to Seattle Sounders FC on Sunday afternoon in front of a sellout crowd at Avaya Stadium. After a scoreless 90 minutes, Sounders FC forward Jordan Morris tallied the match's lone goal four minutes into stoppage time.
The Earthquakes took 22 shots and forced 10 saves by Seattle goalkeeper Stefan Frei, tying his season high.
Despite the result, San Jose would punch their ticket to the postseason with a win in the season finale next Sunday in Portland. The Quakes are just one point behind seventh-place FC Dallas and two points behind the sixth-place Portland Timbers.
Sunday's Decision Day match up is set for 1 p.m. PT and will be broadcast live NBC Sports California, KNBR 1050 and 1370 KZSF.
|
|
The Hardest Working Fish in Sports
The Mascot Hall of Fame Executive Committee has announced that San Jose Sharks lovable mascot SJ Sharkie (@sjsharkie) has been nominated as a finalist for induction into the National Mascot Hall of Fame. Fans are encouraged to visit the Mascot Hall of Fame website here to vote Sharkie into the finals. First round voting begins October 6 and will continue through October 12. Final Ballot Voting will take place October 20 - 26.
San Jose will open the 2019-20 season with a pair of home-and-home games against their 2019 First Round playoff opponent, the Vegas Golden Knights. San Jose will play at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas tonight to open the 2019-20 regular season and the teams will then play at SAP Center at San Jose on Fri., Oct. 4 for the Sharks home opener.
|
|
Levi's Stadium Hosts Monday Night Football Showdown
The San Francisco 49ers are off to their best start since 1998. The team currently sits at 3-0 heading into the bye week. San Francisco will look to build off of the early season success when they return from the bye week to take on the Cleveland Browns on “Monday Night Football.” The 49ers will get back two key pieces of the offense ahead of the primetime matchup against the Cleveland Browns in Week 5. There’s a good chance that both Coleman and Hurd will suit up ahead of San Francisco’s “Monday Night Football” contest at Levi's® Stadium against the Browns. For information and tickets, visit
49ers.com
.
|
|
Blage Zelalich - Downtown Manager for City of San Jose Office of Economic Development
As Downtown Manager, Zelalich serves as the City’s primary lead for downtown issues, opportunities, and relationship management, working with City departments and community stakeholders. As a steward of the City’s downtown vision and strategy, she coordinates policies and programs that impact downtown employers, retailers, workforce, residents, and visitors. She also serves as one of the City Manager’s two appointees to the Downtown Property Business Improvement District Board.
From 2004 until joining OED, she was Deputy Director of San Jose Downtown Association where she led many projects for SJDA over the years, most notably managing the construction efforts of the Downtown Ice skating rink for 16 years in three different locations. She built the Downtown Doors student art competition and exhibition to 103 locations over the past 14 years. She also managed the SharkByte art fund-raiser in 2001 that produced 100 art shark sculptures and raised $250,000 for charity. In addition, Blage was instrumental in building a strong partnership between SJDA and San Jose Police.
Blage is a graduate of UC Davis, where she was a member of the women’s basketball team and earned her MBA at the University of San Francisco, where she continued her passion for sports working for the San Francisco Giants Community Fund.
|
|
Andy Dolich - President of Dolich Consulting and Chief Operating Officer of Fan Controlled Football League (FCFL)
Andy Dolich brings over five decades of executive experience in the sports industry, including front office positions in the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), and National Hockey League (NHL). He has held management positions in professional soccer and box lacrosse.
Dolich was responsible for the day-to-day business operations of the San Francisco 49ers including sales, broadcasting, marketing, corporate partnerships, public relations, facility operations, new media and community relations. Dolich played a major role in the team’s improvements at Candlestick Park and the planning of the $1.4 billion Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara which opened in August of 2014 and is hosting Super Bowl 50 in 2016.
Dolich left the team in 2010 to form his own sports business consulting practice. Clients included IMG College, ADC Partners, (WCC) West Coast Conference, TBT Boost Front Row Marketing, Full Turn Direct and VST. Dolich is working with the global executive search firm, Odgers Berndtson, to develop their sports business recruiting practice in North America.
Prior to joining the 49ers Dolich served as President of Business Operations for the Memphis Grizzlies and led the business team in the planning and building of their new downtown arena FedExForum. Dolich worked with President of Basketball Operations Jerry West in getting the Grizzlies into the NBA Playoffs three times and establishing a season ticket base of over 11,000 and selling out all 65 of the teams luxury suites. Working with the National Civil Rights Museum and the NBA he created the “Sports Legacy Awards” as part of the Grizzlies MLK Day celebrations.
Before coming to the Warriors Dolich was Executive Vice President of tickets.com. Previous to that he headed a sports business development group with clients Nike, the Oakland A’s, Seattle Mariners, San Jose Sharks, The 1994 Soccer World Cup and UC Berkeley and Stanford Athletic Departments. As President/COO of the Golden State Warriors he transitioned the franchise to new ownership while leading the team’s business operations.
He led the marketing and business resurgence of the Oakland Athletics in the 1980’s and early 90’s. Dolich helped change the face of sports team advertising through the Clio Award winning “BillyBall” campaign and increased A’s attendance average from 800,000 to 2.9 million and improved the season ticket base from 326 to 16,000. He created the A’s business and marketing efforts in three consecutive World Series. Coordinated the marketing platform for the 1989 “Bay Bridge” World Series in which the A’s swept the SF Giants.
At the start of his career he held executive positions with the Washington Diplomats (North American Soccer League) and the NHL’s Washington Capitals. He began with the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers.
Dolich received his undergraduate degree in Government from American University and Masters in Sports Management from Ohio University. Dolich is a popular speaker and writer on issues facing the sports industry. He is an editorial contributor to Sports Business Journal and is the “Sports Business Insider” for Comcast Sportsnet Bay Area. He is Director of Career Development at the University of San Francisco’s Collegiate Athletics Masters Program and teaches sports business at the Stanford’s School of Continuing Education. Serves on a number of sports industry and community invested boards and organizations including the Positive Coaching Alliance. Accelerate Sports, Pivot Marketing, Navigate Marketing, Ohio University Sports Management Advisory Board and the University of Central Florida’s DeVos Sports Business Program Advisory Board.
|
|
Upcoming Event Schedule
|
|
San Jose Sports Authority | info@sjsa.org | www.sjsa.org
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
