KOLD News 13 live, local and late breaking-2009 Pima County Sports Hall of Fame Inductions

2009 Pima County Sports Hall of Fame Inductions

By Eric Villalobos : evillalobos@kold.com

12 Inductees nominated to the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame on Wednesday:

Gene Adelstein: The late Gene Adelstein was a major contributor to the Tucson sports scene. As general manage of Channel 11, he made the decision to televise University of Arizona basketball ames in the 1st year of new coach Fred Snowden, And Adelstein appointed himself as play-by-play announcer. Althought home games were on a delayed telecast, ratings were high and sson McKale Center was packed. He was aslo involved in getting approval for construction of the TUcaon Convention Center and Arena, which brought minor league basketball and hockey to the city.

Bruce Bobell: Bruce was responsible for organizing and managing semi-pro basketball and baseball leagues in Tucson and statewide in the 1960's and 1970's. He served as either secretarry, vice president or president of the Sourthern Arizona Baseball Asociation for eight years and was vice president of the Arizona Major Basketball League from 1967-69.

Sue Darling: Sue was a standout basketball player at Canyon del Oro High School. In her senior year she was named the school's Female Athlete of the year. She played four years at teh University of Arizona and was captain in her senior season. After graduation she embarked on a coaching career that has spanned almost three decades at 4 levels- high school, junior college, college and prfessional. She now is a member of the UA women's basketball staff.

Lionel Goar: Lionel graduated from Ajo High School and attended Arizona State College for 2 years before going into the U.S. Air Force. He played varsity basketball at the Unviersity of Arizona from 1955-57 before embarking on a career of coaching and administration. His first coaching experience was at Flowing Wells High. As head basketball coach, his team won its first 12 games and went 20-4 in his rookie season. He moved to Camelback High in Phoenix and coached for three years. His five year coaching record was 85-29 and his teams were region champs four times. Goar entered the administrative field at Sunnyside, Parker, Florenced, Superior and Mesa high schools. He was named Athletic Directory of the year in 1992.

Marc Janis: Janis helped organized the first girls' basketball team at Flowing Wells High School starting in 1975. In his 16 years ther Flowing Wells qualified for the state tounament 12 times, wone 8 division or region championships and finished as 4A state runners-up in 1992-93. He coached Blue Ridge High's girls' team from 2000-07. In 23 years his teams won over 350 ames. He has won numerous Coach of the Year honors.

Bruce Larson: Larson's coaching career started at Eastern Arizona Junior College in 1951. In six seasons he took his team to four national junior college championship tournaments, including a 2nd place finish in 1957. Larson moved to Weber JC and won the national junior college championship in 1959 and was named the National JC Coach of the Year. He became head basketball coach of UA in 1961 and led the Wildcats for 10 seasons. His overall coaching recored was 310-225. For the last two decades he has served as a television analyst for UA football and basketball games. He is a member of Arizona, Weber State and National JC Halls of Fame.

Dale Lopez: While Lopez has been a part of many sports events in Pima County for many years, his beggest contribution to the county's sports community is directing the Roskruge After-School Recreation program for 38 years, the last 27 of which include city-wide competition in basketball, softball and cross country. Lopez also was sports director radio station KTUC and has been an on-air reporter for national radio networks. In addition, Lopez has been a high school basketball official and softball umpire since his teen-age years and has worled all over Southern Arizona.

Lou Pavlovich Jr: Lou has been invovlved with the operations of Collegeiate Baseball newspaper since 1975 wehe he was in high school. he has written thousands of stroeis about college baseball, as well as taken thousands of pictures. He has covered every NCAA Division 1 College World Series in Omaha, Neb, except one, 1990, when his son Joey was born. He also had reported on  six summer Olympic games as a writer , covering strictly the baseball portion. In 1994 he was awarded by Wilbur Snypp Award given by the National College Baseball Writer Assn.

Jim Scott: In 14 years as coach of the Sahuaro High School girls' basketball team, Scott has an.828 winning percentage (332-69) His teams have won 11 regional championships and two 4A state titles(1993-1998) His teams are undefeated in region play the last five seasons and 108-4 over the last ten yeaers. Scott has won numerous Coach of the YEar honors, including the Arizona Coaches Association Coach of the Year in 1993.

Fred Snowden: Fred was the first African-American head basketball coach at a major college when he was hired to lead the Unviersity of Arizona Wildcats in 1972. Nicknamed "the Fox" Snowden's Wildcats quickly turned Tucson into a mojor college basketball town. With a talented freshman group nicknamed th "Kidde Korps" Snowden won 16 games his first year taking over a program that only had 6 wins the year befor. The Cats then won 19,22,24,21,15 and 16 games the next 6 season and in 1975-76 the Wildcas won the school's first every WAC Championship.

Bob Vielledent: In his eight years as head football coach at Santa Rita High, Vielledent's teams won 57 games while losing only 33 and made four playoff appearances. He is the winningest football coach in the school's history. At Sahuaro High, Vielledent coached the boys' juniro varsity team to a 223-41 record in 21 years. Vielledent also was athletic director at St. Augustine's Catholic High School. He has won several Teacher fo the Year honors and was a 2002 finalist for the National Teacher of the Year after being nominated by NFL quarterback Rodney Peete.

Roger Werbylo: As head baseball coach at both CDO and Pima Community College, Werbylo compiled an outstanding record. At CDO, heis teams won four region championships and won the AA state title in 1979 and the AAA state championship in 1984. At Pima he fashioned a 297-191 record in nine years and was national runners up in 1992. Fifty nine of his players advance to four year schools while 21 sigened prfessional contracts, three of whom reached the Major Leagues. As expected, Werbylo has earned numerous Coach of the Year honors.