Cal to Honor Al Grigsby With Pete Newell Career Achievement Award

Al Grigsby, who contributed to Cal’s NCAA tournament Sweet 16 runs four years apart in the 1990s, will be honored on Saturday as the 2025 recipient of the Pete Newell Career Achievement Award.

Grigsby played six seasons for the Bears, batting a series of chronic injuries throughout, but was a starter on the Bears’ two most recent Sweet 16 squad — alongside Jason Kidd on the 1993 team and as a complement to Ed Gray in 1997.

He averaged 8.8 points and 6.7 rebounds in six NCAA games.

A 6-foot-9 forward from Houston, Grigsby was an elite prospect when he arrived in the fall of 1992 along with Lamond Murray. He averaged 10.0 points and 5.8 rebounds as a sophomore on the ’93 squad and 7.2 points and 6.1 rebounds for the ’97 team.

Just as often, Grigsby was rehabbing an injury that kept him on the shelf. He missed 73 of a possible 175 games during his six seasons with the Bears but showed a toughness and resilience that eventually prompted the program to retire his jersey No. 4.

“To be selected for the Pete Newell Career Achievement Award is very humbling, and something I do not take lightly,” Grigsby said in a statement to Cal. “It’s an opportunity to celebrate the great men I played with at Cal and the team bonds that we carry through today; I did not get to this point by myself.

“Pete Newell made an impact on everyone he encountered, and he’s someone I’ll always refer to when working with young athletes myself. The values he carried and taught to young people have had a great impact on countless lives, including my own.”

Newell, who guided the Bears to the 1959 NCAA championship, was often around the Cal program in the 1990s. A Naismith Hall of Famer, Newell died in 2008 at the age of 93.

Grigsby will be recognized in an on-court ceremony during the under 12-minute timeout in the first half of Cal’s game Saturday against Wake Forest. Tipoff is 2 p.m. at Haas Pavilion.

His time at Cal preceded five seasons of professional basketball in Japan and a 20-year coaching career. He currently serves as an assistant athletic director for development at Seattle University.

“Cal opened up the world for me,” Grigsby said. “I’m very blessed to have had a familiarity with international lifestyles from being a student in Berkeley. My time in Japan was a true joy, in many ways because it wasn’t all that foreign of a feeling – Cal did that for me.

“All of my professional experiences and relationships lead back to my time at Cal.”

Grigsby is the first player from any of the teams he played on to be honored with the Newell award, given annually since 2011 to a former Cal player “who has distinguished himself in his career accomplishments, upholding the highest ideals of Newell and the University of California.”

PETE NEWELL CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD RECIPIENTS

2010-11 – Al Buch

2011-12 – Earl Robinson

2012-13 – Andy Wolfe

2013-14 – Earl Shultz

2014-15 – Russ Critchfield

2015-16 – Michael Pitts

2016-17 – Stan Morrison

2017-18 – Ned Averbuck

2018-19 – John Ricksen

2019-20 – Shareef Abdur-Rahim

2020-21 – No Recipient (COVID-19)

2021-22 – No Recipient (COVID-19)

2022-23 – Mark McNamara

2023-24 – Bill McClintock

2024-25 – Al Grigsby