UCLA Athletics Announces Hall of Fame Class of 2022 Headlined By Bruin Legends
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The latest wave of Bruin legends will be immortalized this fall.
UCLA Athletics announced its nine-member Hall of Fame class of 2022 on Wednesday. Patrick Cantlay, Gerrit Cole, DeShaun Foster, Dawn Harper-Nelson, Kelly Inouye-Perez, Ole Mikkelsen, Linda Robertson Hanley, Dave Saunders and Ed Kezirian are the Bruins who earned a spot in the hall this time around, with each of them excelling as student-athletes, professionals, coaches, Olympians and more.
The induction ceremony will take place on campus on Oct. 7, and the nine future members will be honored the next day at halftime of UCLA football's game against Utah at the Rose Bowl.
The first new member announced was Cantlay, who played two years for UCLA men's golf. Cantlay set the college golf world ablaze his freshman season, winning Pac-12 Player and Freshman of the Year while also racking up the Jack Nicklaus and Haskins Awards for national player of the year.
Cantlay turned pro in 2012 as the No. 1 amateur in the world, and while it took him a few seasons to get back to his winning ways, he did eventually solidify himself as one of the top players on tour. The 2021 season was Cantlay's coming out party – he picked up three wins en route to the FedEx Cup and PGA Tour Player of the Year, then he helped Team USA win the Ryder Cup to crawl all the way up to No. 3 in the world.
Cole was the next Bruin to make the cut, a decade removed from posting three consecutive seasons of sub-3.50 ERAs and sub-1.20 WHIPs at Jackie Robinson Stadium. Cole became the first-ever No. 1 overall pick out of UCLA in 2011, and he was a key piece of the Pittsburgh Pirates' starting rotation two years later.
After reestablishing himself as an ace during his two-year stint with the Houston Astros, Cole signed a $324 million deal with the New York Yankees – the largest contract for any pitcher in MLB history. Cole has finished in the top-five of AL Cy Young voting in each of the past four seasons, and he has a 124-65 record with 1,790 strikeouts and a 3.19 ERA for his career.
Foster still spends his days in Westwood as UCLA football's running back coach, but he was honored for his career on the field Wednesday. Starting his collegiate career in 1998 – the last time the Bruins made the Rose Bowl – Foster went on to rack up 3,194 yards and 39 touchdowns on the ground alone.
Both of those figures are top-five in program history, and he was ultimately picked by the Carolina Panthers early in the second round of the 2002 NFL Draft. Foster spent six of his seven professional seasons with the Panthers, and he even scored a 33-yard touchdown against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVIII.
Harper-Nelson accumulated 11 All-American honors during her time in Westwood, as well as notching wins at the US Junior Championships and the Pan American Junior Athletics Championships. She guided UCLA women's track & field to the 2004 NCAA outdoor championships – the program's third all-time and first in over 20 years.
Continuing to dominate the hurdles on the international stage, Harper-Nelson took home the gold in the 100m at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, then snatched silver at the 2012 London Olympics. The Illinois native was still taking home titles a decade after her collegiate career ended, winning silver at the 2017 World Championships in London.
Inouye-Perez, like Foster, still calls Westwood home as UCLA softball's head coach since 2007. Although she has guided the Bruins to two national championships and seven consecutive Women's College World Series appearances from the dugout, she has been contributing to the program since her days as a a student-athlete.
Starting things off by making All-Pac-10 First Team as a freshman and Second Team as a sophomore, Inouye-Perez went on to win three NCAA titles as one of the top catchers in the country. Inouye-Perez won three more championships as an assistant coach, and she helped develop superstars like Megan Langenfield, Ally Carda, Rachel Garcia, Bubba Nickles and Briana Perez when it was her turn to take over as head coach.
The most prolific scorer in UCLA men's soccer history was also among those to hear their name called Wednesday, with Mikkelsen sliding in 42 years after leaving Westwood. Mikkelsen scored a program-record 82 goals and 192 points across his four seasons, including multiple 50-point campaigns.
The Norwegian forward was a First Team All-American in 1978, and even though Mikkelsen played during a period of middling success for the Bruins on the pitch, his impact helped usher in a dominant 1980s and 1990s for the program.
Hanley is already a member of the Beach Volleyball Hall of Fame, but she did her damage at the college level in the indoor game as a keystone member of UCLA women's volleyball. The Southern California native was a three-time All-American with the Bruins and totaled the fifth-most kills in program history with 1,768.
Following her college career, Hanley went on to compete in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and become one of the top beach volleyball players in American history.
Saunders won two Olympic gold medals in the 1980s to immediately follow up his storied collegiate career with UCLA men's volleyball. The Bruins went 124-5 across his four seasons in Westwood, winning three NCAA championships and completing the sport's first-ever undefeated season in 1979.
The SoCal Indoor Volleyball Hall of Fame member was also an All-American and a three-time all-conference honoree.
Kezirian was an all-conference offensive lineman for UCLA football who anchored a record-breaking offense that went for 400.3 rushing yards and 42.7 points per game in 1973. That campaign helped the former Reedley College transfer earn the Bruins' top offensive senior award, and he continued to contribute long after hanging up his cleats.
Adopting the nickname "Coach K," Kezirian was on Rose Bowl-winning staffs in 1983, 1984 and 1986 and helped guided UCLA to eight consecutive bowl games. He even took over as interim head coach in 2002 and led the Bruins to a win at the Las Vegas Bowl before becoming an administrator for academics and student development.
Kezirian will be inducted as an Extraordinary Service honoree.
In order to be nominated by fans and voted for by the selection committee, UCLA Athletics has laid out several qualifications for eligibility for the hall of fame:
• Student-athletes who last competed at UCLA ten or more years prior to induction.
• Former coaches who last coached at UCLA five or more years prior to induction.
• Former UCLA Athletic Directors who last served as Athletic Director five or more years prior to induction.
• Current head coaches who have been a head coach at UCLA for 15 years or who have won four or more NCAA championships.
• Individuals who have rendered extraordinary service, leadership and/or support contributing directly to the success of student-athletes within the UCLA Intercollegiate Athletics Department, and who have worked as a full-time employee at UCLA for a minimum of 20 years, may be nominated and inducted.
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