Class of 2018 Inducted

Four individuals and the 1976 national championship baseball team were inducted into the Bronco Athletics Hall of Fame on Saturday.

The 10th class inducted into the hall included women’s basketball player Lauri McIntosh, football player John Wiegmann, tennis coach Ann Lebedeff and track athlete Matthew Blaty.

“Probably haven’t seen anybody in about 40 years,” first baseman John Turriff said. “There were a couple of weddings in 1976 and 1977 right afterwards that may or may not have lasted, but that was probably the last time that I saw most of the guys.”

McIntosh was part of back-to-back national championship teams in 2000-01 and 2001-02. She is third in points per game with 18.4 and second in points scored with 2,176.

In the summer before her senior year, McIntosh lost her brother in a motorcycle accident. She dedicated the year to her brother and the team won its second straight championship.

“If I felt like someone was trying to beat me at anything I wasn’t going to have it, I was going to do whatever it took for me to win and I think my teammates were the same way,” McIntosh said. “Plus, since we had been there before we kind of knew what was going to happen.”

She earned All-American honors twice in her career and Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Player of the Year in 2001-02.

Blaty attended Cal Poly Pomona from 1979-1984 and earned seven All-American honors competing in both track and field and cross country. He holds records in multiple events.

“I check back frequently maybe once or twice a year,” Blaty said. “To see if new talent is coming because I want to see the program win again, I want to see them grow and get back to that prominence that we had back in the 80s.”

Blaty won a national championship in cross country in 1983 and hopes to return if that team is inducted.

Coach Ann Lebedeff led men’s and women’s tennis from 1989-1998 winning back-to-back women’s national championships in 1991 and 1992 and a men’s doubles national championship in 1993.

Wilson named Lebedeff the Coach of the Decade for the 1990s.

Lebedeff started her speech by throwing her notes away.

“I always talk from the heart anyway because that’s the best way, so forget that,” Lebedeff said.

The highlight of Lebedeff’s remarks came when she called on the department to revive the tennis program.

“We are in Southern California, the costs are minimal, this could be a great program again and we need it here,” Lebedeff said.

Wiegmann represented another hall of famer whose sport is that no longer played at CPP.

Wiegmann walked on the football team after coming to CPP to run track.

“I just sort of always had in the back of mind that I felt that I was an okay athlete, that I could do something other than what I was doing in track and field,” Wiegmann said.

He finished his career with 156 catches, 1,856 yards and 18 touchdowns from 1968-1972.

The team was 0-10 in Wiegmann’s first season, but improved each year before earning a winning record in his senior year.

“We were a small school, we were not a dominate small school by any means,” Wiegmann said. “The program was always struggling, but we had a great group of guys, that got along well, and I think overall from the time we got here as freshman every year we got better.”

The ceremony concluded with the 1976 baseball team that won the program’s first national championship. It is the first team to be inducted into the school’s hall of fame.

Thanks to right fielder Ken Hellyer, who contacted much of the team that live all over the country, 21 of the 25 team members attended.

The team won the national championship despite starting the season 2-9.

“We just kind of peaked at the right time and we just felt that we could never be out of a ball game as long as there was an out left in the game and we proved that,” Hellyer said.

The championship marked the first of three championships won by legendary coach John Scolinos.

Three coaches who were present reminisced about the way Scolinos managed the team on road trips and assigned reading from Psycho Cybernetics.

“He was a wonderful teacher and a great humanitarian. He was so humble and so simple in his vision and a great communicator,” Turriff said. “This team would have run through hell for him.”

The day concluded with the new inductees’ plaques being unveiled in the lobby of Kellogg Arena.