Tulane Athletics Unveils 2017 Hall of Fame Class

NEW ORLEANS – Tulane Director of Athletics Troy Dannen announced today the 2017 inductees into the Tulane Athletics Hall of Fame.

The impressive class of Green Wave legends is headlined by former baseball head coach Rick Jones, who led Tulane to two NCAA College World Series appearances, along with men’s basketball standout Rayshard Allen, football standouts Michael Calamari and Dennis O’Sullivan, volleyball standout Sara (Radosevic) Vidic and the 1970 football team. Former baseball player Stephen Martin, Sr., the first African-American to compete in a varsity sport for any Southeastern Conference school, will be bestowed with the Billy Slatten Award. This award was established in 2004 in honor of William A. “Billy” Slatten, a longtime supporter of Tulane Athletics, a member of the Tulane Board of Trustees and the Intercollegiate Athletics Committee.

The Tulane Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2017 celebration weekend is slated for Friday, Oct. 6 and Saturday, Oct. 7 with the induction ceremony taking place Friday evening, Oct. 6 at Yulman Stadium on the university’s Uptown campus. Events will take place on and around campus, culminating with the inductees being honored during the Green Wave’s football game against Tulsa on Oct. 7.

“We are delighted to be enshrining such an impressive group into our athletics Hall of Fame,” said Dannen. “Not only were they all tremendously successful in their athletics pursuits while at Tulane, they have gone on to become leaders in various aspects of life. Our Green Wave family looks forward to celebrating their accomplishments and welcoming them back to campus this fall.”

2017 TULANE ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME CLASS
Rick Jones, Baseball Head Coach, 1994-2014
• Led Tulane to 12 NCAA Regional appearances, three NCAA Super Regionals and two College World Series appearances (2001 and 2005) in 21 seasons as head coach.
• Compiled 814 wins, the most in program history.
• Won four Conference USA regular season championships (1997, 1998, 2001, 2005) and five Conference USA tournament titles (1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2005).
• Served as head coach of the Team USA college squad in 2009 as well as being an assistant coach for the 1989 and 1990 Team USA teams.
• Honored 20 times as a Coach of the Year including being named National Coach of the Year by Baseball America, Conference USA Coach of the Year andLSWA Coach of the Year in 2005.
• Coached 89 all-conference performers, including 54 first-team all-conference selections. Seven players were named conference Player of the Year, and three were honored as conference Pitcher of the Year.
• Coached 19 players who received All-America honors
• In 2001, led Tulane to its first-ever College World Series appearance, its first-ever regional and Super Regional titles, and a school-record 56 wins.
• Led the 2005 squad to 56 wins, tying the school record set in 2001. That team entered the NCAA Tournament as the National No. 1 Seed and spent all but three weeks of the regular season atop at least one major poll.

Rayshard Allen, Men’s Basketball, 1994-98
• Was a member of the class that reached the post season all four years, including the 1995 NCAA Tournament.
• Finished his career with 1,505 points, the sixth most in school history.
• Finished with 761 rebounds, the seventh most in school history.
• Posted 18 career double-doubles.
• Selected as a first-team All-Metro Conference honoree in 1994-95.
• Earned second and third team All-Conference USA honors in 1995-96 and 1996-97 respectively.
• Was named to the NABC All-District team in 1995-96.
• Scored at least 20 points in 19 games.
• Scored 525 points during the 1994-95 season, the 13th highest single-season total in Tulane history.
• Completed his career with the highest field goal percentage in Tulane history with 57.3.
• Shot 61.0 percent from the field during the 1994-95 season, the third highest percentage in school history.
• Shot 57.5 percent from the field in 1995-96, the eighth-best single season percentage at Tulane

Michael Calamari, Football, 1961-63
• Was a three-year letterman, who earned third-team All-SEC honors by United Press International and the Associated Press as a senior in 1963.
• Served as team captain as a senior in 1963.
• Played primarily right tackle, but also saw time at right guard.
• Was dubbed the most unselfish and spirited football player, as well as the team’s wrestling champion during his junior season.
• Selected as the school’s Outstanding Lineman for football and Outstanding Athlete for all sports.
• Became the first Tulane athlete to earn the Outstanding Amateur Athlete of the Year award for both the New Orleans Athletic Club and the Veteran of Foreign Wars Sports Committee.
• Was also chosen to play in the 1963 Blue-Gray All-Star game following his senior year.
• After graduating from Tulane in 1964, signed on to the Green Wave coaching staff as a defensive line coach and a scout, a position he held of three years before he left for a career in sales management.

Dennis O’Sullivan, Football, 1995-98
• Was a four-year starter played in 43 games with 38 starts at defensive tackle where he posted 195 tackles (124 solo, 71 assists), 20 tackles for losses totaling 55 yards, 13 sacks for 88 yards lost, four fumble recoveries, four forced fumbles, six pass break-ups and one interception.
• Completed career ranked third in Tulane history with 13.0 sacks and his sack total currently ranks tied for seventh in school history.
• As a senior in 1998, named second-team All-Conference USA after leading all Tulane linemen with 53 tackles (37 solo, 16 assists) to go along with four sacks, five tackles for loss, four pass break-ups and an interception.
• Added a sack for a nine-yard loss in Tulane’s 41-27 win over BYU in the Liberty Bowl to cap the Green Wave’s 12-0 season.
• Named to American Football Coaches Association’s Good Works Team for community service as a junior.
• That same year, tabbed second-team All-Louisiana after leading Tulane linemen with 55 tackles (29 solo, 26 assists) to go with five sacks and a tackle for loss.
• Named second-team All C-USA by the Houston Chronicle as a sophomore after posting 49 tackles (34 solo, 15 assists) to go with eight tackles for loss, three sacks and a pair of fumble recoveries.
• Played in all 11 games with six starts as a redshirt freshman in 1995 and finished with 38 tackles (24 solo, 14 assists).
• Following his college career, signed as a free agent with the New York Jets and played in three games during the 2002 season.
• Was a member of the 1998 undefeated team that was inducted into the Tulane Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008.

Sara (Radosevic) Vidic, Volleyball, 2005-08
• Is only four-time All-American (each honorable mention) in school history.
• Became the first player in program history to claim Conference USA Freshman of the Year (2005) and Player of the Year (2008) recognition.
• Completed her career ranked No. 1 in career service aces (197), kills per set (4.73) and total attacks (4,819) while ranking second in kills (1,925) and sixth in digs (1,135).
• Became just the fifth player in school history to record 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in a career
• Ranks eighth in career digs per set (2.79), holds the No. 3, No. 9 and No. 10 single-season kill marks with 596 in 2007, 495 in 2006 and 456 in 2008, respectively and ranks second in Tulane single-match history with 34 kills vs. Tulsa (Nov. 18, 2005) and LSU (Nov. 24, 2007), while also holding No. 6 mark with 32 kills vs. UTEP (Nov. 2, 2006), No. 7 with 31 kills vs. UNO (Aug. 26, 2006) and UCF (Oct. 23, 2005) and No. 10 with 30 vs. UAB in the C-USA Tournament (Nov. 17, 2006).
• Led Tulane to its first NCAA Tournament appearance as a senior, where the team won its opening round match against Tennessee Tech before falling to Western Michigan in the second round.
• Played in all 34 matches and 126 sets as a senior and was named American Volleyball Coaches Association honorable-mention All-American, first-teamAVCA All-Midwest Region, Conference USA and Louisiana Player of the Year, first-team All-Conference USA and All-Louisiana, third-team Stellar Spikers by CVU.com and Tulane Student-Athlete of the Year after leading the team in points (528.0), kills (456), kills per set (3.62), total attacks (1,222) and service aces (42) while ranking second in digs (327) and digs per set (2.60), and fourth in blocks (55) and blocks per set (0.44).
• Named 2008 C-USA Tournament Most Valuable Player.
• Appeared in 33 matches and 117 sets as a junior and was named AVCA honorable-mention All-American, first-team AVCA All-Midwest Region, Louisiana Player of the Year and first-team All-Conference USA and All-Louisiana.
• Played in 24 matches and 90 sets as a sophomore and received AVCA honorable-mention All-American, first-team AVCA All-Midwest Region, first-team All-Conference USA and first-team All-Louisiana.
• Was one of only three players to play in all 21 matches and 74 games as a true freshman and was named AVCA honorable-mention All-American, first-teamAVCA All-Midwest Region and All-Louisiana, second-team All-Conference USA and to the C-USA All-Freshman Team and swept Freshman of the Year honors from the AVCA Midwest Region, C-USA and Louisiana Sports Writers Association, and was one of 15 players around the country to earned a spot on the College Volleyball Update “Rising Stars” list.

1970 Football Team
• Posted an 8-4 overall record and won the Liberty Bowl.
• The dawn of the 1970’s began with billboards and bumper stickers plastered all over New Orleans that proclaimed the season as the “Year of the Green.” Tulane’s football team backed up the claim, earning a bid to the Liberty Bowl where they defeated Colorado.  Tulane compiled an 8-4 mark, the most wins for the Green Wave since 1948 and only the second winning season for the program in 14 years.
• Fell on the road at Southwest Conference member Texas Tech, 21-14, in the opener.  However, Tulane regrouped and won three straight contests, including an upset of No. 19 Georgia (17-14), Illinois (23-9) and Cincinnati (6-3) before succumbing to No. 8 Air Force in a blizzard, 24-3.  The following week, Tulane hosted North Carolina at Tulane stadium.  Set the tone from the beginning when David Abercrombie took a handoff from quarterback Mike Walker and threw a 74-yard halfback pass to Steve Barrios for a touchdown. Held off the Tar Heels for a 24-17 win.
• Dropped hard-fought game at Georgia Tech, 20-6, but rebounded with a three-game win streak over Vanderbilt (10-7), Miami (Fla.) (31-16) and North Carolina State (31-0), and set up a showdown at home against arch-rival LSU.  In front of the largest crowd in the South that season, 81,233 fans jammed Tulane Stadium to watch a classic showdown.
• Despite a hard-fought loss to No. 7 LSU, the home crowd gave Tulane a standing ovation and the Liberty Bowl representatives in attendance was impressed enough to extend the Green Wave an invitation to play Colorado, which marked the school’s first bowl invite since the 1939 Sugar Bowl.
• Was given little chance in the Liberty Bowl against a Colorado team averaging over 400 yards of total offense per game and was a two-touchdown favorite entering the contest.  However, the defense limited the Buffaloes to 175 yards and the offense ignited in the second half with a pair of touchdowns and pulled off not only one of the biggest upsets of the 1970 bowl season, but one of the greatest wins in school history.  The final score of 17-3 sounded closer than it really was.
• The senior trio of Kingrea, Walker and Abercrombie captained the 1970 team. The defense returned 10 starters from 1969, and Paul Ellis, “Bullet” Joe Bullard and David Hebert formed a secondary that picked off a school-record 28 passes on what was to be one of the Green Wave’s all-time great defensive units commonly known as “Bullard’s Bandits.”
• Offensively, Abercrombie set a school record with 246 yards rushing against North Carolina State on his way to 993 yards rushing for the year. Through the air, Walker and Barrios connected on some big plays, as Walker set a season record for yards per completion and Barrios set a season record for yards per catch.

Billy Slatten Award
Stephen Martin, Sr., Baseball, 1965-68
• Was the first African-American to compete in a varsity sport for any Southeastern Conference school when he played in his first game at Tulane against Spring Hill College in the 1966 season opener. Tulane completed the 1966 campaign with a 17-7 overall record and it also marked the Green Wave’s final year as an SEC member.
• Made his Tulane debut against an SEC opponent when he played as a member of the freshman team at LSU on April 3, 1965. Had a sacrifice fly in the opener and an infield single in the second as Tulane split a doubleheader with a 4-0 win and a 3-1 loss.
• Played in 61 career games and was a career .230 hitter with five home runs, 15 RBI and was a perfect 4-of-4 on stolen base attempts during his varsity career.
• Was coached by Ben Abadie and Milt Retif during his career and attended Tulane on an academic scholarship.
• Married Brigid Cheri Martin, who graduated from Tulane in 1995 with a continuing studies degree. The couple had three children, two of which, Dana and Stephen, Jr., earned Tulane degrees.
• Born Nov. 2, 1946, he was a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, was vice president of business affairs at Delgado Junior College and was a member of Tulane T-Club Board of Directors.
• Earned his bachelor’s degree in science and engineering from Tulane in 1968 and earned his master’s in business administration from Tulane in 1973.
• Later served in the United States Army and retired as the Chief Financial Officer for Tuskegee University in 2012.
• Passed away on May 14, 2013, at the age of 66.
• Was honored during the championship game at the 2015 SEC Baseball Tournament in Hoover, Ala., on May 24 with an on-field recognition and presentation for his place in SEC history.