UCLA inducts eight new members

As a senior in 1995, All-American forward Ed O’Bannon
helped lead UCLA to its most recent NCAA Men’s Basketball
Championship.

Now, ten years after he last suited up for the Blue and Gold,
O’Bannon is headlining a new group: He will be one of eight
new members inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in a
private ceremony tomorrow.

O’Bannon leads a diverse group of athletes and coaches who
were elected to the Hall by a committee of 22 members. The
committee includes alumni, athletic supporters, Hall of Fame
members, and several members of the UCLA Sports Department.

“(The inductees) are a nice mix of past and
present,” said Brian Smith, assistant director of the UCLA
Athletic Fund who is coordinating the induction event.

Three of the inductees, including O’Bannon, were selected
in the first year they were eligible for the Hall. Current Hall of
Fame bylaws dictate that student athletes can only be considered
for the Hall ten years after last playing for UCLA.

John Godina and Dawn Dumble, both standouts in the shot put and
discus, also last competed for UCLA ten years ago. Godina won five
NCAA championships, while Dumble won four. Godina also owns a
silver and a bronze Olympic medal in the shot put.

The other inductees include basketball player Kenny Washington,
volleyball player and organizer Mike O’Hara, former
men’s gymnastics coach Art Shurlock, tennis star Allen Fox,
and former football lineman Hardiman Cureton.

Washington was a sixth-man on UCLA’s National Championship
teams in 1964 and 1965. O’Hara, who was on the first Varsity
men’s volleyball team at UCLA, helped promote the sport and
was also the Vice President of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic
Organizing Committee.

Shurlock coached men’s gymnastics for 30 years, during
which the team won two NCAA Championships. Fox won an NCAA singles
title and a NCAA doubles title while helping men’s tennis to
NCAA Championships in 1960 and 1961.

Cureton, who passed away several years ago, was an All-American
at offensive guard in 1955. He played on both the offensive and
defensive lines while at UCLA.

Friday’s invitation-only induction ceremony will take
place in the UCLA Hall of Fame located inside the Morgan Center.
Each of the eight new members (eight being the maximum number that
can be elected in any given year) will have a commemorative plaque
placed in the Hall. Their inductions will raise the number of
members to 199.

“It’s a sellout event,” says Smith.
“That just shows the support this inductee class has from
friends and family.”

The seven living inductees will also be at the Rose Bowl on
Saturday, where Smith says they will be introduced by public
address announcer Chuck White at halftime. Cureton’s grandson
will represent him in the ceremony.