Loyola to Open Doors to Hall of Fame

The first class of inductees into Loyola Marymount University’s Athletic Hall of Fame will be honored in ceremonies Saturday before Loyola’s basketball game against the University of San Francisco. Ceremonies will begin at 7:30 p.m. Game time is 8 p.m.

Thirty-three former athletes and administrators will be honored, covering a spectrum from football, baseball and basketball to women’s crew and cross-country.

The group will include Pete Newell, a member of the national Basketball Hall of Fame; Don Klosterman, an All-American quarterback at Loyola and later an executive with the Baltimore Colts, Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Express; and Phil Woolpert, a basketball player at Loyola who went on to coach USF to consecutive NCAA titles in 1955 and ’56.

Also on hand will be former Loyola athletes who went on to pro careers--Jerry Grote and Rick Adelman in basketball, Gene Brito, Ernie Cheatham and Dominic Nocerine in football and Gerard Stone, Russ Noah and Robert Sheldon in baseball. Another honoree, John Polich, played professional hockey and football.

The roster also includes Olympic volleyball player Paul Sunderland.

Among the women, the five who won the national lightweight-four crew championship in 1981 will be honored--rowers Taffy Walsh, Erin Walsh, Teresa Russo and Virginia Hamer and coxswain Eileen McAndrew--along with cross country standout Therese Kozlowski, who won the national Division III title in 1980 and with three conference titles.