THE COLLEGES : UC Irvine Names 3 to Hall of Fame : Former Coach Adams, Ex-Players Hamilton, Kruse to Be Honored

A former baseball coach, the women’s basketball team’s all-time leading scorer and an All-American water polo player will be inducted into UC Irvine’s Hall of Fame in ceremonies at the Bren Center today.

UCLA Coach Gary Adams, who was Irvine’s first baseball coach and earned National Collegiate Athletic Assn. Division II coach of the year honors in 1974, will be honored along with Katherine Hamilton and Jim Kruse at a 2 p.m. luncheon. They will be introduced at halftime of tonight’s Irvine-New Mexico State game.

In four years with the Anteaters (1979-83), Hamilton scored 1,768 points and had 901 rebounds. Hamilton, who played professionally in the now-defunct Women’s Basketball Assn. and in France, is a coach for the Long Beach Parks and Recreation Department.

Kruse, a two-time All-American water polo player (1972-73), scored a record 31 goals in the 1972 NCAA championships. He also was a member of the Irvine swim team and an NCAA Academic All-American. Kruse, who was a water polo commentator for NBC during the 1988 Olympics, is senior vice president of an Anaheim realty firm.

Adams, who helped design Anteater Field, was 185-68-5 at Irvine. The Anteaters won the Division II championship in 1973 and ’74 and were 48-8 in ’74. He has been UCLA coach since 1975.