5 to Be Inducted Into Sports Hall of Fame

The Ventura County Sports Hall of Fame will honor five longtime champions of countywide athletics at its 11th annual induction ceremony and banquet May 22 in Oxnard.

Event Chairman Chuck Eskew said the inductions are a good way to celebrate county-bred athletes who go on to succeed in state and national competitions, and coaches or organizers who come to the county and make a difference.

“We are a nonaligned, independent organization that has stepped forth and said, ‘Hey, let’s honor athletics,’ ” Eskew said. After this year’s inductions, the hall will have 56 members, he said. A selection committee of five anonymous judges from throughout the county selected this year’s inductees from a field of 42 nominees.

Slated for induction this year are:

* Don Cardinal, a 1951 graduate of Santa Paula High School who from 1967 to 1992 coached the Channel Islands High School baseball team and became the winningest baseball coach in Ventura County history;

* the late Lloyd Corser, who moved to the county with his family in 1939 and founded the county’s first Little League franchise in 1950;

* Victor (Ramsey) Earnhart, who graduated from Ventura High School in 1959 and went on to become a successful tennis professional;

* John Flores, who graduated from Ventura High School in 1940 and organized the county’s first Babe Ruth League organization, the next step up from Little League in youth baseball;

* Mike Parrott, a 1973 graduate of Adolfo Camarillo High School who became a successful major league pitcher for such teams as the Baltimore Orioles, the Seattle Mariners and the Kansas City Royals.

The banquet will honor the five inductees as well as the top male and female athletes at each of the county’s high schools and community colleges as selected by the individual schools, Eskew said. The top male and female athletes at Cal Lutheran University will also be honored.

The event is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. at the Radisson Suites Hotel. Tickets are available for $27 through Eskew, who can be reached at 656-4141 during business hours and at 647-1299 in the evenings.