Merced High School to welcome 20 Hall of Fame inductees

The feedback from Merced High School’s first Hall of Fame Dinner was so positive, athletic director Paul Hogue doesn’t plan to change much when the second class is inducted this month.

It’s the old coach in Hogue. If you have a game plan that works, why change it?

“I’ve learned having good people help you put on an event is very important,” Hogue said. “Although this is a fundraiser, and we let people know that, we want to make this event about the inductees. We want to make this a great night for them. We’re going to do the same thing we did last year. It was such a fabulous night, and it’s a fantastic blueprint.”

On March 19, Merced High will induct 20 former athletes, coaches and community members along with the 1950 undefeated football team and 1980 state champion wrestling team. The ceremony will be held at the Merced Fairgrounds’ Yosemite Hall. The night starts with a no-host bar at 5 p.m. with the dinner and ceremony scheduled to start at 7.

“The process was pretty similar to last year,” Hogue said. “When you realize it’s been 120 years the high school has been around, there have been a lot of athletes to come out of Merced High. It’s hard to find stuff on the athletes before 1972 because that’s when we joined the Sac-Joaquin Section. All the records are kept pretty well since 1972. Before then, it gets pretty tough.”

As you can imagine, it’s an impressive list of inductees, which includes three former Major League Baseball players, two NFL players and five former state champions in their sport.

“It was exciting. I was kind of speechless,” said former Merced High basketball star John Sykes, who will be inducted. “You don’t play for that, to go to the Hall of Fame. You play because you love the sport, but it’s a nice reward.

“It’s going to be fun to see all the faces I grew up with and to see some of the guys who are already in the Hall of Fame.”

Sykes was a two-time Central California Conference MVP playing for Merced coach Vince Clemons, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame last year. Sykes still holds rebounding records at Merced.

Brian Fuentes, Jerry Garvin and Thad Tillotson went on to play Major League Baseball. Fuentes was a four-time All-Star and racked up 204 saves during his 12-year career.

Fuentes has always been proud of being from Merced.

“I had a lot of pride, especially spending time in the National League West and coming to California,” Fuentes said. “There was always a lot of Merced people at the games whether it was in San Francisco, San Diego or Anaheim. Guys would come out and say hi or I’d recognize faces in the crowd. It was always nice to know people from Merced were behind me.”

Wendell Mathis will be inducted with his uncle, Michael Dobbins.

Mathis was one of the top running backs to play at Merced High. He went on to play at UCLA and Fresno State, where he set a season rushing record. Mathis spent two years on the Minnesota Vikings’ practice squad.

Dobbins played football and basketball and participated in track and field at Merced. He won the state triple jump championship with a leap of 49 feet, 3 inches.

Mathis called the Hall of Fame selection a tremendous honor.

“I went on to play in college and in the NFL a bit with the practice squad, but nothing was as special as Friday night lights during high school,” Mathis said. “I miss the camaraderie, the brotherhood that you had, whether it was Friday night lights or Wednesdays and Fridays during basketball.”

Bill Halpin is being inducted as an athlete and a coach. Halpin set six school swimming records and was a two-time 400 freestyle section champion. He also compiled a 224-35 record as a water polo coach, winning the section championship in 1982. He also coached the swimming team to 66 consecutive duel wins.

Bartt Frey won section swim titles in the 200 and 500 freestyle in 1984. He also won three individual national championships while swimming for Cal State Bakersfield and was invited to the U.S. Olympic Trials in 1988.

“Bill Halpin was my first swim coach when I was 4 years old,” Frey said. “I was never a great swimmer. I attribute my success to my coaches and teammates. My dad kept me in swimming. I wanted to go watch Batman, but my dad made me stick with it.

“Looking back, I had 25 different swim coaches or more, and every one of them instilled something that I took with me. All those guys put together made me what I am. Without them, I would have quit. I would have been done.”

Tickets for the dinner are $50 and can be purchased at the Merced High student body office or online at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2462541.

All proceeds go toward improving Merced’s athletic facilities.

“We’re going to create the Merced High Athletic Foundation, and the mission will be to improve the athletic facilities at Merced High School,” Hogue said. “The money we raise doesn’t go toward new uniforms, buying balls or for coaches to take their teams on trips. It’s to improve facilities on campus. We used the money we raised last year to buy a new scoreboard for the softball field and to pay for the taxes on the land that was donated to help us pay for a new football stadium when it’s sold.”

This story was originally published March 2, 2016 at 5:15 PM with the headline "Merced High School to welcome 20 Hall of Fame inductees."