All-Star Lineup Set for 2019 Hall of Fame Class

EUGENE, Ore. – The greatest American distance runner of his generation, two national championship cross country teams, one of the best centers in program history, Oregon's first two-time women's javelin national champion, the school's first NCAA Women's College World Series team and the Ducks' winningest football coach highlight a star-studded Athletics Hall of Fame class of 2019.

The University's 28th Hall of Fame includes football coach Mike Bellotti (1995-2008), six-time NCAA track and field champion and Olympic medalist Galen Rupp (2005-09), All-American center Max Unger (2005-09), two-time NCAA javelin champion Rachel Yurkovich (2006-09), the 2007 and 2008 back-to-back national champion men's cross country teams and the 1989 softball team, which was the first Duck squad to advance to the NCAA Women's College World Series.

To be eligible for induction into the Oregon Athletics Hall of Fame, which originated in 1992, former athletes, coaches, administrators and teams associated with the school's intercollegiate athletics success must have departed the University a minimum of 10 years earlier.

The 2019 honorees will formally join the elite collection of 209 athletes and 26 teams previously selected as part of the school's athletics showcase at the Hall of Fame banquet on Friday, Oct. 25, before being introduced publicly during the next day's football game against Washington State. For information regarding the purchase of tickets to the induction ceremonies, please contact Associate Director of Administration Lauren Crockett at lcrocket@uoregon.edu.

Mike Bellotti
When Mike Bellotti was elevated to head football coach at the University of Oregon on Feb. 13, 1995, few people could have envisioned the impact the former UC Davis honors student would have on a university that was coming off its first conference championship in 37 years. In the 14 seasons that followed, he became the Ducks' winningest football coach of all time. Accumulating a 116-55 record (1995-2008), Bellotti led Oregon to winning records in 13 of his 14 campaigns as head coach. He guided the Ducks to 12 bowl appearances, including six victories - both accomplishments unsurpassed in program history. He became the first coach to lead Oregon to 10 wins in 2000, and followed that with what was then a school season-record 11 wins in 2001. That year, the Ducks closed out the schedule with a resounding 38-16 victory over No. 3 Colorado in the Fiesta Bowl to garner an all-time best No. 2 final national ranking. Including his six seasons as Oregon's offensive coordinator (1989-94), Bellotti has been a part of more than 24 percent of the University's 655 all-time victories in program history (155). He coached the Ducks to shares of two Pac-10 Conference championships (2000, 2001). Bellotti was a finalist for the 2001 Bear Bryant National Coach-of-the-Year award, while quarterback Joey Harrington was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy. In Pac-12 annals, he remains 3rd on the list of all-time conference wins in league history (72) and 17th in career winning percentage (.626). Bellotti concluded a 36-year collegiate coaching career with a 10-3 mark and a Holiday Bowl triumph over Oklahoma State in a 2008 season that saw the Ducks shatter school marks for rushing yardage (3,641), total offense (6,303) and scoring (545). One of the more impressive footnotes about his coaching acumen is that the Ducks were 46-18 in games decided by a touchdown or less during Bellotti's tenure. Off the field, he established the Bellotti Family Fund to benefit University of Oregon libraries, and still hosts the Mike Bellotti Golf Classic and Dinner Auction, which benefits the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The Concord, Calif., native was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2014.

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Galen Rupp
The greatest American distance runner of his generation, Galen Rupp became the first person ever to win six NCAA distance races in the same academic year when he captured the 2008 NCAA Cross Country crown, won three titles at the 2009 NCAA Indoor Championships (3,000 meters, 5,000 meters and the distance medley relay) and claimed the 2009 NCAA Outdoor 5,000- and 10,000-meter championships. The list of honors for the school-record 14-time All-American is extensive: 2009 Bowerman Award winner, 2009 NCAA Division I Academic All-American of the Year, 2009 USTFCCCA national track indoor and outdoor athlete of the year, 2009 Pac-10 track athlete of the year, and 2006 and 2008 Pac-10 cross country athlete of year merely scratch the surface. Rupp anchored Oregon to three NCAA national titles, 2007 and 2008 Cross Country and 2009 Indoor Track and Field. His senior season remains one of the greatest individual performances in the history of collegiate running. After finishing as the national runner-up the year before, Rupp became just the third Duck to win the NCAA individual cross country title with his victory in the fall of 2008, joining Oregon legends Steve Prefontaine and Alberto Salazar. On the track, his remarkable three-win performance keyed Oregon's first-ever indoor national title. And he capped the year by pulling off the difficult individual double-double in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters at the outdoor championships. He overcame near-disaster in the 10K as he was stepped on early in the race and had to stop to put his shoe back on. In spite of the setback, he came back to win the event by three seconds. The five-time Pac-10 champion graduated as the American collegiate 10,000-meter record holder (27:33.48), as well as Oregon's outdoor 10,000 meter and indoor 3,000- and 5,000-meter record holder. He also qualified for the Olympics as a collegian, finishing second in the 10,000 meters at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials to earn a spot in the Beijing Games. The three-time Olympian (2008 Beijing, 2012 London, 2016 Rio de Janeiro) won the silver medal in the 10,000 meters in London and the bronze medal in the marathon in Rio. Rupp's excellence extended to the classroom as well, where he became the first collegiate track and field student-athlete to be named the NCAA Division I Academic All-American of the Year, an award that spans every sport sponsored by the NCAA and given annually to just one student-athlete. Rupp was a three-time academic All-American and a six-time Pac-10 all-academic selection. Fittingly, in his final race in an Oregon singlet, the Portland, Ore., native won the 10,000 meters at the 2009 USATF Championships at Historic Hayward Field.

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Max Unger
Max Unger cracked Oregon's starting lineup on the offensive line for the second game of his freshman season and remained there for an unprecedented 51 consecutive starts. Exhibiting remarkable versatility, Unger played primarily at left tackle as a freshman and sophomore before moving to center his final two years in Eugene. Becoming just the fourth Duck offensive lineman to earn first-team All-America honors in both 2007 and 2008, Unger captained a front five that helped the 2008 squad set school standards for rushing yards (3,641) and rushing touchdowns (47). He helped pave the way for Jonathan Stewart's school-record 1,722 yards rushing in 2007, and then anchored the line that produced a pair of 1,000-yard runners, Jeremiah Johnson (1,201) and LaGarrette Blount (1,002), in 2008. During Unger's tenure, the Ducks led the Pac-12 in scoring his junior and senior seasons as well as rushing and total offense his final three years. Following his senior season, Unger drew first-team All-America acclaim from Pro Football Weekly, SI.com and Rivals.com, and was also selected to play in the 2009 Senior Bowl. SI.com tabbed him as a first-team All-American following his junior year, while he earned all-conference laurels in both 2007 (second team) and 2008 (first team). He earned the Ed Moshofsky Award as the program's top offensive lineman three years in a row. After graduation in 2009, Unger was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in the second round with the 49th overall pick. He was a two-time Pro Bowl selection at center for the Seahawks, and started in Seattle's Super Bowl XLVIII win over Denver. Unger was traded to New Orleans following the 2014 season and earned a third career Pro Bowl selection as a Saint in 2018. The Honaunau, Hawai'i, native retired from the NFL in the spring of 2019.

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Rachel Yurkovich
A two-time NCAA javelin champion and a rare four-time Pac-10 javelin champion, Olympian Rachel Yurkovich was one of the elite throwers of her era. After winning the Pac-10 javelin title and claiming All-America honors as a freshman, Yurkovich broke Oregon's school record for the first time as a sophomore at the 2007 Arizona State Invitational with a throw of 189-11/57.90m. She went on to win her second Pac-10 javelin title and earn All-America honors later that spring. Yurkovich put the nation on notice early in her junior season when she broke both the Oregon and Pac-10 javelin records with a throw of 191-1/58.24m at the 2008 Oregon Relays. That led to a third conference title as well as her first NCAA Championship. Her junior season continued with a bronze medal finish at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials (185-1). That was the last meet she lost as a collegian. As a senior in 2009, Yurkovich went a perfect seven-for-seven in javelin competitions, collecting victories at the Stanford Invitational, the Pepsi Team Invitational (meet record 187-11/57.29m), the Sea Ray Relays and the Oregon Relays. She then broke her own school and Pac-10 record in winning her fourth consecutive Pac-10 championship with a throw of 191-2/58.26m. She joined USC's Inga Stasiulionyte as the only two women to win four consecutive Pac-10 javelin titles. In her final meet as a collegian at Hayward Field, Yurkovich captured the NCAA West Regional crown for her sixth win in a row. Then, in a masterful collegiate finale, the four-time All-American collected her second consecutive NCAA javelin title - and broke her own school and Pac-10 records in the process - with a colossal throw of 195-7/59.62m. After college, at the 2009 IAAF meet, Yurkovich became the first American woman to qualify for the javelin final at a World Championships since Karin Smith finished 10th in 1983. The Newberg, Ore., native went on to represent the United States in the 2012 Olympic Games.

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1989 Softball Team
Led by All-Americans Katie Wiese and Kim Manning, the 1989 Oregon softball team was not only the first in school history to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament, but fought its way all the way to the Women's College World Series. The 1989 team still ranks first or second in eight different statistical categories at Oregon. The team opened the season on a roll, winning 15 of its first 16 games and capturing the Arizona Softball Classic title. The Ducks also closed out the regular season on a strong note, winning 15-of-17. That helped lift the Ducks to a runner-up finish in the Pac-10 at 13-7. Oregon was one of two teams to defeat eventual national champion UCLA in league play. The Ducks' strong showing earned the squad an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Oregon was sent across the country to the Northeast Regional in Amherst, Mass. There, the Ducks defeated Massachusetts, 2-0, in the opening round, before falling to Connecticut, 2-1, later the same day. Facing elimination less than 24 hours later, the Ducks rallied past UConn, 3-2, in 10 innings and then ran past the Huskies, 6-0, in the decisive game to earn a ticket to the program's first NCAA Women's College World Series. Traveling back across the country to Sunnyvale, Calif., just four days later to meet Cal Poly-Pomona in the opening round of the WCWS, the Ducks fell, 1-0. But Oregon rallied for a 1-0 win against South Carolina two days later, before falling to Arizona, 4-0, in the national semifinals. The squad ended the year with a 54-18 record and was ranked No. 4 in the final regular season poll. That season, the Ducks set school records in wins (54), shutouts (28), earned run average (0.84), innings pitched (481), saves (10), defensive putouts (1,443), triples (20) and stolen bases (82). The numbers for shutouts, innings pitched and defensive putouts are still the school standards some 30 years later. Wiese had a 42-13 record in the circle with a 0.52 ERA and 168 strikeouts and was named the Pac-10 player of the year. Infielder Danny Senner led the Ducks with a .404 average with 40 runs batted in, while infielder Kathy Gray hit .330 with 39 RBI. Manning and Julie Cavanaugh both batted .324 for the Ducks. Head coach Teresa Wilson won both the NSCA national and Pac-10 coach of the year honors. Wiese, Manning and Cavanaugh have all been enshrined in the UO Athletics Hall of Fame. After the 1989 team's run, it would be 23 seasons before another Oregon team made an appearance at the WCWS in 2012.

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2007 & 2008 Men's Cross Country Teams
The men's national championship cross teams of 2007 and 2008 heralded a renaissance of running in TrackTown USA. Two-time USTFCCCA national coach of the year Vin Lananna assembled a cavalry of distance superstars such as Galen Rupp, Shadrack Biwott, Matthew Centrowitz, Luke Puskedra, A.J. Acosta and Andrew Wheating, among many others. The victory by the 2007 squad signaled that running was back at the University of Oregon. After winning their second straight Pac-10 title thanks to a 1-2 finish from Biwott and Rupp, the Ducks set off for the national championships in Terre Haute, Ind. All five scorers earned All-America honors as the Ducks celebrated their first NCAA title since 1977. Rupp finished as the national runner-up, with Biwott running ninth, Diego Mercado 30^th, Kenny Klotz 37th, and Daniel Mercado 41st. Acosta (117^th) and Scott Wall (162^nd) also represented the Ducks. Oregon's 85 points easily outpaced second-place Iona's 113. A year later in 2008, the Ducks again prevailed as Pac-10 champions with Rupp winning his second career individual league crown. Rupp then led Oregon at the national championships, where he won the first of his NCAA-record six distance national titles during the 2008-09 academic year. After being denied a year earlier, Rupp made his move on Liberty's Sam Chelenga with 200 meters remaining and crossed the line in first in 29:03.2. While Rupp was again the Ducks' pacesetter, the roster behind him was significantly revamped from the previous year. Puskedra, a freshman, was fifth for the Ducks, while Biwott was ninth. Oregon also counted a 45th-place finish from Centrowitz and a 54th-place showing from Diego Mercado. Other Duck finishers Klotz in 66th and Wheating in 75th at 30:40.3 as all seven Oregon harriers finished in the top 75. The Ducks won with 93 points to handily defeat Iona, which finished with 147. It was the first back-to-back titles for the Ducks since 1973 and 1974 teams that were led by the legendary Steve Prefontaine.

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University of Oregon Athletics

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