The Rancho Cordova Athletic Association will inaugurate a new sports tradition this October with the first ever inductions into the Rancho Cordova Sports Hall of Fame.

From the nationally recognized 1975 Cordova High School Football Lancers to high school baseball players Major League Baseball, the inaugural class of inductees reads like a “Who’s Who” of Rancho Cordova sports heroes, including athletes, coaches and “Heart of a Champion” supporters who have been central to building a remarkable sports legend.

The inductees will be honored during the 2015 Sports Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony slated for 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17 at Rancho Cordova City Hall. Tickets for the event are $25 and will include an appetizer and cocktail reception and awards program. Tickets will be limited to 350, and the event promises to be a sell-out.

Online tickets will go on sale Sept. 1 at www.cordovacouncil.org.

The event is organized by the Rancho Cordova Athletic Association in partnership with the Cordova Community Council.

“Rancho Cordova has a uniquely powerful history of youth sports achievement,” said David Sander, a Rancho Cordova City Councilman and president of the Rancho Cordova Athletic Association. “Our Hall of Fame will acknowledge and memorialize that incredible history and inspire our current and future youth athletes as well.”

The Rancho Cordova Athletic Association was formed in 2013 to foster lifelong values of good sportsmanship, teamwork and healthy active lifestyles through development of excellent youth sports facilities and organizations, positive coaching and access to play for all.

To be elected to the Rancho Cordova Sports Hall of Fame, inductees were judged to have attained significant achievements in or contributions to athletics, as well as exhibiting high standards of character and sportsmanship.

“The history of Rancho Cordova is closely linked with some of the most talented athletes in the country,” said Conrade Mayer, chairman of the Hall of Fame selection committee. “The time has arrived to look at this amazing sports legacy and allow it to inspire our entire community, especially our youth.”

Rancho Cordova Sports luminaries to be inducted with the Inaugural Class include:

• 1975 Lancers Football Team: Considered by many to be the best football team to ever come out of this part of the country, the ‘75 Lancers was the State Team of the Year and was close to being a mythical national champion. Cordova ’75 is also widely considered to be the best team from a decade of dominance by the Lancers under head coaches Dewey Guerra and Ron Lancaster that was the best decade any NorCal school ever had until De La Salle emerged almost three decades later. Cordova went 102-6-1 in the 1970s, which was not only the best record in the state, but the best in the nation.

• Guy Anderson: One of the winningest coaches in high school baseball history, Anderson led the Cordova Lancers team for 45 years as varsity coach. A National High School Hall of Fame inductee, Anderson piled up 927 wins, second most in California history. Under Anderson, Cordova produced some of the region’s best teams and players. The Lancers were a power in the 1970s, 1980s and into the early ’90s, winning five section titles.

• Chris Bosio: A Cordova High School baseball notable pitcher, Bosio went on to play Major League Baseball for the Milwaukee Brewers and Seattle Mariners from 1986 to 1996, including a no-hitter in 1993 for the Mariners against the Boston Red Sox. He is currently a pitching coach for the Chicago Cubs.

• Christy Bowles: A multiple sport athlete at Cordova High School, Bowles was an area Hall of Fame softball catcher, a MVP field hockey player, and area Hall of Fame Female Athlete. She went on to play catcher at Chico State University.

• Rod Connors: A Cordova High track standout, Connors was a State Meet 400 Meters winner . His 1975 USC freshmen mile relay record still stands.

• Duane Fidel: A Cordova High wrestling standout, Fidel was a three-time Delta League and three-time Sub Section wrestling champion. He was a Sac-Joaquin Section Champion, qualified for the state tournament twice and was a medal winner. He went on to wrestle for Sacramento City College where he was a two-time state qualifier and team captain. He coached at Cordova High and now coaches at Folsom High.

• Dewey Guerra: (Deceased) Considered by some to be the greatest high school football coach in the country, he was the head coach of the 1975 Lancers and led Cordova to 10 straight championships.

• Doug Hawkes: (Deceased) The longtime Grapevine Independent newspaper publisher and sports writer, Hawkes’ “Sports on the Eastside” column was a constant chronicle of Rancho Cordova athletics and sports history for decades.

• Geoff Jenkins: A Cordova High School baseball standout who also played football and basketball, Jenkins was elected to the All State Baseball Team as a junior and senior before graduating in 1992. Following an outstanding career at USC, Jenkins was a first round draft pick for the Milwaukee Brewers and also played for the Philadelphia Phillies.

• Helen Klein: A nationally-recognized senior ultra marathoner, Klein was in the inaugural class of the Sacramento Running Association Hall of Fame. With dozens of ultra-marathons and records to her credit, Klein has been an inspiration to runners of all ages, having never run a step until she was 55 years of age.

• Ron Lancaster: A coach who was also part of the 1970s Cordova High Football juggernaut, Lancaster’s storied career began in Rancho Cordova where he went 59-3 and won four Section titles and was 1979 National High School Coach of the Year. He went on to coaching fame in the State of Oklahoma.

• Randy Lerch: A Cordova High School baseball pitcher, Lerch played professional baseball for the Milwaukee Brewers, Philadelphia Phillies, Montreal Expos and San Francisco Giants from 1975 to 1986. On September 30, 1978, Lerch achieved a rare bit of notoriety for a pitcher by hitting two home runs in a 10–8 win that clinched the National League East Division championship for the Phillies.

• Jerry Manuel: A three-sport star in football, basketball and baseball, Manuel (Cordova ‘72) put Cordova High on the national stage when he and Mike Ondina became the first pair of prep teammates ever to be drafted by MLB in the first round. Following a six-year MLB career he went on to coach, eventually managing the Chicago White Sox, where he earned “Manager of the Year” honors, and New York Mets. He now heads the Jerry Manuel Foundation, which is dedicated to bringing more African American players into the game of baseball and heads baseball operations for William Jessup University in Rocklin.

• Clarke Massey: (Deceased) A longtime Cordova High School coach in football, track and cross country, Massey coached the defensive line of the 1979 champion football Lancers, and 10 straight track championships at Cordova High, going on to coach track at Sierra College and Sacramento State. The Clarke Massey Relays held annually at Cordova High are a tribute to his track coaching excellence.

• John McCants: (Deceased) McCants was a legendary Cordova High School Coach in basketball, swimming and track, who helped launch girls high school sports at Cordova High, particularly in the sport of softball.

• Mike McCullough: Cordova High School grad McCullough earned a full ride basketball scholarship to Utah State and has risen to the top of the NBA’s Miami Heat – not as a player, but as a businessman. Viewed as an extremely versatile and well-respected senior NBA business executive, McCullough sports a 27-year track record of establishing best practices for sports marketing and employee engagement while producing highly effective marketing and results-oriented corporate partnership programs.

• Max Miller: Miller coached for 28 years within the Sac-Joaquin Section, compiling a 254-90-4 record as the head coach. He was at Rio Americano from 1974-80, at Cordova High from 1981-93 and 1999-2007, and he was at Johnson from 1996-97. His 1985 Cordova team was a Sac-Joaquin Section championship winner and was the Section's first 14-0 football team. He is fondly remembered by many for turning Cordova football from a hot Saturday afternoon event to a cool Friday Night game. He was the defensive coordinator at Folsom in 2010, when the Bulldogs went on to win the Section D2 championship as well as the CIF State D2 championship bowl game.

• Laurie Salo: Salo followed up her Cordova High softball career at UC Davis where she was named to the All Region First Team in both 1986 and 1987. She was the Dr. Hubert Heitman Female Athlete of the Year winner in 1987. Her achievements were noted again in 1993 when the Aggies named her to the UC Davis Athletic Hall of Fame.

• Joel Smith: Smith is the most decorated Cordova High triple jumper in history, and still holds records at the high school and college level. Among his achievements: Top 3 All Time Performances at Sacramento City College (1988), Track & Field News All America Team #1 in the Triple Jump (1987) and ESPN’s All Time California Track and Field Records, 9^th in Triple Jump (1987).

• Max Venable: A multi-sport athlete at Cordova High, Venable was a star of the 1975 Lancer Football team. While he excelled in all sports, he turned down football scholarships to sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He also played for the San Francisco Giants and other teams including the Montréal Expos, Cincinnati Reds and California Angels.

• Seneca Wallace: Wallace lettered in football and basketball at Cordova High where he won multiple football honors. He moved on to Sacramento City College and then Iowa State at quarterback. He was drafted into the NFL in 2003, and has played for the Seattle Seahawks , the Cleveland Browns, New Orleans Saints and San Francisco Forty-Niners. He moved to the Green Bay Packers in 2013 and was the first ever African-American to start a game as quarterback for the Packers.

• Gerald Willhite: Willhite is the best known football player never to have played for the Cordova Lancers. At Cordova High, Willhite was a wrestler, graduating in 1977, and who went on to play football for San Jose State and be drafted in the first round by the Denver Broncos, eventually playing for them in Super Bowl XXI against the New York Giants.

• Kevin Willhite: A 1981-82 Cordova High track and football star, Willhite was one of the greatest running backs in California prep history, rushing for 4,901 yards and scoring 72 touchdowns. He was selected into the Sac-Joaquin section Hall of Fame and is listed #2 on the Sacramento Bee list of top area players in history. Also a great prep sprinter, as a junior he won the 200 meters at the California State track meet. He was named the California prep athlete of the year (for football and track) and was separately named the California prep football player of the year. After his senior football year, he also earned three national honors before moving on to University of Oregon. During the NFL strike season of 1987,Willhite became a replacement player for the Green Bay Packers.

• Colette Winlock: From the Cordova High School Class of 1973, Winlock was an early standout among female athletes at the dawning of Title IX. She won a full ride track scholarship to California State Hayward (now East Bay) where she was a two-time All American in the long jump and 400 meter hurdles. She was inducted into the Cal State East Bay Sports Hall of Fame in 1996.

• Larry Wolfe was a Lancer baseball star who went on to Sacramento City College and headed for Major League Baseball in 1971. A third baseman, he played for the Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox.

• Reggie Young: A high school All American, Young was a three-year starter for legendary teams that went 35-1, including the 1975 Lancers where he played as a sophomore. Young is listed as #9 on the Sac Bee’s list of all time best players, though receiving some votes as No. 1. He played two years for the University of Oregon.