CALIFORNIA (Aug. 4) – California University of Pennsylvania President Dr. Angelo Armenti, Jr., has announced that seven individuals will comprise the 15th class named to the Athletic Hall of Fame.
The 2009 inductees are Bryan Hartung '03 (baseball), Patrick Hobart '68 (men's basketball), Sameera Philyaw '04 (women's basketball), Joe Sarra '60 (football), Chad Scott '93 (men's basketball), Becky Siembak '03 (women's basketball), and Marty Uher (track & field/cross country coach).
These former Vulcan standouts will be inducted officially at the 2009 Cal U Athletic Hall of Fame Banquet on Friday, Oct. 16, at 5:30 p.m. in the Performance Center located inside the Elmo Natali Student Center.
The inductees also will participate in the University's annual Homecoming Parade on Saturday, Oct. 17, and will be introduced during the Vulcans' Homecoming football game against Edinboro University.
This year's banquet also will recognize Cal U's 1979 Vulcan baseball team. Thirty years ago this PSAC championship team won the program's first state title, a feat matched only one additional time in the program's history.
Tickets for the Hall of Fame banquet are $35 each. For reservations, contact Dean of Cal U Alumni Relations Montean Dean at 724.938.4418. Proceeds from the banquet will be used to establish a Hall of Fame athletic scholarship.
For more information on the inductees, contact
Bruce Wald of the Cal U Public Relations Office at 724.938.5898 or Sports Information Director
Matthew Kifer at 724.938.4552.
Bryan Hartung was a three-time, first-team all-conference right fielder for the Vulcans' baseball team from 2000-03. A prodigious hitter, Hartung owns career school records in hits (204), home runs (39), RBI (168) and at-bats (575). He finished with a .354 career batting average and also produced 36 doubles, 37 stolen bases and 88 walks. During his 2003 senior season, Hartung hit a single-season school record 15 home runs with 47 RBI, 42 runs scored and 14 stolen bases. He helped the Vulcans win two PSAC West titles and make three consecutive PSAC tournament appearances.
Patrick Hobart was a standout post-player for the Vulcans men's basketball team from 1963-64 through 1966-67. He scored 1,109 career points and averaged a school-record 18.1 rebounds per game in 1966 while also scoring more than 16 points a game. A two-time, first-team all-conference selection, Hartung received second-team all-state and honorable mention All-America honors in 1967. He scored 531 points during his senior season and helped the Vulcans win the program's first of now 18 PSAC West championships.
Sameera Philyaw was a three-time all-conference forward who played on the women's basketball team from 2000-01 through 2003-04. She ranks third in school history in career scoring and fifth in rebounding with 1,640 points and 879 rebounds respectively. The Most Valuable Player of the 2004 NCAA Division II East Regional tournament, Philyaw helped the Vulcans win three -straight PSAC and PSAC West championships, three NCAA tourney appearances, two trips to the NCAA Division II Final Four and the 2004 NCAA Division II National Championships. She was a 2003-04 PSAC Winter Top 10 selection and Academic All-District.
Joe Sarra transferred to Cal U from Toledo University during his sophomore season and was a standout linebacker and fullback for the Vulcans from 1957 through 1959. He was a member of the 1958 PSAC championship team that achieved the second of just three undefeated football regular seasons in school history. Sarra helped a stingy Cal defense allow an average of just 3.9 points per game, with four shutouts. A 2001 Mon Valley Hall of Fame inductee, Sarra went on to a distinguished scholastic and collegiate coaching career, including 17 years at Penn State.
Chad Scott was a post-player for the men's basketball team from 1990-91 through 1993-94 and helped the Vulcans win 100 of 120 games, including a 42-6 PSAC West divisional mark. He led all levels of the NCAA in field-goal percentage in 1992-93 with a 72.7 FG percentage (178/245). His career FG percentage of 70.0 (465/664) still ranks third nationally in NCAA Division II history. Scott helped Cal U make three NCAA tourney appearances, win three straight PSAC West titles and two PSAC crowns, and advance to the NCAA Final Four in 1992. A two-time all-conference selection, Scott scored 1,141 career points.
Becky Siembak scored 1,139 points for the Vulcans, who won 68 of 71 games during her two years at Cal U, 2003 and 2004. A dominant center, she transferred to Cal U after scoring 880 points in two years at Slippery Rock University. The 2003 NCAA Division II and PSAC West Player of the Year, Siembak is one of only 15 players in NCAA Division II history with 2,000 career points (2,019) and 1,000 career rebounds (1,203). She helped Cal U advance to consecutive NCAA National Final Four appearances and win the 2004 national title. She averaged nearly 18 points and 10 rebounds per game in 2003 and her career field-goal percentage was over 60 percent.
Marty Uher started both track & field programs and the women's cross country program while teaching for 25 years in Cal U's Department of Health and Physical Education, from 1967 through 1992. During his collegiate coaching days, Uher guided 20 PSAC individual champions and All-Americans, including
Brian Ferrari, who won the 1983 NCAA Division II cross country national championship and two 10,000-meter national titles. Uher also served as an assistant football coach in the 1970s, and earlier this decade he served as a volunteer assistant coach to both the men's and women's track and cross country programs under head coach
Roger Kingdom.
The
1979 Cal U baseball team compiled a 29-16 overall record and won the PSAC title by winning two of three games in the finals at defending-conference champion Shippensburg. After losing the opening game 12-8, the Vulcans won by scores of 2-1 and 10-5 for the school's first baseball conference title. The Vulcans then won three-of-five games and finished a strong second at the NCAA II Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament. During the regular season, Cal put together win streaks of 11 and nine games. The team's head coach was
Mitch Bailey, who was assisted by future Cal baseball head coach
Chuck Gismondi. This coaching duo and emeriti professors were inducted into the Cal U Hall of Fame in 1996 and 2003, respectively.
