Interesting matchup here in the CGB Hall Of Fame. The Mayor, Kevin Johnson, a former Cal basketball star and current mayor of Sacramento. Alex Morgan, perhaps the greatest soccer player to come out of Cal, currently representing the B+G at the highest level in the Women's Soccer World Cup. Who is going to move on?
You can view the full bracket here. Voting ends this Friday at noon. Full write ups after the jump. GO BEARS!
Kevin Johnson (1)
Here's the Oski-friendly summary of one of the most exciting points to ever play ball at Harmon.
Despite excelling at two sports in high school, Johnson decided to play basketball exclusively at the collegiate level, and accepted a scholarship to play basketball for the University of California at Berkeley . Playing all four seasons, Johnson ended his college basketball career in 1987 as the school's all-time leader in assists, steals, and scoring (since eclipsed by Lamond Murray). He was also the first player in the Pac-10 Conference to post a "triple-double" in the statistics, and he was named to the Pac-10's all-conference First Team in both his junior and senior seasons, averaging 17.2 points and 5.0 assists in his final basketball season. His number 11 is retired.
11 – Kevin Johnson
22 – Chris Washington
33 – Eddie Javius
44 – Leonard Taylor
5 – Dave ButlerI still don’t know why Butler didn’t change his # to 55. It’s a toss-up for me between KJ and Jason Kidd as far as the most entertaining player I’ve seen wear the Blue and Gold.
JoshinPortland: Best player on that team. Glorious day in a packed Kips watching UCLA go down for the first time in my lifetime.
Here's the only Cal footage I could find of KJ, from the 1987 NBA Draft (starting at about 3 minutes in).
The announcers were surprised he was drafted so high at 7th. I was surprised too. He should've been drafted 3rd.
Now the mayor of Sactown, KJ still reps the Gold and Blue as often as he can. Here he is at Cal's Pac-10 championship celebration, as ebullient as can be.
Alex Morgan (5)
via grfx.cstv.com
Alex Morgan is somewhat of a cult heroine on CGB (mostly on the DBD) because of her wholesome good looks. But she is not CGB HOF-worthy simply because she has so many admirers among Cal fans. Alex Morgan is CGB HOF-worthy because she might be the greatest Cal women's soccer player ever there was. And since Cal is the alma mater of Joy Biefeld Fawcett, that is saying something.
Alex closed her Cal career as the third leading all-time scorer in California women's soccer history with 107 points (45 goals). She was the team's leading scorer in her senior season (2010) despite missing several games due to being called up to play games on the USA National team. She led the nation in scoring for much of the season and it's not a stretch to say she would have won that title easily had it not been for her commitment to USA Soccer.
The accomplishments don't stop there. Alex's career is dotted with achievement:
First team All-American as a senior
First-team All-Pac-10 selection four times
First Cal player ever to be named as a finalist for the Hermann Trophy, the Heisman of women's soccer
Led Cal to the NCAA tournament in each of her four years
Second-team Freshman All American in 2007
Alex has made Cal proud and she'll make America proud on the national team, that's for sure.