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It's our last region in the CGB Hall of Fame Finals. After a long summer of voting we are finally down to the last round of the California Golden Blogs Hall of Fame 2012! Whoever wins the voting from here on out goes directly into our Hall of Fame, which can be seen by clicking here.
The fourth of our four match-ups features electrifying running back Jahvid Best taking on Olympic superstar and swimming Bear Nathan Adrian. Best advanced to the finals by taking down Kirk Everist in a landslide while Adrian took out another former Golden Bear running back Russell White in convincing fashion.
The winner here will be the CGB Hall of Fame recipient from the Pete Newell Region for this year so be sure and get your votes in! You can take a look at the rest of the bracket and all the match-ups here. The full write-ups are after the jump and the voting will end on Friday. GO BEARS!
(3) Jahvid Best
Jahvid Best - Cal Football - Jim Rome Is Burning 11/4/2009 (via calbearsgobig)
Here are some thoughts from the CGB Remembering the Seniors post:
Best seems to always have one mode: Fast. He ran fast. He cut fast. He caught fast. He leapt fast. He even interviewed fast. He's the prototypical Internet-generation athlete!
He was a one man instrument of warfare, like that sniper in Saving Private Ryan. In a blink of an eye, he took teams out of games. We can count the games, the names, the teams he left burning on the turf in his wake. CSU '08. Wazzu '08. Furd '08. Washington '08. Miami '08. Maryland '09. Minnesota '09. UCLA '09. Opposing fans probably felt a little helpless once the Jet found the seams and broke loose--it was hardly a fair fight once Xs and Os crumbled into the 100 m dash.
I don't think I've ever seen a football player take over a football game by himself the way Jahvid did with the liabilities he had to nurse from everyone. He was hampered with a generally weak offensive line (especially in the interior) and a terribly hamstrung quarterback situation. Even Desean had a fairly accurate Longshore throwing to him much of his career. Best had to win many games on his own (and when I say on his own, he generated around 70 to 80% of their meaningful offense, sometimes even more). The only Bear who had to burden that much of the load in modern times was probably Deltha, and those teams still stunk. One player can't make a team great; it's to Jahvid's credit that he kept the offense running alright with minimal help (Ta'ufo'ou, Mack and Malele in '08, and mmmaybe Summers-Gavin in '09).
Jahvid Best 2009 Season Highlights (via HANDSOMElifeOFswing)
(4) Nathan Adrian
Cal Mens Swimming vs. USC 100y Freestyle (via AquaVolo)
Nathan Adrian (born December 7, 1988) is an American swimmer and Olympic gold medalistwho currently holds the American record in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle (short course).[1]
At the 2008 Summer Olympics, Adrian swam in the heats of the 4×100 m freestyle relay and earned a gold medal when the United States won in the final. He has won a total of twelve medals in major international competition, ten gold, one silver, and one bronze spanning the Olympics, the World, and the Pan Pacific Championships.
paleodan adds: "And he helped out on Mythbusters. (A Bay Area show about nerds that like to blow stuff up with robots-and you can't get much more Cal then that.)"
• 2010 NCAA champion in the 100 free
• Member of 2010 NCAA champion 200 free, 400 free and 400 medley relays
• 2010 Pac-10 champion in the 50 and 100 free
• Member of 2010 Pac-10 champion 400 free and 400 medley relays
• 2009 NCAA champion in the 50 (American record 18.71) and 100 free (American record 41.08)
• 2009 Pac-10 champion in the 50, 100 and 200 free
• Member of 2009 Pac-10 champion 200 and 400 medley relays
• Named 2009 Pac-10 Swimmer of the Year
• Named 2010 CoSida ESPN The Magazine All-Academic All-American and first-team Pac-10 All-Academic
• Cal school record-holder in 50 (18.71), 100 (41.08) and 200 free (1:32.98)
• On Cal school record-holding 200 medley (1:22.50, freestyle leg), 400 medley (3:01.69, freestyle leg), 200 free (1:15.13, lead-off leg), 400 free (2:47.61, lead-off leg) and 800 free (6:19.79, lead-off leg) relays (joins Graeme Moore as only people to be on all five school record relays)
• Pac-10 record-holder in 50, 100 and 200 free, 200 and 400 free and 200 and 400 medley relays
And of course you can check out his Olympic profile here.