CGB Hall of Fame Nominations Thread, Class of 2014

With spring upon us, it's time to begin another California Golden Blogs Hall of Fame Tournament. This is our 6th iteration of the tournament and once again we are providing an opportunity to nominate 5 new names, faces, and Cal legends to the CGB Hall Of Fame. It is a fun little tournament that we do here in the spring time. People always seem to love it, even though it can create controversy. Each year, it seems like there is a non-athlete who gets nominated, becomes popular, and sparks to victory. Four years ago, it was Glenn Seaborg, THE chemistiest chemist to ever chemist. Three years ago, Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien rampaged to victory. Two years ago legendary band director Robert O. Briggs flexed his HoF muscle. And last year...we inducted a class full of athletes and coaches! Will any non-sporting dark horses emerge this year? That's up to you!

This process is entirely reader-based. We take your nominations from this thread, sort them by recs, and organize them into a March Madness-style tournament (without those obnoxious play-in games). So, nominate everybody and anybody related to Cal athletics that you can think of in this thread. Then, rec to your hearts delight (for those a bit newer to SBNation sites, you can rec a comment by clicking on the star icon at the bottom of the individual comment). Then, vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote!!!

Here's who is currently in the Hall of Fame:

Inaugural class of 2009: Mark Bingham (who received and deserved his own post of individual merit), Tony Gonzalez, Jack Clark, Jeff Tedford, Leon Powe, Zack Follett, Marshawn Lynch, Natalie Coughlin, Joe Roth, Jason Kidd and Chuck Muncie.

Class Of 2010: The Play Players; Alex Mack; Aaron Rodgers; and, of course, the one, the only Glenn Seaborg.

Class Of 2011: Brent Woodall; Jill Costello; Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien; Deltha O'Neal; Matt Biondi; Kevin Johnson; and Dana Vollmer.

Class of 2012: Nathan Adrian; Joe Kapp; Ron Gould; Robert O. Briggs, and Ken Montgomery.

Class of 2013: Alex Morgan, Jorge Gutierrez, Valerie Arioto, Carli Lloyd, Pete Newell.

Who will be the new names to join them this year? Make your nominations in the comments, but not before re-reading the guidelines after the jump. Thanks for participating and GO BEARS!

Guidelines

Guidelines are about the same as last year. Revisit the nominations thread from last year to get an idea of what we're looking for in terms of good nomination posts.

(1) In terms of athletes, seniors or past graduates only. Missy Franklin and Jared Goff will all get their turns in the future. In terms of coaches, we're imposing a five year cut-off (Sorry Andy!).

2) Nominations only for people you've watched in person. We decided that all-time would just be a replication of Cal's Athletic Hall of Fame, and a little too museum-ish. We want this to be about how the readers feel about particular athletes, and how their experiences with them shaped their Cal fandom. This helps give the Hall of Fame a personal touch.

3) Obviously, football (and basketball) players will dominate this section, but we'd like to have as many athletes from the other sports as possible. We'd love to highlight Cal athletes who didn't get much of the limelight when they were playing here.

4) The bracket will be around 48 or 54. We did 64 the first year, but that was the first year. We're doing 48 or 54ish. Depends on how many credible nominations we get.

5) We'll incorporate those comments in our writeups for the bracket matchups. If a player has already been mentioned, rec it again and reply to that comment thread and add your thoughts on that athlete, and we'll be sure to feature the best thoughts throughout.

You can nominate multiple athletes, but please use different posts. For why, see (6).

6) We will determine seeding by the number of recs a player gets in his/her nomination post in this thread.The more recs an athlete gets in the comments, the higher his or her seed will be. So if Nate Longshore gets 7 recs and no one else gets higher, he'll get the #1 overall seed. Of course, if Kevin Riley gets more recs than Nate Longshore, we'll still put Longshore first. BECAUSE THAT'S HOW WE ROLL! If there are ties in the number of recs, we'll probably just go in alphabetical order, so rec your favorite athletes vicariously!

If we have fewer than 48), they'll all qualify for the tourney and we'll have some bye system in place. If we have more, we'll eliminate athletes with zero recs in some sort of fashion. We reserve all rights to seed as we see fit based upon the recommendations of you, the readers.

7) We will induct the Final Four and a wildcard. The wildcard possibilities will come from the twelve other qualifiers in the Sweet 16, i.e. anyone who qualifies for the second round but doesn't make the Final 4.

8) Please write explanations about why you're nominating Player X. They will be included in the official bracket matchup posts, as you can see by visiting the posts for last year's Hall of Fame nominees.

9) Oh yeah. Don't nominate people already in the Hall of Fame. Well, I mean, you can. But you're wasting your recs!!!

We'll announce the bracket soon. So, nominate, explain, and rec the best that Cal Athletics has had to offer over our lifetimes! GO BEARS!