The excitement and reverence conveyed by Wright’s comments signify not only the high regard in which he still holds the institution where he served as sports information director from 1964-66, but the magnitude and scope of the lasting accomplishments that led to Saturday’s inductees being immortalized in Vaquero lore.
Former track and field and cross-country greats Robert Thomas and Kim Lorimer were honored Saturday for Outstanding Athletic Achievement, as was former football star Bill Renison.
Tom McMurray was honored as an Outstanding Coach for his nearly 30 years of work at the head of the Vaqueros’ highly successful track and field program.
Wright received a Pillar of Achievement Award, and the Vaqueros’ 1959 men’s track team was honored as an Outstanding Team.
For the better part of two hours, a banquet assembled in the college’s J. Walter Smith Student Center heard tributes to each of the honorees, as well as warm memories and heartfelt words of thanks from the inductees themselves.
“It was such a long time ago, it seems like someone else who did all those things,” Thomas marveled in reference to his own list of achievements, which includes winning the World Junior Cross-Country Championships in Rabat, Morocco in 1975.
He starred at Glendale High, where his two-mile record still stands, before joining the Vaqueros.
Thomas, who still holds the school record for the two and three-mile runs, both set in 1975, gave thanks to former coaches Mark Covert and John Tansley among others.
Twenty-six years after Thomas’ amazing year at Glendale college, Lorimer made her own mark on the Vaqueros’ track record book.
