Welcome

1967- sophomore year at Churchill High School set a State record in the 100-yard dash in the time of 10.4 and the 220-yard dash in the time of 24.8.

1968- as a junior, set the all-time state high school girl’s record in the 100 meters and 200 meters with times of 11.3 and 23.8 seconds respectively, which still stands today.

During the National AAU Women’s Track & Field Championships, at the age of 17, she tied the world record in the 100 meters timed at 11.1. And the 200 meters, winning with the time of 23.5 seconds. 

At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, Margaret ran the second leg on the Gold Medal and World Record setting 4X100-meter relay team timed at 42.8. And placed 5^th in the 100 meters and seventh in the 200 meter. She retired right after the Olympics and moved to Oakland California.

Jan 1 1969- Graduated from McClymond High School in Oakland, Ca

July 1984- 1986 Margaret moved back to her hometown Eugene Oregon, and was coaching the Churchill High School track team sprint and long jump. Winston Churchill track team won district and the state title.

July 12,1990, Honored as the most Decorated African American Female in the state of Oregon.

August 10,1991, Inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame.

February 2,2001, Inducted into the Winston Churchill High School Sports Hall of Fame in Eugene Oregon.

March 23, 2001, Inducted into the Bob Hayes Hall of Fame in Jacksonville, Fla.

Community service: Margaret visits Bay Area middle schools and give motivational   speeches on you can achieve your dreams.

JOHNNY B. (Dusty) BAKER, JR. 

Most sports figures are thrilled if they distinguish themselves in one aspect of their sport. Dusty Baker, with many years still left in his baseball career, already has set himself apart from is peers in three different roles..as a manager, player and humanitarian.

Baker, who was raised mostly in Carmichael, California, outside of Sacramento, recently begin his third season as manager of the Chicago Cubs. But it was Baker’s 10 years as the San Francisco Giants’ manager from 1993-2002 that made him one of the most beloved sports heroes in Bay Area history.

Except for leading the Scottsdale Scorpions in the Arizona Fall League the year before, Baker had never managed a professional team before he directed the Giants to 103 victories in 1993. That earned him his first of three National League Manager of the Year wards, and the Giants finished first or second eight times during his decade as their leader. Their success culminated in the 2002 World Series, which the giants lost to Anaheim in seven games.

Baker has acquired a reputation for being extremely loyal to his players, a trait he doesn’t back away from—“I’m no front-runner,” he says—and his players appreciate it.

“Nobody likes to be around a guy that’s struggling, but Bake sticks with you,” Shawon Dunston, who played for Baker three different times, told the San Francisco Examiner. “That’s why everybody likes to play for him. Some managers go with the hot hand and then when you’re hot, all of a sudden they love you again.”

As a player, Baker was proud to be one of home run king Hank Aaron’s protégés. Aaron was Baker’s mentor when he began his big-league career with Atlanta

In 1968, and in 19 seasons as an outfield with the Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, Giants and Oakland A’s, he batted .278 in 2,039 games with 242 home runs and 1,013 RBIs.

Among his honors, Baker played on the NL All-Star team twice, earned a Gold Glove Award for outstanding fielding and was a key factor when the Dodgers won the 1981 World Series.

Baker has supported numerous charities, including the Sacramento Children’s Home for Abused Youths and the California Campaign for Libraries. In the Bay Area, he was best known as the public face of the Giant’s annual “Until There’s a Cure Day” that has raised more that $1 million for HIV/AIDS awareness and research.

Dick is the eleventh player in the history of the NFL to rush for 1,000 when he played 11 years with the Rams. He became among the top 10 rushers in 1962, 1966, and 1967. He is the all-time leader—total yardage, pass receiving, punt returns, rushing, kickoff (10,000 or more yards) and the first Ram player to gain 1,000 yards.

Dick played in 112 games and recorded almost 5,500 yards from scrimmage and ended his career with an average of 4.4 yards per carry.

After retirement, Dick served as the Color Commentator for the Rams for 13 years in southern California. He has served as the Executive Director of the Norwalk Chamber of Commerce for twelve years and is currently the Vice President of Business Development for Coast Plaza Doctors Hospital.

ROSIE CASALS 

Rosie Casals was born September 16, 1948 and raised in San Francisco where she learned to play tennis on the public courts at Golden Gate Park.

She rose to fame in the Sixties and Seventies and entered the U.S. women’s top 5 for the first time in 1964 and remained there for 11 consecutive years. Career highlights include 7 Wimbledon doubles & mixed titles, 5 with Billie Jean King and 2 with Ilie Nastase and Italian, Australian and U.S. Open doubles Champion. In 1970 Rosie was the singles winner of the first ever Virginia Slims tournament and the first winner of the Family Circle Cup in 1973 where she received $30,000, the highest purse ever awarded to any female athlete.

As one of the pioneers of women’s’ tennis and founders of the Women’s Tennis Association, she along with Billie Jean King and the “Original Nine” were the moving force in establishing equality and bringing recognition to women’s tennis on the Virginia Slims circuit. Rosie was the color commentator along with Howard Cosell for the infamous “Battle of the Sexes” between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs at the Houston Astrodome in 1973.

In 1995 Rosie was inducted into the Marin Hall of Fame and in 1996 into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island with the voice of Wimbledon, Dan Maskell. Rosie was also inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 2003 with John Elway, Willie Shoemaker and Tom Meschery.

Rosie resides in Palm Desert California and still plays in the Invitational tennis events. She spends most of her time with her company SPORTSWOMAN, which she established in 1982 to organize and promote the over 30’s Tennis Classics Tour. Most recently she joined forces with artist Bruce Lattig and formed SPORTS ART to market spectacular watercolor portraits and Limited Edition Prints of past legends and today’s greatest tennis players.

Rosie was a graduate of George Washington High Scholl in San Francisco in 1966 and established the first women’s tennis team in 1965.

Her favorite past time is playing golf with her friends, walking her dogs Midnight and Lexis and reading Patricia Cornwells’s crime thrillers. 

·      Born September 16, 1948 in San Francisco, California

·      Plays right handed and serves and vollies

·      Entered top ten in the 60’s with highest ranking #3 in 1975

·      12 Grandslam Titles

·      Five Wimbledon Titles (5 women and 2 mixed doubles)

·      U.S. Open Women’s Doubles Title 1982

·      1973 Winner of first Virginia Slims Event in Houston

·      1973 Winner of first Family Circle Cup Event with $30,000 prize money

·      1973 Commentator for the Riggs & Kings Challenge at the Superdome in Houston

·      1995 Inducted into the Marin County Women’s Hall of Fame

·      1996 Inducted into International Tennis Hall of Fame

·      2003 Inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame

THOMAS FLEMING

Thomas Fleming, who is 97 years old, was the founding editor of the Reporter Publishing Company in 1944, then San Francisco’s only black paper. He remained the editor when it merged several years later with the Sun to form the Sun Reporter. He has been writing ever since. For over 55 years, his only absence from its pages was during the seven-month span in 1945, when he served in the U’S. Army.

Gifted with a prodigious memory, Fleming has been brushing shoulders with history for most of his life. He is one of the 100 most significant African-Americans of all time, as describe in Columbus Salley’s 1993 book, “The Black 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential African Americans, Past and Present.”

Fleming has met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., W.E.B. DuBois, Charles Houston, Thurgood Marshall, Malcolm X, Paul Roberson, A. Phillip Randolph, Langston Hughes, Mary McLeod Bethune and Duke Ellington, among others, Some, such  as Roberson, became personal friends.

Fleming said he did not plan on a newspaper career, because when he completed high school in 1926 and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, there were practically no opportunities for black journalist. In fact, no daily paper in the Bay Area hired a full-time black reporter until 1962. He plunged into community journalism in the early 1930s as an unpaid writer for the Spokesman, a black paper that supported the general strike of 1934, which shut down waterfronts all over the West Coast. “We were aware of what the working conditions were on the waterfront before the strike was called, “Fleming said. “Blacks could only work on two piers in San Francisco.”

“During the strike, there were some vigilante groups patrolling the entire Bay Area. Apparently they were displeased with some of the editorials were we writing. They pasted up a note: “You niggers go back to Africa.”

Fleming’s best friend, dating back to 1935, was Carlton Goodlett, who, at Fleming’s urging, moved to San Francisco in 1945 after completing medical school and set up an office near the Reporter. Dr. Goodlett’s soon-flourishing medical practice allowed him to invest in the paper. Then one night, in a poker game, Goodlett won the newer Sun newspaper from its owner, a white businessman, and combined the two.

During the 1960s, the Sun-Reporter acquired the California Voice, and Oakland-based black paper founded in 1917, and launched seven weekly Metro Reporter newspapers, which expanded the Sun-Reporter’s reach throughout Northern California.

Fleming estimates that over the years, his output has been 1,000 to 3,000 words a week, or about seven million words in print. In his career, he has attended nine national political conventions, met two presidents and gotten to know most of the leading political figures of California. “The paper has always been committed to civil rights and complete equality. “he said. “ I think that’s been the primary goal of the black press.”

LORETO GARZA

Loreto Garza was born on May 23, 1962 in Sacramento California. He attended North Del Rio High School. Loreto began his boxing career in 1979 at the age of 17. Garza had 35 amateur fights and finished with a 33-2 record with 9 knockouts. He won the Golden Glove’s tournament three years in a row after defeating many of his opponents on the way to turning professional in 1983 at the age of 21.

He took on all comers and beat most of them. Garza fought in Nevada, California, Indiana and other states as he moved toward his goal to become a world champion. He was the two time regional and state champion of California. He was voted northern California’s fighter of the year n 1982. Loreto was also on the United States Boxing Team in 1988 and 1989.

In 1989 he won his first championship title when he captured the WBC Continental America’s Junior Welterweight Title with a first-round knockout over Harry Arroyo from Ohio. In 1989 he won his second title by winning the United States Boxing Association (USBA) Junior Welterweight Title with a 12-round unanimous decision over Frankie Warren of Texas.

In 1990, with only two weeks notice he fought the World boxing Association (WBA) Junior Welterweight Championship of the World. He won the title with a 12-round unanimous decision over Juan Coggi from Argentina in Nice, France.

Loreto had 35 professional fights during his career and won 32 and lost 2. He had one draw and 28 knockouts. Loreto retired in 1994 and now work for the California Youth Authority as a youth correctional officer.

BILLY MILLS

Born June 30, 1938 in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, Billy Mills is an Oglala Sioux Indian whose given Native-American name is Loves His Country. Although an outstanding long distance runner, Mills’ accomplishment at the 1964 Summer Olympic games in Tokyo, Japan stands as one of the most shocking upsets in modern sports.

Mills grew up on an Oglala Sioux Indian reservation and was orphaned at the age of 12. He first became involved with distance running while attending the Haskell Institute, an Indian school in the city of Lawrence, Kansas. He had taken up running as part of a rigorous training program to become a boxer. However, he abandoned boxing in favor of running. His talent and hard work made him a natural at several distance events.

Mills entered the University of Kansas in the late 1950s and proceeded to improve upon the times he had posted at the Haskell Institute. He was a 1958 and 1959 All-American in cross-country while at Kansas. In 1960, Mills won the individual title in the Big Eight Conference’s cross-country tournament. The following year, Mills was the conference champion in the two-mile race with a time just over nine minutes. The Kansas team, filled with gifted track and field athletes, won the 1959 and 1960 NCAA outdoor national championships.

Mills went on to become a marine lieutenant and briefly abandoned running for a time. He concentrated on military life, but the lure of running pulled him back into the fray. While serving in the Marine Corps, he returned to racing, posting times that were good enough to qualify him for the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo 

Mills was entered in the 10,000 meter run, a race, which no American had ever won in an Olympics. He was far from a high profile entrant. Many of the media hardly focused on the fact that he was even in the race. The lion’s share of the attention was going to Australia’s Ron Clarke, who at that time held the world record in the event. Tunisia‘s Mohammad Gammoudi also received much pres as he was expected to be the chief rival of Clarke for the gold.

Each entrant had to qualify for the finals through a set of preliminary races. Mills’ qualifying time was twenty-nine minutes and ten seconds. Ron Clarke’s time was nearly a minute faster. Such a performance gave Mills little hope of contending.

The race began on a wet track. Mills kept pace with the pack for the first several laps. With the final lap of the race just ahead, a pack of runners slowed Mills down slightly. He eventually worked his way back to the leaders during the final lap. Just before the final turn, he was still keeping pace with Clarke and Gammoudi, who by now had forced him to the outside of the running pack.

In the last 100 meters of the race, Mills surprisingly found a huge burst of energy and sprinted past his two surprised competitors. He held the lead as Clarke and Gammoudi fought unsuccessfully to catch Mills. Noticing the amazing events transpiring before him, one commentator began screaming on television “Oh my God, look at Mills! He’s gonna win!”

Mills later said that he kept telling himself over and over that he could win. He broke the tape with a new Olympic record time of 28 minutes and 24 seconds. His last lap time had been a scathing 59.8 seconds, and his overall time was nearly a minute faster than his personal best time in the event. A stunned crown could not believe their eyes. Mills’ notoriety was so low that a newsperson ran up to him after the race and said, “Who are you?”

After the Olympics, Mills went on to set several other records in distance running before retiring from competition. In 1965, he set an outdoor world record in the six mile run, along with U.S. records in the 10,000 meter and three mile races. He remains active in Native American causes today. The 1984 movie “Running Brave” was based on his victory. To date, no other American has won a gold medal in the 10,000.

ROBERT POYNTER

It is of little wonder that San Jose State’s Bobby Poynter made his mark in the athletic arena. During the early 1930s his mother, Idela Winfrey (who is related to television’s Oprah) moved from Georgia to Pasadena with the family of another pair who would make American sports history Mack and Jackie Robinson. Mack finished behind Jesse Owens in the 200 meters at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, and Jackie was the first African-American player to break into the major league ranks following World War II.

Poynter, a three-time state champion at the high school and junior collegiate level in the 220-yard dash, arrived at San Jose State College in 1958. While at SJS, he raced into the national record books behind another Bay Area African American Ethnic Sports Hall of Fame inductee, Ray Norton

Poynter was second only to Norton in the 220-yard sprint (20.5), and posted impressive times in the 100-yard dash (9.4), and 220-yard dashes (9.4) and 20.4) seconds, respectively), and the 100 meters (10.4).

In the coaching ranks he led San Jose’s Silver Creek High School to several league championships, and two Central Coast Sectional titles (1974 and 1998). Though he coached successful teams at San Jose City College, his most notable athletes may have been Olympians Millard Hampton, a gold medalist on the 400-meter relay team and silver medalist in the 200 in 1976, and Andre Phillips a gold medalist in the 400-meter hurdles in 1988.

In 1990, he and his assistant, Frank Slaton, founded the Hampton-Phillips Track Classic, one of the top high school meets in the country. Thirty-five of his high school athletes went on to compete on scholarship at the collegiate level.