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Six Sports Represented in 2019 Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame Class

August 1, 2019
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WACO, Texas – Scott Drew’s first All-American and a pair of World Series participants highlight a balanced 2019 Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame class that includes eight former student-athletes from six different sports.

Basketball’s Curtis Jerrells, the Bears’ first All-American in 20 years, is joined by the football trio of Steve Beaird, John Adickes and Robin Jones, softball’s Lisa Ferguson, baseball’s Josh Ford and All-Americans Lauren Hagans Paquette from track & field and Ryan Baca from men’s golf

The 2019 Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame banquet will be held at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 22, in the Brazos Room at the Waco Convention Center. Tickets cost $50 per person, with table sponsorships also available for $600 (green) and $800 (gold), and can be purchased by contacting the "B" Association at 254-710-3045 or by email at Tammy_Hardin@baylor.edu.

Also recognized at the Friday night banquet and the football team’s regular-season finale against Texas the next day at McLane Stadium will be former tennis player and current Oracle Corporation CEO Mark Hurd and longtime University of Texas women’s basketball coach Jody Conradt, who played basketball and earned her undergrad and master’s degrees at Baylor.

Organized in 1960, the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame recognizes and honors individuals whose participation and contributions have enriched and strengthened the university's athletics program. Student-athletes are required to wait 10 years after completing their eligibility before they can be nominated for the Hall of Fame.

Beginning with the inaugural 1960 class that included coach Floyd "Uncle Jim" Crow and baseball's Ted Lyons, 244 honorees have been elected or already enshrined in the Hall of Fame, while another 28 have been added to the Wall of Honor.

Joining his brother, Mark Adickes, in the Hall of Fame, John Adickes was a four-year starter at center (1983-86) who was named to Baylor’s All-Century football team by Dave Campbell. A two-time consensus All-Southwest Conference pick in 1985 and ’86, Adickes also earned third-team All-America honors as a junior and second team as a senior and led the Bears to three bowl games in four years.

A sixth-round draft pick by Chicago in 1987, Adickes played three seasons in the NFL with the Bears and Minnesota Vikings and got to the NFC championship game in his second year with the Bears. A Baylor Legend two years ago, John is currently Senior Vice President and Financial Planning Specialist for Morgan Stanley in San Antonio, Texas.

Baca, the men’s golf team’s first first-team All-American (2006), is the program’s all-time leader with six tournament wins and 27 top-10 finishes and ranks second in top-five finishes (18) and third all-time in scoring average at 71.91. A high school All-American and three-time all-state pick at Lamar Consolidated, Baca led the team in scoring three times and led the Bears to four NCAA regionals and the NCAA Championships as a freshman in 2002.

Saving his best for last, Baca won three individual tournament titles as a senior in 2005-06, was a semifinalist for the Ben Hogan Award (national player of the year) and had a 70.59-stroke average that stood as the school single-season record for nine years. He has played on various professional tours since leaving Baylor, winning six APT Tour titles and the 2017 East Texas Open.

Baylor’s first player to rush for 1,000 yards in a single season, Beaird rushed for a then-school-record 1,104 yards and 13 touchdowns on 267 carries. A 5-7, 195-pound running back from Angleton, Texas, who had transferred from Blinn Junior College, he earned Southwest Conference MVP honors from theHouston Post and helped the Bears from a worst-to-first turnaround and first conference title in 50 years.

Fourth on Baylor’s career list when he left, Beard is still 25th with 1,449 yards rushing in just two seasons. “Buffalo,” as he was called by his teammates, was a seventh-round draft pick by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1975 and played two seasons in the CFL with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers before starting his own foundation drilling business. 

The pitching ace on Baylor softball’s first Women’s College World Series team (2007), Ferguson was 26-8 as a senior with a 1.96 ERA, nine shutouts, four saves and 189 strikeouts in earning first-team All-Big 12 honors. She pitched a five-hit shutout in the deciding game of the Super Regional against Michigan and also picked up a World Series win against Texas A&M.

More than a decade later, Ferguson still holds the all-time record with 19 career saves and ranks in the top five in career wins (82, 2nd), strikeouts (610, T-4th), shutouts (29, 3rd), complete games (64, 3rd) and ERA (1.80, 5th). She was named the Louisville Slugger/NFCA Division I National Player of the Week on March 15, 2007, after a 3-0 week that included a pair of wins over then-No. 2 Arizona.

The leading hitter and starting catcher for Baylor’s last College World Series team (2005), Ford hit .328 with nine home runs, 19 doubles and 41 RBI, earning All-Big 12 and second-team all-region honors for a conference championship team that finished fourth nationally with a 46-24 record.

Ford, who had double-digit home runs in 2003 and ’04, is still on the career top-10 lists with 37 homers, 52 doubles, 269 hits and 169 RBI. He is one of just three players in program history to hit for the cycle, going 4-for-4 with two runs and a double in a 12-6 loss at Texas Tech on May 23, 2004, earning National Player of the Week honors.

A ninth-round draft pick by Arizona in 2005, Ford made it to the Double-A level two years later.  He is now regional development leader and former financial associate at Thrivent

One of the top distance runners in program history, Hagans Paquette was a six-time All-American and two-time conference champion who still holds school records in the outdoor 1,500 meters (4:15.01), 4x800 relay (8:28.48) and 4x1600 relay (19:05.8). In cross country, she helped the Bears make four consecutive NCAA Championship appearances and earned All-America honors in 2007 when she finished 35th.

Finishing her track career off with a bang, Hagans Paquette won Big 12 titles in the indoor distance medley relay and outdoor 800 meters as a senior, earned All-America honors for the third straight year in the distance medley relay and had top-eight finishes at the NCAA Championships in the indoor 3,000 meters and outdoor 1,500. Still competing internationally, she is ranked second in the U.S. and 17th in the world in the 5,000 meters.

The first player in program history to lead the team in scoring and assists all four seasons, Jerrells played a key role in the miraculous turnaround of the men’s basketball program. A Freshman All-American in 2006, he ranks four all-time with 1,820 points and second with 487 assists.

As a junior, Jerrells averaged 15.3 points and 3.9 assists per game and led the Bears back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 20 years, earning first-team All-Big 12 and fourth-team All-America honors. Topping those marks as a senior, he averaged a career-high 16.3 points and 4.9 assists and helped the Bears advance to the NIT championship game in New York.

In a 10-year pro career that started with the San Antonio Spurs’ NBA D-League team in Austin, Jerrells has won league titles in Serbia, Spain, Italy and Israel and was twice named playoff MVP.

“Big Cat” Jones joined with Hall of Famer Santana Dotson in arguably Baylor’s best defensive line in program history. A two-time All-Southwest Conference pick who earned third-team All-America honors as a senior, he ranks fifth all-time with 38 career tackles for loss and had a team-high seven sacks as a senior in 1991.

Jones also helped the Bears end a four-year bowl drought that year, freeing up Dotson to block a a field goal in a 16-14 upset of defending national champion Colorado on Sept. 14 that snapped the Buffaloes’ 18-game home winning streak. Post-graduation, he once worked as an assistant for Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson and now serves as an account manager with FedEx in Dallas.

The Wall of Honor annually recognizes Baylor letterwinners and graduates whose meritorious accomplishments in public or private life following graduation have brought positive public recognition, credit and honor to Baylor and the athletics department.

Hurd, who came to Baylor on a tennis scholarship, earned his undergrad degree in business administration in 1979. Starting as a junior salesman in San Antonio in 1980, he rose through the ranks and became president and CEO of NCR Corporation in 2002.

Taking over as CEO of Hewlett-Packard, which had merged with Compaq, Hurd helped establish the company as the world leader in desk top computer sales. Named one of the 25 most powerful people in business by Fortune magazine, he became president of Oracle in 2010 and added the title of CEO four years later.

In addition to serving as Vice Chair of the Baylor Board of Regents, Mark and his wife, Paula, gave the lead gift last year to launch the $1.1 billion Give Light campaign and create a new entry point with the Mark and Paula Hurd Welcome Center. He also donated the money for the renovations to the tennis center that now bears his name.

A native of Goldthwaite, Texas, Conradt averaged 20 points per game during a time (1959-63) when the women’s basketball team was not recognized as an intercollegiate varsity sport. Earning a physical education degree from the school in 1963, she started her coaching career at nearby Midway High School and worked on a master’s degree that she finished in 1969.

Enshrined in the Naismith, Women’s Basketball, International Women’s Sports and Texas Sports halls of fame, Conradt won 900 games (900-307) in 38 years as a head coach with stops at Sam Houston State, UT-Arlington and Texas. Her reign at UT included a 34-0 national championship in 1986. 21 NCAA Tournament appearances and an unbelievable winning streak of 183 consecutive conference games between 1978 and 1990.

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Six Sports Represented in 2019 Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame Class

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