Six Sports Represented in 2020 Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame Class
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WACO, Texas – A quartet of three-time All-Americans and a No. 2 overall pick in the NFL Draft highlight a 2020 Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame class that includes eight former student-athletes from six different sports.
All-America offensive tackle Jason Smith, drafted by the St. Louis Rams with the second pick in the 2009 NFL Draft, is joined by three-time All-Americans Lenka Broosova (women’s tennis), Lars Poerschke (men’s tennis), Brette Reagan (softball) and Todd Cooper (track and field) in a 2020 Hall of Fame class that also includes volleyball All-American Anna Breyfogle and football’s Brad Goebel and Andrew Melontree.
Also recognized will be Dr. Michael Attas, a former football player and retired chief of cardiology at Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center who founded the Medical Humanities program at Baylor, as the latest addition to the “B” Association Wall of Honor.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, arrangements for the Hall of Fame banquet are still pending.
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, 253 honorees have been elected or already enshrined in the Hall of Fame, while Dr. Attas becomes the 29th addition to the Wall of Honor.
Breyfogle, along with fellow senior Taylor Barnes, was recognized as one of the volleyball program’s first All-Americans in 2009 when she earned honorable mention All-America accolades from the AVCA. A two-time first-team All-Big 12 pick, she was named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year as a senior in 2009, when she led the Bears to an upset of ninth-ranked UCLA and their first-ever Sweet 16 appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
One of the most celebrated players in program history, Breyfogle was a two-time all-region selection and was named Academic All-Big 12 her last three seasons. She recorded at least one block in 92 consecutive matches, broke the single-game record with 12 and set the career mark with 620 blocks while also registering 1,165 kills
Baylor’s all-time leader in career singles (154) and doubles victories (120), Broosova was a three-time All-American in doubles and two-time All-American in singles and led the Bears to sweeps of four-straight Big 12 regular-season and tournament titles. Playing in the top three in the lineup her entire career, she was part of the program’s first NCAA semifinalist in 2008 and back-to-back Elite Eights in 2009-10.
As a sophomore in 2008, Broosova had arguably the best year in program history with a school-record 52 singles wins, a trip to the NCAA quarterfinals in singles and an end-of-the-year doubles ranking of No. 6 with fellow Hall of Famer Zuzana Zemenova. Now in her sixth year as an assistant coach at Tulsa, Broosova was a four-time All-Big 12 pick and was named Big 12 Player of the Year as a senior in 2010 when she helped the Bears earn their first No. 1 national ranking.
Part of a golden era of pole vaulting with Baylor track and field in the 1980s, Cooper was a three-time All-American and four-time Southwest Conference champion. He placed fifth at the NCAA Indoor Championships in 1984, third at the 1985 NCAA Indoor meet and was the runner-up at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in ’85.
In 1985, Cooper, David Hodge and Mike Shafe became the first vaulting trio to go 18 feet in the same NCAA meet. Ranked No. 1 outdoors (18-5) and No. 2 indoors (17-8) when he left, Cooper has been a vaulting coach for the last 20-plus years and has worked with over 200 all-state vaulters and 25 state champions as director of the Just Vault program.
Setting a freshman record that still stands, Goebel threw for a league-high 2,178 yards and 12 touchdowns in 1987 in earning consensus All-Southwest Conference honors. The other quarterbacks in the SWC that year included future Heisman Trophy winner Andre Ware of Houston, longtime NFL veteran Billy Joe Tolliver at Texas Tech and Bret Stafford at Texas.
A three-year starter for the Bears before getting injured early in his senior season, Goebel had the second-most career yards passing (5,026) when he left and still ranks 10th all-time. Returning to Texas after a five-year NFL career that included two starts with the Philadelphia Eagles as a rookie in 1991, he and his wife, Kristi, are a real estate broker team in the Highland Lakes area and Brad has remained active with the Baylor “B” Association and several charity organizations.
After earning all-conference and honorable mention all-America honors at Tyler Junior College, Melontree fulfilled his dream of playing for coach Grant Teaff and the Baylor Bears (1978-79). An explosive defensive end, “Tree” was a consensus All-Southwest Conference pick as a senior in 1979 and added Peach Bowl Defensive MVP honors in a win over Clemson.
Named to Baylor’s All-Decade Team for the 1970s, Melontree was drafted in the sixth round of the 1980 NFL Draft and played one season with the Cincinnati Bengals before playing three years in the USFL with three different teams. The former high school all-state pick at Tyler John Tyler now lives in Lawton, Okla.
A three-time All-American in singles, Poerschke ranks second all-time in combined singles (119) and doubles (102) wins with 221, behind only fellow Hall of Famer Benjamin Becker (245). Stepping into the No. 3 spot in the lineup behind NCAA champions Becker and Benedikt Dorsch, he was the Big 12 Freshman and ITA Regional Rookie of the Year for a 2005 team that lost to UCLA in the NCAA final.
Ranked as high as No. 1 in the country as a sophomore, Poerschke had year-end singles rankings of fourth (2006), 12th(2007) and 10th (2008) and top-50 doubles rankings with three different partners. He earned Big 12 Player of the Year honors as a junior and is still the program’s only national ITA Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship and Leadership Award winner, bringing that home as a senior in 2008.
A three-time All-American, Reagan is arguably the program’s best combined offensive and defensive player as a slick-fielding and power-hitting third baseman who hit .353 with 41 home runs, 150 runs and 156 RBI. She was a key cog on the 2007 team that won the Lady Bears’ only Big 12 championship and made it to the World Series for the first time, hitting .341 with 10 homers and 46 RBI.
Reagan, who was also a three-time all-region and first-team All-Big 12 pick, hit a career- and team-best .385 as a senior with 10 doubles, 11 home runs and 36 RBI. She set the program record with 133 career walks, ranks second in slugging percentage (.642) and on-base percentage (.472) and third in career homers (41) and RBI (156).
Rated a two-star prospect as a 6-5, 220-pound tight end out of Dallas White High School, Smith was voted Baylor’s Most Improved Player as a redshirt freshman in 2005, when he made eight starts at tight end and hauled in six passes for 70 yards and one touchdown. Moving to offensive tackle, he started 30 games over the next three seasons and earned All-Big 12 and consensus All-America honors as a senior, paving the way for an offense that produced the team’s most rushing yards in 27 years (2,349).
After graduating with a degree in education in May 2008, Smith was drafted by the St. Louis Rams with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft. Baylor’s first first-round draft pick in 13 years, he signed one of the richest rookie contracts in NFL history ($61 million) and played three seasons with the Rams before finishing his career with the New York Jets in 2012.
The “B” Association 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.
Dr. Attas played for Catfish Smith’s freshman team at Baylor in 1965 and backed up All-America defensive lineman Greg Pipes in ’66 before injuries forced him to give up football and focus on his education. He graduated from Baylor in 1969 with a BA in psychology, earned his PhD from UT Medical Branch in Galveston four years later and got a Masters of Divinity from Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in 1999.
After doing his internship, residency and a senior fellowship in cardiology at the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington, Ky., Dr. Attas practiced in Cheyenne, Wyo., for five years before returning to Waco with Waco Cardiology Associates. Additionally, he was an Episcopal priest and expert fly fisherman who literally wrote the book on it: Fly Fishing: The Sacred Art – Casting a Fly as a Spiritual Practice, that he co-authored with Rabbi Eric Eisenkramer in 2012.
Dr. Attas was recognized by UTMB in 2015 as a Distinguished Alumnus. A clinical professor at Wyoming, Colorado, Baylor, Texas A&M and Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, he was the founder and director of Baylor’s Medical Humanities Program – the first of its kind – and served as chief cardiologist at Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center until his retirement a few years ago.