Jerry Sloan, Phil Johnson among 2011 Utah Sports Hall of Fame inductees
Longtime Jazz coaches Jerry Sloan and Phil Johnson headline the Utah Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2011, which will be inducted Wednesday night at EnergySolutions Arena.
Former basketball star Natalie Williams, ex-University of Utah softball All-American Annette Ausseresses and veteran NFL official Doug Toole will also be enshrined.
Sloan, Utah's head coach, and Johnson, his lead assistant, spent 23 seasons together with the Jazz. They resigned midway through last season.
Sloan ranks third in NBA history with 1,221 victories, including 1,127 wins with the Jazz. He coached Utah to two NBA Finals appearances and four other times reached the Western Conference finals.
Sloan was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., in 2009.
Johnson is a former Utah State basketball player who coached Weber State to a 68-16 record and was a three-time Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year before moving into the NBA.
He earned the league's Coach of the Year award in 1975 with the Kansas City Kings. He was voted the league's top assistant coach by NBA general managers five times during his years with Sloan and the Jazz.
Williams, a Taylorsville High School graduate, was an All-America basketball and volleyball player for UCLA in the early 1990s and was named the Pac-10's Athlete of the Decade. She became a four-time WNBA All-Star and member of the U.S. Olympic basketball team that won the gold medal in 2000.
Ausseresses, a Brighton High School graduate, was an All-America at Utah in the mid-1980s. She set an NCAA Tournament record with four hits in one game and led the Utes to an appearance in the College Softball World Series. She competed in the Pan American Games and the U.S. Olympic Festival before softball became an Olympic sport.
Toole, who attended North Summit High School and Utah State, worked in the NFL for 19 seasons as a side judge. He officiated in two Super Bowls, five conference championship games and 11 other playoff games. He has also been inducted into the National High School Sports Hall of Fame.
Some tickets for the 6 p.m. reception and 7 p.m. induction banquet are still available and can be obtained by contacting Dick Rosetta or Chuck Schell of the Utah Sports Hall of Fame.
Rosetta can be reached at 801-255-6905 or via email at utewin@yahoo.com. Schell's number is 801-262-9095. His email address is eaglepuck@msn.com. —
Tickets available
The Utah Sports Hall of Fame will hold a reception at 6 p.m. Wednesday and an induction banquet at 7 p.m. at EnergySolutions Arena. For tickets, contact Dick Rosetta at 801-255-6905 or utewin@yahoo.com; or Chuck Shell at 801-262-9095 or eaglepuck@msn.com.