On Thursday, January 25, College of the Canyons will welcome keynote speaker and Major League Baseball Hall of Fame Coach George “Sparky” Anderson and induct four new members into the 2007 class of the COC Athletics Hall of Fame, at the Knollwood County Club in Granada Hills.
This year’s candidates include former head baseball coach Mike Gillespie, former baseball player Frank Sanchez, former trainer and equipment manager Dewey “Yogi” Luster, and a special memoriam to Dottie Duncan, a former manager of the Admissions and Records Department at the college.
“Sparky” Anderson won two World Series with the National League Cincinnati Reds in 1975 and 1976. He then moved to the American League and coached the Detroit Tigers to the World Series in 1984. He is the only manager to ever coach two different teams in two different leagues to the World Series. He retired from the game of baseball in 1995 and was inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005.
This is the second class to be initiated, since the inaugural class of 2005, which included Linda Chisholm, Clint McKinney, Chuck Rheinschmidt and Lee Smelser.
For more information and tickets, please visit the Athletic Hall of Fame website at www.canyons.edu/offices/athletics/halloffame.