14 Jan Pittsburg Native and Former CCC Track Star to Be Inducted Into Bay Area Sports Hall of Hame

Pittsburg’s Eddie Hart, an Olympic gold medalist, is shown in 2019 during the Black History Month Observance at Clay National Guard Center, Marietta, Georgia. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Spc. Tori Miller / public domain)

By Kiley Russell
Bay City News

Five former world-class athletes will be inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in May, including a San Francisco Giants shortstop, a San Francisco 49ers offensive lineman, two Olympic gold medalists and a champion college rugby coach.

The BASHOF Class of 2026, which was announced Wednesday, includes fan favorite and two-time World Series champion Brandon Crawford, 49ers lineman Jesse Sapolu, Olympic swimmer Missy Franklin, Olympic sprinter Eddie Hart and University of California, Berkeley rugby coach Jack Clark.

Crawford, who is from Mountain View, spent all but one of his 14 Major League Baseball seasons with the Giants. In addition to his two championships, he earned three All Star appearances, four Gold Glove awards and two Defensive Player of the Year nods, and was also the first shortstop to hit a grand slam in an MLB postseason game.

Crawford retired from baseball in 2024.

Sapolu won four Super Bowls with the 49ers, was a two-time Pro Bowl selection and earned National Football League All-Pro honors at both center and guard.

Sapolu played football at the University of Hawaii and was selected in the 11th round of the 1983 draft. He retired in 1997 having played his whole career for San Francisco.

Franklin has won 28 swimming medals, including five Olympic golds and one bronze, and held the world record in the 200-meter backstroke from 2012 to 2019. At the age of 17, she dominated the backstroke in the 100-meter and 200-meter races at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

As a UC Berkeley swimmer, Franklin won the 2015 NCAA Women’s Division I Swimming and Diving Team Championship, seven individual NCAA championships and won the 2015 Collegiate Woman of the Year and Honda Sports Award as the nation’s top female swimmer.

Clark, another Cal sports legend, is currently coaching his 43rd season as head coach of men’s rugby, where he’s so far taken home 30 National Championships and produced 157 All-Americans. He was also head coach of the USA National Team from 1993 to 1999 and the team’s general manager from 1993 to 2003.

Hart, a Pittsburg native and Cal’s third inductee of 2026, is an Olympic gold medalist, Olympic Trials champion, two-time world record holder and Olympic record holder.

Hart won state titles in the 100-yard and 200-yard races at Contra Costa College and later captured NCAA titles in the 100-yard dash and 4×110-yard relay while competing for Cal.

Ranked among the top 10 U.S. sprinters five times between 1970 and 1979, he was inducted into the UC Berkeley Hall of Fame in 1988.

All the inductees will be celebrated at the BASHOF Class of 2026 Enshrinement Dinner on May 14 at the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero in San Francisco.

For more information, people can visit bashof.org.

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