San Diego Sports Legends Inducted Into Hall of Champions

Three San Diego Sports Legends Honored at the Salute to Champions Dinner

Rancho Buena Vista star, Dave Roberts, Patrick Henry high school alums Ricky Williams and Paul Vaden are this year's inductees into the San Diego Hall of Champions.

Roberts played with Padres early on in his career and later went on to work for the club as a bench coach. This season he starts a new chapter as the manager for the Los Angeles Dodgers. A notable moment in his career was his steal in the 2004 ALCS which sparked Boston's historic comeback against the Yankees and helped propel the Red Sox to "break the curse” of the Bambino that year. He thanked the San Diego community for their support saying, “The people who didn’t know me well thought of me as an overachiever. But those who knew me intimately looked at me as an over believer. So for me I’m just feeling gratefulness and I want to let the people of San Diego know how grateful I am.”

Vaden is believed to be the only San Diego-born boxer to win a World Championship Title and amassed an impressive record of 346 wins and only 13 losses during his amateur and pro career. That number may seem outrageously high but Vaden started boxing as a kid, and would often fight several times a week in tournaments. He thinks back on his hard work over the years and thanks those who always believed in him saying, “I’m very thankful and I was just telling someone that this basically validates everything in my career and what I believed in. It basically tells me that the sacrifices that I made were all worth it.”

Williams won the Heisman Trophy at the University of Texas in 1998. He set 20 NCAA records in college and then proceeded to rack up more than 10,000 rushing yards in 13 NFL seasons with the New Orleans Saints and the Miami Dolphins. NBC 7 Sports Director, Jim Laslavic was the master of ceremonies.

 

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