Hoover High School unveiled a new mural Tuesday that honors a pair of sports legends with deep San Diego ties.
The mural shows Hall of Famers Tony Gwynn and Ted Williams, two of the best hitters in Major League Baseball history, who were also close friends.
The mural, which is 16 feet wide by 8 feet high and is called "United By Sport," is meant to showcase how sports can play a role in social change.
In his 1966 Hall of Fame induction speech, Williams famously used the opportunity to advocate for the inclusion of Negro League Players into baseball's highest honor. During his playing career, Williams, who was a Hoover High alum, was one of the first Major League players to call for the integration of baseball, which didn’t happen until 1947, when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier when he took to the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Williams was one of Gwynn’s heroes and, later, became a personal friend.
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"Seeing this, thinking about the time that Tony and Ted got together and talked," said Alicia Gwynn, the late Gwynn's wife. "They used to get together every once in awhile."
The mural by local artist Jonny Pucci, is a bond-funded project commissioned by Disorganized Depictions which seeks to create "social impact through large-scale murals [and] also works with schools to teach students how to paint murals and learn real-world career skills including sales, marketing and design," according to a news release issued by the San Diego Unified school district.
