Colorado University Athletics
Toomey To Enter Pac-12 Hall Of Honor
February 26, 2018 | General, Track and Field
Former Olympic Decathlon Champion Inducted March 9 In Las Vegas
SAN FRANCISCO – University of Colorado Athletic Hall of Fame member and Olympic Champion Bill Toomey will be inducted into the Pac-12 Hall of Honor, the conference office announced on Monday.
The Pac-12 will honor 11 former student-athletes and a former coach with their induction on Friday, March 9, during a ceremony prior to the semifinals of the 2018 Pac-12 Men's Basketball Tournament presented by New York Life.
A two-time NCAA All-American in the pentathlon (1960, 1961), Bill Toomey was the first and remains the only CU athlete to win a gold medal as an individual in the Olympics. Toomey competed in 38 decathlon events and won 23 of them, scoring over 8,000 points on a dozen occasions.
At CU, he was considered one of the nation's top five intermediate hurdlers and won numerous AAU national titles in both the pentathlon and decathlon. He was named the national Amateur Athlete of the Year for 1966 when he was the U.S. decathlon champion, a title he won four straight years, and also captured gold in the decathlon at the 1965 Universiade Games and 1967 Pan American Games. Toomey was ABC's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year for 1968, the year in which he set a then-Olympic Games record with 8,193 points en route to decathlon gold. He was also the recipient of the prestigious James E. Sullivan Award in 1969, which is presented to the most outstanding amateur athlete in the United States.
He is a member of the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame, the fourth with CU ties when inducted in 1971, was inducted into Colorado's Athletic Hall of Fame in its fifth class in 2004 and deemed one of the top 20 student-athletes in the school's history. Toomey formed his own company, Sports Directions Unlimited, where for over two decades he extensively worked with underprivileged children.
The Hall of Honor induction ceremony will be streamed live starting at 5 p.m. MT Friday on the Pac-12 Now app and Pac-12.com to authenticated subscribers. The inductees will also be recognized in the Pac-12 Fan Plaza prior to Friday's semifinal session as well as on court at halftime of the first semifinal game.
The Hall of Honor class will be the 17th since its creation in 2002, but will be the first to feature legendary figures from an array of sports as the recognition pivots to be inclusive of the broad-based athletics success celebrated in the Conference of Champions. The Pac-12 leads the list for the most NCAA titles by any league with 504 across 29 different sports, including nation-leading totals for men's (299), women's (175) and combined (30) sports.
This year's 12 Hall of Honor inductees combined for 40 All-America honors and 36 NCAA team or individual national championships as collegians. Eight represented the United States in the Olympics, with six capturing gold medals.
Joining Toomey are: Michael Wright (Arizona, men's basketball), Linda Vollstedt (Arizona State, women's golf), Matt Biondi (California, men's swimming), Andrew Wheating (Oregon, men's track), Carol Menken-Schaudt (Oregon State, women's basketball), Kerri Walsh Jennings (Stanford, women's volleyball), Rafer Johnson (UCLA, men's track & field), Cheryl Miller (USC, women's basketball), Missy Marlowe (Utah, women's gymnastics), Sonny Sixkiller (Washington, football) and Laura Lavine (Washington State, women's track & field).
The 2018 Pac-12 Men's Basketball Tournament will be played Wednesday – Saturday, March 7-10, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. All-Tournament Passes, which provide fans the best locations for the best price, and single-session tickets are now on sale at pac-12.com/tickets.
