Brigham Young University and the Cougar Club will be honoring four outstanding former athletes and a retiring athletic administrator tonight.
Former Women’s Athletic Administrator Lu Wallace and BYU All-Americans Ed Eyestone, Tresa Spaulding Hamson, Tristan Baker-Schultz and Michael Smith will receive the university’s highest athletic honor at the BYU Athletic Hall of Fame Banquet.
They will be inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame in the 22nd annual ceremonies in Cougar Stadium’s Cougar Room.
Eyestone is one of the finest distance runners ever to attend BYU. While competing for the Cougars, he won four national championships and 10 All-American awards. He is one of only three collegians to win the NCAA 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter events and the NCAA Cross Country Championship all in the same year.
After winning back-to-back NCAA championship and setting a new NCAA record in the 10,000 meters at BYU, Eyestone went on to make the U.S. Olympic Marathon team in both 1988 and 1992. He has been selected as the U.S. Road Racer of the Year five times.
While continuing his own road racing career, Eyestone has also been an assistant track coach at Weber State University the past two seasons. He and his wife, Lynn, live in Layton with their daughters Erica, Andrea, Ellie and Claire.
Hamson is a four-time All-American who was twice named as the High Country Athletic Conference Player of the Year. In 1987 she led the nation in scoring, averaging nearly 29 points a game. She also made over 65 percent of her shots to rank second in the nation.
As a senior she was an AWSF First Team All-America, earning the designation of the “Best Center in America.”
At the end of her career she held BYU career records for total blocks and best field goal percentage. She is second all-time in points scored, scoring average, career rebounds and rebounds per game.
Hamson and her husband, David, make their home in Lindon and have three children: Jennifer, Alan and Timothy.
Baker-Schultz was BYU’s first female diver to earn All-American honors. She came to BYU in 1984 after placing fourth at the U.S. Indoor Championships and sixth at the Olympic Trials. In Provo she rewrote the BYU and High Country Athletic Conference record books with scores that remain the best in the HCAC history.
She won conference titles in the one-meter springboard and the three-meter springboard both years she competed for the Cougars.
She also earned three All-American awards with a third-place national finish on the three-meter board in 1985, and by placing fifth on the one-meter springboard and third on the three-meter springboard at the 1986 NCAA Diving Championships.
Her success in national and international competition included a silver medal at the U.S. Sports Festival, a bronze medal at the World University Games, fourth place at the Goodwill Games and a third-place finish at the U.S. Olympic Festival. In 1988 she won two U.S. National Championships as the nation’s best diver both indoors and outdoors.
Baker-Schultz and her husband, Ted, live in Salt Lake City with their children Kynaston, Sheridan, Remington and Chamberlain.
After returning from an LDS mission to Argentina, Smith led the Cougars in scoring and rebounding for three consecutive seasons.
During his BYU career he won three Academic All-American awards and was selected as an All-American by UPI, AP, the U.S. Basketball Writers, Basketball Weekly, The Sporting News and The World Almanac.
He set BYU career records for games played, free throw percentage, three-point percentage and three-point field goals made. Smith is BYU’s all-time leader in career rebounds (922) and only Danny Ainge scored more points as a Cougar.
In 1989 he was the 13th player taken in the NBA draft as the first-round pick of the Boston Celtics.
Smith lives in Laguna Niguel, Calif., with his wife, Michelle, and their children Kenya, McKay, Karch, Sandon and Kendall. He continues to enjoy basketball by coaching a youth team and by providing color commentary at BYU games as a TV broadcaster.
Wallace’s 39 years of service to Brigham Young University laid the foundation for the tremendous success of women’s athletics.
She came to the university as a physical education teacher in 1956 and while at BYU she taught a wide variety of classes and coached the women’s gymnastics team for more than a decade.
After becoming women’s athletic administrator in 1972, Wallace helped make the Cougars a competitive force in three different athletic conferences.
During her years of service each of the nine sports under her supervision placed in the nation’s top 15 at least once and several teams placed in the top 10 or top five.
Her dedication and her professional accomplishments have been honored with a number of awards including the UAHPER Service Award, the Red Cross commemorative Service Pin and the Dale Rex Memorial Award.
In 1995 she was named the District IV Administrator of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators.
The BYU Athletic Hall of Fame is sponsored by the BYU Cougar Club. Master of Ceremonies for the induction banquet will be Athletic Director Rondo Fehlberg.
BYU President Merrill J. Bateman and Cougar Club National President Lee Brower will attend the induction, as will new BYU Advancement Vice President K. Fred Skousen.
Less than two percent of BYU varsity athletes are ever nominated for the Hall of Fame, with less than one percent being inducted. Former athletes must have completed their eligibility at least ten years prior to their nomination and must be exemplary members of their communities.
This year’s inductees join more than 100 other BYU athletes, coaches and administrators who have been inducted into the BYU Athletic Hall of Fame since 1975.
