01/21/2026
SPORTS NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 21, 2026
CARR, FALCONS HEADLINE 2026 HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES.
The 67th Class of the Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame has been announced. Headlining the honorees is four-time Pro Bowl quarterback Derek Carr. Joining Carr in the Class of 2026 is twenty-five time national sailing champion Ruth Barcus, longtime Caruthers High School football coach Tom Casanova, powerhouse auto racing team owners Dennis and Teresa Roth, and the late Bill Tatham who owned teams in the World Football League, United States Football League, National Basketball Association, and founded Fresno’s Copper River Country Club. The 2026 team honoree is the 1958 Coalinga College baseball team.
Carr, the 2014 recipient of the Sammy Baugh Award as college football’s best quarterback while at Fresno State earned four Pro Bowl selections during nine seasons with the Oakland and Las Vegas Raiders. In 2016 he finished third in voting for league Most Valuable Player.
Kerman native Ruth Barcus earned her first national title in Seattle in 1973. Over the next thirty years she became the dominant figure in San Juan 21 division sailing amassing more national championships than anyone else in the sport.
When Tom Casanova retired in 2014 after twenty-eight seasons as head football coach at Caruthers High he had amassed 203 wins. The figure was second all-time behind Tim Simons among high school football coaches in Fresno County. In 2015 Casanova was among twelve coaches named a model coach by the California Interscholastic Federation.
Husband and wife team owners Dennis and Teresa Roth entered the world of auto racing in 1992 starting a sprint car team. In 1998 their team won the most prestigious event in sprint car racing, the Knoxville Nationals. Still active, the Roths are among the top five winningest team owners in the World of Outlaws sprint car series. In 2022 they were inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame.
The late Bill Tatham was owner of teams in both professional football and basketball. In 1974 he purchased the Portland Thunder of the World Football League, then ten-years later founded the Oklahoma Outlaws of the USFL. Tatham was part of the original group that owned the NBA expansion New Orleans Jazz. Locally he was the founder of Copper River Country Club.
The 2026 Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame team inductee is the 1958 Coalinga College baseball team. That season the Falcons became the first community college baseball team from Fresno County to win the state championship. The teams star LeRoy Gregory later pitched in the big leagues for the Chicago Cubs.
Enshrinement ceremonies for the Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026 will be Thursday November 5. The annual enshrinement dinner will be held at the Fresno Convention Center’s Valdez Hall. For more information visit www. fresnoahof.org.
CONTACT: Dan Taylor (559) 824-3016 or [email protected]
