The Class of 2019 of the University of Hawaiʻi Sports Circle of Honor was officially enshrined at the UH Mānoa Athletics department’s third annual Green and White Celebration, September 22, at the Stan Sheriff Center. The 37th class included national champion diver Emma Friesen, basketball great Bob Nash, former athletics director Hugh Yoshida and longtime booster Carolyn Berry Wilson.
Friesen is only the second diver to be enshrined, while Nash is the only one to have played and coached for the Rainbow Warriors. Yoshida is the ninth athletics director to be inducted.
Honrees
Carolyn Berry Wilson is a successful philanthropist and passionate fan of UH men’s basketball. She was instrumental in organizing UH Athletics’ first $1 million endowment campaign to support men’s basketball undergraduate and graduate scholarships and became a member of the university’s Founder Club through her generous giving.
Emma Friesen won the 2008 NCAA Championship in the 1-meter diving event and was a six-time NCAA qualifier and four-time Western Athletic Conference champion in the 1-meter and two-time champion in the 3-meters. She was the 2008 and 2011 recipient of the Joe Kearney Award, which is given to the top female athlete in the WAC and was two-time WAC Diver of the Year.
Hugh Yoshida became the first athletics director of Japanese-American descent in Division I athletics and was responsible for doubling the department’s operating budget to $17 million and spearheading the development of a six-year gender equity plan. He assisted in the funding of the Nagatani Academic Center while outsourcing the department’s academic services to the College of Arts and Sciences, increasing the academic success of UH’s student-athletes.
Bob Nash dedicated 31 years to the Hawaiʻi men’s basketball program, including two as a member of the “Fabulous Five” during the 1970s. He was selected ninth overall in the 1972 NBA draft, the highest UH draft pick in program history at the time. Following his professional playing career, he spent 26 years as an assistant coach and three years as head coach from 2007 to 2010.
