PCC to Induct Seven Decades of Athletic Excellence Into Sports Hall of Fame

Pasadena City College will honor six student-athletes, three coaches, and seven championship teams at its 2026 Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony on May 2, a class that stretches from a 1966 football squad to a baseball pitcher who set records just seven years ago. 

The class — the first since 2023 — will bring the Hall’s total to 125 individuals and 11 teams since its founding in 1961, when Jackie Robinson was among the inaugural honorees. The ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. at the college’s recently renovated Sexson Auditorium and is free and open to the public, according to a PCC athletics press release. It will also be live-streamed on YouTube. 

“We’re in the 101st year of athletics that began at then Pasadena Junior College in 1925 and this 2026 class embodies the glorious tradition of great athletes, coaches and teams that our college has produced for more than a century,” said Robert Lewis, PCC Hall of Fame committee chairman and the college’s sports information specialist, in the release. 

Among the headliners is Joe Peron, who became the all-time wins leader in any sport in the 101-year history of PCC athletics with 593 victories in his 28 seasons coaching women’s basketball. Peron directed the Lancers to the first state championship in PCC women’s sports history in 2009. From 2004 to 2010, he set a state record by coaching his teams to seven consecutive appearances at the State Final Eight. Three times, his squads played in the state championship game and twice they made it to the semis. His teams produced six South Coast Conference titles and made 25 trips to the playoffs. In 2006-07, the team set single-season PCC records for most wins (34) and longest win streak at 28. Three of Peron’s players are PCC Hall of Famers: Tiana Sanders, Dionne Pounds, and fellow 2026 inductee Kinyada Johnson. A PCC alumnus, Peron helped the Lancers reach the 1983 men’s basketball state championship game that PCC lost in triple overtime v. Cerritos.

The class also includes Yura Movsisyan, who the press release describes as the greatest men’s soccer player in PCC history. An All-South Coast Conference First Team selection in 2005, Movsisyan scored 18 goals and four assists in 19 matches for the Lancers. He was named PCC Men’s Athlete of the Year for 2005-2006 and was the first-ever PCC choice as a CCCSIA State Athlete of the Month. He made history the following year as what the press release calls the first community college player ever drafted by Major League Soccer, selected with the No. 4 overall pick by the Kansas City Wizards. In 2009, Movsisyan helped Real Salt Lake win the MLS Cup. He went on to sign the richest pro contract for an Armenian-born athlete to play for Spartak Moscow and became a leading scorer in the Russian Premier League, according to the press release. He also represented Armenia’s national team. 

Three consecutive national championship swim teams — 1976, 1977, and 1978 — will enter the Hall together, all coached by Ron Ballatore. The 1976 squad included three swimmers who competed at the 1976 Olympic Games. The 1978 team won the state title by the largest margin of victory in the sport’s history — 148 points, according to the press release — and set six national records. 

The late Bill Sandstrom, who served as athletic director and football coach from 1968 to 1991, will be inducted posthumously. Under his watch, Lancers teams won five state championships. He directed the 1972 football team to a JC Grid-Wire national championship. Sandstrom passed away in 2017 at age 77. 

“While every Hall of Fame class is special, this particular one is like a who’s who of those that I have chronicled as athletes, former and current co-workers, and alumni who have stayed in touch with PCC over the years,” Lewis said in the release. “One inductee, the late Bill Sandstrom, greeted me on my first day on the job. It’s an honor to see these great individuals and teams take their rightful place in our Hall.” 

The class also includes Kinyada Johnson, the tournament MVP when PCC won the 2009 state championship in women’s basketball — the first state team title in Lancers women’s sports history. A two-time All-South Coast Conference First Teamer and All-State selection her second year, Johnson tops PCC’s all-time scoring list with 1,097 points and holds the school’s assists record for a season and career with 443. Her 200 career steals rank second in school history. She scored 35 points against Chaffey, tied for a PCC single-game playoff high, and put up 34 in the state quarterfinals. In her first season, she led PCC to the state semifinals. In her two years, PCC had a winning mark of 62-10. Johnson was inducted into the CCCWBCA Hall of Fame in 2024. 

Other inductees are: the 1966 PCC football team, which went 8-0-1 and won the Western State Conference championship; the 1967 men’s cross country team, which won PCC’s first and only state title in the sport; running back Sylvester Youngblood, who set a still-standing state record with 52 carries and 305 rushing yards in a single game in 1970; defensive lineman Alonzo Brooks, a two-time All-Metro Conference selection who helped the 1977 Lancers win the state, Junior Rose Bowl, and JC Grid-Wire national championships; the 1984 men’s track and field team, a state champion; the 2001 football team, which scored 42.3 points per game and sent 39 players to university scholarships; volleyball coach Tammy Silva, who turned a program that won four matches in the prior two years into a conference champion with a 113-35 record; two-sport athlete Marissa Rangel; and pitcher Gordon Ingebritson, whose 13 career victories and 144 strikeouts are PCC records. 

Previous PCC Hall of Famers include Lakers Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Michael Cooper, record-breaking NFL running back Jerome Harrison, and Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, who was part of the Hall’s first class in 1961. 

The induction ceremony will take place at Sexson Auditorium in the C Building on the PCC campus, 1570 E. Colorado Blvd. Hall of Fame plaques will be unveiled at the ceremony. Plaques are displayed on the first floor of PCC’s GM Athletics Building. The event will also be live-streamed on YouTube. 

Peron, who began his coaching career in 1996, retired just last year — the most recent connection in a class whose earliest entry played more than half a century ago.