Three California Athletics standouts - current men's rugby head coach Jack Clark, women's swimming alumnae Missy Franklin and men's track & field alumnus Eddie Hart - have been selected as part of the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame's 2026 class, the organization announced Wednesday. All three will be officially inducted at a May 14 ceremony at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco. For more information, visit bashof.org.
Clark is in his 43rd season as head coach of varsity rugby at Cal. Since becoming head coach of the Golden Bears in 1984, Clark has led the program to 30 national collegiate championships. In his 45th year overall and 43rd as head coach in 2025-26, he holds an all-time record of 732-106-5 (.870) in 15s and 230-23-0 (.909) in 7s. He has also produced 157 All-Americans; 60 players who have made 805 combined appearances on the United States National 15s Team; one two-time Olympian; and six players who have earned their "Blues" at Oxford.
Clark is also a former head coach of the U.S. National Team (1993-99), which won an improbable 16 victories (the most in the history of U.S. rugby) during his term. He has also coached the All-American team and led the All-Marine rugby team to the Silver Medal at the 2006 Armed Forces Championship.
In 2000, Clark was chosen as one of Cal's Ten Most Influential Sports Figures of the 20th Century. In 2014, he was inducted into the U.S. Rugby Hall of Fame, followed in 2016 by his enshrinement into the Cal Athletics Hall of Fame. Clark is also the 2016 recipient of The Glenn T. Seaborg Award, named after the former University chancellor and Nobel Prize winner. He was named a Living Legend by Pac-12 Networks in 2015 and was ranked third in an all-time Cal head coaches list by Sports Illustrated behind Pete Newell (men's basketball, 1954-60) and Andy Smith (football, 1916-26).
Franklin is one of the most celebrated and decorated female athletes in swimming history. The seven-time NCAA champion, five-time Olympic gold medalist and former world-record holder had immense success at both the collegiate and international levels and became an American icon at a very young age.
Franklin joined the Bears in 2014 and made an immediate impact, winning the NCAA championship in the 200-yard freestyle with an American-record time and anchoring the 800 freestyle relay team to an NCAA title to earn Pac-12 Freshman of the Year honors. As a sophomore, Franklin was named the 2015 NCAA and Pac-12 Swimmer of the Year while also winning the Honda Award, given to the top female swimmer in the country. She also won three individual NCAA titles and two relays that year, including another American-record effort in the 200 free. Franklin etched her name into seven different top-10 program lists, including the school records in the 100 free and 200 free. She was also a standout in the classroom and was named a CSCAA Scholar All-American as well as a Pac-12 All-Academic honoree.
Her international career began at the age of 16, when she won five medals (including three gold) at the 2011 World Aquatics Championships and broke two world records on behalf of Team USA. At 17, she burst onto the Olympic scene by winning four gold medals at the 2012 Summer Games in London and added two more world records to her resume to go along with a Swimming World's World Swimmer of the Year award and back-to-back FINA Swimmer of the Year and Golden Goggles awards in 2011 and 2012. Franklin collected a record six gold medals at the 2013 World Aquatics Championships and added five more podiums in 2015 to bring her career medal count to 17.
Hart, a two-time world-record holder who is the first Cal track & field athlete to be recognized by the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame, enjoyed a prolific undergraduate career that included program records in the 220y and 4x110y relay as well as another top-two mark in the 100m. In 1970, he anchored the Bears' 4x100m relay squad to a Big Meet record before winning the 100y NCAA and Pac-8 titles, followed by an NCAA runner-up finish in the 100y and a third-place result in the 220y in 1971. He was inducted into the Cal Athletics Hall of Fame in 1988. Before joining the Bears, Hart raced for Contra Costa College, winning the junior college 100m and 200m state titles in 1969.
Upon turning pro, Hart equaled the standing 100m world record at the 1972 U.S. Olympic Trials and was the heavy favorite to win gold at the Summer Games in Munich, but ended up missing his race due to a scheduling error. He later anchored the U.S. 4x100m relay team to a gold medal and matched the standing world-record time in the event. Hart appeared on Track & Field News' top-10 world rankings on three occasions, twice in the 100m (No. 6 in 1970, No. 3 in 1972) and once in the 200m (No. 7 in 1972). He competed at the 1989 World Masters Athletics Championships, setting a new world record in the M40 100m and an all-conditions world record in the M40 200m.