LAS VEGAS (AP) - A Las Vegas lawmaker who arrived in town to pitch Minor League Baseball and five other athletes have been named this year’s inductees into the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame, officials announced Friday.
The class of 2020 includes Clark County Commissioner Larry Brown, former National Finals Rodeo executive Shawn Davis, UNLV-turned-professional athletes Glen Gondrezick and Ryan Ludwick, former NFL running back DeMarco Murray and Paralympics snowboarding medalist and author Amy Purdy.
Brown graduated from Harvard University before pitching two seasons in the 1980s for the Las Vegas Stars, the Triple A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. He was a Las Vegas City Council member and is an executive with the Las Vegas Aviators, today’s Triple A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics.
Davis was a rodeo champion who became president of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association in 1982 and backed the NFR championship move from Oklahoma City to Las Vegas. He retired as NFR general manager in 2018.
Gondrezick played on UNLV Runnin’ Rebels basketball teams of Jerry Tarkanian, spent six seasons in the NBA and 17 seasons as a UNLV radio and TV analyst before he died in April 2009 at age 53 after complications from a heart transplant.
Ludwick hit .363 in three years of Rebels baseball and became an all-star outfielder and Silver Slugger Award winner with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2008. He retired in 2014.
Murray graduated from Bishop Gorman High School and played football for the University of Oklahoma. He was All-Pro in 2013 for the Dallas Cowboys.
Purdy graduated from Cimarron Memorial High School and became a snowboarder before losing both her legs below the knee to surgery at age 19 after contracting a form of bacterial meningitis. She received a kidney transplant before she turned 21. She wrote a book and won medals at winter Paralympics in 2014 in Sochi, Japan, and 2018 in PyeongChang, South Korea.
The six will be honored June 5 at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.