Brown, Wilk comprise 2022 CCCAA Hall of Fame Class

SACRAMENTO – Former East Los Angeles College and Major League baseball player Darrell Brown and retired longtime Fresno City College sports information director Woody Wilk have been selected as the 2022 CCCAA Hall of Fame Class and will be honored during ceremonies in April during the annual CCCAA Convention.

This year’s ceremonies, which will also honor the 2020 and 2021 Hall of Fame classes after the cancelation of in-person conventions the past two years, will be held on April 6 at the DoubleTree Hilton at Ontario Airport. Brown and Wilk will be inducted during evening ceremonies alongside the 2020 class. Tickets are available through the CCCAA website at www.cccaasports.org.

“All of our Hall of Fame classes represent the best of the best,” said Executive Director Jennifer Cardone. “In their own ways they’ve been leaders and trailblazers but, most of all, they’ve represented the opportunities for excellence that stretch throughout our association.”

Brown established standards on the East L.A. diamond that set the stage for a career that included an illustrious career at Cal State Los Angeles and, ultimately, a dream of professional baseball. He played just the 1975 season with ELAC but put together a campaign for the ages, hitting .411 – believed to be the first .400 season in school history – while stealing 40 bases. He was named the Metro Conference Player of the Year and helped the Huskies to the Southern California Regional Finals.

“Nobody did more things as well on a baseball field than Darrell,” said his coach Bob Hertel in his nomination letter. “He could beat you in many ways – with his bat, with his glove and with his legs… and was great defensively both as a shortstop and outfielder.”

Brown took his talents to nearby Cal State L.A. where he continued to excel, helping the Golden Eagles - as a then-NCAA Div. I program – reach the College World Series for the only time in program history. He was selected in the first round of a MLB draft an amazing three times before signing with the Detroit Tigers after a third-round selection in 1977.

Brown enjoyed parts of four seasons with the Detroit Tigers, Oakland Athletics and Minnesota Twins. He collected 162 big-league hits, hitting .272 in 1983 and .273 in 1984.

“As a former sports editor of the Campus News during the mid- to late-1960’s, I know there wasn’t any baseball player in that timeframe who could compare to Brown,” said Lonnie Teper, kinesiology instructor at ELAC. “I could see where he could be regarded as the best player of all time at the college.”

Wilk has been one of the most proficient and prolific storytellers in the history of the CCCAA, bring light to the on-the-field and off-the-field achievements of thousands of student-athletes during his long career as Fresno City College sports information director. His impact and the reverence the Rams’ program has for Wilk is evident on the FCC campus where the he’s included on the Fresno City’s Football Wall of Fame and John Euless Ball Park where the press box is named in his honor.

He spent 25 years as the SID at Fresno City before retiring in 2009. His passion for the Rams is evident with his ability to recall details of games, events and achievements long forgotten by everyone else. Wilk brought that approach to every sport as well, shining a community light throughout the men’s and women’s teams.

“I’m not sure if the CCCAA has had a supporter larger than Woody,” said former Riverside City College SID Robert Schmidt in his nomination letter. “His passion encompassed all sports. He spoke with the same passion for cross country as he did the marquee sports. He cornered newspaper column inches and TV and radio airwaves in the Valley with his stories and student-athlete features.”

Longtime Pasadena City College SID Robert Lewis echoed Wilk’s impact. “His representation in the North was very important in the beginning of the (California Community College Sports Information Association) in that we had a top-heavy group of SIDs in the South Region,” he said in his supporting letter. “Woody was ‘The Voice’ of the North Region for us as individual SIDs and he often went out of his way to help other colleges in publicizing NorCal community college athletes. He has imparted his wisdom and experience to help a number of SIDs in his lengthy career as one.”

Wilk continues to support FCC Athletics, serving as public address announcer at many athletics events while also assisting the CCCAA as a sports information representative at the annual cross country state championships in Fresno.