For former NFL quarterback Derek Carr, joining the Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame is about more than football — it’s about the legacy he hopes to leave in the Valley.
Carr headlines the Hall of Fame’s 2026 class, to be honored Thursday, Nov. 5, at Valdez Hall in the Fresno Convention Center. The class represents football, sailing, motorsports, professional sports ownership and a historic junior college baseball team.
“My motivation was to leave a legacy, to impact generations, especially my family, and I believe that doing that work on the field has led to being able to bless people off the field,” Carr said.
Carr, a former Fresno State standout and four-time Pro Bowl quarterback, joins his older brother, David Carr, a 2017 inductee. Dan Taylor, the Hall of Fame’s executive director, noted another connection: Carr enters the Hall 50 years after it inducted its first quarterback, fellow Raiders great and Clovis High School graduate Daryle Lamonica.
The event begins with a reception at 5:30 p.m., with a dinner at 7 p.m. Official induction ceremonies begin at 7:30.
Taylor said the organization welcomes community participation in its dinner, golf tournament and educational efforts.
“We welcome anybody that wants to join us and become a part of our organization and offer their assistance and ideas and support,” he said.
Tickets to the event, along with additional information, are available at fresnoahof.org. The organization can also be reached at info@fresnoahof.org.
A class spanning sports and generations
Joining Carr are sailor Ruth Barcus, football coach Tom Casanova, motorsports owners Dennis and Teresa Roth and the late businessman and sports team owner Bill Tatham. The 1958 Coalinga College baseball team will also be enshrined.
Barcus, raised in Kerman, won 25 national sailing championships in the San Juan 21 class. Her father founded the Fresno Yacht Club. She also played softball, tennis and golf, but Taylor noted she grew up when “there were very limited opportunities for women [in athletics].”
Casanova coached Caruthers High School to three Valley football championships despite competing against far larger schools. The program started with around 22 players, Taylor said.
“A lot of those kids were farm kids,” Taylor said. “I think there’s an element to that around here, that there is a great work ethic in the area.”
For the Roths, business success with Beef Packers became a springboard into racing. Their Roth Motorsports team remains a fixture in national sprint car competition.
“Dennis and Teresa were inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 2022. And their team right now is in a battle for the championship on the World of Outlaws sprint car circuit,” Taylor said. “They’ve won 16 races this year.”
Tatham, who developed Fresno’s Copper River Country Club, held an ownership stake in the Utah Jazz and owned teams in the World Football League and United States Football League. He also held rights to a potential NFL expansion franchise in Phoenix but lost out when the Cardinals relocated there from St. Louis.
The 1958 Coalinga College Falcons became the first Fresno County junior college baseball team to win a state championship. Taylor said five or six former players are expected at the ceremony.
The Hall will also recognize the late Cody Roberts with the Harold Zinkin Sr. Award for contributions to youth.
The ‘six degrees of Fresno’
Taylor sees the class as proof of the Valley’s far-reaching sports connections, recalling a friend and ESPN producer who described a local version of “six degrees of Kevin Bacon.”
“I’m convinced that in sports it’s the six degrees of Fresno,” the producer told him, Taylor recalled. “I really think there’s a lot to that.”
“You know, it’s important to us to recognize and to honor the grace from this area, but it’s equally important, if not more, to try and use these great success stories to inspire future generations to go on and excel,” Taylor said.
Carr hopes that legacy will continue.
“I’m as excited, if not more excited, for what’s to come,” Carr said.
