{"id":474192,"date":"2026-09-24T13:14:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T13:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/474192\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T13:14:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T13:14:14","slug":"on-the-water-aquatic-capital-of-america-to-honor-4-greats-during-hall-of-fame-event-next-month-press-telegram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/474192\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Water: Aquatic Capital of America to honor 4 greats during Hall of Fame event next month \u2013 Press Telegram"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Aquatic Capital of America\u2019s Hall of Fame and Annual Awards event will take place on Oct. 27 at the Long Beach Yacht Club, with Rich Foster (water polo), Stesha Carle (rowing), Howard Hamlin (sailing) and Cathy Ferguson (swimming) being honored.<\/p>\n

Carle attended Long Beach schools from elementary through high school, graduating from Wilson High. She was introduced to rowing as a coxswain for her mother\u2019s team at the Long Beach Rowing Association.<\/p>\n

\"Rich<\/p>\n

Rich Foster will be inducted into the Aquatic Capital of America’s Hall of Fame next month. (Courtesy of Century Club)<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

Former Olympic swimmer Cathy Ferguson, center, will be inducted into the Aquatic Capital of America\u2019s Hall of Fame next month. (File photo)\n<\/p>\n

\"Howard<\/p>\n

Howard Hamlin will be inducted into the Aquatic Capital of America\u2019s Hall of Fame next month. (Courtesy of Alamitos Bay Yacht Club)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 3<\/p>\n

Rich Foster will be inducted into the Aquatic Capital of America’s Hall of Fame next month. (Courtesy of Century Club)<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2002, she placed third in the eight-oared shell at the Junior National Championships.<\/p>\n

She became the U23 women\u2019s coxless four world champion in 2005 and later earned three silver medals at the senior World Championships. Overall, she competed on six world championship teams.<\/p>\n

Hamlin is a world champion in multiple sailboat classes, with one title in the 505, one in the International 14 and two in the 18-foot Skiff. He has also won numerous national and North American championships.<\/p>\n

This past summer, he finished second at the 505 World Championships after winning two European championships shortly before the event.<\/p>\n

A longtime Long Beach resident, Howard belongs to both the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club and Newport Harbor Yacht Club, and is a key volunteer and supporter of the US Sailing Center\u2013Long Beach.<\/p>\n

Ferguson built an exceptional swimming career.<\/p>\n

At the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, she won two Gold medals and set a world record in the 100-meter backstroke; she also set three other world records.<\/p>\n

Her achievements include seven American records and 10 AAU titles. In 1965, she was named World Swimmer of the Year in the 100- and 200-meter backstroke.<\/p>\n

Ferguson maintained a 20-year connection with Long Beach and Cal State Long Beach as a physical education professor and director of aquatics, retiring from the faculty in 1996; she joined the CSULB Hall of Fame in 1987. She was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1978.<\/p>\n

Foster served for 12 years as president of USA Water Polo, and was a founding member and president of the Aquatic Capital of America. He has been inducted into the USA Water Polo and Century Club halls of fame.<\/p>\n

Foster also served on the United States Olympic Committee, chaired the 2004 Olympic Swimming Trials in Long Beach, and was vice chair of the FINA Water Polo Committee. He also taught sports law in CSULB\u2019s master of science in sport management program.<\/p>\n

The Aquatic Capital of America established its Hall of Fame and Annual Awards in 2016 to preserve Long Beach\u2019s aquatic history and honor individuals who achieved extraordinary success in water-related pursuits.<\/p>\n

Funding Olympic sailors<\/p>\n

In less than two years, Olympic sailing will return to San Pedro and Long Beach. The United States has a proud Olympic sailing history: when Los Angeles last hosted the Summer Games in 1984, American sailors won medals in every event.<\/p>\n

Since then, however, their results have declined. The United States, in fact, has earned only two sailing medals across the past four Games, according to Layline to LA28, a volunteer-led Southern California fundraising initiative supporting America One Racing\u2019s Project Podium, a leading program for top U.S. Olympic sailing prospects.<\/p>\n

Project Podium helps elite U.S. sailors run professional Olympic campaigns through expert coaching, sports science and continually refining their technique. Its approach is grounded in the belief that excellence should be engineered, not improvised. All funds raised go directly to supporting the athletes.<\/p>\n

The initiative aims to unite the region\u2019s sailing community behind America\u2019s top Olympic-class sailors as they pursue Gold in 2028. Outreach to sailing groups and yacht clubs is already underway.<\/p>\n

Layline to LA28 will host a celebration and fundraiser at San Diego Yacht Club on Nov. 20. Guests can meet athletes and coaches, view the boats, and hear about their Olympic campaigns.<\/p>\n

Rolex 2026 Yachtsman of the Year Paul Cayard will be the master of ceremonies for the evening, which will feature a film by broadcast legend Gary Jobson celebrating the past and future of U.S. Olympic sailing. Former Olympic medalists will join athletes and guests, and the event will conclude with a limited live auction and paddle raise benefiting America One Racing\u2019s Project Podium.<\/p>\n

For more information and reservations for this highlight of the 2026 sailing season, visit layline2LA28.org<\/a>. Learn more about America One Racing and Project Podium at americaoneracing.us<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the Green<\/p>\n

The Pure Championship took place from Friday to Sunday, Sept. 18-20 at Pebble Beach, and my husband, David, and I volunteered for the annual tournament.<\/p>\n

\"PGAPGA senior tour golfer Paul Goydos, a Wilson High graduate, warms up ahead of the final round of the Pure Championship on Sunday, Sept. 20, at Pebble Beach. (Photo by Jo Murray, Grunion Gazette\/SCNG)<\/p>\n

The field included players from the PGA senior tour who we grew up watching. They were paired with high school students who are part of the First Tee Program, which integrates the game of golf with a life skills curriculum.<\/p>\n

One of the professional players was Paul Goydos, who graduated from Wilson High in 1981 and went on to Cal State Long Beach. At Wilson, his golf coach was Marty Walker. Walker and her husband, Del Walker, became what Goydos later called his \u201cgolf parents.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Long Beach native, Goydos discovered golf through old clubs in his father\u2019s garage and took his first formal lessons at Recreation Park Golf Course, paying $40 for six classes.<\/p>\n

Goydos has been playing solid but streaky golf lately on the PGA Tour Champions, mixing a few strong finishes with several mid-pack results and a couple of missed cuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m too inconsistent to be bad all the time,\u201d he said before playing on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Goydos finished tied for seventh at 8-under-par in the 2026 Pure Insurance Championship.<\/p>\n

His final round was a 70, which kept him in the mix but ultimately placed him two strokes behind the leaders, Zach Johnson, Rory Sabbatini, Steven Alker and Henrik Stenson, all at 12-under, according to the official PGA Tour Champions leaderboard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Aquatic Capital of America\u2019s Hall of Fame and Annual Awards event will take place on Oct. 27…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[7,3929,3930,131,133,132,137,3738],"class_list":["post-474192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-california","tag-grunion-on-the-water","tag-grunion-sports","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-the-grunion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}