HONOLULU – The University of Hawaii Sports Circle of Honor committee has announced its 39ththe class that includes nani cockett (women’s basketball), Barbara “Bobbie” Perry (women’s indoor volleyball), katie spieler (women’s beach volleyball), radio host bobby curranand athletic director david matlin.
The Class of 2023 will be officially enshrined during the Green and White Celebration scheduled for Saturday, March 25 at the Royal Hawaiian Resort.
As the UH Athletic Department celebrates the 50ththe Title IX anniversary with the rest of the country, three women enter the Circle, including the first member of the beach volleyball program at Spieler. Cockett is the third female basketball player included and Perry the 14th.the Female volleyball player to establish herself. Curran becomes the sixth broadcaster to be recognized and Matlin is the 10ththe athletic director to enter the circle.
Additionally, the Class of 2021, Colt Brennan, Amber Kaufman, Robert Kekaula, and Edwin Wong, will also be honored at this year’s Green and White Celebration. Although they were officially inducted, the four honorees never received formal recognition due to the pandemic.
The Circle of Honor began in 1982 to recognize the individuals and teams that have contributed to the growth, history, and tradition of UH Athletics. The total number of members of the Circle of Honor is 132 individuals and 12 teams, including this year’s honorees. Plaques honoring individuals and teams are anchored on the internal walls surrounding SimpliFi Arena’s main concourse at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Listed below are the biographies of the members of the Circle of Honor Class of 2023:
One of Rainbow Wahine’s all-time basketball greats, nani cockett entered UH from 1993-1998 and finished as the program’s second-leading scorer…also ranked in the top 5 for the school in scoring average, field goals, 3-pointers, steals and 20-point games…two 1-time first-team All-WAC selection…an All-American her senior season…one of only two Rainbow Wahines to record 1,000+ points, 500 rebounds, 250 assists and 200 steals…led UH to three NCAA tournament appearances…she later spent time with the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA and played professionally in Israel, Switzerland and Greece.
The Rainbow Wahine volleyball program was a club team in the 1960s and one of its early stars was Barbara “Bobbie” Perry…Kamehameha Schools graduate played two seasons at UH before transferring to Long Beach State…member of the United States national team and competed in the 1966 World Championships, 1967 Pan American Games and 1968 Summer Olympics …coached volleyball at Southern California and Redondo High School…moved back to Hawaii and taught at Castle High School before a 20-year career with the Punahou Schools Athletic Department and later at the Schools of Kamehameha, his alma mater.
The most distinguished beach volleyball player in program history, katie spieler helped lead the Rainbow Wahine to a pair of national championship appearances, including a fourth-place finish at the inaugural NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship in 2016…four-year winner (2013-16) received Jack Bonham Award and was a semifinalist for the NCAA Women of the Year Award… received the NCAA Elite 90 Award and was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Second Team… two-time All-American… Big West Pairs Team of the Year in 2016… quarterfinalist at the AVCA Pair Championship in 2014.
Long time radio host bobby curran has been the voice of the Rainbow Warriors for three decades calling soccer and men’s basketball games since the 1990s…carried over 400 broadcasts over 32 soccer seasons, the longest streak of announcements in soccer history of UH…longtime host of the popular sports talk show “The Bobby Curran Show” on KKEA…plus men’s soccer and basketball, also called UH baseball, and women’s volleyball games…named UH Sportscaster year of Hawaii six times by the National Sports Media Association.
The UH Athletic Department experienced unprecedented success under the leadership of the Director of Athletics david matlinwho will retire in June after an eight-year tenure (2016-23)…grade point averages and graduation rates for student-athletes hit all-time highs…hired 16 head coaches, the most for any AD in school history…during his tenure, he oversaw approximately $80 million in facility improvements affecting nearly all of UH’s 21 athletic programs…led the department through the COVID-19 pandemic and the loss of Aloha Stadium and subsequently led efforts to modernize the Clarence TC Ching complex into a 9,000-seat soccer stadium…secured a major media rights partnership among the Group of 5 conferences and negotiated a media rights deal billionaire television rights…UH teams won two national championships, 14 conference titles and 19 conference tournament championships and the football team was invited to five bowling games.
#HawaiiAthletics
