A league MVP, a national champion, a four-time Olympic medalist and a coach who worked both sides of the Bay’s biggest college basketball divide are heading into the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame.
The 2026 class is built around four familiar names: former Sharks forward Joe Thornton, Bay FC co-owner and former Santa Clara midfielder Leslie Osborne, Stanford water polo legend Brenda Villa and former Stanford and Cal men’s basketball coach Mike Montgomery.
Thornton’s induction comes just months after he entered the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto last November. The 24-year NHL veteran spent 14 seasons with the Sharks and captured the Hart Trophy in 2005-06, the same season he led the NHL in scoring.
Osborne’s resume stretches from Santa Clara to the international stage. As a freshman, she was part of the 2001 national championship women’s soccer team, and by her senior year she had become a finalist for the Hermann Trophy, college soccer’s top individual honor. After her club career and a run that included the 2007 World Cup, Osborne helped launch Bay FC with Brandi Chastain, Danielle Slaton and Aly Wagner.
Villa’s place in water polo history is already secure. She won Olympic silver in 2000, bronze in 2004, silver again in 2008 and gold in 2012.
FINA Aquatics World Magazine named her women’s player of the decade for the early 2000s, and she also helped Stanford win the 2002 national title. Villa now serves as an assistant coach for the Cardinal.
Montgomery’s path through the Bay Area included major stops at Stanford and Cal. He spent nearly 20 years coaching the Cardinal, led them to the Final Four in 1998 and won Naismith College Coach of the Year honors two seasons later.
After two seasons with the Warriors, he took over Cal from 2008-14 and guided the Bears to a share of the Pac-10 title in 2010, their first in a half-century. Stanford won four Pac-10 titles under his direction.
Montgomery was inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame last year.
The four will be honored in November, when bronze plaques are unveiled on the SAP Center concourse. The exact date for the ceremony has not yet been announced.
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