Hall of Fame and Final 8 Banquet, Thursday, March 12, at 5pm, Tachi Palace Hotel
Free to CCCMBCA coaches with membership card; $25 cash for guests, payable at the door only.
Denny Aye, Chabot, Fresno City, Columbia colleges
For 23 years of his 40 years as a basketball coach, Denny Aye toiled in the ranks of the California community colleges.
He made his mark at Columbia College, where he built the Claim Jumpers' program into a state powerhouse. From 1985 through 1994, Aye's teams made nine post-season appearances and advanced to the state tournament seven times, winning the title in 1993 when Columbia upset Ventura. Over the course of those nine seasons, Aye's Columbia teams won 25 games or more seven times, 30 games or more four times.
He went on to coach at California State University, San Bernardino, Fresno City, Marshalltown (Iowa) and Chabot colleges. He got his start in 1975 at Palmer Junior College (now Scott College). He had other stops at Murray State, Panhandle State University (three years), Western New Mexico (two years) and Marshalltown Community College (four years).
He eventually hit the Pacific Ocean and settled into coaching in California. And what a career it was. In addition to nine years at Columbia, he coached three years at Fresno City College, advancing the Rams to the state finals twice; and 11 years at Chabot College where Aye won 211 games (131 losses) and took the Gladiators to the Final Four in 2014. At Fresno City, he won 88 contests (16 losses). But it was at Columbia many believe he had his greatest success, winning 249 games (with 66 losses), a runner-up title in 1988 and then the state championship in 1993.
In all, he amassed an overall record of 548-212, a .721 winning percentage, coaching in California. In his other stops, Aye was 289-207. In his 40-year career, Aye was 837-419. Currently, Aye ranks eighth on the California community college men?s coaches all-time win list.
He was a seven-time conference coach of the year in California, three-time Northern California Coach of the Year and in 1989 was named CCCMBCA Coach of the Year. Aye was also committed to the CCCMBCA, serving nine years as executive committee member and as a member of the Hall of Fame committee.His greatest accomplishment is that over 250 of his student athletes graduated with a degree. And that seven of his former players and 15 assistants went on to become head college coaches. Another 30 of his players became high school coaches, with 22 players playing professionally.
Aye resides in Sonora with his wife, Wendy of 47 years. Aye resides in Sonora with his wife, Wendy of 47 years. They have three sons that played basketball for their father at the community college level. After graduating with their degrees, each worked as an assistant to their father. Dion is CEO of NorCal Sports TV; Tyson is the head coach at Allan Hancock; while Devin, the youngest, just completed his first year as head coach at San Jose City College.
Aye says, he credits his success to his family's support, especially his wife's encouragement for his passion of basketball and teaching young men the importance of an education and the love of the game.
Tony Amundsen, Chabot College
If the California Community Colleges Athletic Association did a marketing campaign, Tony Amundsen would make a perfect poster child. Not good enough to make his local community college basketball team after graduating from Newark Memorial High School, Amundsen sticks with it. He redshirts, works out, gets stronger, gets better and all ends with his enshrinement in the California Community Colleges Men's Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame.
Once he finally got on the court, Amundsen took his game to another level. His freshman year, he averages 22.5 points a game, 13th in the state that season, at Chabot College, earns all-state, selected to the first team all-conference and leads his team to the finals of the state tournament. As a sophomore, he averages 22.9 points a contest, shooting 40 percent from the three-point line, named to All-Golden Gate Conference first team, Northern California State Player of the Year, leads the Gladiators to the Final 8 tournament and finishes as Chabot?s all-time leading scorer with 1,498 points.
He goes to play at the University of Pacific under hall of fame coach Bob Thomason. Over the course of the next two seasons, Amundsen averages 15.5 points per game, leading the Big West his junior year in three-point percentage (47) and earning all-conference honors his senior season.
Amundsen continued his playing career in Denmark, playing two seasons for Club Amager in Copenhagen, and then played another season in Germany for the BCJ Hamburg Tigers in Hamburg before returning to home to complete his master's degree and launch a successful career as high school coach in Northern California.
He has spent over 20 years coaching basketball, all at the high school level, other than three years as an assistant to Vance Walberg, who he played for in high school, and Ed Madec at Fresno City College.
Currently, Amundsen is the head coach at Clovis North High School after five years at Bullard High School. He has won seven league championships, been honored as coach of the year six times and was named the 2012 Division I California State Coach of the Year while coaching at Bullard HS. Three times, he coached Bullard to a Central Section Division I championship. His 2012 team advanced to the Division I Southern California championship game, losing to eventual state champion Mater Dei of Santa Ana.
Married with three children, Amundsen has two brothers, Tim and Ty. They were raised by deaf parents, Robert and Marilyn. The father once scored 63 points in a basketball game while playing in a league for the deaf and was eventually inducted into Deaf Hall of Fame.
"This young man is a tribute to what California community college athletics is all about," Rich Botelho, former Chabot College coach, said.
John Rudometkin, Allan Hancock College
John Rudometkin played one season at Allan Hancock, averaging 18.2 points over the course of 30 games. He then enrolled at the University of Southern California in the fall of 1959.
As a 6-foot-6 center, Rudometkin had a successful career in college. During his three seasons at USC, he averaged 18.8 points and 10.5 rebounds in 79 games played. He concluded his USC career with 1,434 points, which stood as the program?s record for 23 years. In each of his seasons with the Trojans, Rudometkin led them in scoring, including 1961 when he scored a career-best 645 points in 27 games (23.9 average). His best collegiate game came against Hawaii on December 23, 1961 when scored 40 points, fifth all-time in Trojan history. Twice Rudometkin had 20-point, 20-rebound games.
As a senior, Rudometkin was named team MVP and was named a consensus second-team All-American. He was nicknamed "the Reckless Russian" by Chick Hearn, then USC men's basketball broadcaster. In addition to being selected as a consensus All-American, Rudometkin earned second-team All-American UPI (1961) and third-team All-American AP, NABC, NEA (1961, two-time first-team All-AAWU (1961, 1962) honors and was named to the Parade All-American team (1958, fourth team) his final season of high school.
He played three seasons in the NBA, two years with the New York Knicks and a year with the Golden State Warriors. In 1965, he was forced to retire from the NBA after learning he had contacted non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a blood cancer. He spent years in treatment, which caused temporary paralysis, requiring Rudometkin to relearn how to walk. He went into remission, citing medicine and his faith as reasons why he was able to survive the tumor which had encircled his lungs and heart.
After his ordeal, Rudometkin, whose parents emigrated from Russia, married, had three sons, wrote a book about his experiences and traveled the country as a motivational speaker. He spent time as a real estate investor and minister. At the age of 75, Rudometkin passed from chronic lung disease, the lingering effect of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
He was inducted into the USC Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001 and his No. 44 jersey was retired in 2010. Chris Appel, a guard at USC during Rudometkin?s time, once commented that "he was ahead of his time. He was an artist, just a really charismatic player. He understood leverage and invented shots that weren't seen before and haven't been seen a lot since. I'm not comparing him to Kobe Bryant, but that's the same level of creativity."
John Wooden, legendary UCLA coach said, "the only way to defend Rudometkin is to keep him from getting the ball."