Women's basketball coach Joe Peron among Pasadena City College Hall of Fame inductees
Longtime Pasadena City College women's basketball coach Joe Peron will be inducted into the school's Hall of Fame on Saturday during a ceremony for an induction class that will honor six student-athletes, three coaches and seven championship teams.
The Hall of Fame ceremony will take place at the Sexson Auditioum beginning at at 11 a.m. PCC sports information director and Hall of Fame chairman Robert Lewis, who began his job with the school in 1991 and will retire in July, offered his thoughts on this year's class.
"While every Hall of Fame class is special, this particular one is like a who's who of those that I have chronicled as athletes, former and current co-workers, and alumni who have stayed in touch with PCC over the years," Lewis said. "One inductee, the late Bill Sandstrom, greeted me on my first day on the job. It's an honor to see these great individuals and teams take their rightful place in our Hall."
A lot of schools boast Hall of Fame classes, but PCC's history is unique.
"We're in the 101st year of athletics that began at then Pasadena Junior College in 1925, and this 2026 class embodies the glorious tradition of great athletes, coaches and teams that our college has produced for more than a century," Lewis said.
Peron, who played high school basketball at Muir and is in the Mustangs' Hall of Fame, became the women's basketball coach at PCC in 1995. Peron became one of the most successful coaches in California Community college women's basketball history until his final season in 2025.
"It's a honor," Peron said of the Hall of Fame. "When I talk on Saturday, it's about recognizing the people that helped get me on that stage. My coaches, my family, the girls that turned the program around. It's about respecting them and them believing in me, and this program, and believing we could do something special, and we did."
Peron is the coaching all-time wins leader in any sport at the school, compiling 593 victories in 28 seasons. Peron's best season came in 2009, when he led the Lancers to their first state championship in the school's history. There also was the 2006-07 squad that saw it win a school-record 34 games and produce the school's longest win streak of 28.
Peron led PCC to seven consecutive state quarterfinals appearances from 2004-10, advancing to the state finals three times. His squads produced six South Coast Conference titles and made 25 trips to the state playoffs.
As a player at PCC, Peron was successful too, helping lead the 1983 squad to the state championship game, where they lost in triple overtime to Cerritos.
SANDSTROM, YOUNGBLOOD, BROOKS AMONG OTHERS INDUCTED
Bill Sandstrom served parts of four decades at PCC from 1968-91. As the school's athletic director, they produced five state championships. During his six years as head football coach, Sandstrom is best remembered for leading the 1972 squad to a school record 12 wins. That squad won the Metro Conference title with a 10-0 record, and won two playoff games before losing to Fresno in the Potato Bowl. Sandstrom passed away in 2017 at the age of 77.
Sylvester Youngblood earned his spot in the Hall of Fame as one of the school's all-time best running backs during the 1969 and 1970 seasons.
In the 1970 season, Youngblood rushed for at the time a school-record of 1,441 yards in just nine games. He still holds the state single-game record for most rushes in a game with 52, which he turned into 305 yards against Santa Monica, which was a state record at the time. Youngblood was a first-team All-American and is one of four PCC backs to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a career. He went on to play at Cal Berkeley.
PCC defensive lineman Alonzo Brooks is regarded as one of the best at his position after starring at the school from 1977 to '78.
Brooks was an All-Metro Conference selection on two championship teams. Brooks was on the 1977 squad that finished 11-1 and won the state title and Junior Rose Bowl. His 1998 team finished 8-3 and won the Potato Bowl. He went on to play at UNLV.
Men's soccer's Yura Movsisyan and women basketball's Kinyada Johnson also earned their Hall pass.
Movsisyan is regarded as the best men's soccer player in the school's history after a remarkable 2005-06 season that saw him earn the school's athlete of the year award. In 19 matches that season he finished with 18 goals and four assists. Movsisyan made history as the first community college player ever drafted by Major League Soccer when he went fourth overall to the Kansas City Wizards in the 2006 MLS draft.
Kinyada was the tourmanent MVP on the Lancers' first-ever state championship team in 2009 that was coached by Peron.
Johnson was a two-time South Coast Conference first-team selection and was all-state her second year. She is PCC's all-time leading scorer with 1,097 points and also holds the school's assists record for a season and career.
Tammy Silva, who coached women's volleyball from 2007-12, Marissa Rangel, who started in women's volleyball and softball from 2008-10, and Gordon Ingebritson, who competed in baseball from 2018-19, also are part of the Hall class.
Several teams will be indcuted into the Hall of Fame, which include the 1966 footballl team; 1967 men's cross country team; 1976 men's swim team; 1977 men's swim team; 1978 men's swim team; 1984 men's track and field team, and the 2001 football team.
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