NorCal sports hall of fame to induct new class at gala dinner

The Jewish Sports Hall of Fame of Northern California will honor Olympic gold medalist Ben Wildman-Tobriner and four other inductees at its fourth induction gala dinner June 13.

A member of the U.S. freestyle relay team that shattered the world record at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Wildman-Tobriner was born in San Francisco and is currently a medical student at UCSF.

He will join Bob Lurie, Bonnie Lewkowicz, Ron Mix and Bob Sockolov in the class of 2010.

Lurie is a real estate magnate and philanthropist who owned the San Francisco Giants from March 1976 to January 1993.

Lewkowicz, of Berkeley, was paralyzed from the neck down with limited movement in her arms at age 15. For the past 25 years, she has advocated for greater access to outdoor recreation and travel for people with disabilities. She founded a nonprofit that specializes in that, and is also the co-founder of a dance company for people with disabilities.

Mix played tackle for the San Diego Chargers during their years in the old American Football League in the 1960s, then with the Oakland Raiders in 1971. An eight-time AFL all-star, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, in 1979.

Sockolov, of San Francisco, is a longtime participant of the Maccabiah games in Israel, taking home a gold in over-75 doubles tennis in 2005 and most recently serving as the U.S. team’s grand masters tennis co-chair in 2009. He is also a principal partner in the San Francisco Giants’ ownership group.

Former Major League Baseball player Shawn Green, a two-time all-star who retired after the 2007 season, will receive the first Hank Greenberg award, and Rev. John Lo Schiavo, trustee emeritus University of San Francisco, will receive the Mensch Award.

Local Jewish student athletes also will be honored. Presenters are scheduled to include Giants president and CEO Larry Baer, former San Francisco mayor Art Agnos and retired NFL star Fred Biletnikoff.

The dinner and awards ceremony is set for 6 p.m. June 13 at the Four Seasons Hotel, 757 Market St., S.F. A celebrity reception and silent auction begins 4:30 p.m. Tickets are $175. For more information, call (408) 374-1600, e-mail [email protected] or visit www.jshofnc.org.

The Jewish Sports Hall of Fame of Northern California has a “wall of fame” located on the Taube Koret Campus for Jewish Life in Palo Alto.