A league MVP, a national champion, a four-time Olympic medalist and a leader of the Bay Area’s two major rivals will be inducted into the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame in November.
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The 2026 class consists of former Sharks forward Joe Thornton, Bay FC co-owner and former Santa Clara midfielder Leslie Osborne, legendary Stanford water polo player Brenda Villa and former Stanford and Cal men’s basketball coach Mike Montgomery.
Thornton will be entering a Hall for the second straight year after going into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto last November. The 24-year NHL veteran played 14 seasons with the Sharks and won the Hart Trophy as the league’s MVP in 2005-06, when he also led the NHL in scoring.
Osborne was a key member of the 2001 national champion women’s soccer team at Santa Clara as a freshman, later being named a finalist for the Hermann Trophy, collegiate soccer’s top honor, as a senior. After her club career and an international career that included playing in the 2007 World Cup, Osborne co-founded Bay FC alongside fellow Bay Area soccer stars Brandi Chastain, Danielle Slaton and Aly Wagner.
Villa is considered one of the greatest players in water polo history after winning Olympic medals in 2000 (silver), 2004 (bronze), 2008 (silver) and 2012 (gold). Named FINA Aquatics World Magazine’s women’s player of the decade for the early 2000s, Villa helped Stanford to a national title in 2002 and is now an assistant coach for the Cardinal.
Montgomery coached nearly two decades at Stanford, leading the Cardinal to the Final Four in 1998 and being named the Naismith College Coach of the Year two seasons later. He coached the Warriors for two seasons, then took over Cal from 2008-14, helping the Bears to a share of the Pac-10 title in 2010 for the first time in a half-century. Stanford won four Pac-10 titles under his watch. Montgomery went into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame last year.
The four inductees will have bronze plaques unveiled at the SAP Center concourse and be honored at a ceremony in November, with the exact date not yet announced.
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