Hall of Fame
John E. Olerud brought great distinction to Washington State as an athlete and later through his distinguished career as a physician. Olerud earned three baseball letters at WSU, garnering team MVP honors in both 1964 and 1965, along with the Top Hitter Award as a senior. In 1965 he led WSU to a third-place finish in the 1965 College World Series while earning first-team All-America and All-NCAA district 8 honors as a catcher. That season he led WSU in hitting with a .341 average. Olerud ended his career ranked in the top ten in times at bat, triples, home runs and runs-batted-in. He graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors in Zoology and seven years in the California Angels organization following the 1965 draft. Throughout his professional career he attended the University of Washington medical school, earning his M.D. degree in 1971. He received numerous professional honors, including the UW School of Medicine Resident Teach Award, which was named in his honor, which serving as professor of medicine and head of the Division of Dermatology at Washington. In 2011 he was bestowed the WSU Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award, the highest honor granted to Washington State University alumni.
