Taft College’s new HOF class puts spotlight on landmark running team

Taft College is set to induct its newest set of Hall of Famers on Sunday as part of its 202ONE Hall of Fame Awards Weekender, initiating a class rich in Kern County sports history.

Inductees from the sports world include the Cougars’ 1988 cross-country team (Outstanding Team), which won an unprecedented state championship, as well as, individually, its coach, Craig Johnson (Distinguished Faculty), and sophomore runner George Kersh (Outstanding Male Athlete), a standout who took home several honors during the landmark season.

This is Taft’s sixth Hall of Fame class. The school has previously inducted the 1985 championship track and field team, on which Johnson was an assistant, and its head coach, Doug Wells. Johnson also coached alongside Jeff Chudy on Taft’s track team, over a decade before Chudy became the 16year head coach of Bakersfield College football.

However, Johnson’s primary legacy — at least in the sports realm, since he also led the college’s math and science offerings as a longtime life sciences professor — was as cross-country coach. In 1988, he led Taft to its lone state championship in the sport, with Tony Hernandez and Kersh earning All-California honors, and the Cougars picked up Coast Valley Conference and NorCal Championship titles along the way for what the school calls a “Triple Crown.”

Kersh was one of the 1988 team’s leaders, with individual titles at those latter two tournaments, but experienced even greater success after that historic year. According to Track and Field News, Kersh’s 1989 time of 1:46.60 in the 800 meters, posted at Mt. San Antonio College, is still the fastest by an American athlete at a junior college. He returned to his home state of Mississippi to compete for Ole Miss after his time at Taft and broke records there too, before representing the U.S. and taking home gold in the 800 meters at the short-lived Goodwill Games.

Johnson, Kersh and their team will be honored at Taft College Student Center Sunday night, along with Carolyn Hosking (Extraordinary Service), Harry Wilson (Distinguished Alumnus), Shelley Klein (Distinguished Confidential) and Sonja Swenson (Distinguished Faculty), with a reception beginning at 4 p.m. and a dinner at 5 p.m. Nominations for the 2022 class are open until March.