In 2004, the Cal State Fullerton baseball team opened the season 15-16. This was unacceptable in any year, but particularly intolerable here, given the Titans’ sheer amount of talent.

With that, Ken Ravizza, Cal State Fullerton’s pioneer sports psychologist, put a toilet in the Titans’ dugout. That way, they could “flush” their mistakes away and move on.

From such simple acts, great feats come. The Titans stopped circling the drain. From that point, Cal State Fullerton went 32-6 and pulled the handle on their fourth College World Series title.

The late Ravizza, who died in 2018, was one of five inductees to the Cal State Fullerton Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2021 recognized at a Feb. 10 dinner in Brea.

Ravizza joined the Cal State Fullerton 1986 softball team, football player Mike Pringle, track and field standout Giovanni Lanaro and volleyball mainstay Erin (Saddler) Henry in the ninth class of inductees.

Here are capsules on each of the inductees.

The 1986 Softball Team

There was foreshadowing here. The Titans lost the 1983 national championship game, 2-0 to Texas A&M. But iconic coach Judi Garman was already assembling the pieces for another run at the ring.

In 1986, it all came together. Cal State Fullerton opened by winning its first 10 games and 11 out of 13. After a 22-4 March, the Titans were 30-4 going into April, a month featuring a 15-game winning streak in which the Titans went from April 1 to April 26 without losing a game.

On May 10, Cal State Fullerton lost the opener of a doubleheader, 4-1 to Long Beach State. It would be the Titans’ last loss of the season. From there, they beat the 49ers, 3-1 to end the regular season. Then, CSUF took out Cal Poly Pomona, 2-0 and 1-0 in the West Regional to advance to the College Softball World Series in Omaha, Neb.

This wasn’t a fair fight. The Titans swept their five games, outscoring their opponents 13-1 along the way. A 3-1 semifinal victory over Indiana marked the only run Cal State Fullerton allowed in the five-game series, which ended with a 2-0 payback victory over Texas A&M in the championship game.

The reasons for the Titans’ remarkable run were as numerous as they were balanced. Pitchers Susan LeFebvre and Connie Clark were untouchable, compiling an 0.28 ERA and allowing only eight hits in the five WCWS games. Clark threw a one-hit shutout in the final. The pair combined for 43 shutouts in the Titans’ 67 games.

There was All-American outfielder Chenita Rogers, who batted .330, infielder Terri Oberg, who batted .271 and drove in 39 runs, and infielder Robin Goodin, who scored one of the runs in the championship game and hit .275.

Above all, there was Garman, a 2007 Hall of Fame inductee. When she retired in 1999, she did so as Division I softball all-time winningest coach — 913 victories. Much of what the Cal State Fullerton softball program achieved came from her fertile, strategic, unceasing mind.

Ken Ravizza

There was another reason for the 1986 Titans’ success: Ravizza. Like he did with the baseball team 18 years later, Ravizza taught the Titans mental techniques, stressing balance and how to handle failure without it handling them.

Simply put, Ravizza was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning field of sports psychology. A professor of kinesiology for nearly 40 years, Ravizza developed strategies that helped athletes become mentally strong. His “Ravizza-isms” included mantras such as “get comfortable with being uncomfortable,” “control the controllables,” “be present, not perfect,” “keep the process greater than the outcome,” and “just be good — you don’t have to be great.” His pioneering approach to stress management in athletes basically created the sports psychology field we know today.

Ravizza worked with generations of Titans on balancing sports with academics and not letting the fear of failure interfere with the pursuit of success. He played integral roles in the 1979 women’s gymnastics team, winning that year’s AIAW Championship, and three of the Titans’ four national championship baseball teams.

Not surprisingly, people noticed, and Ravizza’s calendar filled up with gigs all over the world. He worked with the Angels from 1985-2000, then assisted former Angels’ bench coach Joe Madden when he went to the Tampa Bay Rays and Chicago Cubs. He worked with several U.S. Olympic teams, including the softball, field hockey, equestrian, water polo, volleyball, baseball and figure skating programs. This led to advising New Zealand’s famous All Blacks rugby team and the Barcelona soccer team.

After Ravizza retired in 2015, the “Ken Ravizza Scholarship in Sport and Performance Psychology” was established to support a graduate student pursuing a graduate degree in kinesiology focusing on sport and performance psychology.

Giovanni Lanaro

Lanaro put pole vaulting on the Titans’ athletic map, along with building a legacy in the sport that endures to this day. From 2002-2004, he earned three NCAA Division I All-American honors, won two Big West Conference pole vaulting titles and set the school pole vaulting record — 18-feet, 4½ inches.

Again, there was foreshadowing here. Before arriving at Fullerton, Lanaro won the 2000 California Community College State Championship as a Mt. San Antonio College freshman. He won the 2001 National Community College Championship as a sophomore. At Mt. SAC, Lanaro broke the school record eight times, including one co-held by former Olympic gold and silver medalist Bob Seagren and Bill Halverson.

When he arrived at Fullerton, Lanaro finished eighth at both the 2003 and 2004 NCAA Championships. That set the table for a remarkable post-college career. As a dual citizen of the U.S. and Mexico, Lanaro represented Mexico in two Olympics: the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Games. He represented Mexico in four World Outdoor and two World Indoor Championships, finishing fourth in the 2007 World Championships in Moscow.

At the 2007 Mt. SAC Relays, Lanaro vaulted 19-01, setting a new Mexican, Central American, Hilmer Lodge Stadium and event record. After his post-college career ended, he returned to Mt. SAC, where he is a professor of kinesiology and women’s track and field coach.

Mike Pringle

Because Cal State Fullerton hasn’t had a football team since 1992, Pringle is probably better known in Canada than the U.S. That’s because the former running back became one of the best players in the history of the Canadian Football League. When Pringle retired in 2004, he held CFL records for most rushing yards (16,425 yards) and total yards from scrimmage (20,254) in league history.

Pringle’s prolific talent got its collegiate start at Washington State. But it flourished at Cal State Fullerton, where Pringle rewrote the school record book — despite playing only two seasons. He set the single-season all-purpose yardage record (2,690) in 1989, and his 357 yards against New Mexico State tied the then NCAA single-game rushing record. He departed as the program leader in rushing touchdowns and was second in rushing yards and scoring.

The 139th overall pick in the 1990 draft by the Falcons, Pringle was the last player cut. He turned that setback into a remarkable CFL career, largely with the Montreal Alouettes. Pringle led the CFI in rushing six times, peaking in 1998 with 2,065 yards — a league record to this day and one of the greatest seasons in CFL history.

Along with the rushing and scrimmage yard records, Pringle retired with a share of the CFL career touchdown mark (137). The Alouettes retired his No. 27 in 2005 and he was inducted into the CFL Hall of Fame in 2008.

Erin (Saddler) Henry

A stalwart of the Titans’ volleyball player from 2007 to 2010, Henry graduated as one of the best players in program history. If, for no other reason, her 2010 season would warrant induction based on what she accomplished that year — and what the Titans accomplished.

That season, Henry led the Titans to their first-ever Big West Conference title and first NCAA Tournament berth. Cal State Fullerton set program records for season wins (26) and home wins (16). Henry, meanwhile, became the second Titan in school history to earn Big West Player of the Year. The honors included AVCA All-West Region and All-American Honorable Mention awards and a program-best four Big West Player of the Week awards.

Henry’s legacy went beyond leading the Titans to their one and, thus far, only Big West title. By the time she graduated, Henry was ranked in the top-10 in 12 categories: most career kills (fourth), kills per set (fifth), attacking percentage (fourth), service aces (second), service aces per set (10th), block solos (fifth), block assists (seventh), total blocks (seventh), total points (third), points per set (T-fourth) and sets played (fourth).

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