Washington Nationals legend Ryan Zimmerman, three-time Super Bowl-winning general manager Charley Casserly and former Washington Mystics teammates Vicky Bullett and Chamique Holdsclaw are among nine individuals who will be honored as the newest members of the DC Sports Hall of Fame during a pregame ceremony at Nationals Park on July 21. The 1983-84 Georgetown men’s basketball team, which won the school’s first national title under Coach John Thompson, will be recognized as a “Team of Distinction.”
Other honorees in this year’s class include former HD Woodson swimming coach Bruce Bradford, DC basketball pioneer EB Henderson, former player Dave Johnson, play-by-play man for DC United and Washington Wizards, former Washington Senators pitcher Emil “Dutch” Leonard and former DC United defenseman Eddie Pope.
Zimmerman spent his entire career in Washington after the Nationals made the former Virginia star the team’s first-round draft pick in 2005. The two-time All-Star and 2019 World Series champion retired before the 2022 season as the Nationals’ all-time leader in home runs (284), hits (1,846), RBI (1,061) and games played (1,799). Later that year, he became the first National to have his number retired.
Casserly began his career in Washington in 1977 as an unpaid intern for then-Redskins Coach George Allen. He then served as assistant general manager to Bobby Beathard for seven years, during which Washington won two Super Bowls. When Beathard stepped down in 1989, owner Jack Kent Cooke selected Casserly as his successor. Washington won a third Super Bowl following the 1991 season. Casserly spent four seasons as GM of the expansion Houston Texans before becoming an NFL analyst.
Bullett averaged a Maryland single-season best 21.4 points as a senior in 1988–89, when she was named the ACC Player of the Year and helped lead the Terps to the Final Four. A member of the gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic team in 1988, Bullett played three seasons for the WNBA’s Charlotte Sting before being traded to the Mystics in 2000. At Washington, she teamed with Holdsclaw, who was the No. 1 pick in the 1999 WNBA draft after a standout career at Tennessee that included three national titles. Holdsclaw, a six-time WNBA All-Star, was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018.
“The combination of athletes, coaches and contributors in this year’s class collectively demonstrates a diversity of achievement and representation that we are proud to honor,” Bobby Goldwater, chairman of the DC Sports Hall of Fame selection committee, said in a statement.
Bradford led one of the District’s top swimming programs at HD Woodson for more than 30 years, despite the high school’s inadequate facilities. In some seasons, his team had to travel across town to practice when the pool was closed.
Henderson, known as the “Grandfather of Black Basketball,” introduced the sport to black students in his hometown of D.C. in 1907 after learning to play as a graduate student at Harvard. Henderson raised money for the District’s first black YMCA, which opened in 1912 on 12th Street Northwest, and devoted the rest of his career to promoting the sport. Henderson, who died in 1977 at age 93, was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013.
Johnson has covered D.C. United games since the team’s inception in 1996 and has been the Wizards’ beloved play-by-play voice — and “Radio Party” host — since 1997. Johnson, who was sports director and morning sports anchor at WTOP from 1995 to 2022, was named D.C. Sportscaster of the Year in 2019 by the National Sports Media Association.
Leonard pitched nine of his twenty major league seasons for the Senators, from 1938 to 1946. The right-handed knuckleballer was a four-time All-Star for Washington and retired as the second-highest-scoring pitcher in franchise history, behind Walter Johnson.
Pope played 143 games for DC United from 1996 to 2002, helping the club win three MLS Cup titles. The defender for the U.S. men’s national team, which appeared in three World Cups, scored the golden goal with a header to secure DC’s first championship in its inaugural season. He was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2011.
The 1983-84 Hoyas, led by DC Sports Hall of Fame inductees Thompson and Patrick Ewing, as well as David Wingate and Reggie Williams, defeated Hakeem Olajuwon’s Houston Cougars to win the school’s first national title. They join fellow DC champions the Bullets (1978), Capitals (2018), Mystics (2019), Nationals (2019) and Spirit (2021) in the DC Sports Hall of Fame.
The DC Sports Hall of Fame was established in 1980 but lay dormant for about a decade as of about 2001. Nominees for induction, as determined by a 14-member selection committee, must have “achieved prominence” in the greater DC area through achievement in professional, collegiate, amateur or high school sports as an athlete, coach, owner, executive, member of the media or employee. The names of the honorees are displayed on a plaque hanging outside the outfield at Nationals Park.
