HONOREES 

Milyse Lamkin – A champion basketball coach at Sam Houston High School. Lamkin served as the Sam Houston girls basketball head coach for nine years (2006-2014), where the team won six district championships, made nine straight UIL state playoff appearances and won three playoff games. She amassed a 172-118 record. As a high school student athlete, the 1981 Sam Houston alumna was All-City in basketball and volleyball and was a top hurdler in track. She led her basketball team to four district titles. Her athletic prowess earned her a full scholarship to play softball and basketball at St. Mary’s University. As an outfielder for the Rattlers softball team (1983-1986), Lamkin played a huge role in helping the school capture its first and only NAIA softball national championship in 1986. She had a batting average of .301 and started all 43 games for the Rattlers. But it was coaching high school girls athletics where she made her biggest impact. She worked 23 years for San Antonio ISD and worked her way through the ranks. In 2005, she was interviewed by the San Antonio Express-News shortly after being named Sam Houston’s girls basketball coach. “All I could do was cry,” Lamkin said at the time. “This is my dream, my passion. A reality.” 

Gerardo Marquez – A state champion basketball coach at Fox Tech High School, Marquez is a 1975 graduate of Burbank High School and worked 15 years as a teacher and coach for San Antonio ISD. The pinnacle of his coaching career came in 1997 when he led Fox Tech to the Class 4A boys basketball state championship. Marquez was a star basketball player in high school at Burbank. At 6 feet and 2 inches tall, he was known as a crafty shooting guard. He was a three-year varsity letterman who was named team captain in his senior year and helped the Bulldogs win the district championship in 1975. Marquez played for a star-studded Burbank team that included the likes of center Gilbert Salinas, who, at 6 feet, 11 inches tall, went on to play college basketball at the University of Notre Dame. Marquez played four years of college basketball at Trinity University. In 1981, he began his coaching career in SAISD. He became the head basketball coach at Fox Tech in 1995. In only his second season as head coach, he led the Buffaloes to the school’s first and only state basketball championship. 

David Rodriguez - A 1945 Lanier High School alum, Rodriguez known as a big man and solid all-around player on the basketball court. At 6 feet,  5 inches tall, Rodriguez was an All-State center for the Lanier Voks. He played for legendary coach Nemo Herrera. The Voks won two Class A state championships in 1943 and 1945. In 1944, Lanier finished third place at state. Rodriguez was the dominating inside force that elevated the Voks to state recognition. At the 1945 state tournament, Rodriguez averaged 18 points per game. After high school, he served in the United States Air Force where he led Chanute Air Force Base to the Air Force basketball title in 1946. When completing his military duty, Rodriguez attended Tyler Junior College where he was named All-Conference and led his team to the 1949 national championship with a 66-64 victory over Compton, California. 

Ricardo Romo – One of a select few high school athletes in the nation to win three individual state championships, the 1962 Fox Tech High School graduate was a four-year star on the track team and is regarded as one of the fastest distance runners in San Antonio ISD history. Romo won back-to-back state championships in the one-mile run in 1961 and 1962. His fastest time in the one-mile run came in his senior year at the Gulf Coast AAU track meet where he ran a blazing 4:10 time, a school record that still stands today. Also in Romo’s senior year, he won a state championship in cross country, a then two-mile race. After high school, he attended the University of Texas at Austin on a full athletic scholarship. He achieved All-American honors after becoming the first collegiate athlete in Texas to break the 4-minute time barrier in the one-mile race. In 1966 at a Southern California AAU meet, Romo rewrote the record books with a sizzling 3:58 time in the one-mile run, a school record that stood for 41 years. 

Greg Simmons - A long-time renowned sportscaster in San Antonio, Simmons is a 1974 graduate of Jefferson High School. He rose to become one of the most famous sports media personalities the City of San Antonio has ever produced. While in elementary school, he played catcher for the YMCA baseball league at the Madison Elementary School field. He got his first sportscasting break when he was allowed to call baseball games for the crowd after his own games would end. At the young age of 11 while attending Longfellow Junior High, he knew he wanted to be a sportscaster. At Jefferson HS, the school principal allowed Simmons to help launch KJEF radio, an in-house station that would play music and news for the campus. He was also the announcer for Jefferson halftime shows at football games. While in high school, he got his first professional radio job as an announcer for KWED radio in Seguin. Upon graduating from high school, he was hired as the overnight news and sportscaster at KBUC radio.  In 1980, he was hired at the San Antonio ABC affiliate, KSAT TV, as a sportscaster where he still works today.