UC Riverside Athletics Hall of Fame
John Wallace began his athletics career at UC Riverside in the fall of 1955 as a member of the Freshman Basketball Team, and joined the Football Team in the fall of 1956.
By graduation, Wallace earned the unique distinction of being the Highlanders' first recipient of four varsity letters in a single sport. A special gold ring was designed and presented to Wallace by UC Riverside Athletics Director Jack Hewitt to commemorate the honor.
Wallace was a 60-minute player, playing both right guard and end on offense and middle linebacker on defense. At the end of his first season, he was named the team's Best Tackler. Subsequent recognition included serving as team captain during his junior and senior seasons, and being named Best Defensive Player and Most Valuable Player.
Following graduation, Wallace entered the US Navy through the Officer Candidate program, and completed a distinguished 30-year career rising to the rank of captain. His tours of duty included classified missions aboard US submarines as a Russian linguist and a combat tour in Vietnam.
He received several personal awards during his career, and his unit in Vietnam was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation for "Extraordinary Heroism in Military Operations Against an Armed Enemy."
Wallace earned his master's degree at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. Following his retirement, he was an adjunct faculty member for Hawaii Pacific University, and took up distance running. Wallace has completed the annual Honolulu Marathon upwards of a dozen times, with a best time of under four hours, and he took first place three times in the family division.
The late Pete Kettela, who gained entry into the UC Riverside Athletics Hall of Fame in 1986, had this to say about Wallace on his nomination form: "As a former player and head coach at UCR, I know it is easy to see the accomplishments of the people who have good stats ... but I know the stats I had as a player were directly related to the proficiency of my teammates, and especially those of John Wallace."
