Standout student-athletes from the football and volleyball programs and a transformational director of athletics to be inducted as the Hall of Fame Class of 2022
TAMPA, JUNE 30, 2022 – Two standout student-athletes from the Bulls’ football and volleyball programs and a transformational director of athletics have been selected for enshrinement into the USF Athletic Hall of Fame as the Class of 2022, the eighth to be inducted since the first Hall of Fame inductions in 2009.
The 2022 USF Athletic Hall of Fame Class of Erica Berggren (volleyball, 1993-96), Quinton Flowers (football, 2014-17) and Paul Griffin (director of athletics, 1986-2001) will be inducted during the weekend of the Oct. 1 USF vs. ECU football game and will be honored at the game in Raymond James Stadium. Ticket information for the induction ceremony for the 2022 Hall of Fame Class, to be held Fri., Sept. 30 at 6:00 p.m. at TPepin’s Hospitality Centre (4121 N. 50th Street), will be announced at a later date.
Berggren will be the second volleyball student-athlete to be inducted, while Flowers will be the fourth football student-athlete and Griffin will be the third director of athletics to be inducted. Flowers was voted for induction in his first year of eligibility (four years beyond the individuals last collegiate competition) in which voting occurred (COVID-19 postponed voting in 2021) and joins Matthew O’Neal (men’s track and field) and Courtney Williams (women’s basketball) among recent first-ballot inductees.
“The tradition and legacy of USF Athletics continues to swell as we proudly welcome members of the 2022 Hall of Fame Class that have left truly memorable and transformational marks on USF Athletics,” USF Vice President of Athletics Michael Kelly said. “The Hall of Fame inductions are tremendous celebrations of the great people and accomplishments that have defined USF Athletics, and we look forward with excitement to welcoming this class back to campus this fall.”
The USF Athletic Hall of Fame, which inducted its first class in 2009, will swell to 31 individuals and one team among its honored members of outstanding contributors to USF Athletics. The 2022 class will be the third to be inducted to the Hall of Fame since 2013.
USF Athletic Hall of Fame inductees and their biographies may be found HERE.
Erica Berggren • Volleyball (1993-96)
A two-time Conference USA Player of the Year selection (1995 & 1996) and the 1993 Metro Conference Freshman of the Year for USF volleyball, Berggren was a dominant force at middle blocker for the Bulls as she earned four first-team all-conference selections while helping lead USF to a 105-26 record (80.1 %), including 55-4 at home, and four postseason appearances during her career.
Berggren helped lead the Bulls to three conference championships, winning the Conference USA Tournament in 1995 and 1996 and the Metro Conference regular-season title in her freshman season of 1993. The Bulls posted 23 or more wins in each of her four seasons, including 27-5 marks in both 1995 and 1996 (marking the fewest season losses in program history), as she led the team to postseason appearances in all four of her seasons, including three NCAA Tournament appearances (1993, 1995 and 1996) that included hosting a first-round NCAA match vs. USC in 1996, and a 1994 NIVC appearance.
Berggren remains USF’s career leader in hitting percentage (.415), total blocks (626) and block assists (488) and stands second all-time in solo blocks (185). Her 21 blocks vs. Cincinnati in 1995 stand as a program record as do her 15 block assists in that game, and she has two other game total block marks in the top six while owning three solo block game marks in the top four.
Berggren owns the top four marks for season hitting percentage in program history, logging a season record .443 in 1993 while also posting marks of .433 (1994), .409 (1996), and .395 (1995) and leading the nation in hitting percentage as a sophomore. She posted 1,438 career kills to rank fifth on the Bulls’ all-time kills chart and her .909 hitting percentage vs. Cleveland State in 1994 is tied for the second-best game mark in program history.
Berggren’s 171 total blocks in 1995 and 156 in 1994 rank fourth and ninth on the Bulls’ season charts, while her 135 block assists in 1995 and 119 in 1996 stand third and 10th, and her 39 solo blocks in 1994 and 36 in 1995 stand seventh and ninth.
Quinton Flowers • Football (2014-17)
An electrifying quarterback whose highlight reel will dazzle generations, Flowers was named the 2016 American Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Year and earned two AAC All-Conference honors (first team in 2016) as he led the Bulls to three bowl games, a program-record 20 consecutive weeks ranked in the Associated Press Top 25, and a program-record tying 30 wins as a starting quarterback while posting the highest winning percentage of any quarterback in program history at .769 (30-9).
Twice named the Birmingham Bowl MVP, Flowers led USF to victories over South Carolina (2016) and Texas Tech (2017) in the bowl to cap the two winningest seasons in program history as the Bulls finished 11-2 and ranked No. 19 in the nation in 2016 and 10-2 and ranked No. 21 in 2017, marking the first time USF finished a season in the AP Top 25.
Flowers was twice named the Florida Offensive Player of the Year by the Miami Herald (2016 & 2017), the 2016 College Football Awards Performer of the Year and the recipient of the 2017 Athlon Sports Individual College Football Performance of the Year for his USF game record performances of 605 total yards and 503 passing yards to go with five touchdowns at UCF in 2017. He was just the fourth player in FBS history to post 8,000 passing and 3,500 rushing yards in a career, the sixth to post 70 or more passing touchdowns and 40 or more rushing touchdowns and finished his career ranking ninth all-time in FBS history and first in the state of Florida for quarterback rushing yards (3,672).
The two-time USF team MVP and captain finished his career as the American Athletic Conference record holder for career total offense (11,802) and owning 42 USF program records, including career rushing yards (3,672), season rushing yards (1,530, 2016), season passing yards (2,911, 2017, tied), career and season touchdown records for total (112 & 42), rushing (41 & 18) and passing (71 & 25), season total offense (4,337, 2016), career passing efficiency (146.51), fewest interceptions (23), 18 games of 300-plus total offense yards, and the USF and AAC quarterback game rushing record (210 yards vs. Memphis in 2016).
He was the first-ever 2,000-yard passer and 1,000-yard rusher in state of Florida FBS history (2016) and the first-ever quarterback to run for 1,000 yards in a season in state of Florida FBS history (2016), posting the top three rushing seasons by an FBS quarterback in state history. He was also the first AAC player and 14th FBS player to run and pass for 200-plus yards in the same game (at Memphis, 2016), while posting 16 career 100-yard rushing games (second all-time at USF), five 300-yard passing games (second all-time) and totaling 8,130 career passing yards (fourth all-time).
Paul Griffin • Director of Athletics (1986-2001)
Griffin served as USF Director of Athletics for 15 years (1986-2001), leading USF through a transformational period and rapid ascent that saw the addition of the women’s soccer (1995) and football (1997) programs, elevation from the Sun Belt Conference to the Metro Conference to Conference USA and the capturing of 63 conference titles.
Honored as the 1999 Southeast Region Athletics Director of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, Griffin inherited a USF athletic program that was $650,000 in debt and within two years the debt was gone and a new era of fiscal solvency had begun. Griffin was instrumental in the University’s charter membership to Conference USA and was responsible for developing the plan and launching South Florida’s football program at the NCAA Division I-AA level and move to I-A just four seasons later.
One of his first USF hires was men’s basketball coach Bobby Paschal, an eventual USA Athletic Hall of Fame inductee, who Griffin twice granted contract extensions despite three consecutive losing seasons. Paschal’s Bulls went on to win the 1990 Sun Belt Conference Tournament title – still the only men’s basketball conference tournament title in program history — and earned two NCAA Tournament bids and an NIT berth in a three-season span.
In perhaps the biggest moment in USF’s drive to implement a football program, in 1993 Griffin hired Tampa Bay legend Lee Roy Selmon as Associate Athletic Director for External Affairs. Griffin went on to build a $5 million endowment and helped sell 17,000 season tickets for the inaugural football season, far surpassing the goal of 10,000. Selmon would go on to serve as a crucial catalyst for the start of football and an integral member of the department, including serving as Director of Athletics (2001-04), until his untimely passing in 2011. Selmon was inducted into the USF Athletic Hall of Fame in 2012.
Griffin’s other notable hires include tabbing former USF baseball player Ken Eriksen to join the softball staff and then eventually become the program’s head coach. Eriksen went on to amass more than 1,000 career wins, a College World Series appearance and earn a silver medal in 2021 as head coach of the U.S. Olympic Team. In 2000, Griffin elevated then assistant Jose Fernandez to interim head coach for women’s basketball. Fernandez finished his 22nd season in 2022 and has posted more than 400 wins, reached the NCAA Tournament eight times and postseason play 17, won the 2009 WNIT, captured USF’s first conference title in women’s basketball (2021) and is a two-time AAC Coach of the Year. Griffin also hired an executive director for the 1999 Men’s Final Four local organizing committee — then 27-year-old Michael Kelly, who would go on to join the USF Athletics staff and eventually become USF Vice President of Athletics in 2018.
Griffin oversaw the NCAA Men’s Soccer Tournament being held on USF’s campus in 1990 and 1991 and was a catalyst in the Tampa Bay Area, attracting the 1999 NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four held at St. Petersburg’s Tropicana Field.
USF HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES BY SPORT
Teams: 1984-85 Women’s Swimming Team
Administration (3): Dick Bowers (AD), Lee Roy Selmon (AD) & Paul Griffin (AD)
Coaches (4): Sherry Bedingfield (WTennis, also inducted as an SA),
Dan Holcomb (MSoccer), Robert Grindey (MSwimming),
Bobby Paschal (MBasketball)
Women’s Basketball (4): Wanda Guyton, Jessica Dickson, Shantia Grace, Courtney Williams
Football (4): Anthony Henry, Marquel Blackwell, George Selvie, Quinton Flowers
Men’s Basketball (3): Charlie Bradley, Rodenko Dobras, Chucky Atkins
Softball (2): Monica Triner, Sara Nevins
Women’s Track & Field (2): Karine Black, Dayana Octavien
Baseball (2): Ross Gload, Chris Heintz
Volleyball (2): Michelle Collier, Erica Berggren
Men’s Track and Field (1): Matthew O’Neal
Men’s Tennis (1): Jeff Davis
Women’s Tennis (1): Sherry Bedingfield
Men’s Soccer (1): Fergus Hopper
Rifle (1): Michelle Scarborough
Men’s Swimming (1): Joe Lewkowicz
About USF Athletics
USF Athletics currently sponsors 19 varsity men’s and women’s teams that compete in 11 different sports, 18 at the NCAA Division I level in the American Athletic Conference, which will expand to 21 teams with the recently announced additions of women’s lacrosse (2023-24) and women’s beach volleyball (2024-25). The Bulls’ athletic program began in 1965 and completed its 55th season in 2020-21. Nearly 450 student-athletes train and compete in the athletic district located on the east end of the campus in Tampa, Fla. The Bulls have claimed 26 American Athletic Conference team titles since joining the conference in 2013, including seven trophies in the 2021 calendar year, and own 139 conference titles in department history. The Bulls have posted a combined annual grade-point average over 3.0 for more than seven straight years and have posted a program-record 15 straight semesters with a combined GPA over 3.0 as of the spring of 2022. USF has had over 500 student-athletes earn their degree since 2016-17. USF has had over 500 student-athletes earn their degree since 2016-17.
Follow USF Athletics on Twitter (@USFAthletics) and Facebook for all the latest information concerning the USF Athletic program.
– #GoBulls –
