Men’s tennis, men’s track and field and women’s basketball standout student-athletes to be inducted as Hall of Fame Class of 2020
TAMPA, Oct. 26, 2020 – Three standout Bulls student-athletes have been selected as the Class of 2020 in the USF Athletic Hall of Fame, the seventh to be inducted since the first Hall of Fame class was enshrined in 2009.
The 2020 Hall of Fame class will include standouts Jeff Davis (men’s tennis, 1975-79), Matthew O’Neal (Men’s track and field, 2012-16) and Courtney Williams (women’s basketball, 2012-16).
Davis will be the first men’s tennis player to be inducted, while O’Neal will be the first men’s track and field athlete and Williams will be the fourth women’s basketball player – joining Wanda Guyton (Class of 2009), Jessica Dickson (Class of 2012) and 2019 inductee Shantia Grace. Both O’Neal and Williams were inducted in their first year of eligibility, four years beyond their last collegiate competition.
“We had so many tremendous candidates for the committee to choose from this year and I am thrilled to welcome this Hall of Fame class that has left an indelible mark on USF Athletics,” USF Vice President of Athletics Michael Kelly said. “This will be the seventh class to be inducted and we look forward to welcoming the inductees back to USF for a great event at some point in the future when it is appropriate for us to do so.”
Dates and details for the induction ceremony for the 2020 USF Athletic Hall of Fame class will be announced at a later date.
Jeff Davis • Men’s Tennis (1975-79)
Davis dominated Sun Belt Conference tennis in the late 1970’s, posting three conference singles championships, three doubles championships and helping lead USF to three straight team championships from 1977-79. The three-time all-conference selection was named the Sun Belt Conference MVP in 1979 as the three-year team captain helped propel USF to what became a run of four straight conference crowns and the start of a dominate period that would see the Bulls’ men’s tennis program post a USF Athletics record tying 20 conference titles from 1977-2019.
Davis posted a USF record 174 career collegiate wins – 91 in singles and 83 in doubles – and went undefeated in conference play from 1977-79. He was named the 1979 USF Athlete of the Year and the 1976 USF Scholar Athlete of the Year. In 1978 he reached No. 6 in the USTA Men’s Under 21 rankings and was ranked in the top 10 eight times in the USTA national rankings, including No. 1 in the state of Florida seven times. In 1979, he claimed the Florida Intercollegiate Singles Championship while helping USF claim the team title.
Davis went on to post-graduate success in tennis, competing on the ATP Tour from 1979-81 and on the USTA Pro Circuit and Challenger tournament on three continents. He won four USTA Florida Championship titles, reaching the No. 1 USTA singles rank in the state of Florida 12 times, and twice was named the USTA Florida Adult Player of the Year (1994 & 2004). He was ranked in the top 10 of the USTA national singles rankings 12 times and reached a career-best ranking of No. 3 twice. In 1994, he was selected to compete on the USTA Italia Cup Men’s 35’s teams and in the 2004 was a member of the International Club Men’s 45’s team that won their event in Barcelona.
Davis won two USTA National Category I Championship titles, claiming a doubles title in 1993 and a singles title in 1994, and claimed nine USTA National Category 2 Championship titles in singles (1999-200, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013). He also claimed seven ITF international singles titles, winning three in singles and four in doubles. He was ranked in the top 10 of the ITF World rankings four times, including a career-best No. 5 ranking in 1993.
Matthew O’Neal – Men’s Track and Field (2012-16)
The first six-time All-American in USF Athletics history, O’Neal also won six conference championships in the triple jump, claiming both indoor and outdoor titles in the Big East in 2013 as well as indoor titles in The American in 2015 and 2016 and outdoor titles in 2014 and 2016. He qualified for the NCAA Championships six times and claimed All-America honors outdoors four times from 2013-16 and indoors twice from 2015-16. He placed as high as second indoors (2016) and third outdoors (2016) at the NCAA Championships and was a nine-time all-conference honoree in the triple and long jumps, placing second in the long jump outdoors and third indoors at the conference championships in the years he didn’t win the title and third in the triple jump in the one year he didn’t claim the conference crown in that event between 2013-16.
O’Neal posted a top seven national NCAA triple jump mark four times outdoors, reaching as high as No. 2 with a leap of 55-9 3/4, and twice indoors, reaching as high as No. 3 with a leap of 54-8. O’Neal set USF records for the triple jump both indoors (54-8) and outdoors (55-9 ¾) and owns the fifth-best mark in the long jump both indoors (23-6 ¾) and outdoors (24-10). His leap of 55-9 ¾ at the 2016 NCAA East Preliminary was the eighth-best mark in the world that year.
He finished fourth at the NACAC Athletic Association’s Under 23 International Athletics Championships held in Canada in 2014 and went on to success after his USF career, placing fifth at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials in the triple jump and sixth in the 2018 USA Track and Field Indoor Championships.
A dual-sport collegiate athlete, O’Neal also competed for the USF men’s soccer team as a defender and saw action in 32 career games from 2013-14 and scored two goals, including a game winner in 2014. He was part of the men’s soccer team’s 2013 American Athletic Conference Tournament championship.
Courtney Williams • Women’s Basketball (2012-16)
A 2016 WBCA First Team All-American and two-time honorable mention All-American by both the WBCA (2014-15) and Associated Press (2015-16), Williams left an indelible mark on the USF women’s basketball program as she helped lead the team to four straight 20-win seasons, four post season appearances (including three NCAA Tournament second round appearances and a WNIT semifinal appearance) and a 96-42 record (69.5 winning percentage) during here four year career.
Williams was named a first team all-conference selection and an all-tournament selection at the American Conference Tournament three times. She also earned first team all-region honors three times and was named the 2016 American Athletic Conference Scholar Athlete of the Year.
The only player in program history to record 2,000 points (2,304), 900 rebounds (931) and 300 assists (318), Williams ranks second on the career scoring chart, third in rebounds, ninth in assists, seventh in blocks (93) and second in career games played (138). Her career scoring average of 16.7 ppg is fourth in program history as she led the Bulls in scoring in three straight seasons, steals twice and assists once.
Williams set the USF season scoring record with 763 points in 2015-16, breaking her own mark of 710 points set in 2014-15 as she led the Bulls to a program record 27 wins. She recorded eight 30-point games during her career, including a career-best 35 vs. Temple in 2014.
Williams was selected with the eighth overall pick in the 2016 WNBA Draft by the Phoenix Mercury and went on to a successful WNBA career, including a three-year run with the Connecticut Sun that culminated with her averaging 17.9 ppg in the playoffs as the Sun won the Conference Finals and went on to the WNBA Finals in 2019. Williams was traded to the Atlanta Dream in 2020 and went on to average 14.6 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game as she led WNBA guards in rebounding. She has logged 143 games and made 105 starts in five seasons in the WNBA (as of Sept. 2020) and totaled 1,695 points, 729 rebounds and 383 assists. She also played for the WNBL’s Perth Lynx in 2017-18, and, in 2015, she was a member of the U.S. World University Games team and averaged 15 points and 10 rebounds a game as the team claimed the gold medal.
The USF Athletic Hall of Fame, which inducted its first class in 2009, will swell to 28 individuals and one team among its honored members of outstanding contributors to Bulls athletics. The 2020 class will be the second to be inducted to the Hall of Fame since 2013, adding three more honorees to the three selected in 2019 – Shantia Grace (women’s basketball), Sara Nevins (softball) and George Selvie (football).
USF Athletic Hall of Fame inductees and their biographies may be found HERE.
About USF Athletics
USF Athletics 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. The Bulls’ athletic program began in 1965 and is in 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 19 American Athletic Conference team titles since joining the conference in 2013, and own 120 conference titles overall. The Bulls posted a combined annual grade-point average over 3.0 for the fifth straight year in 2019-20 and have posted a program record 11 straight semesters with a combined GPA over 3.0. USF has had nearly 350 student-athletes earn their degree since 2016-17.
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