BYU Announces 2024 Athletic Hall of Fame Class

PROVO, Utah — BYU will induct four former All-American student-athletes and two nationally recognized coaches into its Athletic Hall of Fame on Friday, Sept. 20 at a ceremony held in the Cougar Room at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
 
Brian Billick (football/coach), Lacey Cramer Bleazard (track), Jennifer Hamson (volleyball/basketball), Matt Payne (football), Dave Rose (coach), Futi Tavana (volleyball) will be formally inducted during a ceremony hosted by the Cougar Club. The inductees will also be honored during a special halftime presentation at the BYU versus Kansas State football game on Saturday, Sept. 21.
 
Since its inception in 1975, nearly 300 student-athletes, coaches, administrators, teams and broadcasters have been inducted into the BYU Athletic Hall of Fame. Among the criteria to be considered for induction are All-American status, university graduation, professional accomplishments and community service. Below is a bio with the career achievements of each of the 2024 inductees.
 
Brian Billick 
Brian Billick joins the BYU Athletic Hall of Fame after a playing and coaching career in which he helped establish the Cougars’ tight end tradition, hoisted a Lombardi Trophy and left a coaching pedigree that extends throughout the game of football today. 
 
Billick transferred to BYU in 1974 after playing his freshman year at the Air Force Academy. The Redlands, California native became a three-year letterman for the Cougars while starting at tight end in 1975 and 1976. As a senior in 1976, the 6-foot-5 target hauled in 20 passes for 338 yards and a touchdown as he helped the Cougars to their first nine-win season, a share of the WAC Championship and a trip to the Citrus Bowl. For his efforts Billick garnered Associated Press All-America Honorable Mention recognition and Frist Team All-WAC honors.
 
Billick graduated from BYU with a degree in public relations and was selected in the 11th round of the 1977 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers.
 
After returning to BYU as a graduate assistant in 1978, Billick briefly stepped away from coaching to work as the 49ers’ assistant director of public relations from 1979-80. Billick returned to college football with coaching positions as San Diego State (1981-85), Utah State (1986-88) and Stanford (1989-91). 
 
Billick began his 15-year NFL coaching career with the Minnesota Vikings as tight ends coach in 1992. He was later elevated to offensive coordinator in 1994 where he orchestrated an offense that rolled up an NFL-record 556 points during the 1998 season.
 
In 1999, he was named head coach of the Baltimore Ravens. In nine seasons Billick compiled an 85-67 record, 5-3 playoff record and a Super Bowl XXXV Championship. Under Billick’s guidance, the 2000 Ravens finished with a 12-4 regular season record and beat their postseason opponents by an average of 18 points per game on the way to a 34-7 win over the New York Giants in the Super Bowl. 
 
At the conclusion of his coaching career in 2007, Billick became an analyst with the NFL Network and NFL on FOX. Billick’s fingerprints continually stretch across both collegiate and professional football with a coaching tree that includes Jack Del Rio, Trent Dilfer, John Fassel, Marvin Lewis, Rick Neuheisel, Kevin O’Connell, Rex Ryan, Kyle Shanahan, David Shaw and Mike Zimmer. 
 
Lacey Cramer Bleazard
During her four-year tenure at BYU (2009-2012), Lacey Cramer Bleazard was a two-time national champion in the 800-meters at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. She first won the event in 2009 as a true freshman and again in 2011 as a junior. Cramer Bleazard is one of six women in BYU women’s track and field history to win multiple national championships, and she owns two of the program’s five 800m national titles.
 
Cramer Bleazard was a seven-time All-American with six being First Team honors. Five out of the seven honors came from the 800m with the remaining two from the distance medley relay (DMR). 
 
Competing in the Mountain West Conference, Cramer Bleazard was a six-time individual conference champion as she swept both the indoor and outdoor 800m titles as a freshman in 2009, sophomore in 2010 and junior in 2011. She also won two relay conference championships: the outdoor 4x400m in 2009 and the DMR in 2011. Her combined six-career women’s 800m league titles remains unmatched in Mountain West Conference history.
 
Cramer Bleazard was named the 2011 BYU Curtis Pugsley Winner: an award given to BYU track and field’s top male and female athlete each year. That same year she was also named the Mountain West Conference Indoor Student Athlete of the Year as she broke the conference’s indoor 800m record, running 2:03.89: a record that still stands today. Throughout her four years competing in the conference, she was named the Indoor Athlete of the Week on four different occasions.  
 
On BYU’s record board, Cramer Bleazard ranks No. 7 all-time in the indoor 800m with her time of 2:03.89 and No. 8 all-time in the outdoor 800m running 2:03.00. She was also a part of the 2012 indoor 4x800m relay team that broke the school’s program record. Cramer Bleazard graduated from BYU in 2012 with a degree in recreation management.
 
Jennifer Hamson
Jennifer Hamson was a two-sport star in basketball and volleyball for the Cougars. A two-sport All-American, she earned three volleyball All-America citations and was named AP All-America Honorable Mention in basketball in 2014.
 
Hamson was just the second BYU women’s volleyball player to earn two AVCA All-America First Team honors, leading the Cougars to its first-ever national championship match and second-ever Final Four. She also received an Honorable Mention All-American citation, was three-time All-Region, made two NCAA Tournament all-tournament teams and was named the Seattle Region MVP in 2014.
 
Hamson was also a three-time All-WCC First Team honoree and the 2012 WCC Player of the Year. She concluded her career No. 1 in the BYU rally scoring era with 1,950 kills and 3,716 attacks, No. 2 with 129 service aces and No. 3 with 429 sets played.
 
In addition, Hamson was also a three-year starter in basketball for the Cougars, appearing in 122 games during her four-year hoops career. She finished in the top 10 in six statistical categories, cementing herself as one of BYU’s greatest women’s basketball players. She ranked No. 2 in blocks and blocks per game, trailing only her mother Tresa Spaulding Hamson. She also ranked No. 3 in career rebounds, recorded the fourth-highest field goal percentage and finished her career with the ninth-most points in program history with 1,437.
 
The Lindon, Utah native was named the WCC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in 2014, the first West Coast Conference player to earn both honors in the same season. That year she was also named the 2014 College Sports Madness WCC Player of the Year and received College Sports Madness WCC First Team honors. 
 
After completing her collegiate basketball career, Hamson was selected 23rd overall by the Los Angeles Sparks in the 2014 WNBA Draft but deferred a year to complete her volleyball commitment, which included helping BYU to its first-ever national title match. After graduating from BYU with a degree in exercise science in 2014, Hamson signed with the Sparks in 2015 and played two seasons in the WNBA before pursuing a career overseas that resulted in a 2017 WNBL Championship in Australia.
 
In 2017, Hamson participated in USA National Team training in both basketball and volleyball before finishing her athletic career by playing professional volleyball in Germany from 2018-20.
 
Matt Payne
Matt Payne, perhaps BYU football’s most accomplished and dynamic specialist, left a lasting footprint at BYU with memorable punts, placekicks and tackles during his four-year career with the Cougars.
 
A native of North Ogden, Utah, Payne came to BYU following a three-sport prep career at Weber High School. He earned the starting placekicker role on the Cougars’ 2001 team, one of the most prolific offenses in program history. 
 
In his first collegiate start, Payne tied the BYU single-game record with 10 PATs made on 10 attempts in the Cougars’ 70-35 barnstorm of Tulane. The freshman placekicker went on to record an NCAA-record 76 PAT attempts with a BYU-record 73 PATs made. He finished the 2001 regular season with a Mountain West Special Teams Player of the Week honor after kicking the game winning field goal to defeat Mississippi State on the road.
 
Beginning in 2002, Payne expanded his specialist role as BYU’s starting punter. He was named All-America Honorable Mention and All-Mountain West First Team in 2002. 
 
A 2003 Preseason All-American, Payne became BYU’s first kicker to make two field goals of 50-plus yards in a single game with makes from 53 and 52 yards at No. 4 USC. Payne finished the 2003 season with multiple All-MWC honors, and an NCAA record 14 consecutive field goals made from between 40 and 49 yards. 
 
As a senior in 2004, Payne finished the 2004 season as a semifinalist for both the Ray Guy and Lou Groza Awards, an All-Mountain West First Team performer and earned First Team All-America designations from both the AFCA and Sporting News. 
 
At the conclusion of his Cougar career, Payne totaled an average of over 45 yards per punt, with 56 inside the opponents’ 20-yard line and 64 of 50-plus yards. Payne’s career placekicking marks included 55-of-74 field goals made and 151 makes in 158 PAT attempts.
 
Payne was a multitool athlete who was never afraid to lay a hit on a return man. Payne totaled eight tackles on special teams in both his junior and senior seasons, with none more memorable than two bone-rattling tackles at Boise State in 2004. 
 
Payne’s success in the classroom was awarded as well with academic honors from both the Mountain West and Cougar Club. Payne graduated from BYU with a degree in exercise science in 2004. 
 
Dave Rose
During his 14-year tenure as the head coach at BYU, Dave Rose went 348-135, including a streak of 13-straight 20-win seasons. He led the Cougars to six NCAA tournament appearances, including a run to the Sweet 16 in 2011 led by National Player of the Year Jimmer Fredette. He earned his 200th career victory in his 259th game, making him the 15th fastest in NCAA history to reach the milestone.
 
Rose was named the Mountain West Coach of the Year three times, including back-to-back in 2006 and 2007, becoming the first coach in program history to win conference coaching honors in consecutive seasons. He coached eight All-Americans and four NBA draft picks, including Fredette, who was named the Naismith, Wooden, AP, NABC and Oscar Robertson Player of the Year as a senior in 2011.
 
Prior to being named the head coach on April 11, 2005, Rose spent eight seasons under Steve Cleveland in Provo, including the last five as associated head coach. He spent 10 seasons at Dixie State, including seven as the head coach, where he accumulated a record of 167-57, won three conference titles, guided six teams to top 20 rankings and earned 1993 Scenic West Athletic Conference Coach of the Year. Rose coached three NJCAA All-Americans at Dixie State as well as eventual NBA First Round pick Keon Clark.
 
As a student-athlete, Rose was co-captain of the famed Phi Slamma Jamma at the University of Houston. Rose and teammates Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler led the Cougars to a NCAA Championship runner-up finish, before earning his bachelor’s degree from Houston in 1983. Prior to playing at Houston, Rose was a two-sport star at Dixie State, where he lettered in both baseball and basketball.
 
His success wasn’t limited to the court as he was honored by the National Association of Basketball Coaches with its Game Pillar Award for Service, one of only four Pillar Awards that the NABC annually bestows on the most deserving among its vast membership. In 2018, he won the ESPN INFINITI Coaches’ Charity Challenge by raising more than $100,000 for the BYU Simmons Center for Cancer Research.
 
Futi Tavana
As a three-time All-American, Futi Tavana etched himself into the BYU men’s volleyball team record books as one of the best middle blockers of all-time, despite being initially recruited as an outside hitter.
 
The 6-foot-8 native of Pesega, Samoa currently holds the BYU men’s volleyball all-time record in 
total career blocks with 625. He also possesses the most total career block assists in BYU men’s volleyball history, with 565. During his time at BYU, he totaled 859 kills on a .401 hitting percentage, including 625 blocks, 256 digs and 33 aces.
 
Tavana redshirted on the BYU men’s volleyball team in 2006 and then served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Riverside, California from August 2006 to August 2008, returning to play for the Cougars from 2009-2012. When Tavana returned to Provo after his mission, he sensed a struggle to transition back into being a collegiate volleyball player. Despite feelings of quitting the team, his passion was reignited when the coaches switched his position to middle blocker, where he began to truly flourish.
 
Tavana started in every game during the 2009 season as a redshirt freshman, totaling the second-most total blocks in a single season in BYU history, with 169. He also recorded a career-high 255 total blocks in his debut season at middle blocker. In 2010, he started every game but five, broke many school records and earned a Second-Team All-America citation, tallying 190 kills, 146 blocks and 48 digs.
 
In his junior season, Tavana tallied 234 kills, 23 assists, seven service aces, 44 digs and a team-high 160 blocks that also led the NCAA, resulting in being named an AVCA First Team All-American. He also earned first team All-America honors in his senior season of 2012 when Tavana finished with 170 kills, a .385 hitting percentage, six aces and 155 digs.
 
Tavana collected four all-conference awards from the MPSF, earning two All-MPSF First Team honors and two All-MPSF Second Team honors.
 
Tavana graduated in 2012 with a degree in commercial management. He was a member of the U.S. National Team from 2012-2016 and went on to play professionally overseas in Italy, France and Indonesia.