Texas Sports Hall of Fame inducts new class

WACO, Texas (KXAN) - A star-studded cast was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame on Monday. Among those honored were Drew Brees, Cat Osterman and Ricky Williams.

Brees , an Austin native, was an all-state quarterback at Westlake High School. During his senior season, he threw for 3,528 yards and 31 touchdowns en route to a perfect 16-0 record and a Class 5A Division II state championship in 1996.

"I've been lucky enough to be able to do some pretty cool things," Brees said Monday afternoon before the induction banquet, "but I think one of my greatest moments will always be 1996, winning a 5A State Championship in the state of Texas."

From there, Brees went on to Purdue, where he set several league records before being selected by the San Diego Chargers in the 2001 NFL Draft. He spent five seasons in San Diego before signing with the New Orleans Saints. Brees led the Saints to a Super Bowl title in 2009 and was named the game’s most valuable player.

Take a closer look at the Class of 2012

Osterman remains in the softball record books as one of the most dominating pitchers to play the game. She won 136 games during her time at the University of Texas and led her team to three College World Series appearances. During her college career, she set NCAA records for strikeout ratio for a season (15.42) and career (14.34) and was the first pitcher to reach 2,000 strikeouts.

She also pitched 10 perfect games and had 20 no-hitters and helped lead Team USA to a gold medal in the 2004 Olympics and silver in 2008.

"Other than winning a gold medal, this is probably the next biggest highlight of my life," Osterman said. "Never did I imagine this...never did I think my name would be in the same sentence as Drew Brees and Shaquille O'Neal, let alone in an induction class."

The Houston native is currently an assistant coach at St. Edward’s University.

Also inducted was 1998 Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams , who set 21 NCAA and 46 University of Texas career records from 1995-1998.

Receiving the honor despite not being from Texas was a humbling reward for the San Diego native.

"It speaks a lot about why I came to Texas," Williams said. "Texans have a lot of pride and that was something I wanted to be a part of, and they embraced me and they supported me and I had a lot of success because of it."

During his impressive career, Williams rushed for 6,279 and 72 touchdowns. In addition to winning the Heisman, he was named the 1998 AP Player of the Year and won both the Maxwell and Walter Camp awards. He was a two-time All-American and won NCAA rushing titles in both his junior and senior season and was one of just three Longhorns to rush for more than 1,000 yards three years in a row. Williams went on to play in the NFL for 11 seasons with New Orleans, Miami and Baltimore.

Other inductees included Walt Garrison , Eddie Mathews , Bobby Moegle and Shaquille O’Neal .

The induction banquet took place at the Ferrell Center on the Baylor University campus in Waco.