GONZALES — Former Gonzales High standout and University of Washington track and field head coach Stan Hiserman will be inducted posthumously into the 2026 Gonzales High School Athletic Hall of Fame on Aug. 15 at Laguna Seca.
Hiserman, a 1934 Gonzales graduate, was a record-breaking sprinter for the Spartans track team and played football under Alexander McLeish.
“In 2003, I first became aware of Stan Hiserman on a trip to Seattle with my dad Clarence ‘Toots’ Vosti, we were going to see Stanford play football against the Washington Huskies and met Stan for breakfast before the game,” said Randy Vosti. “This was a tradition Stan and my father had started many years before. It was during this trip that I learned the wonderful story of a Gonzales boy who rose to the top of his sport and coaching profession. This year I nominated Stan for the Gonzales Hall of Fame so that his story and special and unique achievement would be remembered and preserved in Gonzales history.”
The Hisermans were a prominent family in Gonzales in the 1930s and 1940s, and Toots Vosti was friends with Stan, Vernon and Arnold Hiserman. They all attended Gonzales grammar schools, participated in Boy Scouts and attended Gonzales High School.
Stan Hiserman distinguished himself as an outstanding sprinter in the Central Coast Athletic League (CCAL) and made the All-CCAL track team his senior year, breaking the 100-yard and 220-yard dash league records. Mentoring Hiserman was football and track coach Alexander McLeish, who coached the Spartans to undefeated seasons in 1939 and 1942.
After graduating from high school, Hiserman attended San Mateo Junior College and was a member of the track team that won the championship for Northern California Junior Colleges.
In fall 1936, Hiserman transferred to Stanford University. A Gonzales Tribune article from Oct. 1, 1936, reported that Hiserman was the first Gonzales athlete to receive a tuition scholarship to a major university.
At the 1937 Fresno Relays, Hiserman ran the third leg of the 880-yard relay that broke the world record in 1:25 flat. The Stanford world record was held for 11 years before it was broken by a team from the University of Southern California.
Hiserman would become the Stanford team captain the following year. The world record is memorialized in the book “Great Moments in Stanford Sports,” and Hiserman’s name is engraved on the World Records monument near the track field on the Stanford campus.
After service in the Air Force, Hiserman became the head track coach at the University of Idaho in 1946. In 1954, he was hired to lead the track program at the University of Washington. After 14 years of coaching, he held various athletic director roles for the University of Washington until 1982. He died in 2008 at the age of 91.
“My dad told me about how exceptional a sprinter Stan Hiserman was,” said Randy Vosti. “He followed his career at Stanford because my dad was a hurdler and pole vaulter, so Stan was an inspiration to him.”
At Gonzales High, Toots Vosti earned 10 letters in football, basketball and track and field. He played quarterback and was MVP (Most Valuable Player) on the 1940 football team. On the track, Vosti set the Gonzales pole vault record at 11’3-1/2 and the record stood until 1965.
Vosti was a back-up quarterback at Salinas City College (now Hartnell College). From 1941 to 1998, Vosti ran the clock at Spartan football and basketball games. He was enshrined in the Gonzales Hall of Fame in 2005.
