Old-timers may recall that Gooch Foster recruited several players from Finland in the 1980's. While I still recognize all their names when I look back at Cal's history, I have to confess that my memory of these individual Finns has blurred because they all tended to be of a similar size, playing style, and appearance. In some years we had multiple Finns on the team and on the court, so you definitely needed a program back then.
Anyway, one of our Finns was Mia Kuusisto (now Mia Eklof), who played from 1985 to 1989 and who still merits several mentions in the Cal record book. And the reason I bring all this up is her daughter has just signed to play for Washington State beginning this fall. It's nice to see her follow in her mother's Pac-12 footsteps. Cia Eklof will be the only Scandinavian on the Cougars' roster so she should be easier to spot than her mom.
By the way, here are the Finns that I recognize from our all-time roster. I thought there were more than five so there may be names missing, and as is always the case with our record book some of the years may be incorrect or incomplete:
Auli Gronroos 1989, 90
Anja Hellman 1986, 87
Mia Kuusisto 1986, 87, 88, 89
Seija Leino 1986, 87
Heli Toikka 1983, 84, 85, 86
Anyway, one of our Finns was Mia Kuusisto (now Mia Eklof), who played from 1985 to 1989 and who still merits several mentions in the Cal record book. And the reason I bring all this up is her daughter has just signed to play for Washington State beginning this fall. It's nice to see her follow in her mother's Pac-12 footsteps. Cia Eklof will be the only Scandinavian on the Cougars' roster so she should be easier to spot than her mom.
By the way, here are the Finns that I recognize from our all-time roster. I thought there were more than five so there may be names missing, and as is always the case with our record book some of the years may be incorrect or incomplete:
Auli Gronroos 1989, 90
Anja Hellman 1986, 87
Mia Kuusisto 1986, 87, 88, 89
Seija Leino 1986, 87
Heli Toikka 1983, 84, 85, 86