The Cal 100: No. 44 -- Chris Humbert
We count down the top 100 individuals associated with Cal athletics, based on their impact in sports or in the world at large – a wide-open category. See if you agree.
No. 44: Chris Humbert
Cal Sports Connection: Humbert was a four-time All-America water polo player for the Bears and was the national player of the year in 1990 and '91, when he led Cal to NCAA championships.
Claim to Fame: He played on three USA Olympic teams, scoring career 37 goals - second-most in history.
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His career as Cal’s greatest water polo player was five years in the rear-view mirror by 1996 when Chris Humbert was preparing for the second of his three Olympics.
The occasion came with the kind of hype that only attaches itself to sports such as water polo every four years. Life magazine put Humbert and three of his USA teammates on its cover under the headline, “Naked Power, Amazing Grace.”
As seen below, the four players were posed wearing water polo caps and nothing else, each gripping a strategically placed water polo ball.
Chris Humbert (second from right) with his USA Olympic teammates..
Life magazine
The cover was part of a series created by Life photographer Joe McNally, who generated a 16-page spread inside the magazine that featured the likes of track and field stars Carl Lewis and Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
Humbert gave his mother a heads-up on what was soon to hit the newsstands.
“I live in Lodi, and it’s a fairly conservative community and I went to the local grocery store and couldn’t find it,” Cindy Humbert Neely told Lisa Dillman of the Los Angeles Times back in ‘96. “But I knew it was out because Chris had called me and gave me a warning.
"So I asked the clerk and she said, ‘They’re locked up.’
“I said, ‘Say what?’
“The clerk said, ‘That wouldn’t go over well here. You know how it is in Lodi.’ ”
Humbert’s place at No. 44 in The Cal 100 has nothing to do with his perceived over-exposure in his Central Valley hometown.
The fact is, he’s the most accomplished player in the history of a program that has produced a record 16 NCAA titles. Current Cal coach Kirk Everist, a senior when Humbert was a freshman on Cal’s 1988 championship squad, was Humbert’s teammate on the 1992 and ’96 Olympic squads.
And Everist says Humbert is the program’s best-ever, although current Bears star Nikolaos Papanikolaou is challenging him for that mantle.
Humbert, who came to Cal from Tokay High School in Lodi, was a 6-foot-7 left-handed center and scoring machine.
His 296 goals remain the Golden Bears’ career record 32 years after he completed his collegiate career.
Chris Humbert
Photo courtesy of Cal Athletics
Humbert was a four-time All-American and the centerpiece of the 1990 and ’91 teams that captured NCAA crowns. The ’89 squad was national runnerup and the Bears compiled a sparkling 114-9 win-loss record during his four seasons.
He was voted the national player of the year his final two seasons and won MVP honors at the NCAA tournament both seasons.
Now 53, Humbert spent 12 years (1989-2000) on the USA national team, earning 193 caps. "It was fantastic. It's 12 years of my life that I would never give back," Humbert said in an interview with the Lodi News.
He was a starter on all three Olympic teams (1992-96-2000) and his 37 career goals in the Games rank No. 2 in USA history. The Americans barely missed a medal in 1992, finishing fourth. They were seventh in ’96 and sixth in 2000.
Humbert helped Team USA win gold medals at the 1991 FINA World Championships in Barcelona and at the 1997 FINA World Cup in Athens. He was part of gold-medal USA teams at the 1995 and ’99 Pan American Games, with a silver in ’91.
At the professional club level, Humbert won a pair of Italian league titles with Posillipo in the early 1990s, then helped Greek power Olympiacos capture the 2002-03 LEN Super Cup, the Greek league championship and the Greek Cup.
Humbert, who appeared as an extra several times on the TV program Baywatch, was inducted into the Cal Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001 and the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame in 2018.
Cover photo of Chris Humbert courtesy of Cal Athletics
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo