Water Polo Star to Enter Hall of Fame

UCLA has announced that eight former Bruins will be inducted into the school's Athletics Hall of Fame on Nov. 4 during a dinner and ceremony inside the J.D. Morgan Intercollegiate Athletics Center. The Class of 2011 will also be introduced at halftime of the UCLA-Arizona State football game Nov. 5 at the Rose Bowl.

One of this year's inductees is water polo player Alex Rousseau, who grew up an avid surfer and swimmer in Santa Monica. His fellow inductees are longtime Bruins baseball coach Gary Adams, Janeene Vickers-McKinney and Ato Boldon (track & field), Larry Nagler (tennis), Mel North (fencing), and Theotis Brown and Ernie Case (football).  

A 6-foot-5, 200-pound, 2-meter player, Rousseau was a four-time water polo All-American at UCLA from 1985-89. He earned second-team honors as a freshman and first-team honors as a sophomore, junior and senior. He was the team's leading scorer all four years and was the Most Valuable Player and captain in 1989. That year he led the Bruins to the NCAA championship game, scoring eight goals against USC in the semifinals.

Born in Paris, Rousseau played for the USA Junior Water Polo team from 1985-87 and competed in two World Championships, earning All-World honors in Brazil in 1987. After graduating from UCLA in 1990 with a degree in economics he played in over 175 international games with the U.S. National Team and was a member of the Olympic Team in 1994 and 1996.

Inducted into the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame in 2004, Rousseau played internationally at the pro level from 1990-93 and from 1997-99 with C.N. Marseille in France and Lazio Nuoto, Roma, in Italy. Rousseau moved from France to Canada as a child, then to Southern California.

Rousseau speaks English, French, Spanish and Italian. He gained his U.S. citizenship in 1985 and is a member of the Screen Actors Guild. He was featured in Sports Illustrated's 1994 swimsuit issue, appeared with teammates on Baywatch, and has been in advertising for Gillette and Sears. He was on the cover of Vanity Fair in May 1996.

In 1995, Rousseau played in the World Cup in Atlanta and won the gold medal at the Pan American Games in Argentina. The year before he played in the World Championships in Rome and the Goodwill Games in St. Petersburg, Russia.

In 1989, Rousseau played in the World Cup in Berlin. In 1991, he won a gold medal at the World University Games in Sheffield, England. The following year, he played in the Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, and in 1993, he played in the World Cup in Athens, Greece.