Hall of Fame and Homecoming 2025 in Review

After a Homecoming filled with Alumni Games and Meets and soccer doubleheader that included the #12 men’s soccer team pull out a dramatic 1-1 tie with #2 Emory in front of a packed Gordon Field with plenty of smiling faces, Homecoming 2025 concluded with the induction of five alumni and one assistant coach into the Joseph M. Linsey Hall of Fame. 

Jim Brainerd, the diving coach for 20 years from 1990 to 2010 under Hall of Famer Jim Zotz – who was feted at halftime of the women’s soccer game for his recent retirement – became just the third assistant coach selected into the Hall of Fame. Brainerd coached six All-Americans and three University Athletic Association champions in his tenure at Brandeis. 

Ian Murray ’89 was one of the top men’s tennis doubles players in school history, playing from 1985 to 1989. A two-time All-University Athletic Association player who represented Jamaica internationally, he competed in four-straight NCAA Division III Doubles tournaments, winning two All-America honors, and helping the 1989 men’s tennis team qualify for NCAAs, the first team from New England to do so. 

Jaime Capra Mitchell ’08 led the Brandeis women’s basketball team to one ECAC championship and three NCAA Tournament berths in her career, finishing with 82 wins in four seasons between 2004 and 2008. She was a three-time All-UAA player who was named conference Rookie of the Year as a first-year and Player of the Year as a senior, one of only four players in league history to achieve that feat. Mitchell, a two-time WBCA All-American, graduated second on the career scoring list and among the top 10 in 3-pointers, rebounds and assists. 

Steve DeLuca ‘08/MPP ’12 started more games than anyone in Brandeis men’s basketball history, playing between 2004 and 2009. He helped the Judges post back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in a decade and back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 1970s. He was a three-time All-UAA selection and D3Hoops.com All-American who graduated fifth on the all-time scoring list.

Michaela Friedman Savonen ’17 was a key defender and three-time All-American for the women’s soccer team from 2013 to 2016. After she joined the starting lineup as a center back as a sophomore the team had more shutouts (38) than goals allowed (37). She earned D3Soccer.com All-America honors as a junior, when the Judges reached the Sweet 16, and from both that organization and the United Soccer Coaches as a senior, when the Judges went to the only Final Four in program history. 

Emily Bryson ’19 is one of the most decorated women’s track and field and cross country runners in program history, competing from 2015 to 2019. She earned All-America honors nine times – four in cross country and five in track and field, where she won national championships in four different events: the mile, the 3,000-meter run and the distance medley relay indoors, and the 1,500-meters outdoors. She was a 12-time UAA champion who was the conference Rookie of the Year in cross country and Most Outstanding Performer in indoor track as a senior. She was a two-time winner of Brandeis’s Max I. Silber Female Athlete of the Year.