MALIBU, California – Who are the best Waves ever to wear a particular number on their jersey or cap? This series will aim to identify the most accomplished Pepperdine student-athletes, number by number.
 
Today, the greats who wore number 34 are listed.
 
First, some caveats:

• Student-athletes before a certain year may not be included, as complete numerical rosters only go back so far. For the eight sports that wear numbers, only women's soccer and women's beach volleyball have every roster available.
• The complete numerical rosters for baseball (1971), men's basketball (1968-69), women's basketball (1979-80), men's volleyball (1975), women's indoor volleyball (1976) and men's water polo (1982) date back to the year shown here.
• In some cases, additional standout student-athletes from prior to those years were identified.
• Any student-athlete who received at least all-conference honors during this time, and others of note, were included based on current available information.
• Pepperdine sponsored football between the years of 1946 and 1961. Fifteen football players have been inducted into the Pepperdine Athletics Hall of Fame and those former student-athletes have been included in this series.

BASEBALL 

• Eric Ekdahl (Mission Viejo, Calif./Mission Viejo HS) earned all-conference twice, including the first team in 1993. The infielder hit .324 as a senior, and finished his four years batting .296 with 85 RBI.
• Eric Valenzuela (Covina, Calif./Arizona State) won six games for the Waves from 1999-2001 as a right-handed pitcher. He is now the head coach at Long Beach State.
• Eric Thames (San Jose, Calif./Bellarmine Prep/West Valley College) was an All-American first team selection and the WCC Player of the Year in 2008. The outfielder hit .407 with 13 home runs and 59 RBI that season. He batted .361 with 103 RBI over his two years at Pepperdine. He is currently a member of the Washington Nationals and will be in his sixth year in MLB.
• Jordan Qsar (El Cajon, Calif./Valhalla HS) was an All-American first team pick and the WCC Player of the Year in 2018, and was twice all-conference. The right-handed pitcher/outfielder batted .271 with 13 home runs and 63 RBI that season, and recorded seven saves and a 3.44 ERA as a reliever that season. He had career totals of 143 hits, 18 home runs and 110 RBI as a hitter and five wins and eight saves as a pitcher.

MEN'S BASKETBALL 

• Bobby Sands (Trenton, N.J./Mercer CC) made the All-WCC second team in 1969 and honorable mention in 1970. The guard scored 913 points in his two seasons.
• Orlando Phillips (San Francisco, Calif./City College of San Francisco) was the WCC's co-Player of the Year in 1983 and was All-WCC first team in 1982. He averaged 20.0 points and 9.6 rebounds as a senior. He scored 1,035 points in his two seasons.
• Eric White (San Francisco, Calif./Sacred Heart HS) made three consecutive All-WCC first teams from 1985 to 1987. The forward averaged 19.3 points and 7.7 rebounds as a senior and scored 1,672 career points. He played parts of two seasons in the NBA.
• Geoff Lear (West Covina, Calif./Bishop Amat HS) switched from #3 to #34 and made the All-WCC first team for the second and third time in his career in 1991 and 1992. He averaged 18.5 points and 9.8 rebounds as a junior and 16.7 and 7.1 as a senior. The forward was third all-time in scoring when he finished playing with 1,644 career points.
• Gerald Brown (Phoenix, Ariz./Hayden HS) made the All-WCC first team three times between 1995 and 1998. The guard averaged between 16.5 and 17.8 points each of those three seasons. He scored 1,467 career points. Brown went on to play in the NBA for one season, and is currently an assistant coach with the Waves.
• Boomer Brazzle (Portland, Ore./Benson Tech HS) made the All-WCC first team in 2002 and was honorable mention in 2003. The forward averaged 12.0 points as a senior and 11.2 as a junior.
• Yakhouba Diawara (Paris, France/Southern Idaho JC) was All-WCC first team in 2004. He averaged 18.9 points and 6.6 rebounds that season, and posted a total of 697 points in his two seasons. The forward went on to play four seasons in NBA and in the Olympics for France.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL 

• Gigi Staggers (Santa Monica, Calif./Santa Monica HS) wore #34 her final three seasons (1980-83) and the center had career totals of 1,046 points and 1,196 rebounds.
• April Marion (Riverside, Calif./Golden West College) made the All-WCC first team in 1989. The forward averaged 15.1 points and 7.9 rebounds that season.