2020 Great Waves Project

Pepperdine University Athletics

Through the spring, summer and fall of 2020, Pepperdine Athletics created an extensive series to honor and recognize great alumni who had competed for the Waves. It began with the "Numbers Project" and finished with the "Mount Rushmore Project."

Initially, the project set out to identify the best Waves ever to wear a particular number on their jersey or cap. The series aimed to list the most accomplished Pepperdine student-athletes, number by number, for the eight active sports that use numbers -- baseball (M), basketball (M/W), soccer (W), volleyball (M/W/beach) and water polo (M), with some football thrown in as well. Here is the complete archive of the series, with each graphic linking to each story.

First, we went number by number:

Then, we broke the numbers down sport by sport:

Number Project Women's Indoor Volleyball

Next, we asked several of our current and former coaches to take the comprehensive list for their sport and pick their best of the best:

The first step of the project only focused on eight teams. The next portion -- the Mount Rushmore Project -- took care of some of the others. Here, we identified the most-accomplished alumni for golf (M/W) and tennis (M/W) and asked fans to vote on the four alums that they would put on the program's Mount Rushmore.