DR. FRED LANINGHAM III

​Fred Laningham attended West High School for four years and graduated in l982. However, this understates the time he spent on campus. West High School just celebrated its 50th anniversary, and Fred just turned 52 years old. Fred’s father was the first varsity baseball coach of this new high school when it opened in 1965. As the coach’s son, he spent his earliest years running around on the baseball field, watching all the great teams and players, a custom which lasted for many years. He hardly ever missed a Viking football game during those early years. Many of his father’s players are still great friends of the Laningham family. Because of the lifetime connection with West High School, this Hall of Fame recognition is especially meaningful to Fred and his family.

Fred was a scholar-athlete who was co-valedictorian in 1982 and participated in sports all four years. Fred played football on the freshman, junior varsity, and varsity squads. He played safety his junior and senior years on the teams that lost only one game and won back-to-back Valley championships. These teams were known for dominating, straight-ahead-styled running attacks. Dallas Grider was the head coach those two years and Dave Titsworth was the defensive-back coach. As a senior, Fred was All-League and All-City Defensive Back.

During Fred’s sophomore through senior years, he was on the varsity basketball and baseball teams. Head coaches were: basketball, Ron Lauria; baseball, Dave Titsworth and Chris Craven. During his three years as a shortstop on the baseball team, the squad contended for the league championship. Fred was All-League as a senior. In 1982, he received the Bakersfield Mayor’s Trophy for high marks in athletics and academics. He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the June 1982 draft but opted to play baseball at Stanford University.  

At Stanford, Fred lettered in baseball and participated in two College World Series championships in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1983 and 1985. After obtaining his bachelor’s degree from Stanford, Fred finished medical school at the University of Arkansas, served as a flight surgeon with the U.S. Navy, became a radiologist at the University of Tennessee, and completed a pediatric-radiology fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital. He is now a specialist in Pediatric MRI and Chief of Staff at Valley Children’s Hospital in the Fresno area.  

Like his father, Fred has loved coaching his son, Hagen, now a baseball player at Buchanan High School in Clovis. His daughter Haley attends Pepperdine and daughter Hunter attends Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Fred’s wife, Laura, is a seminary student at Fresno Pacific.