Cal Poly Athletics Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 2000
A rare three-sport athlete while at Cal Poly, Eduardo traveled from his hometown of Los Mochis, Sinaloa in Mexico to attend Cal Poly in the 1950s.
He participated in boxing, wrestling and soccer while at Cal Poly. He received the prestigious Van Horn Trophy as Cal Poly's Athlete of the Year, selected by the Block P Society, after capturing the NCAA National Championship title in 1957. In three years competing on the Cal Poly boxing team, Labastida Ochoa won 26 of 32 matches.
As a sophomore, he was a finalist in the 1955 Pacific Coast Intercollegiate tournament at 119 pounds. It was hard finding opponents in his weight division. Labastida Ochoa was forced to box mostly at 125 pounds, winning the national championship at the higher division over Idaho State's Bob McCollum.
An agricultural engineering graduate, Eduardo was a successful businessman as he ran his large agricultural business (cotton, grains, high-quality vegetables and pork) in Los Mochis, Mexico. Eduardo, whose brother Francisco was governor of Sinaloa, passed away in September 2014, survived by his wife, Myrna Vargas Mendoza, five children and several brothers and sisters.
