PART 2 – SUPER BOWL FROM TAMPA

A Redlands Connection is a concoction of sports memories emanating from a city that once numbered less than 20,000 people. From pro football’s Super Bowl to baseball’s World Series, from dynamic soccer’s World Cup to golf’s and tennis’ U.S. Open, major auto racing, plus NCAA Final Four connections, Tour de France cycling, more major tennis like Wimbledon, tiny connections to that NBA and a little NHL, major college football, Kentucky Derby, aquatics and Olympic Games, that sparkling little city sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10. – Obrey Brown

Twenty-four years after Redlands’ Jim Weatherwax appeared in the first-ever championship game between the National Football League and old American Football League, one of the most coincidental connections in Redlands/Super Bowl history took place.

A pair of ex-Terriers showed up in the NFL’s biggest game.

Brian Billick, whose Redlands High School days were beckoning when the first Super Bowl kicked off in nearby Los Angeles, had a future in the NFL’s big game.

Patrick Johnson, who caught a pass in Super Bowl XX, nearly made a diving catch for a touchdown in that same game against the New York Giants.

At Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., the Baltimore Ravens – formerly the Cleveland Browns – stopped the New York Giants, 34-7, to win Super Bowl XXXV. The date: Jan. 28, 2001.

All those football eyes from Redlands were squarely on the Ravens. By-lines appeared under my name about Billick’s early years in Redlands – his friends, starting football as a ninth grader at Cope Middle School, plus some of his Terrier playing days which included subbing for injured QB Tim Tharaldson in 1971.

09_Billick_PreviewPreseason_news — Brian Billick, whose high school play in Redlands was memorable in the early 1970s, eventually rose through the coaching ranks to take on of the most deadly defensive teams to win Super Bowl XXXV in Tampa, Fla. (Photo by Baltimore Ravens)

Thirty years later, he was coaching the Ravens in the Super Bowl.

One of the Ravens’ receivers was speedster Patrick Johnson, a track & field sprinter who had raced to California championships in both the 100 and 200 less than a decade earlier. He wore Terrier colors. Picking football over track & field, Johnson played collegiately at the University of Oregon before getting picked in the second round by Baltimore in the 1998 NFL draft.

It was Johnson’s third season when Baltimore reached the Super Bowl. Twelve of his 84 career catches came in the Ravens’ 2000 season, two going for touchdowns. Tight end Shannon Sharpe (67 receptions, 810 yards, 5 TDs) was, by far, Baltimore’s top receiver. Running back Jamal Lewis (1,364 yards, 6 TDs) was the Ravens’ most dangerous threat.

Baltimore’s defense, led by linebacker Ray Lewis, free safety Rod Woodson, end Rob Burnett and tackle Tony Siragusa helped keyed the Ravens’ drive to an eventual 16-4 record. Playoff wins over Denver, Tennessee and Oakland lifted Baltimore into the Super Bowl in Tampa Bay, Fla.

Billick’s high school coach, Paul Womack, traveled back east to see his former player. He showed up at the team’s Owings Mill practice facility. Basically, Womack had free run of the practice facility.

Womack heard Billick telling Johnson – dubbed the “Tasmanian Devil” for his uncontrollable speed – he had to run precise routes. The ex-Terrier coach quoted Billick, saying, “Pat, I can’t play you unless you run the right routes.”

In the Super Bowl, Johnson snagged an eight-yard pass from QB Trent Dilfer. It was good for a first down. There was another moment, though.

“I ran right by (Giants’ free safety Jason) Sehorn,” said Johnson.

Dilfer delivered the pass. Into the end zone. The ex-Terrier receiver dove.

“It hit my fingers,” he said. “It’s okay. It ain’t all about me.”

Patrick Johnson (Photo by Baltimore Gridiron Report) — Patrick Johnson, a Redlands High product, is shown after one of his 84 career NFL receptions, turning upfield to display some of his world class speed. (Photo by Baltimore Gridiron Report)

As for Johnson, I got him on the telephone a couple hours after the Ravens’ big win. He was on the team bus, sitting beside teammates Sam Gash and Robert Bailey. At that moment, Johnson said the Lombardi Trophy was sitting about six feet behind him.

“I just had it in my hands,” Johnson said, “right before you called.”

LOMBARDI, LANDRY, SHULA … BILLICK!

Billick, for his part, later shared time on the telephone with me, sharing some of his innermost thoughts for the benefit of Redlands readers.

“I can’t believe I’ll have my name on that trophy,” said Billick, days after the big event in Tampa, Fla. It was a chance to reflect on guys like Tom Landry, Don Shula, Joe Gibbs and a man he once worked for in San Francisco, Bill Walsh.

Billick named those legendary coaches he’d be sharing Super Bowl glory throughout the years.

In the aftermath of the game. That trophy was held aloft. Billick was holding it. Showing it to players. To fans. An Associated Press photographer snapped a picture. One day later, the Redlands Daily Facts’ single page sports section on Jan. 29, 2001 was virtually all Billick and Lombardi Trophy. Confetti was falling all around him.

Framed around the Billick photo were two stories – one by local writer Richard D. Kontra, the other by-line was mine. As sports editor, I probably should have nixed the stories and enlarged the photo to cover the entire page.

Let the photo stand alone. Let it tell the whole story. As if everyone in Redlands, didn’t know, anyway.

One day after the enlarged photo, the newspaper’s Arts editor, Nelda Stuck, commented on why the photo had to be so large. “It was too big,” she said. “I don’t know why it had to be that big.”

Maybe she was kidding.

I remember asking her, “Nelda, what would you do if someone from Redlands had won an Academy Award? You’d bury it in the classified section, huh?”

That’s the newspaper business for you. Everyone’s got a different view of the world.

A P.S. on Womack: Not only did he coach Billick in the early 1970s, but the former Terrier coach was Frank Serrao’s assistant coach in 1960. On that team was Weatherwax, who also played a huge role on Redlands’ 1959 squad.

It was a team that Serrao once said might have been better than Redlands’ 1961 championship team.

Another P.S., this on Weatherwax: While he had been taken by the Packers in the 1965 draft, the AFL-based San Diego Chargers also selected him in a separate draft. He played in 34 NFL games before a knee injury forced him from the game.

A third P.S. on Johnson: Billick’s arrival as coach in 1999 was one year after the Ravens drafted the speedy Johnson. That would at least put to rest any notion that Billick played some kind of a “Redlands” card at draft time.

One final P.S.: That Jan. 29, 2001 Redlands newspaper headline in that Super Bowl photo was simple. To the point.

“Super, Billick.”

February 3, 2025February 2, 2025

PART 1 – REDLANDS IN THE SUPER BOWL

Jim Weatherwax, who played in the fabled Ice Bowl game against Dallas, had a hand in helping Green Bay win its first two Super Bowl titles.

Brian Billick basked in the glow of his name joining names like Landry and Shula, Noll and Parcells, Walsh and Gibbs on the Lombardi Trophy. Curiously, eventual five-time Lombardi Trophy celebrant Bill Belichick would join that list after Billick.

Patrick Johnson, who caught a pass in Super Bowl XX, nearly made a diving catch for a touchdown in that same game against the New York Giants.

Welcome to the Redlands Connection-Super Bowl edition. That trio of former Redlands football players – Johnson (1994 graduate), Weatherwax (1961) and Billick (1972) – has surfaced in America’s greatest sporting spectacle.

It’s easy to break it down, too. Johnson’s speed. Weatherwax’s strength. Billick’s brains. It culminated with a spot in pro football immortality.

Johnson’s path to the Super Bowl might have been the shortest. He graduated from Redlands in 1994, committed to the University of Oregon and was selected in the second round of the 1998 NFL draft by the Baltimore Ravens.

Weatherwax left Redlands after graduating in 1961, headed for Cal State Los Angeles before transferring to West Texas A&M in Canyon, Texas before Green Bay selected him in the 11th round of the 1965 draft.

Billick’s path took him to the Air Force Academy, eventually transferring to Brigham Young University. He was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys, but his career wasn’t on the playing field. He coached in Redlands, San Diego, Logan, Utah, and Palo Alto (Stanford) before surfacing as an assistant coach for Denny Green in Minnesota. By 1999, Billick was head coach of the Ravens.

It almost seems like pro football didn’t exist before 1967. That was the year when the National Football League champion played American Football League’s champion for professional football’s world title. It was a first.

In those seven years since AFL play had been developed, that league held its own championship. The Houston Oilers, Dallas Texans (future Kansas City Chiefs), San Diego Chargers and Buffalo Bills had won AFL titles.

NFL titles during that same span mostly went to Green Bay (1961-62, ’65) with Philadelphia Eagles, Chicago and Cleveland also winning pre-Super Bowl championships in those seasons.

SUPER BOWL ERA BEGINS

By that 1966 season, with 1967 showcasing its first AFL-NFL title game, Super Bowl’s era was born. In fact, Super Bowl terminology had yet to become adopted. That game was billed simply as an AFL-NFL Championship Game.

Green Bay going up against Kansas City was quite a spectacle. It was AFL’s best team going up against the NFL’s best. Vince Lombardi’s Packers playing Hank Stram’s Chiefs.

Redlands had a representative right in that package. It was none other than Weatherwax, known to his friends back in Redlands as “Waxie.”

MJS Jim Weatherwax — Redlands’ Jim Weatherwax of the Green Bay Packers. (Journal Sentinel file photo, 1966)

Weatherwax, for his part, played plenty in during second half play in both games. He was seen spelling starters Ron Kostelnik and Henry Jordan on a few plays in that first half of Super Bowl II.

That particular game had been set up by that famous Ice Bowl game of 1967. That NFL Championship showdown came down to Bart Starr’s last-second quarterback sneak for a touchdown that beat Dallas Cowboys on Green Bay’s “frozen tundra.”

That play hinged on blocks of Packers’ center Ken Bowman and guard Jerry Kramer, who blocked Cowboys’ defensive tackle Jethro Pugh. That play, that win ultimately led Green Bay into its second NFL-AFL championship, now dubbed a Super Bowl, this one against Oakland in Miami.

Pugh, incidentally, was picked in that 1966 NFL draft five players ahead of Weatherwax in the 11^th round.

Green Bay, of course, won both championship games. The Packers, thus, set NFL history in virtual stone.

“That second Super Bowl was Lombardi’s last game,” Weatherwax told me several years later. “You should’ve heard the guys before the game, Kramer in particular. ‘Let’s win it for the old man.’ That’s what he was saying. Looking back, you couldn’t do anything but think that was special.”

Vince_lombardi_bart_starr Photo credit unkown — Legendary Green Bay Packers’ coach Vince Lombardi and quarterback Bart Starr are pictured. Redlands’ Jim Weatherwax was Starr’s teammate in Green Bay’s 1967 and 1968 Super Bowl championships. (Photo by Green Bay Packers)

AFL, NFL TACTICS LED TO MERGER

It was that first Super Bowl, however, that proved itself worthy of attention.

There was bitterness between those two leagues. AFL action started in 1960. Hopes were to provide enough competition that an old NFL would be forced to allow AFL teams into NFL hierarchy. There would be a little duel on that.

When the NFL’s New York Giants signed Buffalo Bills’ placekicker Pete Gogolak in 1965 – thus stealing the AFL’s first player – that war between both leagues was on. Finally, after much negotiation, many tactics, various shenanigans, those leagues would be consolidated into one. That AFL forced the NFL’s hand.

It turned into an AFL-NFL merger. Some of those bitter feelings were on display in the Jan. 15, 1967 Super Bowl. Played at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

The quarterbacks: Bart Starr against Lenny Dawson.

The coaches: Lombardi against Stram.

The referees: Six overall, including three from the AFL and three from the NFL, including head referee Norm Schachter, who started his officiating career 26 years earlier when he started his teaching career in Redlands.

The networks: The AFL’s NBC would be telecasting against the NFL’s CBS. Jim Simpson was on the radio.

Tough talk: Part of that first Super Bowl was chatter emanating from the mouth of Chiefs’ defensive back Fred Williamson. Who could forget Williamson, who had a future in movies?

Known as “The Hammer” for his vicious hits, Williamson boasted that his severe forearm shiver into helmets of Packers’ receivers would knock them from a game. It was part of the well-hyped buildup, perhaps part of that bitter feeling between each league.

As the game played out, it was “The Hammer” who was carried from the Coliseum field.

Weatherwax, meanwhile, was playing behind the likes of Willie Davis and Bob Brown, Kostelnik and Jordan – Green Bay’s legendary defensive linemen. The Redlander gave a short chuckle as “The Hammer.” Weatherwax said, “I can’t really say what happened out there.”

Translation: He knew what happened, all right.

Kostelnik chasing Garrett (Photo by WordPress.com) — Kansas City’s Mike Garrett, 21 with ball, is being chased by Green Bay defensive tackle Ron Kostelnik during the first-ever championship game between the National Football League champion Packers and the American Football League champion Chiefs. Photo by WordPress.com)

Part of the legend: Starr’s 37-yard TD pass to Max McGee, Super Bowl’s first touchdown in championship history, was followed by Green Bay’s kickoff to the Chiefs. When Packers’ placekicker Don Chandler sent his kick in the direction of Kansas City’s Mike Garrett, it was Weatherwax who drove the onetime college Heisman Trophy winner out of bounds.

Credited with a tackle. In the Super Bowl.

There were a few times that Weatherwax, part owner of restaurant in Orange County, later moving to Colorado, sat next to my desk. Earlier, he visited with Jeff Lane at that same office. Waxie showed up visiting old friends. Part of those visits included stopping by the Daily Facts. This dates back to the 1980s and 1990s. Sharing stories. Sharing memories. Showing off his championship jewelry. Great guy. Helpful. Willing to talk.

It was a huge part of a Redlands Connection.

Part 2 – About Super Bowl XXXV tomorrow.

February 1, 2025February 4, 2025

DAUER HELPED BAPTIZE SPIRIT IN REDLANDS, 1987

Retired major league ballplayer Rich Dauer sat beside me on a first base bench just after minor league San Bernardino Spirit finished playing an intrasquad game under a dimly-lit diamond at Redlands Community Field.

It was April 1987.

Thirty-one years later, Dauer would be taking part in a pre-game ceremony with Major League Baseball’s newly-crowned world champion Houston Astros — an awfully long way from those early minor league coaching days in San Bernardino.

Thirty-eight years later, Dauer died.

But on that date in 1987, something new was taking place. The California League had just expanded to, of all places, San Bernardino. Less than two decades before that, Dauer’s prep side, Colton High School, came to play at Redlands.

“I remember playing here,” Dauer said, referring to Community Field, “in high school.”

In 1983, Dauer played second base on that 1983 Baltimore Orioles’ World Series championship team, whose teammates were future Hall of Famers, Eddie Murray, Jim Palmer and Cal Ripken, Jr.

He was homegrown at Colton, a 1970 graduate. On to San Bernardino Valley College. Then it was onto USC, where he was a two-time All-American third baseman, helping lead those Trojans to win College World Series titles in both 1973 and 1974. Yes, Baltimore. That team, its roster dropping with older players like Brooks Robinson, Boog Powell and Mike Cuellar, an already traded Frank Robinson, Dave McNally and Don Bufurd, shortstop like Mark Belanger, plus Dave Johnson, Don Baylor, plus future all-star Bobby Grich. Those Orioles made Dauer a No. 1 pick in that 1974 draft.

This guy had been around.

Rich Dauer, on hand at a Houston Astros World Series celebration, got his early coaching start as manager of the San Bernardino Spirit in 1987. — Long time major league infielder Rich Dauer, during a pre-game ceremony, got his coaching career start with a team called San Bernardino Spirit in 1987 (photo by Wikipedia).

Spirit management knew where many of their fans might come from to show up at Fiscalini Field, located on Highland Ave. in San Bernardino. Those fans were Redlands.

Showing up at Community Field was a perfect public relations move. The Spirit could sell a lot of tickets to those folks. With hitting coach, Jay Johnstone, sitting nearby, Dauer reflected on minor league ball players.

“These guys,” he said, motioning out to those Class A players, “aren’t that far away from the major leagues.”

It was quite a proclamation. These were minor leaguers, Rich, I’d told him. He shook his head in disagreement.

“All these guys,” he said, “are just young. They need experience. They can throw just as hard, hit it just as far … as any major leaguers. They just need to get consistent. That’s what will keep them out of the majors. If they’re not consistent.”

There were some future major leaguers on that Spirit roster – not to mention a few past big-leaguers.

Todd Cruz and Rudy Law, plus Terry Whitfield, pitchers Andy Rincon and Craig Chamberlain – all of whom showed up in a major league uniform before landing with San Bernardino. Cruz, in fact, was Philadelphia’s shortstop in that 1983 World Series duel with Dauer’s Orioles.

Law played against Dauer’s Orioles in that year’s 1983 American League playoffs when Baltimore knocked off the Chicago White Sox. All those ex-MLB players were playing out their careers.

Another Spirit player, infielder Mike Brocki, had torn apart Redlands High in a CIF soccer playoff match a few years earlier – scoring three goals in a 6-0 win at Walnut High School. For the Spirit in 1987, Brocki hit two HRs and batted .233.

Let’s not forget another Spirit infielder, Leon Baham, who would eventually become one of Redlands’ top youth baseball coaches in years ahead. Baham wound up hitting .279 with 8 HRs that season.

Throw in Ronnie Carter, a Fontana product who was an NCAA Division 3 All-American at the University of Redlands a couple years earlier. Hoping for a pro career, Carter hit .213 with 4 HRs over 164 at-bats for a Spirit squad that was filled by plenty of guys that never wound up at baseball’s top spot.

Dauer sat over all of them, perhaps lining himself up for a lengthy future in MLB as a coach. Curiously, he never drew amn MLB manager’s assignment, coaching at Kansas City, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Colorado and, finally, Houston.

Dauer spent as much time as I needed on that Community Field bench after playing the game that night. Plenty of local youths showed up to watch this split-squad game.

Pitchers fired seeds.

Hitters took big cuts.

Baserunners seemed quick, fast.

Fielders made it look easy.

All of that above were descriptions by Dauer. Three decades later, Dauer was pulling himself to Houston’s mound at Minute Maid Park. It was April 2, 2018. He threw out the first pitch.

For the previous three seasons, he had coached first base as the Astros made a dramatic move toward becoming contenders. When Houston beat the Dodgers in a thrilling 7-game series the previous fall, Dauer was back in familiar territory.

MAJOR NOTE: YES. YES. YES. WE KNOW. HOUSTON PLAYERS EVENTUALLY GOT DEALT WITH FOR CHEATING TO WIN THAT SERIES. A MANAGER GOT FIRED AND PLAYERS WERE SPOTTED IN CHEATING. NOTE THAT, AT LEAST. DAUER NEVER GOT NAMED IN THAT DREARY MOMENT, OR TWO.

Tragedy struck at their World Series parade. Dauer suffered a head injury, resulting in emergency brain surgery. It brought his coaching career – 19 years strong – to a premature conclusion.

He was the perfect selection to throw out that first pitch at Minute Maid.

Dating back to that 1987 season in San Bernardino, it was his season to run things as a manager, also coaching. His playing career concluded in 1985. It should be noted that neither of those future Hall of Fame teammates, Ripken, Jr., Murray or Palmer, had ever played California League ball.

Dauer cut his teeth as a manager in that historical assemblage of minor league cities. At long last, California League ball eventually surfaced in various Southern California cities.

San Bernardino had joined the Bakersfield Dodgers, Fresno Giants, Modesto A’s, Palm Springs Angels, Reno Padres, Salinas Spurs, San Jose Bees, Stockton Ports and the Visalia Oaks. Truth is, the Salinas Spurs had moved to San Bernardino, adopting the Spirit name.

Here was Dauer, back in Redlands after a well-traveled baseball career. A few hundred had bothered to show that night. That ex-Oriole player seemed to be the perfect fit as the Spirit’s manager. Local product? Yeah. Ex-major leaguer? Ex-collegiate success story? A starter at a winning World Series? No wonder he’d been hired at San Bernardino.

Dauer played over 1,100 major league games, 984 career hits, batted .257 in 10 seasons, playing at Baltimore’s World Series — losing to Pittsburgh in 1979, then winning against Philadelphia in 1983. Two seasons later, 1985, was his final playing season. By 1987, well, he was managing a minor league team not affiliated with a single MLB organization.

“When I was growing up in Colton, it never occurred to me,” said Dauer on that April 1987 night, “that there’d ever be a minor league team in San Bernardino.” Funny thing was that he became its first-ever manager.

January 31, 2025February 2, 2025

HUMBLED BY HIS REDLANDS CONNECTIONS, JULIO CRUZ SOARED BEYOND BASEBALL

UPDATE: In mid-February 2022, an unexpected phone call flashed across my screen: “TOM MARTIN,” it read. It’s always fun to chat with Tom, a longtime Southern Californian who had relocated to Washington a few years earlier. He had bad news about a longtime friend, Julio Cruz. Martin, whose friendship with Cruz dated back to the 1960s, was very gentle: “Julio only has a few days left on the earth.” Struck by cancer, he said, a couple of visits to the former MLB second baseman and Redlands High product, had concluded with a few sad good-byes. On a Tuesday, Feb. 22, Cruz died, leaving a wife and children — and a whole bunch of memories.

Julio Cruz, perhaps one of the most popular athletes in Redlands High School’s century-plus history, is showcased in his baseball card — then a member of the Seattle Mariners. Cruz played nine seasons in the major leagues after getting signed at an open tryout.

SEATTLE — Julio Cruz remembers cutting to a basket during practice for coach Al Endeman’s team at Redlands High School way back, say, in the early 1970s.

“Brian Billick blocked my shot,” said Cruz, a 5-foot-10-inch guard, “and knocked my glasses off. They were on the floor, broken.”

Cruz, a future Major League Baseball player, was sent to an optometrist the next day for contact lenses. By Endeman. Backed by the Lion’s Club, the worldwide service club that specializes in sight.

“My vision was bad,” said Cruz. “One day, he gave me a slip of paper. It was for a sporting goods store.” Cruz got a pair of basketball shoes.

Billick, of course, went on to spend a full-fledged career coaching football. In 2001, it was Billick, as head coach, who led the Baltimore Ravens to a Super Bowl championship.

Imagine that: Billick, who spent a career in football, was teammates with Cruz, a baseball lifer, as teammates on a basketball team!

Endeman and Billick are just a couple of names Cruz, then 64, recalled during a time of reminiscence. Cruz may well be Redlands’ most famous baseball name, having spent 10 seasons (1977-86) in the major leagues.

He’s one of the most popular Redlands athletic products.

His Redlands buddies — Adrian Garcia, Randy Orwig, Juan Delgado, Dominic Mircacantante, Tom Martin, Billick, plus others — are fresh on his mind these days.

Cruz has forgotten little throughout the years.

“I’m re-living my youth,” he cracks, “and disregarding my age.”

His pathway to a MLB career was marked by plenty of help along the way. Cruz’s ascent to playing pro ball didn’t include the modern-day travel ball, Showcases and costly surroundings that today’s players/parents go through to land post-high school opportunities.

“Joe Hansen, my JV coach, drove me home (to Loma Linda) after basketball practice every day,” said Cruz. “Right to my front door.”

The Cruz family, who moved to Loma Linda from Brooklyn, N.Y. when The Cruzer was 14, was poor. No car. No money for buses or taxis. For a future baseball player, it was curious that he had no glove. No baseball spikes. Gear? He’d have to wait on all that.

“I think I was better at basketball,” said Cruz, “but I was only 5-10.”

Cruz’s baseball career was noteworthy for many reasons.

For openers, he’s probably the first-ever Redlands-based ballplayer to reach the majors for more than the so-called “cup of coffee” — 1,156 games, hitting .237 with 343 career stolen bases, fielding a brilliant .983 all between 1977 and 1986 — mostly with Seattle and the Chicago White Sox.

For good measure, that 1983 Seattle-to-Chicago deal at the trade deadline, drew plenty of praise. Not only did the ChiSox pull away in the American League Western Division when Cruz showed up, but someone in the MVP balloting posted a vote in his direction.

That mid-season swap by White Sox General Manager Roland Hemond, who sent second baseman Tony Bernazard to Seattle, fit Chicago well.

CRUZ OFFERS SERIOUS WARNING

Maybe it’s just age, time running out, all those early memories that got Cruz to reminisce about the old days. Martin, his high school friend, shared plenty of insight. On the real serious side, Martin said, “We both had prostate surgery a few years ago … a few days apart.”

Cruz himself asked me, “When’s the last time you got your prostate checked?”

He’s concerned. Then he inquires, “how about your wife? Has she been screened for breast cancer?” There’s a reason he asks.

In 2010, his wife Becky died from that disease after a 17-year battle. She was 48. Throw this in: His current wife, Morgan, has breast cancer, too.

On the plus side, there are his three sons — Austin and Alex, both Washington State graduates — plus Oxford grad, Jordan. Neither one was a baseball player, incidentally.

Jordan was, in fact, named after Michael Jordan. “He was just starting his career in Chicago,” said Cruz, “when I was there (playing with the White Sox).”

As Cruz tells it, a career in baseball — including serving as the Seattle Mariners’ Spanish-speaking TV broadcaster since 2002 — would’ve never happened without an array of those Redlands coaches along the way.

When he dunked a basketball as a Cope junior high schooler — noted by his coach, Gary Branstetter — The Cruzer had a future in Redlands athletics.

“I never dunked in a game,” he said. “All that jumping, though. I’ve had 11 knee surgeries.”

JOE DI OR JOE DE?

Check out these two names — Joe DeMaggio and Joe DiMaggio. Note the spelling on those two names. Joe “De” was Redlands High’s coach — The Cruzer’s coach — during his baseball-playing years. Then there was Joe “Di,” the Yankee Clipper, a baseball Hall of Famer (1936-51).

Cruz memorably extracted an autograph from him during an Old-Timer’s game one year in Japan.

“Normally, he (Joe Di) didn’t give autographs,” said Cruz, “because he thought people would just take them and sell them.”

Choosing not to sign the “sweet spot” on the ball, Joe “Di” signed it to Cruz’s sons. Might be hard to sell an autographed ball if it was signed that way. But he’d come full circle.

Branstetter had those Cope basketball kids shave their heads. “We were the Bald Eagles,” said Cruz, laughing. “I didn’t care. I was having fun.”

Three decades later, Cruz, now retired, was hitting leadoff in that Old-Timer’s game with teammates like Campy Campaneris, plus Hall of Famers Minnie Minoso and Bert Blyleven.

TRYOUT AT UCLA STARTED IT ALL

Cruz, meanwhile, went unscouted during his high school days at Redlands, not to mention his junior college days at San Bernardino Valley. It was Delgado, The Cruzer’s friend from Highland, who found out about a baseball tryout on UCLA’s Westwood campus one Sunday. Cruz was 19.

“The only reason I went,” said Cruz, “was because it was a nice Sunday. It was a good day to play baseball.”

Cruz borrowed a glove, grabbed some spikes two sizes too big, and played in jeans. Delgado drove to Westwood, three times, in fact. Cruz, who wiped out all comers in 60-yard dashes, kept getting invited back.

Scouts were scouting. Cruz played shortstop. First game. First inning. First two guys up reached base. Line drive to Cruz. Steps on second. Throws to first.

Triple play!

He got a mere $500 bonus from California Angels’ scout Lou Cornower. That Cruzer was on his way, just a short time after his Redlands upbringing. “I really had to talk my dad into letting me do it. He wanted me to finish college.”

No one makes it alone, said Cruz. “I had people looking over me. Those guys brought the best out in me. They helped make me more sociable.”

Joe De, Endeman, Hansen, Branstetter, future varsity baseball coach Don Dewees, among others — each has a special place in The Cruzer’s heart.

“My (pro) managers didn’t come close to doing what these Redlands guys did for me,” said Cruz. “The way they went about their business with me, without cheating the other students. The pros cut you. It’s a business to them.

“It wasn’t a business to my teachers.”

Cruz and Billick, meanwhile, showed up again together. Three decades after Billick knocked Cruz down at basketball practice, the two were inducted on the same night into the Terrier Hall of Fame.

January 31, 2025February 1, 2025

A TIGER INVITATION I’M GLAD I DIDN’T TURN DOWN

There they were, lined up, one shot apart among the leader board at the 1997 “Augusta Invitational.” It’s called The Masters. In a keen world of professional golf, this event is considered sacred.

Tom Kite had Tommy Tolles beaten by a stroke after 72 holes, 282-283. At 284, there was a legend, Tom Watson, a multiple major tournament champion. He was followed by a pair of golfers at 285, Constantina Rocca and Paul Stankowski. Previous Masters champion Fred Couples, two-time Masters champion Bernhard Langer, British Open champion Justin Leonard, PGA Tournament champions Davis Love III and Jeff Sluman closed out their tournament with identical 286s.

They trailed by a lot, though. At 270 stood Tiger Woods. A dozen shots ahead. Dominant. A record 18-under par. Augusta, it seems, would never be the same.

He’d won The Masters.

0748-TigerWoods — Tiger Woods, shown here winning the 1997 Masters. Sixteen years earlier, a 6-year-old Eldrick “Tiger” Woods showed up to play a 9-hole exhibition match at Redlands Country Club against a local girl with a standout game. (Photo by Wikipedia Commons.)

It would be our lead story in that April 14, 1997 issue in Redlands. There was a local angle, a major one. Sixteen years earlier, Redlands Country Club head golf professional Norm Bernard had called me with an invitation. Maybe it was an assignment. Or a request. Maybe he was begging.

Little Eldrick Woods, already known to the world as Tiger, had been invited to Redlands to play in a 9-hole exhibition match. On Dec. 30, he would turn six. Norm and I started a little verbal sparring. I didn’t necessarily want to be there. He very definitely wanted me to be there.

“I don’t know, Norm. A 9-hole exhibition?” A 6-year-old? A 12-year-old? Would our readers even care? “What else have you got going on?” Norm asked.

In truth, he was correct. Nothing, at least locally, was taking place. School was shut down for winter break. Except for that San Bernardino Kiwanis Tournament, a basketball extravaganza for Redlands High, nothing of a sporting nature was taking place locally.

This was before an eventual explosion of boys and girls soccer tournaments, or prominent basketball tournaments for both sexes would take place during the winter holiday break, which has now been stretched to three weeks instead of two.

In reality, there weren’t many options to cover much local sports during this period. It seemed like I could be working on something more meaningful that day, which would be Dec. 29.

“Aw, Norm.”

“C’mon. I’ll buy you lunch.”

He was being as gracious as possible. While being demanding. Charming. A little pushy. Norm was always under fire at that club. Private golf members can be really demanding. They want their privacy. They also wanted a little publicity when it mattered.

Redlands CC was full of private club members that were movers and shakers in our community. One of them, Bill Moore, had been my publisher. There had long been rumblings and grumblings about country club coverage in our local pages.

The women’s club had its set of demands. Of course, there was a club tournament. Weekly twilight play, results in the summer. Usually, it was similar names. Norm’s edict was simple: Make certain those results were printed. It was Norm’s job to process results for newspaper publication.

No resentment from me. All part of this job. Bowling had its own set of demands. So did recreation tennis. We had local motorsports. Soccer people were everywhere. Youth baseball. Little boys football. You name it. The sports section is for everyone. Any achievements should be duly noted.

That was a little undercurrent of that relationship between that local country club and a local newspaper. Ah, the life of a local journalist.

That year was 1981. It was just after Christmas. Owner and publisher Bill Moore, who’d sold this local paper a year or so earlier, was gone. His country club cronies were no longer bugging him to light a fire under me. Meanwhile, they’d light Norm under fire to get publicity. No longer were there job-related demands hanging over my head. This was truly my decision. I had to admit I was a little curious.

One day after this nine-hole match would be little Tiger’s sixth birthday. Already, this little guy had been celebrated on television, once on the Mike Douglas Show as a three-year-old that could amazingly swing a golf club. Bob Hope, an avid golfer in his own right, was also a guest that day.

Another appearance came on ABC-TV’s “That’s Incredible,” hosted by John Davidson, Fran Tarkenton and Cathy Lee Crosby.

Norm’s connections led to an invitation to Tiger to play golf at Redlands.

Twelve-year-old Michele Lyford, who would one day go on to win a girls’ CIF golf championship, was selected to be Tiger’s playing opponent on that day. There was a small gallery as Tiger finished the nine-hole round by shooting 51.

Lyford, who shot 41, was champion of that 1986 Junior World in her older 15-17 age category, an event held every summer in San Diego. It should also be pointed out that other yearly winners included Carolyn Hill, Kim Saiki, nearby Brandie Burton from Rialto, and Christi Erb – future LPGA professionals.

Lyford, in fact, beat Burton, runner-up by eight shots in that 1987 CIF-Southern Section girls championship at North Ranch Country Club.

Tiger, meanwhile, was headliner at Redlands on Dec. 29, 1981.

The highlight of that day was, at least for me, coming at that No. 9 hole. Little Tiger had knocked his ball smack into that bunker, smack dab against the lip – an impossible shot for even the most experienced of golfers.

This little guy was poised even then. One day shy of his sixth birthday, Tiger took out his club, chipped his shot back into the fairway, then chipped onto the green.

Then he knocked the ball in position for a double bogey. Even then, he was trained to minimize trouble. Of those people in attendance for this little showcase match, they had to be awestruck at that shot and club selection.

No one discussed that shot. No one told him what to do. Tiger was left alone.

Bernard, described as a huge proponent of junior golf, had known Rudy Duran, who was Tiger’s personal coach. Together, they formed this match, a 9-hole exhibition on RCC’s front nine.

It was Duran, Tiger, Michele and Earl Woods, Tiger’s dad who, at one point, hoisted his little guy up so he could see down the fairway.

“I was nervous,” Lyford-Sine said. “I couldn’t let this 6-year-old beat me. I was twice as old as he was and he was half my size.”

Those scores, 41 — not a bad score for a 12-year-old on the par-35 RCC front nine — and Tiger’s 51 came under guise as a “friendly.”

This little golf prodigy had played bogey golf throughout this match. That in itself was incredible! Afterward, the club gave Tiger a birthday party.

Afterward, I’m somewhat embarrassed to say, I handed this little guy a piece of paper – and a pen. Yes, I asked him for his autograph. He made his letters carefully, his little tongue sticking out corner of his mouth while he wrote, “Eldrick Woods.”

Wish I still had that little slip of paper.

Sixteen years later, he won the Masters. That 1981 day was just starting it all. My column on April 14, 1997 was all about Tiger. Redlands. Winning the Masters. My reluctance to cover it. I’d written, “I’m glad Norm convinced me to come.”

Norm called later to recall the memories.

I asked, “Any more birthday parties you want me to cover, Norm?”

January 31, 2025February 1, 2025

SPOTTING WILLIE WEST WATCHING HIS SON AT REDLANDS’ CURRIER GYM

This is part of a series of mini-Redlands Connections. This is another portion of the series, Quick Visits. Magic Johnson and John Wooden showed up at the University of Redlands as part of a Convocation Series. There was a piece on Tom Flores. Hall of Fame pitcher Ferguson Jenkins, former NBA player John Block, plus legendary high school basketball coach Willie West, Jr. showed up. There are others. Cazzie Russell, for instance, came to Redlands with an NCAA Division III basketball team from Savannah, Ga. Russell, out of Michigan, was the NBA’s overall No. 1 draft pick by the New York Knicks in 1966. Today’s feature: Former L.A. Crenshaw High School coach Willie West, Jr.

It was a slow night at Currier Gymnasium, the ancient, never-to-be-replaced basketball center at that smallish arena along Colton Avenue, dubbed University of Redlands.

It was one of the first Bulldog games of that 1995 season. Longtime coach Gary Smith and I hadn’t yet discussed his team for their upcoming season — a normal pattern I’d carefully followed since my arrival at Redlands’ local newspaper in 1979.

Casually glancing down their roster, spotting a few familiar names from previous seasons, I came across one that struck a small chord. There was a guard with an interesting and familiar name.

Willie West.

That, I told myself, was a high level name. Amazing?

Well, there’s Willie West, one of California’s most legendary high school basketball coaches.

His son, perhaps?

Why would Willie West’s son, a 6-foot-3 scoring threat, be at Redlands?

Had to be someone else. It was November 1995.

That slow night at Currier allowed me to scan the grandstands. Each participant. One by one. Most were college students, of course, perhaps taking a break in their studies to watch a dorm mate play basketball. There were a few community die-hards. Plus staff members. There might’ve been one or two others that I couldn’t recognize.

Finally, I spotted him.

Top row. Sitting alone. Northwest portion of Currier.

It was none other than Willie West, Jr. I’d come to learn that his son was actually Willie West III. The younger West came to Redlands via state junior college powerhouse Ventura (coached by onetime Univ. San Francisco coach, Phil Mathews), where he helped lead the Pirates to a 37-1 record one season previous.

At that moment, his dad, Willie E. West, Jr., was still Los Angeles Crenshaw High’s basketball coach. West, Jr. and longtime Bulldog coach Gary Smith had known each other for awhile. That was the connection that brought Willie III to Redlands.

Legendary? Twenty-eight league championships. Sixteen L.A. Section championships. Eight State titles. In a city well known for high-level prep hoops. Standing in the shadow of the Lakers and UCLA. Dozens of kids enrolled in college. A few NBA players. Thirty-seven seasons. Career record, 803-139.

I’d known a couple of players that wore Crenshaw Cougar colors — or tried, anyway. Those guys never actually played varsity for The Man.

Said one, a janitor in the Moreno Valley school district: “I practiced with them one summer. Most of the time, there wasn’t even a ball in the drills. He was tough, man. I mean it. You had to have something extra to play for him.”

Another was a part-time driver at Enterprise rent-a-car. He was equally insightful: “I played JV (junior varsity) one season there. The practices were incredible. If you couldn’t cut it in practice, no way you’d be in the games.”

No, he didn’t make West’s final varsity roster, either.

Both said that Crenshaw’s success didn’t necessarily come because the Cougars attracted out-of-district transfers. Or that their success helped stockpile loads of talent. On the contrary. It was typical that plenty of star players transferred out of the low-income Crenshaw area (drugs, poverty, crime) to places like Pacific Palisades or out into the San Fernando Valley — major college talent, if not future NBA players.

Such was the case of Willie III. Truth is, Willie III didn’t play at Crenshaw during his senior year. His parents were divorced in 1976. Willie III, living with his mother, played in Houston — after spending his sophomore and junior seasons playing in Cougars’ colors.

“Yates High,” Willie III told me, adding the relationship with his dad was “strong.”

There were many nights West, Jr. couldn’t have journeyed all the way out from his L.A. county home to see Willie III play. It was in-the-season for the Crenshaw coach, whose presence on the bench was so low-key that he was often identified as an assistant coach for those who might not be wise to his personality. He often sat quietly on Crenshaw’s bench. Observers might’ve watched an assistant coach pace on the sideline.

As for Redlands, much was made of the fact that Willie III voluntarily took himself out of the Bulldogs’ starting lineup, thus giving Smith a scoring presence off the bench.

On a side note, it has to be noted that Smith — whose Bulldog teams were always competitive but rarely at the top of the standings in a conference with Claremont-Mudd, Pomona-Pitzer and California Lutheran University, among others — must’ve been held in high enough esteem that one of high school’s greatest coaches might sign off on sending his son to play for him at Redlands.

A few nights after I’d made notice of the West-Redlands connection, Willie III hit for 28 points in a game against Chapman College from Orange County.

I didn’t see Willie West, Jr. in the stands that night.

January 31, 2025January 31, 2025

A REDLANDS MINI-WORLD CUP CONNECTION: DONOVAN AGAINST BOCANEGRA

4729887505_382ef34756_b — Landon Donovan on the move. Image Credit: Jason Wojciechowski “USA vs. Algeria World Cup match. Licensed under CC BY (2.0)

Landon Donovan, an Olympian and World Cup soccer player, not to mention a multiple-winning Honda Player of the Year in Major Soccer League play, was on the field during an unforgettable CIF-Southern Section high school playoff match back in 1996.

Donovan was a freshman midfield sensation who would eventually be named his league’s Most Valuable Player. On this March afternoon, in a match played on the school’s JV football field – corner of Citrus and University – Alta Loma High School was the visiting side.

The place was packed. People everywhere. Spectators lined up around the field six or seven deep. Parking was impossible. Assigned to cover the match, I could barely get a place to view the match myself. I needed a perfect viewing position. Unobstructed. When I did manage to find a spot, I met an excited Alta Loma player’s mother.

Her name was Kelly. Nice lady. Alta Loma had won a CIF Southern Section football championship a few months earlier. Plenty of kids on this Braves’ soccer team played on that team. As Kelly’s mom, this match against Redlands would be no contest.

“Alta Loma,” she told me, “will win this game.” It was a straight-out prediction I’ll never forget. Kelly’s son, Carlos Bocanegra. Imagine that!

There was no doubt in mom’s mind. “A lot of the players on this soccer team were part of Alta Loma’s football team … that won the CIF Division IV championship.” Her son, Carlos incidentally, was Brave of the Year off that 1996 squad.

This soccer matchup in Redlands was totally different.

Donovan. Bocanegra. On that same soccer field. Opposite sides. Two players who would eventually play together for both America’s Olympic and World Cup teams. Bocanegra, like Donovan, was a future big-time player in his own right.

That high school match itself was a classic. It was like a mini-World Cup match. This highly-played matchup was attended by a huge following, notably on a field that was not a stadium. People stood around this field, perhaps, a dozen deep throughout. Traffic passing by that corner stadium at University Avenue and Citrus Street had to wondering, “what is going on there?”

Redlands won, eventually, on penalty kicks. Terrier goalkeeper Jerad Bailey, who had a future great career at Loyola Marymount University, emerged a hero, having stopped some critical shot attempts by the visiting Braves, including during the penalty kick phase of the match.

The following year, Donovan wound up at Redlands East Valley High School, its first year of existence. Midway through his sophomore season, though, the 16-year-old signed a professional contract to play in Europe.

A pro soccer career was underway.

FOOTBALL NOTE: Alta Loma’s football championship game, a 26-16 win over Corona Centennial, was played a short hop from the site of this soccer playoff – at the University of Redlands Stadium. Interesting that Bocanegra returned a 66-yard interception to the four-yard-line to set up a touchdown in that game.

January 29, 2025February 1, 2025

A CHANCE TO ASK FERGUSON JENKINS ABOUT DUROCHER — IN REDLANDS!

This is part of a series of mini-Redlands Connections. This is part of a series of quick visits. Magic Johnson and John Wooden showed up at the University of Redlands as part of its Convocation Series. Future NFL Hall of Fame coach, Tom Flores, onetime NBA player John Block, legendary high school coach Willie West showed up. There are others. Cazzie Russell, for instance, came to Redlands with an NCAA Division III basketball team from Savannah, Ga. Russell, out of Michigan, was that No. 1 NBA’s overall draft pick by the New York Knicks in 1966. Today’s feature: Former Chicago Cubs’ pitcher Ferguson Jenkins.

Here’s where being a media member has its advantages:

Hall of Fame pitcher Ferguson Jenkins had appeared in Redlands to help conduct a youth clinic at Community Field and, perhaps, sign a few autographs.

Chicago Cubs’ fans were plentiful throughout this nation. One notable such fan, a veterinarian who lived in Redlands, could recite all Cubs’ doctrine from those Jenkins years.

Here are guys that fans instantly thought about when recalling those Cubs’ teams from that 1960s showdown: Ron Santo, Billy Williams and Ernie Banks were headliners. Jenkins, of course, was their ace pitcher. Leo Durocher was Cubs’ manager, a fact that wasn’t enthusiastically accepted by the local vet.

“Durocher ruined Jenkins’ career,” said Redlands’ area vet. “He used him too much. Ruined his arm.”

He was adamant. So was another group of Cubs’ fans, folks that meant at least once a month at local restaurants, to chat about that Chicago team. That area vet wasn’t part of that group. Cubs’ fans were almost anywhere.

ferguson Jenkins

Hall of Fame pitcher Ferguson Jenkins spent a few hours in Redlands, teaching baseball to youths and answering questions about former manager Leo Durocher (photo by Wikipedia).This gathering Redlands Community Field, of course, was years later — after baseball had starting dedicating a full core of relief pitchers to save games. In Jenkins’ days, legendary pitchers like Bob Gibson, Juan Marichal, Mickey Lolich, Don Drysdale, Tom Seaver, Jim Palmer, Catfish Hunter, Vida Blue, you name it, would pitch 300-plus innings each year.

Bullpens weren’t quite as deep. So here was Jenkins in my sight line: “Tell me about Leo Durocher.” Jenkins took it from there.

“Leo helped make my career. If it weren’t for him … I’ll tell you, he taught me a lot. I owe him a lot. I owe a lot of my career to him.”

Under Durocher, Jenkins became one of baseball’s top hurlers. To pick him up, Chicago sent veteran pitchers Bob Buhl and Larry Jackson to Philadelphia as part of that deal.

“When I got traded to the Cubs,” he said, referring to that 1966 deal in which Philadelphia traded away a future Hall of Famer to those Cubs, “we were the worst team in baseball.”

Durocher had just been named Cubs’ manager. Jenkins, under Durocher, won 20 games over six straight seasons — all seasons that Durocher had managed him, incidentally.

“He worked you, no question about that,” said Jenkins.

The Cubs never won a pennant, a division championship, or made it to the World Series during those Durocher and Jenkins days.

“Some of those years we came to spring training,” said Jenkins, “and we knew we’d have a chance to win … because of Leo. He turned that team around in Chicago.”

Where was that veteran, that so-called Cubs’ fan? He needed to be listening to all this.

Durocher, who’d been teammates with Ruth & Gehrig, turned Brooklyn into pennant winners, managed Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays, among others, Durocher was, perhaps, baseball’s greatest connection to multiple generations.

“I never had any trouble with Leo — never,” said Jenkins. “I know what people say about him, what they try to insinuate.”

If there was a criticism of Durocher from that 1969 season, said Jenkins, “it’s probably that he never gave our regular guys a break.”

It was Don Kessinger, Glenn Beckert, Billy Williams, Ron Santo, Ernie Banks, Jim Hickman, Randy Hundley and Don Young. The Cubs took second to the Miracle Mets.

That season, 1969, Jenkins finished 21-15 with a 3.21 ERA over 311 1/3 innings.

I still have no idea how someone from Redlands had lured that fabulous Jenkins — 284-226 over 19 seasons — to Community Field in 1994. In reality, it was Redlands Baseball For Youth President Steve Chapman, a die-hard Cubs’ fan, who sent a white limousine to bring Jenkins to that ballpark.

It was almost an afterthought that Julio Cruz, a onetime Redlands High player, and Rudy Law, a former Dodger and White Sox player, also showed up. Infield play, outfield play, a little hitting — plus pitching.

Ex-Pirates’ pitcher Dock Ellis was also present. Ellis, it’s likely remembered, is the pitcher who surrendered a tape measure home run hit by Reggie Jackson out of Tiger Stadium at the 1971 All-Star game.

Jenkins, incidentally, was one of just four N.L. pitchers in that 6-4 loss to the A.L. Giants’ pitcher Juan Marichal pitched in his final mid-summer classic and so did Houston’s Don Wilson.

Imagine, two of that year’s four N.L. all-star pitchers — Ellis and Jenkins — had shown up in Redlands a couple decades later. Jenkins arrived at Community Field in that white limo. Dressed in his Cubs’ uniform. Showed kids his style of pitching.

“Show ’em your wallet,” he said, demonstrating his high-leg kick, twisting his torso with his left buttock toward the hitter, “and let it fly.”

That’s how a Hall of Famer did it.

Fans might not remember this, Jenkins said, “but Leo converted me into a starting pitcher. I’d been a reliever. He turned my career around. I became a Hall of Famer.”

Jenkins left Redlands like he’d arrived — in that white limo.

January 28, 2025February 4, 2025

PART 1: “BLACK” JACK GARDNER, 1928 TERRIER GRAD: HUGE CONNECTION TO HOOPS WORLD

If you want to talk basketball, maybe “Black” Jack Gardner – a 1928 Redlands High alum – might be about as good for a story, or two, or three, or more of anyone from that tiny city. Also known as “The Fox,” Gardner’s departure from Redlands led him on a sensational journey in which he would eventually wind up in 10 different Halls of Fame.

Jack Gardner (Photo by Commons) — “Black” Jack Gardner, a Redlands High product of 1928, may have set a Terrier record by being part of 10 different Halls of Fame. (Photo by Commons)

He’d coached against legendary hoopsters like Bill Russell, John Wooden and Adolph Rupp, against his former college, USC, logging most impressive basketball-coaching careers around college annals. In 1998, Gardner spoke by telephone with me from Salt Lake City, his living residence.

Revelations from that conversation, plus another couple of contacts, were eye-opening. Credited with discovering another Hall of Famer, John Stockton, Gardner watched plenty of hoops, even in retirement. In fact, he showed up at every Final Four between 1939 and 1997.

It’s a man with quite a resume. Even today, after the remarkable successes of Wooden, Bobby Knight, Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, Larry Brown, Jim Boeheim, Roy Williams, Rick Pitino, Rupp and Jerry Tarkanian, Gardner qualifies among collegiate basketball’s most elite coaches.

To date, he remains one of three coaches – Pitino and Williams are those others – to lead two different programs to that Final Four on two occasions. Though he was a 1910 New Mexico birth, his path began in Redlands, where he was a four-sport Terrier athlete.

Long before Kansas became a major force in collegiate basketball, especially under legendary coach Forrest “Phog” Allen, Gardner’s Kansas State regularly outplayed those Jayhawks.

“Yes,” said Gardner in that 1998 telephone chat. “Coach Allen didn’t recruit much in those years. I think I got better players because I recruited. When he got going, boy, things got better for them.”

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Statue of Forrest “Phog” Allen, a legendary Kansas basketball coach, went up against Redlands product Jack Gardner, who coached Kansas State to some prominent times in the 1940s and 50s. (Photo by Wikipedia Commons).

One name: Chamberlain! To Kansas. Yes, Gardner tried to get him. More on Wilt later, though. As for Gardner, off he went to USC after his Redlands days, that 5-foot-11, 160-pounder becoming an All-American during his 1928-1932 stint as a Trojan. It was, of course, long before basketball became one of USA’s iconic sports.

He was All-Coast, USC’s high scorer for two seasons, Trojans’ team captain and MVP during a successful collegiate playing career. His hoops future wasn’t in a uniform.

COACHING CAREER BEGINS

After coaching at Alhambra High School, going 29-11 over two seasons, to a 1934 Southern Section runner-up spot, losing to Santa Barbara, 19-14, at Whittier College.

It was off to Modesto Junior College, posting three state California state titles over four years, then hired at Kansas State in 1939.

Gardner, who is enshrined in that Naismith Hall of Fame, coached K-State’s Wildcats in two stints – first from 1939-42, then after World War II from 1946-53. After posting just 20 combined wins in his first three seasons, Gardner returned to Manhattan, Kansas in 1947 and led the team to its first winning season in 16 years with a 14-10 mark.

One season later, the Wildcats made most of their first NCAA Tournament appearance, advancing all the way to Final Four in 1948. Runner-up Baylor University beat K-State, 60-52, in those Western Regional Finals.

That squad became K-State’s first in school history to notch 20 wins en route to capturing a Big Seven crown. K-State tied for another Big Seven title in 1950-51, finishing 25-4. Gardner guided his ’Cats to arguably their greatest season.

All-American Ernie Barrett led K-State to its third Big Seven title in four seasons.

Ranked fourth that season, K-State survived a scare from No. 12 Arizona, winning 61-59, then beat No. 11 Brigham Young University, then No. 2 Oklahoma State to reach the 1951 finals against Rupp’s No. 1-ranked Kentucky.

What a spot for a guy that had graduated from Redlands some 23 years earlier. Anyone watching him at all those playing days in old Terrier Gymnasium couldn’t have predicted anything like this.

It was a battle of Wildcats in the finals – No. 1-ranked Kentucky taking on Gardner’s K-State Wildcats. K-State led at halftime, 29-27.

Barrett, though, was injured and K-State got overwhelmed in that second half, losing 68-58. What a story that would eventually turn out, though. History revealed some dirty play. Point shaving. Kentucky players were branded. Arrested. Jailed. Barred for life.

In looking ahead to Gardner’s career, consider that he coached against the likes of Smith and Wooden, Rupp and Allen, plus both McGuires – Frank and Al.

Gardner’s Utah team went up against Russell’s University of San Francisco in 1955. A decade later, he played the foil of Kentucky in Glory Road movie fame, scouted Stockton for the Jazz and had an edge in a pair of Utah-based rivalries against both Utah State and Brigham Young University.

Part 2 coming.

January 28, 2025January 31, 2025

PART 2: POINT SHAVING SCANDAL SCARRED 1951 NCAA FINALE

There was 1948 and 1951. Again in 1961 and 1966.

All four of “Black” Jack Gardner’s trips to NCAA’s Final Four came without a national championship – 1948 and 1951 coaching at Kansas State, then 1961 and 1966 at his next stop, University of Utah. Three times his squads lost in semifinals. It was in 1951 that his team came closest. That season, though, was a disaster for college basketball. It involved point shaving.

Kentucky, coached by legendary Adolph Rupp, beat Gardner’s K-State team by 10 points, but there was more to it. K-State had beaten Arizona, Brigham Young and Oklahoma A&M to earn its spot in that season’s NCAA championship game.

Adolph-Rupp-1930 (Photo by Commons) — Adolph Rupp, shown here in 1930, would eventually become one of college coaches greatest champions. Rupp’s Kentucky team took on Redlands’ Jack Gardner in the 1951 NCAA finals – a game scarred by a point-shaving scandal. (Photo by Commons.)

Kentucky’s involvement in that point-shaving mess was later to be uncovered when No. 1-ranked Wildcats arrived in Minneapolis in search of their third NCAA championship in four years. Gardner’s No. 4-ranked Kansas State, the champion of the Big Seven, awaited.

Led by 7-foot junior All-America Bill Spivey and sophomore Cliff Hagan, the Cats beat Gardner’s K-Staters, 68-58. Kentucky’s celebration didn’t last long. Shortly after winning the title, that point-shaving scandal broke in New York.

REAL REASON FOR KANSAS STATE’S LOSS

Five of Kentucky’s players, including Alex Groza, Ralph Beard and Spivey were implicated. Groza and Beard, stars of USA’S 1948 Olympic basketball team and eventual professionals, were thrown out of the NBA. Spivey fought those charges, but never played another game in college or pros.

Gardner, he told me, “bit his tongue” in suffering such a setback. There was, he said, “nothing he could do.” Fifteen seasons later, in 1966, was Gardner’s last in leading his team into that NCAA Tournament. It would be a memorable achievement.

Gardner, upended by Rupp in ’51, nearly squared off against him in ’66 when Texas Western hit stride, inspiring that future 2006 movie “Glory Road.”

In “Glory Road,” Rupp was portrayed by Academy Award winner Jon Voight. Don Haskins was played by Josh Lucas. Tons of actors portrayed various roles – reporters, rival players, boosters, racists, students, you name it. There were no roles to depict Gardner, or even Chambers.

As for Utah, there was a consolation game in those days. After losing to third-ranked Texas Western, the unranked Utes lost to second-ranked Duke, 79-77, to finish a 21-8 season. None of that was portrayed in “Glory Road.”

In 1966, after Utah beat Oregon State, 70-64, the Utes found themselves up against that rather historical team – Texas Western University, later known as Texas-El Paso. In that 2006 motion picture, “Glory Road,” its story focused on Haskins’ decision to lead an all-black team into that 1966 Texas Western season.

There was no mention of that NCAA semifinals between Texas Western and Gardner’s Utes in that movie. Though Jerry Chambers, of Utah, was selected as that year’s Final Four MVP despite losing, 85-78, to Kentucky, “Black Jack’s” role was curiously absent in that movie.

Haskins may have changed the way basketball was played, but Gardner’s career seemed far deeper.

GARDNER TOOK ON COLLEGE HOOPS’ BIGGEST NAMES

Marquette’s legendary coach, Al McGuire, brought his team into Madison Square Garden (N.Y.) to beat “Black” Jack’s Utes by 20 at that 1970 NIT. Marquette capped a 24-3 season with that NIT championship. A 24-3 team? NIT? Remember, NCAA tournaments had just expanded to 32 teams a year earlier.

Gardner’s final career game from the sidelines was a loss – by 11 points. Against rival BYU. A few seasons earlier, at home in his Utes’ Huntsman Center, Dean Smith’s North Carolina Tar Heels got him in 1965. By five points.

DeanSmithcropped2 — Dean Smith, of North Carolina, was among the coaching legends that Redlands’ Jack Gardner went up against. (Photo by Commons.)

Speaking of North Carolina. In 1956-57, Frank McGuire’s unbeaten Tar Heels beat Utah on Dec. 27, 1956 by 21 points en route to their own NCAA championship a couple months later.

That was a crazy tournament in which UNC beat No. 11 Michigan in the semifinals before knocking off Wilt Chamberlain’s Kansas team in that season’s finals – both triple overtime victories.

“I watched all those games,” Gardner recalled, chuckling. “I won’t say it. I won’t say if we could’ve beaten Kansas, Wilt’s team. I just won’t get into it.”

There was a 1964 game in which Utah knocked off a Cal-Berkeley team by 25 points. On that Golden Bears’ team was another Redlands product, Danny Wolthers, who averaged 17.7 points that season. A few years earlier when he was in high school, Wolthers played for Jerry Tarkanian during their Redlands days.

A couple years earlier, though, Cal tagged Utah with a 72-66 loss in that 1962-63 season opener at Berkeley’s Harmon Gym. Wolthers averaged 6.7 points that season..

That must’ve been a nice win for No. 5 Utah when it outdueled No. 8 Utah State on Feb. 27, 1960 in Logan, 77-75. Aggies’ coach Cecil Baker had a 24-5 team that season while Gardner’s squad finished 26-3. It was a big basketball night for Utah.

No. There was never a collegiate matchup with Tarkanian, that ex-Terrier coach who took a similar pathway to major colleges as Gardner – through junior college ranks, namely Riverside and Pasadena. Tark wound up at Long Beach State during Gardner’s final years in Salt Lake City.

Jerry_Tarkanian_with_LBSU_players_in_1970-71 Photo by Long Beach State — Jerry Tarkanian, in this 1970-71 photo with three of his top Long Beach State players, including future NBA players Ed Ratleff and George Trapp, had coached Redlands High School about one decade earlier. But Tark’s teams never played against Utah teams coached by Redlands’ Jack Gardner. (Photo by Long Beach State)

Long Beach State never played Utah in that five-year span.

“The Fox,” meanwhile, had quite a career.

Even Sports Illustrated got into the mix on Gardner.

That magazine once wrote that “he could win with an old maid on the post and four midgets.” A proponent of fundamental basketball, Gardner was an expert in fast break basketball. His Utah teams were accordingly known as the Runnin’ Redskins, later the Runnin’ Utes.

Part 3 next.