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.
Imagine staying up late on a Sunday night, listening – not watching – an Extreme sport on ESPN while doing some late-night writing. All of a sudden, this nothing event comes to life. Words sounded familiar.
“… and in the Street Luge category … a man made a name for himself … from Redlands, California … David Rogers.”
What’s that? Redlands? Late-night ESPN TV? Made a name for himself? I kept watching. Sure enough, Rogers was there, lying on his back face up, racing downhill, battling for a gold medal. From Redlands, of all places. As a media member, you’re always looking for local angles.
I had to get it into our newspaper, next edition. Late night phone calls. Early morning. Let’s see. If this took place on tape-delayed ESPN, he might be traveling home at this hour – and maybe just getting back.
Maybe I could catch him before he went to bed. It was 1 a.m. on a Monday, I’ll do anything for a story on deadline.
David Rogers, of Redlands, won a gold medal at the 1999 Super Mass X Games competition in San Francisco on the street luge (photo by Wikipedia Commons).
Rogers, who resided in Redlands, took that ride down a San Francisco hill near that famed Cliff House restaurant on one June summer day. While temperatures soared to nearly 100 in his home town, that City By the Bay was nice and cool.
Rogers took first at X Games Street Luge championship in August 1999, thus earning a gold medal. It was a first. He’d come from last place on that daring dangerous downhill plunge at that Cliff House.
With names like Biker Sherlock, Rat Sult, Earl “The Squirrel” and Dennis Derammelaere in that sport of Street Luge, a name “Mr. Rogers” doesn’t seem all that exciting, does it?
Godfather of that sport was Bob Pereyra. Yeah, Mr. Rogers was chasing that guy
It’s a Redlands Connection that Rogers copped a street luge gold in that Super Mass category.
Some background: The programming department of ESPN in 1993 came up with ideas of holding a meet for athletes from alternative, or extreme, sports. After nearly two years of preparation, first Extreme Games were held in Rhode Island and at Mount Snow, Vt., from June 24 through July 1, 1995.
Competition in nine sports attracted 198,000 spectators. Based on that success, ESPN decided to do it again in 1996, when that name was changed to X Games.
Summer X Games in 1997 and 1998 were staged in San Diego. Those second Winter X Games in 1998 were held at Crested Butte, Colorado. Following summer, arrangements had carried that event to San Francisco for two years in June.
Rogers’ racing expertise lied, perhaps, in facts that he crafted his own racing machinery. A Texas A&M engineering graduate, Rogers fabricated his own boards on which he lied, facing straight up, as he rode downhill and steered in that crazed position.
That event was called Super Mass.
Summer attendance climbed continuously over a three-year period, to 221,000 in 1997, 233,000 in 1998 and 275,000 in 1999. ESPN hasn’t really released attendance figures since then, so supposition is that they’ve reached a plateau or declined somewhat.
Many competitors had arrived in Utah to compete in the Street Luge X Games’ “Last Chance Qualifier.” Weather had been hot but nice with moderately heavy winds during evenings. Hills feature a steep grade with an off camber sweeping right followed by a very challenging left turn. Braking was required.
Redlands’ Rogers had a blistering qualifying run which would have placed him as a top 10 qualifier for Street Luge. Comparing two related events, riders noted less fear of injury and little pressure to perform in San Francisco by 1999.
Whoosh! Rogers, from his past place sport, whizzed past Sean Slate in a rear position, taking best line through that famous Cliff House Turn, winning Super Mass category.
Position is everything. Pushing a racer into hay bales might be perfect strategy.
This is the position that a street luge participant finds themselves in when competing 0 — lying flat on their back, racing downhill while surrounded by fans, haybales and thrill-seeking adventures (photo by Wikipedia Commons).
There might’ve been 10,000 watching in this remarkable view. Unfortunately for those racers lying on their backs, they had no view of that great Pacific Ocean as they raced downhill for a gold medal.
For that local newspaper, I had an off-the-beat story.
I couldn’t wait for my first face-to-face interview with Rogers. He’d given me his address. I met him at home. His wife, dressed to the max for this special interview with her husband, looked lovely and supportive.
One day later, Rogers met me on a road course – part of that Sunset Loop for annual Redlands Bicycle Classic – for a photo spread with photographer Lee Calkins. It led to a full-page spread in that local newspaper.
That gold medal had one to Rogers – A Redlands Connection – with some nice outcomes.
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. When this coach showed up to begin his legendary coaching career, there was no such freeway. He eventually became Team USA’s Olympic track coach. – Obrey Brown
It was May, 1984 – an Olympic year.
Jim Sloan, an heir to the R.J. Reynolds tobacco dynasty, was a celebrity photographer from Redlands. He pushed an invitation on me. There was a group of guys getting together for a reunion, of sorts. It was at Robert Scholton’s home, truly an athletic pioneer of Redlands. Citrus groves and all. Scholton had married into the Walter Hentschke family – one more Redlands-area pioneer.
At this reunion, however, Payton Jordan was guest of honor. Sloan, Scholton & Co. wanted this reunion covered in their local newspaper. I wasn’t invited as a friend to chat and eat. I was invited to write up this guy.
One night earlier, it had been “Olympic Night” at Redlands Country Club. Naturally, Jordan, who didn’t exactly speak on golf, was their featured speaker. That “club” was directly across from Scholton’s home.
Scholton, Sloan and a bunch of buddies had invited Jordan to Redlands. He’d been around plenty. This visit, however, was special. Plenty of guys had been summoned for this reunion. It was an Olympic year, after all. Jordan had plenty of connections to Olympians.
Way back in 1939, before World War II, Jordan had coached at Redlands Junior High School. He’d just graduated from USC, so his coaching career was just getting underway. Little did anyone know.
Payton Jordan’s Hall of Fame coaching career began in Redlands in 1939 at Redlands Junior High School (photo by Occidental College).
That junior high campus had been located right across Citrus Ave. from Redlands Senior High – that is, before the two campuses were merged into one full high school. Eventually, Redlands Junior High was nixed.
After World War II, Jordan returned – briefly.
Jordan had been a high-achieving two-sports star at USC – part of an illustrious Trojans’ football team, later starring on their nationally prominent track team as a sprinter. He was from nearby Pasadena, where Mack and Jackie Robinson had grown up, but attended UCLA.
Jordan had been coached in football by the illustrious Howard Jones – brilliant record, 121-36-13 – who’d been Trojans’ coach from 1925-1940.
Track coach Dean Cromwell, USA’s Olympic coach in 1948, might’ve been even more prominent. USC guys that he coached, including Jordan, were too numerous to highlight.
Jones and Cromwell are both Hall of Famers in multiple spots, not just at USC, either.
JORDAN’S CONNECTION TO REDLANDS
It’s important to note that scintillating connection between Jordan, USC and Redlands.
It was easy to see why Jordan was so highly favored around Redlands. Scholton, Sloan & Co. were his “boys.” When Jordan showed up just before World War II, his background must’ve seemed spectacular in this small-town haven.
A USC guy in Redlands? Years later, Jordan had only added to his lengthy list of achievements. Talk about a Redlands “connection.”
Once I’d arrived at this glorious 1984 Redlands Junior High reunion, held at Scholton’s old-century, country club-style residence, I was only aware that Jordan had been 1968 Olympic coach – nothing else.
Jordan, splendidly dressed and warmly received by about a dozen older men – now retired, some with money, nice careers – couldn’t have been more gracious.
Throw this in: Jordan personally knew 1936 Olympic hero Jesse Owens.
Athletically, Owens was remarkable. In 1938 and 1939, Jordan shined on USC’s national championship track team.
That 40.3 clocking in their 4 x 110, raced in 1939, was a world record Owens helped perform.
Also in 1939, Jordan played on USC’s Rose Bowl-winning football team, 7-3 winners over Duke.
In 1941, Jordan won the AAU 100-yard title – running sizzling 9.4 or 9.5 in yardage races, or a 10.4 in metric events.
By his Senior years up to age 80, Jordan was an age-group champion and record holder in Masters meet – refusing to stop competing.
As an athlete, Jordan missed out on the 1940 and 1944 Olympics due to World War II. No doubt he’d have made those Olympics. Imagine those Redlands Junior High students, not to mention their athletes, getting a grip on their Olympian.
Jordan’s career had been phenomenal, to say the least.
His collegiate football exploits were spectacular. On that track, he’d been a whiz. After World War II, where he served U.S. Navy, it was time to get rolling in a coaching career.
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS TOO NUMEROUS
After coaching those guys at Redlands Junior High, Jordan landed at the collegiate level. It turned out to be venerable small-college Occidental, located in Eagle Rock, next to Pasadena – a key rival for that campus known as University of Redlands. It was like a hometown job for him since Jordan was a Pasadena product. After that Occidental decade between 1946 and 1957), there were nine outright conference track titles and one tie. Next stop was Stanford University’s over 23 more seasons.
Imagine. It all started at Redlands Junior High.
Also imagine:
Billy Mills’ remarkable upset win at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic 10,000.
Bob Beamon’s world record long jump, 29-feet, 2 ½ inches at the Mexico City Olympics.
One of his Occidental athletes, Bob Gutowski, set a world pole vault record (15-9 ¾).
Discus superstar Al Oerter nailed down his third and fourth gold medals under Jordan’s watch.
When Jimmie Hines won the 1969 Olympic gold medal in a world record 9.9 seconds, Jordan was head coach.
Tommie Smith’s 200-meter gold medal in 19.8 seconds led to the “power salute” protest in those ’68 Games. It included third place finisher John Carlos.
Quarter-miler Lee Evans set a world record 43.8 seconds in winning the 1968 Olympic gold medal.
At those 1960 Olympic Trials, Jordan ran USA’s squad in a meet at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, Calif. No fewer than seven world records were set.
During that 23-year career at Stanford, Jordan’s Indians (now Cardinal) had produced seven Olympians, six world record holders and six national champions.
This is just a small sampling of the exploits of the man I was sitting next to at Scholton’s home in spring 1984. At the time, I’d known none of all those achievements.
If I’d been paying attention to my TV set in 1968 – watching the track portion of that the Olympics, maybe I’d have noticed the interview with ABC’s well-known broadcaster.
From the left among athletic medal winners, Australia’s Peter Norman, Tommie Smith and John Carlos in the Olympic medal ceremony at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics at which the two Americans were protesting the poor treatment of Blacks in the U.S. (photo by Wikipedia Commons).Media had treated Jordan favorably, except for one nasal-toned, often exasperating, yet highly entertaining sportscaster from New York.
“Howard Cosell,” said Jordan, “had his mike in my nose while my foot was in his fanny. He’s the only one I had trouble with. I had him escorted out of the stadium.”
Guess I’d better be careful in my interview.
Here’s some evidence on how Jordan and Scholton were close:
Jordan once offered Scholton to help him coach at Stanford. The year, 1957. Scholton, a 1937 University of Redlands graduate – Pi Chi, track, cross country, biology major – was a teaching contemporary of Jordan’s at Redlands Junior High.
Scholton, according to folklore, had served under NFL legend George “Papa Bear” Halas during his own U.S. Navy stint. In Redlands, Scholton taught biology, coaching runners in both track and cross country.
More folklore came after Jordan took that Stanford job, apparently offering Scholton an assistant coach’s role to his former contemporary. Homegrown, however, Scholton stuck around Redlands.
That association between Scholton and Jordan, however, lasted for years. Scholton retired in 1970. Jordan called it quits in 1979.
A curious note: As the Olympics were set to take place in Los Angeles, Jordan conceded he wouldn’t be attending. “I don’t have tickets.”
Scholton, however, had blocks of track & field tickets at the Coliseum. I bought a couple from him for me and my father-in-law, Dean Green – an assistant principal RHS, of all places, in an office that was on the same side of the street where Redlands Junior High School once existed.
A portion of my 1984 interview:
“LET THE GAMES BEGIN”
Jordan says it might be a euphemism for “Troubled Times.”
“The Olympics,” he told me, “are always the focal point of politics, world unrest and controversy. All the problems of the world seem to be magnified during this period of time.”
PERFORMANCE ENHANCING DRUGS
“You can make it without steroids,” said Jordan, who knew plenty of athletes even back in those days. “You don’t have to do it … If you’ve got the ability, work harder, eat better and dedicate yourself, you’ll get there.”
AMATEUR VS. PROFESSIONAL
“There is no such thing,” he said, “as amateurism.”
All normal workings of any Olympic disagreements are simply workings of non-athletes seeking to control that athletic world.
JESSE OWENS
History records that Hitler turned his back on that one time Ohio State star at those 1936 Berlin Olympics. Said Jordan: “Actually, it wasn’t Owens that Hitler had turned his back on. He’d shunned Cornelius Johnson after he won the high jump the day before.”
Germany long jumper Lutz Long, Jordan proclaimed, had given Owens a tip that helped lift him to win that fourth gold medal in Berlin.
“Those types of incidents,” said Jordan, “were left under-publicized, in comparison to what activities existed between non-athletes.”
In 1968, Owens had been summoned to Mexico City for a bull session with the team. “There’s nobody I know who’s less of a racist than you,” he told Jordan. “Anything I can do, just ask.”
BLACK POWER MOVEMENT
Smith and Carlos, it had long been rumored, were set to protest at an Olympics in which several black U.S. athletes had decided not to participate – perhaps in their own protests.
It’s one reason why Cosell was so blatant into Jordan’s face during those ABC interviews.
Jesse Owens, the hero of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, was a strong acquaintance of Payton Jordan, the onetime U.S. Olympic coach who began his coaching career in Redlands. Owens showed up to support Jordan during the black protest movement during the 1968 Mexico City Olympics (photo by Wikipedia Commons).
“They would’ve come to me to discuss (the protest),” he said, “and I would’ve vetoed that idea. They did come in and asked, ‘What should we do?’ I said, ‘Let me and my staff handle it.’
“Thank God it worked out beautifully.”
Part of that was Smith and Carlos were suspended from USA’s Olympic team and sent home.
It was a team, Jordan said, that was very close. “I never experienced that kind of closeness in spite of all the distractions. It was a group of people … who didn’t get hysterical about it and lost sight of our mission.”
Jordan says he took no part in any protest movement. “I was part of it, though. I was the coach.” Evans, Carlos and Smith, he confided, “were probably more loyal to me.”
That USA team came out of 1968 with more gold medals and Olympic records than any prior Olympic team, plus several future years.
After several minutes of that memorable Olympic protest chatter, there was a likely conclusion on talking it over. Too much to chat over. Jordan leaned back in his Scholton home chair, frowned and said, “I think that’s enough talk about 1968.”
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
It was June 15, 1983. In those days, that date served as Major League Baseball’s trade deadline.
Think of these great deals — Seattle traded Randy Johnson to Houston in 1998; C.C. Sabathia had been traded by Cleveland to Milwaukee in 2008; that same season, it was Manny Ramirez traded to Los Angeles by Boston; when the Mets got Yeonis Cespedes in 2015, the slugging outfielder led New York to that year’s World Series; Philadelphia dealt Curt Schilling to Arizona in 2000.
All of those deals probably outweigh that swap of second basemen in that 1983 trade between Seattle and the Chicago White Sox.
Julio Cruz, undrafted free agent out of Redlands High/San Bernardino Valley College, had been such a solid player for Seattle — a base-stealing dynamo, not to mention a flashy fielding second baseman.
Redlands’ Julio Cruz, who built a steady and sturdy career at second base with the Seattle Mariners, was eventually swapped to the Chicago White Sox in the heat of the 1983 American League Western Division chase (photo by Wikipedia Commons).
A guy named Roland Hemond, the general manager in Chicago, noticed.
In 1983, Seattle took its sure-handed infielder and all-time leading base-stealer and dealt him to the ChiSox. That deal plucked second baseman Tony Bernazard from Chicago.
That mid-season trade, Chicago was five games under .500, fifth in the American League Western Division. Hemond pulled off thate Bernazard-for-Cruz trade, only real adjustment he made to an already-strong roster.
Hemond, a legendary general manager, made a trade that everyone would later credit with turning that season around. Looking to give his team a spark, Hemond’s trade launched an immediate effect.
I tracked down Hemond for comments on that trade. These were, of course, days before cell-phone usage, so getting hold of him seemed like a major achievement. Hemond was back east. That’s three hours’ difference than the west coast. I remember trying for a few days before I connected with him.
Why would I try? Local readership, no doubt. Every local reader might want to hear about their guy. Right? A little insight on those inner workings never hurt. We already had Cruz on the record.
“I was excited about the trade!”
“Chicago!”
“A real pennant race!”
“I love Seattle.”
That’s what Julio Cruz was telling me for that local press.
INTERVIEW WITH WHITE SOX GM
Hemond must’ve been in his office at Comiskey Park, home of the White Sox.
My standard intro … “Hi, Obrey Brown here from Redlands, hometown newspaper of Julio Cruz … wondering if I could pick your brain a little about that trade you made for Julio.”
Hemond, a friendly guy, needed no further prodding.
In 1983, Chicago White Sox General Manager made a trade for Seattle second baseman Julio Cruz, thus helping lift the ChiSox out of fifth place and onto winning the division by 20 games over the Kansas City Royals (photo by Wikipedia Commons).
“Oh, hi,” he said. There were some pleasant formalities between us. Like this one: “Think you’ll make it out here to see him play?”
I had to fib on that one. That tiny budget of a Redlands newspaper had barely allowed me to cover a Terrier game in nearby Rialto or Fontana. Send me to Chicago? Said Hemond: “When you get here, look me up.”
If only, I thought.
“I think it’ll turn out to be a real great acquisition for this club,” said Hemond, whose East-coast accent was a nice touch to our conversation. “In fact, it’s already helped us.”
“How long have you had your eye on Julio?”
“Oh … no … wow. I’ve known about Julio for a few years. How can you not notice a guy with his glove and his ability to steal bases? No, he just didn’t jump off the page at us. We need this guy. We’ve known about him.”
Hemond said, “Our clubhouse needed a jolt. Tony (Bernazard) wasn’t all that great of an influence in there. I’ve heard a lot about Julio being a good guy.”
This baseball lifer, Hemond, was very gracious with his time. He asked, “Did you cover him while he was playing in high school out there?”
“No. I got here a few years after he left.”
I tried to stump him, though. “Julio’s coach out here was Joe DeMaggio.”
Hemond either didn’t hear me, or thought I was kidding. No, it wasn’t THE Joe DiMaggio (note the spelling difference).
COVERING THE ‘REDLANDS’ CHISOX
Those summer-time sports pages, though, got a big plug. Cruz, standing on second base, darted for home plate on future Hall of Famer Harold Baines’ sharp single to right field. Tenth inning. It was against the Angels. Game-winner. Division-clinching run. Celebration. Photos.
Huge splash in this Redlands newspaper.
Cruz was picked up from Seattle when the ChiSox were 28-32, fifth in the American League West. They went 71-31 with Cruz, batting ninth in that lineup with Rudy Law atop a strong White Sox attack.
That year’s White Sox were filled with superb batsmen. Baines, Ron Kittle, Greg Luzinski and Hall of Fame catcher Carlton Fisk, combined to hit 123 home runs. Law stole nearly 80 bases.
Their pitching was topped by LaMarr Hoyt and Rich Dotson, who won 24 and 22 games, compiling that league’s greatest number of wins by two pitchers. Southpaw Floyd Bannister was nearly unbeatable, finishing off that season with a 13-1 streak.
Second place belonged to Kansas City, which finished a staggering 20 games behind Chicago.
The Daily Facts kept a close watch on that “Redlands” White Sox. Remember, this was A Redlands Connection.
By that year’s All-Star break, those ChiSox had climbed to three games over .500. Then things really got hot. Chicago, led by Tony LaRusso managing, climbed into first place on July 18 and never looked back. Their second half record was 59-26, a .694 winning percentage.
Not everyone was impressed. One out-of-town writer dismissed that team as no better than fifth best in that year’s A.L. East. Texas manager Doug Rader theorized that ChiSox’s bubble had to burst. “They’re not playing that well. They’re winning ugly.”
On September 17 at Comiskey Park, the White Sox clinched Chicago’s first championship in 25 years. Baines’ single brought home Cruz with that game’s winning run.
BIRDS TOOK OUT CHICAGO IN PLAYOFFS
Chicago’s opponents in that playoff duel would be Baltimore, having won that year’s season series against the ChiSox, seven games to five. In that 1983 playoff matchup, the Orioles won three out of four.
Even with Cruz , that group of White Sox couldn’t shake Baltimore. Hall of Famers Cal Ripken, Jr. and Eddie Murray, plus a strong corps of pitchers ousted Chicago and ended up beating Philadelphia in the World Series.
The ex-Terrier hit .333 in four games, the White Sox winning game one, 2-1, before the Orioles came streaking back to win 4-0, 11-1 and 3-0 behind strong pitching from Mike Boddicker, Tippy Martinez and Mike Flanagan.
As for Hemond, that slick transaction for Julio may have gone a long way in snagging his second Sporting News Executive of the Year honors.
Years later, ’83 White Sox manager Tony La Russa and I were eyeball to eyeball in spring training Arizona. By this point, he had moved on to manage the Oakland A’s. I couldn’t help but try and snag him for some comments – even though it was years later – on Cruz.
Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa called Julio Cruz an “igniter” when asked about the former Redlands ballplayer (photo by Wikipedia Commons).
La Russa didn’t have much time. Calling Cruz “an igniter,” La Russa wasn’t in a mood to chat. He said, “The thing I remember from that team was the power we had … Julio and Rudy Law gave us another dimension to score runs with their speed.”
One final, quick comment: “He played a great second base for us.”
Footnote: Seattle lost 102 games in 1983.
Sabathia, Johnson, Ramirez and all the other more famous MLB trade deadline might draw more attention in baseball’s history book. For the Chicago White Sox, however, that deal might be No. 1.
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.
I saw Ed Vande Berg. In Arlington. Pitching. On a steaming hot Texas night, he hurled 2 1/3 scoreless innings of relief in a 6-2 loss to Milwaukee, then playing among American League teams. I was one of 26,526 fans that Thursday night. Arlington Stadium. Hall of Famers Paul Molitor and Robin Yount were in Milwaukee’s lineup. It was July 14, a Thursday night, in the summer of 1988.
Vande Berg, a Redlands High baseball-playing product, was playing for enigmatic Bobby Valentine, the Rangers’ manager. It was one of Vande Berg’s fina appearances during his seven-year MLB career.
Attended legendary Arizona State, where Hall of Famers Reggie Jackson and Jim Palmer –- not to mention Barry Bonds – played collegiately, among others.
Vande Berg rarely threw important pitches in a meaningful game during his MLB career. Who cares? He was a major league pitcher — with promise. It should be noted, however, that Vande Berg’s 1982-88 career span did not include playing for a team that finished at .500.
Redlands’ Ed Vande Berg spent seven seasons in major league baseball.
He was a left-handed specialist, a long reliever and, at one brief point, he started 17 times for Seattle in 1984.
Managers like Rene Lachemann, Del Crandall, Chuck Cottier, Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda, Pat Corrales or Valentine might summon him to pitch against the likes of Fred Lynn or Eddie Murray, Don Mattingly or Lou Whitaker, maybe a Tim Raines, Darryl Strawberry or Keith Hernandez.
He had surrendered Reggie Jackson’s final career hit. Vande Berg, then with Texas, watched a broken bat single off that bat of a future Hall of Famer.
Reggie Jackson’s final MLB hit came on a broken back single off Ed Vande Berg in 1987 (photo by Wikipedia Commons).
BASEBALL CARDS APLENTY ON THIS REDLANDS KID
Check out a website on Ed Vande Berg some time. Click on images. When you do, your entire computer screen should light up with baseball cards – Vande Berg with Seattle. Or Los Angeles. Or Cleveland . Or Texas.
He was an Alaska Goldpanner.
An Arizona State Sun Devil. Appeared in a College World Series.
Don’t let it slip your mind that Vande Berg was a Redlands High Terrier. Here was his background, stated by plenty of Redlands baseballers not to be much of a prospect while playing for Terrier coach Joe De Maggio.
When he showed up at San Bernardino Valley, Vande Berg took instruction well enough to burnish a slider. It was a new pitch. That resulted in an 18-1 record. State Player of the Year.
Fascinating! Movement, plus zip on his fastball, earned his way to Arizona State — a hub for future MLB players. That got him on radars of MLB scouts, who drafted him no less than three times before he signed.
He was a Rookie Team All-Star in 1982, the year he finished 9-4 with the Mariners, who had drafted him out of Arizona State. A league-leading 78 games accompanied that 2.37 earned run average over 76 innings pitched.
SAN DIEGO, ST. LOUIS, FINALLY SEATTLE
Vande Berg’s draft history was pretty interesting. San Diego took him. third round in 1978, but Vande Berg didn’t sign. A year later, St. Louis made him a fourth round pick. Again, he didn’t sign. In 1980, Seattle drafted him, 13th round. This time, he signed.
That ’82 rookie season, though, was something. Only 54 hits were allowed in those 76 innings pitched, including just five HRs. He was 23 when he made that MLB debut with Seattle.
In 1984, the Mariners made Vande Berg, a 6-foot-2, 175-pounder, a starting pitcher. He logged an 8-12 record (4.76, 130 innings) for a 72-90 team on a pitching staff topped by Mark Langston. Alvin Davis, who hit 27 homers, knocked in 116 runs and batted .284), was American League Rookie of the Year.
By 1988 when Vande Berg joined up at Texas, Ruben Sierra was clearly that team’s best player. Vande Berg was part of a bullpen backed by closer Mitch Williams. The staff’s ace was ex-Dodger knuckleballer Charlie Hough.
It was one season before Nolan Ryan signed with Texas. By then, Vande Berg was gone. Released. Final season of his career.
Who would remember a trade that sent Vande Berg from Seattle to Los Angeles in 1985? It was a straight-up deal on Dec. 11. Catcher Steve Yeager, who had played in three World Series with L.A., was sent back to Seattle.
The Dodgers paid Vande Berg $455,000.
That season, Vande Berg registered a 3.41 ERA over 60 games (71 1/3 innings).
Teammates included Cy Young Award winners Fernando Valenzuela and Orel Hershiser, both managed by Lasorda, a Hall of Fame manager. Vande Berg had relieved both pitchers during that 1987 season.
For one season, Dodger Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda summoned Redlands southpaw Ed Vande Berg into a major league game (photo by Wikipedia Commons).
Granted free agency in each of the following two seasons, Vande Berg found homes in Cleveland and Arlington, Texas.
Among Vande Berg’s Cleveland teammates was Joe Carter, who hit the game-winning World Series homer for Toronto a few years later. Another teammate was that ageless Julio Franco, who made Cleveland just one of his stops on a seven-team, 23-year career.
For a season and a half, incredibly enough, Vande Berg was teammates with another Redlands product, Julio Cruz. The two spent the entire 1982 season in M’s uniforms, but in 1983 Cruz was sent to the Chicago White Sox in a trade deadline deal.
His final game came at age 29 against, of all teams, Seattle, a Mariners’ team Vande Berg spent four of his seven-year MLB pitching for in America’s vnorthwest.
The end result was a 25-28 lifetime mark … 413 games … surrendered 52 HRs … 3.92 earned run average … 22 saves … not a bad career.
WINDING DOWN A SEVEN-YEAR MLB CAREER
A couple months after I watched Vande Berg pitch against Milwaukee in Texas, the Redlands product pitched his final game. Against his old team, the Mariners.
On Friday night, Sept. 30. At the Kingdome that night, 7,870 fans watched.
He pitched a full inning. With home plate umpire Rich Garcia calling balls and strikes, Vande Berg surrendered three hits, including a Rey Quinones double.
In Seattle’s lineup that night was Davis, not to mention future MLB Network broadcaster Harold Reynolds. Darnell Coles, from Vande Berg’s former Citrus Belt League rival Rialto Eisenhower, was also in that night’s lineup.
A lowly Rangers’ squad beat those lowly Mariners, 11-6.
Exactly one month earlier, Vande Berg picked up his final career victory. In an 8-6 win over Minnesota, Cecil Espy’s bottom-of-the-ninth, two-run HR cracked a 6-6 tie. Vande Berg, who had pitched a scoreless ninth inning in relief of starter Bobby Witt, logged the win.
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
It was July 6, back in 2018. A World Cup quarterfinals day took place. France had just beaten Uruguay, 2-0. At 11 a.m., Pacific, Belgium took on Brazil for a spot in the Cup semifinals.
American soccer icon Landon Donovan had made a bold prediction a few years earlier. He talked about Belgium in 2014. By 2018, that European nation was bidding for a Cup.
Flashing back, it’s a distant memory in days when Landon, a young teenager at that time, flashed up and down high school soccer fields, darting in to take a pass, dribble upfield, set up a teammate, or launch a shot into a soccer goal.
In years ahead, he wasn’t worried about playing Rialto Eisenhower, San Gorgonio or Victor Valley from that Citrus Belt League.
What was on his mind that summer of 2014 is Group G — Germany, Ghana and Portugal. plus his American side. America’s coach at that moment was German legend Jurgen Klinsmann. He’d have a choice on whether to pick Donovan or not.
Redlands’ Landon Donovan, who was America’s greatest soccer scoring threat, left America to train in Europe at a young age. Maybe that’s the secret to lifting Team USA to more of an international presence (photo by Wikipedia Commons).
America had been in such a state of disorganization as a soccer side. Team USA went international to hire that coach. Klinsmann, a goal-scoring superstar for Germany, was brought over to direct that American side.
Donovan would eventually feel a sting.
In reality, his days at Redlands High as a freshman – when he was Most Valuable Player for his high school league in 1996 – and his half-season at Redlands East Valley, was just miniature soccer.
He was an IMG Academy (Fla.) kid playing for club and national youth teams, plus prepping for a remarkable career that was about to unfold. Leaving REV midway through his sophomore year (1997-98) to play professionally overseas, Donovan’s touch seemed magical.
Magnificent Donovan, an L.A. Galaxy/U.S. World Cup player, has scored an American record 57 international goals – and likely would’ve added to that mark in his fourth Cup appearance in 2014.
“I hope so,” he said over such hopes. As of April 22, 2014, Donovan claims he didn’t have a clue if he’d be included on USA’s roster. “We’ll find out in the beginning of June.”
Was he being coy? After all, he’s one of USA’s greatest USA scoring threats ever. Donovan shrugged.
“You never know. I hope so – yes.”
DONOVAN: MESSI, RONALDO BEST IN THE WORLD
It’s amazing that such a remarkable talent as Donovan grew up back in that Redlands area. Klinsmann, though, didn’t pick him.
Asked to identify this world’s best players, Donovan pondered for just a few moments. No American players came from his lips.
Cristiano Ronaldo, called by Redlands’ Landon Donovan one of the top players in the world, was certainly on the field against USA’s best-ever product (photo by Wikipedia Commons).
“Cristiano (Ronaldo, of Real Madrid) and (Spaniard Lionel) Messi.”
That pondering, perhaps, came just because he was trying to separate those two between No. 1 and No. 2. It’s impossible. “They’re both good for different reasons,” says Donovan, who may have settled on Messi being best-on-the-planet.
Donovan’s been on the pitch, playing against both players, incidentally. Don’t forget: Messi’s a goal-scoring legend. Truthfully, Ronaldo wasn’t far behind.
Lionel Messi might get the nod, at least from Redlands’ Landon Donovan, as this world’s greatest soccer player as of July 2018, that is. Donovan’s played against that great Argentian scoring legend (photo by Wikipedia Commons).
Said Donovan: “He gets himself into position better than other people can. He’s more of an individual talent when he gets the ball alone.” Messi might be five or six inches shorter than NBA great LeBron James, “but it’s the same athleticism.”
The 2014 World Cup was wide open. Donovan was hoping to play. It would be one last hurrah.
Germany, he said, “is emerging. A lot of people are talking about Belgium.”
Belgium? Four years later, Belgium was on a threshold of winning that 2018 World Cup. They’d taken down 5-time Cup champion Brazil, 2-1, in St. Petersburg, Russia. In that year’s semifinals, however, France ended Belgium’s run with a 1-0 outcome.
Team USA wasn’t in that 2018 field. Neither was Donovan on Team USA’s side.
DONOVAN’S GOAL-SCORING WAS PHENOMENAL
Four years before, in 2014, Donovan’s name wasn’t on Team USA’s roster. It might’ve been a breakdown of America’s side. By 2018, Team USA couldn’t even qualify to be among that year’s 32 World Cup teams. Donovan, by then, was gone.
You have to wonder, though: If Klinsmann hadn’t taken him down in 2014, would Donovan, at age 36, have lasted through a 2018 attempt?
Jurgen Klinsmann, the famed German goal-scoring legend who became Team USA coach, might have slowed up the development of America’s soccer movement after cutting Landon Donovan from America’s team in 2014 (photo by Wikipedia Commons).
USA’s Donovan side shouldn’t be taken for granted, though. An eventual USA World Cup triumph, though perhaps unexpected, would be a great story. In 2014, he said, just getting out our group “would be good. Getting out of our group would be success. Anything after that is icing on the cake.”
Soccer fascination growing in the USA, he says. “Our young kids now are passionate about it.”
Team USA goalkeeper Hope Solo, meanwhile, said there’s too much club, too many parents paying for their kids’ involvement. The inference seemed to be that toughness is limited.
“A rich white kid sport,” she called it.
Donovan: Interest level is high. “It takes time,” he said, referring to growing that same fascination between USA soccer and the European Premiership.
Part of an answer, perhaps: Grow up USA players on European rosters. There were, of course. Gaining toughness. To gain experience. To gain international flavor. Donovan had pulled it off.
During qualifying, those USA players would reassemble for their national team. Donovan did it. As a teenager who trained for Bayer Leverkusen, a Bundesliga league side, he trained — rarely appeared — before being “loaned” to USA’s Earthquakes for 2001-2004.
There were 11 seasons in Galaxy colors. On loan to Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen, Donovan’s cap time started coming to an end. By age 32, retired after a World Cup. Perhaps, but only as a Cup player. “We’ll see,” he said at the time.
By 2016, Donovan retired as Galaxy striker. Playing for six Major League Soccer Cup championship teams, four in L.A., two in San Jose, that onetime Redlands kid was a goal-scoring dynamo — 160 connections in MLS matches, plus those 57 international net-finders.
Briefly, he returned to play for Leon, a Mexican team, but Donovan’s contract was terminated by June 2018. As a U.S. player, he played in more international matches than all players but one by that moment.
It’s kind of cool, isn’t it, that Donovan sprung his worldwide legend from Redlands?
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, plus NCAA Final Four connections, Tour de France cycling, more major tennis like Wimbledon, tiny connections to that NBA and a little NHL, Kentucky Derby, aquatics and Olympic Games, that sparkling little city sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10. That I-10 freeway was often used by baseball players looking to jump from their high school ranks to a major league opportunity. This baseball hopeful went from his high school to Riverside to faraway Atlanta to nearby Anaheim, home of the Angels. – Obrey Brown
Tommy Hanson struck high during his third league season, 2011, with those Atlanta Braves. Pitching numbers were 11 wins, 7 losses, a 3.60 ERA over 22 games, tossing pitches to All-Star catcher Brian McCann, picking off with throws to another All-Star, first baseman Freddie Freeman, plus future Hall of Fame third baseman Chipper Jones.
Try to figure how many of Hanson’s 11 triumphs were saved by closer Craig Kimball, who had 46 saves, including a few for starters like Tim Hudson’s 16 victories.
You figure there were plenty of Redlands East Valley High School connected folks checking out Hanson, that 2004 graduate. Don’t forget, he was an original catcher, then a first baseman.
REV’s baseball program produced that solid major leaguer. From the mound. To a strong university. Originally, he wound up 11-4 with a 2.89 ERA during his 2009 rookie season pitching for the Braves.
Hanson, 49-35, 3.85 lifetime, spent five seasons in the majors, mostly with Atlanta, plus a season with the Angels. He concluded his 2006-2015 professional career — injuries, soreness, perhaps some other health problems — in the minors with San Francisco’s Class AAA team in Sacramento.
Tragically, he was struck down at age 29 when he died on November 9, 2015.
In 2005 after Atlanta grabbed him on that 22nd round, a 677th overall selection, he signed with the Braves. Hanson was pitching for dominant California junior college, Riverside City, that season. Dozens and dozens of baseball players have been taken out of RCC.
Tommy Hanson, an original Redlands East Valley right-handed pitcher, lifted himself into the major leagues from that Mentone city next to Redlands and Yucaipa, getting drafted by Atlanta from Riverside City College in 2005.
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Hanson was the first of REV’s growing list of professional baseball signees. There were a couple handfuls more that eventually joined him.
Hanson established himself as baseball’s top pitching prospect after he dominated as the 2008 MVP of the Arizona Fall League.
As that much-anticipated major league debut that following June there were four straight starts, including two straight against the Yankees and Red Sox at Turner Field.
After producing a 3.28 ERA over the 77 starts made during his first three Major League seasons, Hanson was hit by injuries— shoulder, plus a back ailment. There was another setback.
His younger brother died in 2013. Hanson was then with the Angels. He told reporters, “I was having mental issues with the death of my younger brother. I was just trying to get through it. I didn’t know how to handle it.
“That was the first time anything like that had ever happened to me. I didn’t know how to cope with it.”
In grieving his brother, Hanson left those Angels for three weeks. There were 15 appearances by his conclusion, his final major league work.
A SURPRISE CONCLUSION
It was a long way from REV, which is where Hanson had pitched brilliantly. What dropped feelings back home was simple and disruptive: That ex-Braves’ pitcher died, caused by delayed complications of cocaine and alcohol toxicity, according to an autopsy report. It was a Coweta County coroner in Georgia, Dr. Richard Hawk, who ruled that death as an accident, the cause being illicit cocaine use.
No one, absolutely no one, wanted to see this conclusion. Hanson was 29. At the beginning, born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. At the end, buried in Roswell, Georgia.
IT WAS HANSON THAT LED THOSE REV STEPS
Sure, sure, sure … there was more than a handful of other REV baseballers taken in the draft by various MLB teams – catcher Brett Martinez and outfielder Josh Cowles, both taken by the Angels, infielder Paul Eshlemen by the Brewers, plus Matt Andriese’s brother David, an outfielder taken by the Pirates out of UC Riverside.
Then there’s pitchers Justin Jacome by the Marlins, plus a pair taken by the Blue Jays, Jackson McClelland and Griffin Murphy.
Neither of those players ever made it to the big leagues.
Matt Andriese and Tyler Chatwood, both pitchers, came along at REV just a couple seasons following Hanson’s REV seasons, eventually winding up in MLB play.
For that 1997 first-ever school year, baseball beginning at REV in 1998, Hanson was the original star.
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, plus NCAA Final Four connections, Tour de France cycling, more major tennis like Wimbledon, tiny connections to that NBA and a little NHL, Kentucky Derby, aquatics and Olympic Games, that sparkling little city sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10. During a 1959-61 basketball scheme at Redlands, there was no I-10. – Obrey Brown
There is no evidence that A Redlands Connection came up with a meeting of Jerry Tarkanian-coached teams at Long Beach State or Nevada-Las Vegas when taking on the University of Utah, which was where “Black” Jack Gardner reigned as coach for so many seasons.
Tark and Black Jack never came across the other in NCAA play. Gardner’s career was winding down when Tark’s career was heating up. It would have made a great game, too – the Runnin’ Rebels of UNLV against the Runnin’ Utes of Utah – coached by two guys with A Redlands Connection.
Tarkanian distinguishes Redlands for another reason. In his book, “Runnin’ Rebel,” Tark The Shark wrote about his reasons for showing up at the Inland Empire.
“I was in Redlands for two seasons, and two important things happened. The first was that I decided to get a Master’s degree. I figured it would help if I ever wanted to coach at the college level. And if not, you got a jump in pay as a high school teacher if you have a Master’s. With our second daughter, Jodie, on the way, I needed the money.”
For that Masters degree, Tark took classes at the University of Redlands.
The second “big thing” that Tarkanian connected was at Redlands High, playing in a 1960 league championship game against Ramona High School over in Riverside.
Jerry Tarkanian, shown here in a familiar pose, chomping on a towel. The practice began, he says, back in the days when he coached Redlands High School. It was simple: He got tired of walking back and forth to the water fountain at Riverside Ramona High School. (Photo by Tim Defrisco/ALLSPORT
Wrote Tark: “It was really hot in the gym, and my mouth kept getting dry. I could hardly yell to my team. I kept going to get drinks from the water fountain. Back and forth, back and forth. Finally, I got tired of doing that, so I took a towel, soaked it under the water fountain, and carried it back to the bench. Then when I got thirsty, I sucked on the towel.
“We won the game and the league championship. Because I was a superstitious person, I kept sucking on towels the rest of my career. It became my trademark, me sucking on a white towel during the most stressful times of a game.
“Everywhere I go, people ask me about the towel. People used to mail me them. Fans brought towels to the game and sucked on them, too. It was the big thing. Eventually when I was at UNLV, we got smart and started selling souvenir “Tark the Shark” towels. We sold more than 100,000 of them. It was incredible.
“And if that high school gym in California had been air-conditioned back in 1960s, I probably never would have started sucking on towels.”
In those days, it could’ve started out as a Tark Terrier Towel.
*****
A footnote on Tark’s coaching effort at Redlands High. Danny Wolthers was a strong shooting player for the Terriers, possibly the Terriers’ best all-around player during those years. Yes, he was strongly recruited by Stanford and Cal-Berkeley, Arizona and Arizona State, plus John Wooden-coached UCLA.
Wolthers took Berkeley.
Six decades after back-to-back Redlands seasons that netted a mediocre 32 wins (and just one playoff triumph), Wolthers could shed plenty of ammunition on his statement. Like this one:
“A number of our players were tennis players, golfers or baseball guys. Jim Weatherwax was a football guy who played for the Green Bay Packers.”
Training athletes from other sports to be basketball players was a real challenge. Wolthers was himself a fully-dedicated hoopster.
Wolthers recalled Wooden’s visit to Redlands to snag him for UCLA.
“I remember him sitting up on top of a desk in the crowded PE office, his back against the glass, holding court with Tark and other PE coaches.”
Footnote: I had a handful of personal chats with Tark, including one on an airplane flight from Sacramento to Ontario in California. His memories included a neighbor, Frank Serrao, who was coaching football at Redlands High School at the same time he was coaching basketball.
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. An Olympic-bound athlete used that road to take some real track travels. – Obrey Brown
University of Redlands track & field coach Clay Brooks raved about Ruth Kleinsasser. So did his boss, Director of Athletics Ted Runner.
Brooks, who spent years at that university, seemed a true professor. Runner, whose Redlands presence as an athlete, coach and, ultimately, director of athletics, was fond of track. He’d competed. For years, he coached.
Kleinsasser, eventually marrying as Ruth Caldwell and also Ruth Wysocki, stepped onto Los Angeles Coliseum’s Olympic Games track some nine years after spending that frosh season at Redlands. Those two men, Brooks and Runner, watched with great interest.
That Alhambra-born Kleinsasser, who competed at Azusa High School, was a prized performer at Redlands in 1975. What made Kleinsasser special was her true dedication. She was a lifer in track.
It started in age-group races in the late 1960s, starting an eventual period of about 30 years, until she became an over-40 Masters runner in 1997. In between, there was plenty to remember.
As an Azusa High senior in 1973, she ran a 2:16 to win a CIF-Southern Section 880-yard championship. She also sped around the track over 440 yards, winning in 57.3. That’s as tough of a double in any championship meet.
Since there was no State meet held for girls that year – one would start in 1975 – Kleinsasser never had a chance to prove her prep domination throughout California.
By 1975, Kleinsasser was running at Redlands, primarily because internationally-renowned Bulldog coach Vince Reel had come out of retirement. Reel, in fact, met her halfway, training her somewhere in California – between Redlands and Azusa. Kleinsasser gave runs in both 400 and 800.
Former University of Redlands runner Ruth Wysocki, then known as Ruth Kleinsasser, beat Mary Decker Slaney, right, at the 1984 U.S. Olympic Trials in the women’s 1500-meter – one of track’s shocking upsets that year (Photo by runmoremiles.com).
A YEAR IN REDLANDS
Reel, married to Chinese star Chi Cheng, had international status, especially since he’d lured some top talent – Chinese sprint star Lee Shiu-Chia, middle distance runners Chee Swee Lee, plus Donna Fromme and some dandy runners like distance star Molly O’Neil, hurdler Pam Ashe, sprinters Gloria Kennedy, Lynn Jones and Denise Becton.
Throw Kleinsasser into that mix. If only she’d lasted four seasons at Redlands. Reel wrote about his own exploits. Part of his writings were about Kleinsasser, including that season at Redlands.
Vince Reel, shown here as a Long Beach City College athlete, where he was State champion in the 100 and 220, in the early 1930s. A two-time sprint champion at Occidental College in 1936, he was fourth in the NCAA 220 championships for Occidental College.He would become a huge connection in the track world as a coach – Long Beach Wilson High School Track and Field Coach (1938-1957), moving on to Claremont College (1958-71), coming out of retirement to coach Redlands through 1979. He was also the Olympic track & field coach for India (1960) and China (1972). Reel was the founder of “Women’s Track and Field” magazine. (Photo credit: Long Beach City College).
Kleinsasser dropped out of Redlands, saying, “I realized I had chosen the wrong school. Not that it isn’t a wonderful place. It was not just the right place for me. That was before the NCAA for women.”
Ruth – just so readers don’t know she’s a Kleinsasser, Wysocki or a Caldwell – told Reel during days when women’s sports were governed by that old AIAW. Truth is, in those days, Redlands’ men were part of the NAIA, not NCAA. Face it. NCAA duels were well above what Redlands had going in those days.
A more familiar name may well be Ruth Wysocki. Kleinsasser? Wysocki? Caldwell? Well, let’s go with Ruth from this point.
In reality, Ruth wasn’t even the fastest half-miler on her own team. That same season, Lee Chiu-Shia ran a 2:05.36 in SPAA, a meet at track-rich Occidental College, just outside of Pasadena.
At the Bakersfield Invitational, Kleinsasser posted that 2:07.6.
What made Ruth “A Redlands Connection” was that year she spent running at Brooks’ college coaching. In 1975, she ran fast – 2:07.6 over 800 meters, plus a 56.80 over 400 at the Long Beach Invitational. Afterward, she transferred back to Citrus College, a junior college.
More domination. At Citrus, Ruth scored victories in the State cross country championship for both 1977 and 1978. During spring seasons in 1978 and 1979, she was State champion over both 800 and 1500 runs.
There was a pattern here. Like many international competitors, she was laying groundwork for Olympic chase. In fact, she ran a 2:03, qualifying for Olympic Trials in 1976 – still under Reel’s watch. She was 19. Ruth took eighth at those Trials.
She was on-again, off-again training – seriously, pondering, planning.
RUTH SLAYED SLANEY
If there was a top-flight moment for that ex-Redlands runner, it might be these:
Ruth upset highly-touted USA star Mary Decker, racing 2:01.99 in an 800 chase at U.S. Championships in 1978. Ruth scored another upset victory against Decker – eventually Mary Slaney – at U.S. Olympic Trials for 1984, this time over 1500 meters.
Ruth outsprinted Slaney to win in 4:00.18, her lifetime best. It was her husband, Tom Wysocki, training for Olympic Trials, that had convinced his wife for Olympic training.
Brooks, who was Reel’s successor at Redlands, along with Runner, who were both coming to the end of their Redlands careers, watched with curiosity as that one-year Lady Bulldog star made her way into those 1984 L.A. Games.
Ruth took sixth over an 800, eighth in 1500.
To veteran observers like Brooks and Runner, it was a Redlands victory. One of their own had reached a pinnacle in that sport.
Who cared if Eastern Bloc nations had boycotted the 1984 Games? Remember, this was Carl Lewis’ 4-event gold medal blast in men’s events.
Women sensationalists included sprinters Valerie Brisco-Hooks, Evelyn Ashford, plus Flo Jo – Florence Griffith Joyner – plus onetime San Gorgonio High School star Sherri Howard, part of America’s 4 x 400 gold medal win, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, along with marathon champion Joan Benoit.
More men: Britain’s Daley Thompson scored his second straight decathlon title.
Americans. Hurdler Edwin Moses. Triple jumper Al Joyner.
ANOTHER REDLANDS CONNECTION
Step away from Ruth for a just a moment. It’s adding to the flavor of Redlands connections:
One year before the L.A. Games, in 1983, Redlands’ annual invitational came on its cinder track. Two interested participants were Colorado-home Air Force Academy and California’s Azusa Pacific University, among over a dozen other team entries.
In that meet-concluding 4 x 400 relay, Air Force’s Alonzo Babers and Azusa’s Innocent Egbunike ran neck-and-neck on that anchor. They might have even brushed against one another halfway during an unforgettable final lap.
From the home bleachers, 200 meters in, Egbunike could be seen turning his head toward Babers. Was there a connection? Did someone say something perplexing? Neither runner broke stride. Egbunike prevailed. Barely. There would be a highly interesting rematch. Of all places, it was at the Olympics.
It was that following year, both met in the open 400-meter – Egbunike for his native Nigeria and Babers for the U.S. Curiously, no one among national or international media mentioned their previous duel in Redlands.
Babers, in fact, won that Olympic gold in 44.27 seconds. Egbunike was last, 45.35. Those two dueled again in the 4 x 400 relay.
USA’s Sunder Nix, Ray Armstead, Babers and Antonio McKay won gold, prevailing in 2:57.91. Nigeria, anchored by Egbunike, took third in 2:59.32 for a bronze.
*****
Back to Ruth! That Redlands Connection kept going for years. Over a decade later, in 1995, Wysocki ran seventh in the 1500 at the Championships in Athletics in Gothenburg. That’s Sweden.
In 1997, Ruth set several Masters records at distances from 800 to 5000 on the track, plus 5K and 8K road races. She was surrounded by distance runners. Her dad, Willis Kleinsasser, was a successful Masters athlete.
Alan Kleinsasser, her brother, ran a 1:50.5 over 800 meters and a 3:52.2 clocking in the 1500 – both school records at Caltech Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Then, of course, her one time husband, Tom Wysocki, produced 13:35.33 in the 5000-meter and 28:19.56 in the 10,000.
RUTH AT THOSE L.A. OLYMPICS
It wasn’t going to be easy. Despite absences of Eastern Bloc nations, that boycott led by former Soviet Union, there was still plenty of international talent.
On Aug. 6, Romanian Doina Melinte circled the Coliseum track twice to score gold in 1:57.60. USA’s Kim Gallagher, whom Wysocki had often encountered, won silver in 1:58.63. Melinte’s teammate, Fita Lovin, took bronze at 1:58.53.
Ruth? Sixth in 2:00.34. She also qualified in the 1500, held on that 1984 August 11 race. Ruth took eighth as America’s best in 4:08.32, nowhere close at her USA Trials.
Melinte won the silver, barely nosed out by Italy’s Gabriella Dorio’s 4:03.25, the Romanian a fraction behind in 4:03.76. Another Romanian, Maricica Puica, took bronze in 4:04.15.
Ruth had to be thinking if she’d matched her lifetime best – that 4:00.18 at the Olympic Trials – she’d have been a gold medalist.
Said Ruth: “Even though the Olympics didn’t go really great for me, when I got to Europe after the Olympics, I beat everybody that beat me in the Olympics, including (Dorio).”
It was, she said, some vindication.
Brooks, for his part, sent plenty of half-milers out to do battle in Lady Bulldog colors. Runner, meanwhile, often reflected on that year Ruth ran at Redlands.
“She was,” Runner said, “not just a hard worker.” Runner said, observers could easily tell, “she had a game plan in any race she ran.”
She even made one last attempt to qualify for the 1996 Olympics at 38. Didn’t make it.
That one season, 1975, Ruth was A Redlands Connection.
Redlands Connection is a concoction of sports memories emanating from a city that once numbered less than 20,000 people. From the Super Bowl to the World Series, from the World Cup to golf’s U.S. Open and the Olympics, plus NCAA Final Four connections, Tour de France cycling, major tennis, NBA and a little NHL, aquatics and quite a bit more, the sparkling little city that sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10 has its share of sports connections. Plenty of athletic members took off from that spot. – Obrey Brown
It might seem easy to ignore football rumblings at the University of Redlands, an NCAA Division 3 program that doesn’t offer athletic scholarships, nor plays in such places as Tuscaloosa, South Bend or that nearby Los Angeles Coliseum, or attracts ESPN College Game Day staff during their Big Game against, say, Whittier College.
Ignoring them, however, would be a mistake.
Check sidelines for any guys that have coached at Redlands. Some major careers have been launched.
Mike Maynard, the Bulldogs’ head coach between 1988 and 2022, might be responsible for priming plenty of guys.
It’s underscored by a recent move of former Bulldog defensive coordinator Ed Lamb (1998-2000 at Redlands), who left as Southern Utah University’s head coach in Cedar City to take the assistant head coaching job at Brigham Young University – about four hours north on I-15.
Ed Lamb spent two seasons as University of Redlands defensive coordinator before moving on to bigger programs, currently as assistant head coach at Brigham Young University (photo by Southern Utah University).
Maynard, not exactly shockingly, refers to most of his assistant coaches with words and phrases like “tireless worker,” “intuitive,” “patient,” “demanding,” “great communicator,” “structured and thorough,” “relentless drive,” “relates well to players,” and “passion for excellence” – plenty of high praise.
At Redlands, they got plenty of training in recruiting, game-planning, scouting and going through rigorous preparations – not to mention the games.
Lamb didn’t just show up at SUU before plopping up at Provo. One of his first stops after Redlands was landing a coaching gig at the University San Diego with Jim Harbaugh as head coach. It’s the same Harbaugh who led San Francisco to landing in 2012’s Super Bowl, later surfacing at Michigan.
Longtime Bulldog coach Ken Miller, who left Redlands in 2000, the onetime Bulldog and Yucaipa High head coach way back in the 1970s, retired after helping coach two Canadian Football League teams – Saskatchewan Rough Riders and Toronto Argonauts – win three Grey Cup championships.
Montreal head coach Marc Trestman, left, and Saskatchewan coach Ken Miller, right, admire the Grey Cup, which is emblematic of the Canadian Football League championship. It was the night before the 2009 Grey Cup championship game (photo by Saskatchewan Rough Riders).
He didn’t stay retired long. Miller came up working for CFL’s Montreal Alouettes.
There’s Greg Hudson, who left Redlands (1991-92), taking over as defensive coordinator at Purdue, then University of Minnesota, assistant head coach at national powerhouse Florida State under head Jimbo Fisher, head coach, plus a former defensive assistant coach at Notre Dame when legendary Lou Holtz was top man.
Since leaving Redlands in the early 1990s, Greg Hudson has coached at such places as Florida State, Notre Dame, Purdue and Minnesota (photo by Wikipedia).
“Best recruiter,” said Maynard, referring to Hudson, “anywhere.”
Ejiro Evero (2010 at Redlands) surfaced as a quality control coach with the Green Bay Packers after spending five NFL seasons with San Francisco.
That included 2012, that season when S.F. played Baltimore in the Super Bowl. That onetime Bulldog assistant came to Los Angeles in 2021 to coach Rams’ safeties.
Keith Carter, at Redlands in 2007-2008, showed up as a line coach with the Atlanta Falcons. In 2017, he helped construct a line that blocked for QB Matt Ryan in the Falcons’ quest for a Super Bowl championship — losing in that unbelievable comeback by New England.
Keith Carter, another of the growing list of ex-University of Redlands assistant coaches that have moved on, is shown here during his days at San Jose State. Currently, he’s running backs coach for the NFL’s Tennessee Titans (photo by San Jose State).
Carter’s grandfather, incidentally, is NFL Hall of Famer Gino Marchetti. Carter coached running backs at Tennessee.
If a question about why Redlands was unable to retain such coaching talent, well, just think about it.
There are no major radio or TV contracts, no network deals, no huge sponsorships that drop in major dollars in that Bulldog football world. No, Maynard got these guys when they were trying to make their football bones, hoping to learn the coaching craft in an environment created for teaching and coaching.
Their “pay,” was largely a two-year assistanceship while they got their Masters degrees, coaching as their portion. Maynard grabbed them when the price was right. He lost them when they got good enough to get better paying jobs.
Note any fact that most coaches stays lasted two seasons – the normal amount of time needed to get a Masters degree.
Part of “grabbing” those guys is this: Handfuls of applicants come in each year seeking a spot. Maynard, who looks awfully impressive in casting these guys, has to sift through all applicants.
There are former Bulldog assistants having shown up at Colorado, Virginia, Miami, Brigham Young, Arkansas State, Northern Arizona, Univ. San Diego, Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Southern University, plus Ivy League – and the NFL.
Garret Tujague, at Redlands in 1996-97, an offensive line coach at Brigham Young University left Provo to follow Bronco Mendenhall who took University of Virginia’s head coaching spot.
On Tujague, said Maynard, “is the kind of guy that is fired up when he’s sleeping.”
Even a partial list of those “connections” that these onetime Redlands assistant coaches have made is staggering.
Names like Holtz and Fisher, Harbaugh and Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry, Sean McVey and Wade Phillips in Los Angeles, an NFL Hall of Famer like Marchetti, plus coaching an offensive line that protected Ryan en route to a Super Bowl places plenty of success.
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. A Redlands original who used a camera left that city to take a photo of a legendary golfer. – Obrey Brown
Anyone ever heard of Ben Hogan?
There was a Redlands guy, Jim Sloan, who did. Sloan took photos, never really pushing his photos onto anyone. In that growing media business, whether it’s on large metropolitan dailies or a mid-size, there are also small town dailies that attract a group of contributors ranging from writing correspondents to photographers. Sloan was a true professional. Don’t get me started on telling about him. I don’t know enough.
That guy hustled, figured on angles, brandished his gear, fed film into canisters, throwing his heart in art-lengthy shots before modern technology – aka digital – was available.
Sloan, who specialized in Boy Scout photography for years, had presented his local newspaper with a lengthy list of photos over years. On back of those mostly black-and-white glossies was a familiar hand stamp – “Photo by James Sloan.”
There were photos of President Eisenhower, especially during that time when the World War II general was living out his final years in the Coachella Valley. Sloan caught the ex-president in a variety of poses, mostly on the golf course.
Fellow photographer Ansel Adams, musician Stan Kenton and politician Ted Kennedy were among the celebrity shots. Plenty of stories could be written about his photography connections with those famous faces. In his own way, Sloan, himself, was a celebrity photographer.
One of his photos, however, stood out. I remember when he brought it into my office. “I got this,” he said, pulling the 2 x 4 black-and-white out a small white envelope, “when I was down in Texas. I got him to pose for this.”
I looked at the mug shot. Smiling, handsome, almost stylishly posing, was a familiar face of golf legend Ben Hogan.
This isn’t the photo that Jim Sloan provided to me during my days as a sports editor in Redlands. That photo, if it even still exists, is in possession of the newspaper. The Ice Man? This wasn’t that shot of golfing legend Ben Hogan taken by Redlands photographer Jim Sloan, but it will have to do (photo by Wikipedia Commons).
Sloan’s photo was apparently opposite of such a philosophy. Was it a lie? Did Hogan occasionally shed that image? Was Sloan a personal friend? No way. Couldn’t be. Ben Hogan, who had captured every major championship – four U.S. Opens, a British Open in his lone attempt, two Masters and two PGA titles – while overcoming that infamous 1949 car collision with a bus that nearly killed him.
All of which is a well-known story by now, part of history – along with that picturesque swing, the calmness, ice water in his veins, the famous comeback, that movie that depicted his life around the crash, Follow the Sun: The Ben Hogan Story. No sense in reciting all that here. This story is A Redlands Connection between a local photographer and a golfing icon that breathed immortality.
It was hard to trust Jim; I didn’t know him all that well, but I had to trust him. In a way, Jim was far more worthy than I was on a local front. A trick? A way to claim some kind of connection to a legend? A little self-indulgence? Redlands was a golf community, its country club often playing host to a variety of legendary connections. Wouldn’t it be great to fabricate a story with those golf partisans? A story connecting Jim Sloan to Ben Hogan would be a good one.
Golf had plenty of prominent connections to Redlands.
Club manufacturer Mario Cesario, whose son Greg was an All-American golfer at Arizona State, made golf clubs for Tom Watson, Nancy Lopez, Gene Littler and others – in Redlands. Watson himself even journeyed to Mario’s local shop for consultation.
Tiger Woods came to Redlands as a well-known five-year-old.
Phillips Finlay, younger brother of Madison Finlay, once took on Bobby Jones in the Roaring 20’s. Or was it twice? Maybe three times?
Dave Stockton, who famously outdueled Arnold Palmer at that 1970 PGA Championship, hailed from San Bernardino – but moved to Redlands.
Here, though, was a photo print of that Ice Man, Hogan’s historical nickname, that bore all of Sloan’s photographic trademarks. Remember my cynicism. That started melting away. I believed Jim was telling a large truth.
First question that came into my head: “Did you shoot this photo in Redlands?”
Excuse my excitement. Jim, of course, had already told me that he was in Texas when he took it. Texas was Hogan’s home, somewhere near Dallas. I was excited to think that, somehow, Hogan might’ve traveled to Redlands.
I wish I could recreate that total conversation I had with Jim about his Hogan photo – but he was always in a hurry. There was no real conversation. Any time he showed up, it was always a quick-hitting visit. Sloan, in my memory, only showed up a few times for talk, presenting photos, or discussing some sports-related shot he’d taken. Something about that guy, always on the move, seemingly like he was late for something.
“I’ll give you this,” he said, noting that Hogan photo, “to use when he dies. Keep it in your obit file.”
And Jim disappeared. A few years later, Jim died. He was an heir to the R.J. Reynolds tobacco dynasty. Hogan outlived him by a few years. By the way, when Hogan passed away in July 1997, out came his photo from my desk for use in that Redlands newspaper.
