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.
REDLANDS – Mike Darnold was a curious “connection.”
Throw in football’s Jim Weatherwax and Brian DeRoo.
Villanova basketball coach Jay Wright showed up here, with his team, one Saturday morning in 2003.
“Black” Jack Gardner left here in 1928.
Jerry Tarkanian lifted off from here in 1961.
How many Redlands Connections can there be?
It’s a basis for that Blog site, www.obreybrown.com. Dedicated to an idea that there’s a connection from Redlands to almost every major sporting event, athletic lovers should check on it.
The afore-mentioned have already been featured. There have been others. Plenty of others.
Golf. Track & field. Tennis. Baseball and basketball. Softball and soccer. The Olympic Games and the Kentucky Derby. The Super Bowl? Yes.
For a city this size, connections to all of those are remarkable.
Softball’s Savannah Jaquish left Redlands East Valley for Louisiana State, later made Team USA.
Bob Karstens was just shooting a few baskets, using a few balls, shooting entertainingly at those outdoor Redlands High courts. Turned out he was one of three white men ever to play for the usually all-black Harlem Globetrotters.
Brian Billick coached a Terrier Hall of Famer. Together, they won a Super Bowl.
Speaking of Super Bowls, not only was a former Redlands High player involved in the first two NFL championship games, there was a head referee who stood behind first championship QBs Bart Starr and Lenny Dawson. That referee got his original start in Redlands.
One of racing’s fastest Top Fuel dragsters is a Redlands gal, Leah Pritchett.
Greg Horton forcefully blocked some of football’s greatest legends for a near-Super Bowl team.
At a high school playoff game at Redlands High in 1996, Alta Loma High showed up to play a quarterfinals match. It was Landon Donovan of Redlands taking on Carlos Bocanegra, future teammates on a USA World Cup side.
Karol Damon’s high-jumping Olympic dreams weren’t even known to her mother. She wound up in Sydney, 2000.
There are so many more connections.
- A surfing legend.
- Besides Landon Donovan, there’s another soccer dynamo.
- When this year’s Indianapolis 500 rolls around, we’ll tell you about a guy named “Lucky Louie.”
- Fifteen years before he won his first Masters, Tiger Woods played a 9-hole exhibition match at Redlands Country Club.
- University of Arizona softball, one of the nation’s greatest programs, was home to a speedy outfielder.
- As for DeRoo, he was present for one of the pro football’s darkest moments on the field.
- In 1921, an Olympic gold medalist showed up and set five world records in Redlands.
- The Redlands Bicycle Classic might have carved out of that sport’s most glorious locations – set in motion by a 1986 superstar squad.
- Distance-running sensation Mary Decker was taken down by a onetime University of Redlands miler.
- Collegiate volleyball probably never had a greater athlete from this area.
As for Darnold, consider that the one-time University of Redlands blocker is the father of Sam Darnold, a USC quarterback who was the NFL’s 2018 No. 1 draft selection.
Jaquish, that REV star, became a first-ever 4-time NCAA Division 1 All-American at talent-rich LSU.
Jacob Nottingham, drafted a few years ago by the Houston Astros, probably never knew he’d be part of two “Moneyball” deals.
Gardner, who coached against Bill Russell in the collegiate ranks, tried to recruit Wilt Chamberlain to play at Kansas State. Gardner graduated Redlands High way, way back.
Wright, whose team went into the March 31-April 2 weekend in 2018 hoping to win an NCAA championship for the third time, brought his team to play the Bulldogs as sort of a warm-up test for a pre-season tournament in Hawaii.
Tarkanian? Few might’ve known that legend, Tark the Shark, started chewing on towels while he was coaching at Redlands High.
Norm Schachter was head referee in three Super Bowls, including Green Bay’s inaugural championship win over Kansas City.
Speaking of Tarkanian, Weatherwax played hoops for him at Redlands. Eight years later, Weatherwax wore jersey No. 73 at Green Bay. It makes him the only man to ever play for Tarkanian and Vince Lombardi.
There are plenty more Redlands connections.
