NORM SCHACHTER, OF REDLANDS: TOP NFL REF NAILED BY ROZELLE?

NFL head referee Norm Schachter, whose early beginnings in education and officiating took place in Redlands, is shown at halftime with Kansas City Chiefs’ coach Hank Stram at the first Super Bowl at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Note: Schachter was known for wearing jersey No. 56, so it’s unclear why he’s wearing No. 60. Unknown photo credit, most likely by Associated Press.

Redlands Connection is a concoction of sports memories emanating from a city that once numbered less than 20,000 people. From football’s Super Bowl to baseball’s World Series, from soccer’s World Cup to golf’s U.S. Open, plus NCAA Final Four connections, Tour de France cycling, major tennis, NBA and a little NHL, aquatics and quite a bit more, that sparkling little city sitting around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10 has its share of sports connections. When a Redlands-based English teacher started refereeing football in the early 1940s, there was no Interstate 10 freeway, very few high schools with football teams throughout that area, nor a rare connection from that area to pro football. By 1967, he was the first head official refereeing what’s known as that first-ever Super Bowl! – Obrey Brown

NORM SCHACHTER, IT SHOULD be noted, was suspended along with his entire six-man crew, by NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle. During a crucial game between Los Angeles and Chicago on Dec. 8, 1968, Schachter’s crew denied the Rams a crucial down in a 17-16 loss to the Bears.

You never hear about stuff like that. Fifteen years later, I had a chance to ask Schachter about the play. About the call. About the suspension.

Rozelle, who played his part in Redlands during his days as the Rams’ public relations man, called the crew “competent.” They just made a mistake.

The Rams, who trained in Redlands before their season from 1948-1960, had thrown three incomplete passes in the late stages of that 1968 game. A penalty flag was thrown into the mix. That flag down, however, was not replayed.

“The ball was turned over to Chicago,” Rozelle said in his statement, “thus depriving Los Angeles of a fourth down play to which it was entitled.”

Five seconds were remaining. Ball at L.A.’s 47. Thirty-one yards were needed for a first down.

Schachter was a class act. He came to Redlands a few times during my years at the local newspaper. Most of those visits came in the 1980s and 1990s. Seems he had some remaining “connections” there that continued for many years despite such a brief stay in Redlands during his early days.

So did Rozelle, incidentally, come to Redlands, that is. Previous to his becoming NFL commissioner in 1959, he was the Rams’ publicist. Where did the Rams train from 1947 through 1960? The University of Redlands.

As for Schachter, consider that one of his former English students from Redlands, Jim Sloan, became a local photographer. Sloan, among others, was happy to pronounce the connection to a guy that had a bird’s eye view of pro football. Sloan, for his part, was an heir to the R.J. Reynolds tobacco dynasty. It was a guy who went on to travel a lot, shoot photos a lot – and keep connections to guys like Schachter.

 

OTHER REFS FROM LOCAL AREA

There were other officials from that area, including Redlands’ John Fouch, Sr. Down the road a bit from Redlands, Rialto, was Al Jury. It was Jury, in fact, that joined the NFL – just after Schachter retired, incidentally – when the league expanded its on-field officiating crew from six to seven. It opened up some great opportunities.

JOhn Fouch, Sr
John Fouch, Sr., a Santa Ana product who moved to Redlands to raise his family, played in the same USC backfield as Frank Gifford, eventually spending 15 years as an NFL referee (photo by Santa Ana College).

Fouch, a major high school star at Santa Ana High School turned into a superstar at Santa Ana Junior College before heading off to USC, where he shared the 1949 Trojan backfield with future NFL Hall of Famer Frank Gifford.

Fouch wore NFL zebra stripes for 15 years. The head referee in his crew was Red Cashion, the guy with the enthusiastic signature, “first dowwwwn” call. Eventually, Fouch moved to Redlands. His son, John, Jr., incidentally, became a quarterback that eventually took off for Arizona State.

After all those years away, Schachter still seemed impressed with Redlands despite moving from that 1941 small orange grove-covered community – no Interstate 10 freeway, or a heavy duty of sales approaches. Schachter, in fact, was generous with his time and comments.

Redlands, he said, “was a very nice little community when I taught and reffed here.” No, he never provided information that the Terriers weren’t much of a winning football program during those years.

Schachter carried around a significant sense of humor. He proved it with some of his responses.

I spent several minutes preparing for my interview with him. Was there ever a moment where you made a bad call – and knew it? Yeah, he’d go through a suspension later.

“I don’t waste time second-guessing myself,” he said. Couldn’t tell if Schachter was serious or joking. He was joking. “There’ll be millions who will do it for you.”

Talk on an NFL field must be pretty horrifying. Guys grunting, cussing, spitting, working themselves into a frenzy over, perhaps, a penalty flag. Horrifying?

“Oh, really?” he said. “I never heard that.”

Sarcasm was a nice little exercise for Schachter, who probably heard it all. “Listen,” he said, “when players lose it in their legs, they gain it in their mouths.”

Oh, yeah. It was Sloan who told me to ask him about the time his crew had been suspended. Refs aren’t perfect, though they’re probably expected to be, said Sloan. That December 1968 game between the Rams and Bears could have been his lowest point.

“Holding call on the Rams,” Schacter told me, explaining the suspension. “Fifteen yards in those days. Spot foul, too. We didn’t replay the down. That was the issue.”

He looked at me. Anything else? It was like he was saying, “I dare you to ask me anything more about it.”

So I took the dare. “How many times have you been asked about that?”

That drew a slight chuckle. “I lost count around 20,000 …”

I hadn’t even planned this next question. “Ever think about the fact that it was Rozelle, that he used to work for the Rams, that suspended you?” 

“Pete hit us (his entire officiating staff) pretty hard with the suspension,” Schachter said. “No more games for us the rest of that season, including the playoffs. We were back the following season.”

It was, in fact, prior to that season he refereed a Super Bowl game. Schachter would be back.

Redlands: It’s where his officiating career began. Local games. There couldn’t have been many. High schools were scarce in that area. San Bernardino and Riverside just had one campus, like Redlands. Colton. Chaffey, in Ontario. Fontana and Eisenhower, in Rialto, didn’t even have their own high schools.

CLOSE CALLS & CONFESSIONS

He’d written “Close Calls: Confessions of an NFL Referee” in the early 1980s. The guy was an author. An official of famous NFL games. Never read the book. Can only guess how it was presented.

He also wrote text books. After his on-field days concluded, he worked for the league writing referees’ exams and other data. He edited the league’s rules book.

His “Confessions” book: Stories, humorous anecdotes, nuggets about his professional career in education. After starting as a Redlands-based English teacher in 1941, Schachter eventually became a principal at Los Angeles High School, later surfacing as superintendent (1971-78) in the L.A. school system.

All the NFL’s generation names were in “Confessions” – Lombardi, Starr, Butkus, Papa Bear, Shula, Madden, Paul Brown, Van Brocklin, you name it. Hired by Commissioner Bert Bell in the 1950s – $100 a game, 7-game minimum.

Pete_Rozelle_and_George_Halas

Pete Rozelle, left, who once served as a public relations specialist when the Rams trained in Redlands throughout the 1950s, shakes hands with George “Papa Bear” Halas, the longtime owner, coach and general manager of the Chicago Bears. Halas drafted Redlands’ Greg Horton in the 1974 NFL draft – third round out of Colorado. All part of a Redlands Connection. Photo by Jim Sloan.

Did all those NFL names have to be impressive. “No,” Schachter noting those names, “none of those guys ever spent time buying me dinner and drinks.”

That NFL retired following the 1976 Super Bowl, Pittsburgh’s 21-17 win over Dallas – Schachter’s third Super Bowl. He worked Green Bay’s 35-10 win over Kansas City, then Super Bowl V when Baltimore beat Dallas, 16-13, and, finally, the Steelers-Cowboys.

Twenty-two years in an NFL striped shirt. Brooklyn-born, a U.S. Marine, married to Charlotte for 56 years, sired three sons, Bob, Tom and Jim. Schachter studied for a doctorate at Alfred (N.Y.) University. For Schachter, the end came in San Pedro. Age 90. Died in an old folks home.

It was a long way from the famous Green Bay-Dallas “Ice Bowl” game where he was spotted wearing ear muffs in the freezing weather.

COMING – Super Bowl’s connection to Redlands.

 

UNUSUAL REDLANDS MATCHUP … IN BALTIMORE?

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, NASCAR, the Kentucky Derby and Indianapolis 500, 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. Two guys from Redlands took off on that I-10 for spots in the NFL. – Obrey Brown

It was Sept. 9, 1979.

City of Baltimore, Md. Site was Memorial Stadium.

Second week of the NFL season.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were in town to play the Colts.

The Ted Marchibroda’s Colts were taking on John McKay’s Bucs.

Among all the other pre-game notes was this zany little matchup: Of all things, two kids from Redlands High School were playing against each other.

Brian De Roo, a second-year wide receiver who had been traded from the New York Giants, was standing on one sideline.

Brian DeRoo (Photo by Canadian Football League)
Brian De Roo

On the other sideline was none other than Greg Horton, whose NFL career had gone from Chicago to Los Angeles and, eventually, to the Bucs. Those two ex-Terriers didn’t play together. 

By 1979, De Roo and Horton met on an NFL field … in Baltimore.

Greg Horton II
Greg Horton

Final score that day: Tampa Bay 29, Baltimore 26. It took overtime to pull it off.

There might’ve been a curious thing that took place.

Baltimore, trailing 26-17, sent its second-year receiver, De Roo, down the right sideline. Colts’ QB Greg Landry delivered the pass.

Caught.

Down the sideline.

Chased by defenders.

Touchdown.

One night later, that Landry-to-DeRoo touchdown made the Monday Night Football halftime highlights. Legendary ABC-TV sportscaster Howard Cosell delivered the words from that highlight.

Howard_cosell_1975

Howard Cosell put Brian De Roo’s name on national TV on September 10, 1979. (Photo by Wikipedia Commons)Cosell: “De Roo … could … go … all … the … way!”

He did.

When the game concluded, the Bucs had themselves a 29-26 overtime win that might have lifted this team’s confidence. Now into their fourth season after entering via a 1976 NFL expansion – along with the Seattle Seahawks – McKay’s steady pace was starting to make its mark.

Tampa Bay was a possible playoff team.

First, though, they had to start winning games. Baltimore, a perennial contender, was standing in their way in Week 2.

The two Redlanders had gotten into the NFL by far different paths.

Horton, a 1969 Redlands High grad, chose Colorado as his collegiate destination. It was in that raucous, hard-hitting Big Eight Conference – dominated for years by Nebraska and Oklahoma – that helped develop his game.

Enough so that in 1974, George “Papa Bear” Halas chose Horton in the third round of the NFL draft.

Unlike Horton, who had long been a Redlands High prize, De Roo didn’t make the Terrier varsity until halfway through his senior season. Since Redlands rarely put the ball in the air, it should’ve been a complete surprise that he’d wind up leading Redlands in receptions that season.

At college selection time, De Roo wasn’t even planning on football. He’d chosen Cal Poly San Luis Obispo before University of Redlands coach Frank Serrao convinced him to play for the Bulldogs.

That he would eventually elevate himself into the NFL draft, 1978, was extraordinary. A year after that, Horton against De Roo was taking place in Baltimore.

In that game, DeRoo snagged three passes for 81 yards in that game – perhaps his best professional game ever displayed. He snapped just seven during his three-year NFL connection.

Horton, meanwhile, was part of the Bucs’ strength – an offensive line that propelled the likes of Ricky Bell to a thousand-yard season. In that game, however, Baltimore held him to 34 yards, plus another 56 yards on three receptions.

Bell racked up 1,263 yards that season, helping Tampa Bay into the NFL playoffs for the first time ever.

Horton also blocked for Doug Williams, the ex-Grambling QB taken in the first round of the 1977 draft. Eventually, Williams would follow Bucs’ offensive coordinator Joe Gibbs to the Washington Redskins.

On that date, Sept. 9, 1979, Redlands stood tall in the NFL when De Roo and Horton connected.

It was, said DeRoo, “the only time Greg and I ever played against each other in an NFL game. The only thing was that he only lasted one play. He shoved one of the referees and got thrown out of the game.”

DeRoo, for his part, caught only one pass the rest of the season.

Footnote: Baltimore continued to a Redlands connection, especially when Brian Billick, a 1972 Redlands High grad, turned up to coach the Baltimore Ravens to that 2001 Super Bowl championship. On that team was yet another Redlands connection – speedy wide receiver Patrick Johnson.

 

 

 

‘NIGHT TRAIN’ LANE ON REDLANDS: ‘SWEATING A LOT’

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, NASCAR, the Kentucky Derby and Indianapolis 500, Tour de France cycling, major tennis, NBA and a little NHL, aquatics and quite a bit more, the sparkling San Bernardino County city that sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10 has its share of sports connections. Long before those NFL’s Los Angeles Rams came to Redlands for pre-season training, I-10 never existed. – Obrey Brown

When I got hold of him around the summer of 1993, Richard Lane was living in Detroit, where he’d once worked for the Lions and, eventually, with city youth programs.

“Whew,” said Lane, who died in 2002, 28 years after he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

“Red-lands! You’re talking about a long time ago. All I can remember about Redlands was that I needed a ride to get out there. I didn’t know how to get there.”

Richard Lane, better known to the pro football world as Dick “Night Train” Lane knew what to do when he arrived. Redlands was the spot he had to prove his value to Rams’ coaches. He wasn’t yet known by his nickname, “Night Train.”

Dick_Lane_1962 (wikipedia)

Dick “Night Train” Lane remembered trying to make the Los Angeles Rams at his first NFL training camp in Redlands, 1952 (photo by Wikipedia Commons).My job was to track as many “Redlands” Rams as I could. For a 12-year period between 1949-60, the Los Angeles Rams trained at a far older version of a University of Redlands stadium. This was historical. Imagine such an event taking place today. That little city probably couldn’t handle the notoriety. Then again, you never know.

Years later, Lane remembered the tiny little city.

“I got out of the service,” said Lane, who was 6-feet-2, 210 pounds. “My first connection, my first real connection with the Rams was in Redlands. I had to make the team there.”

Not drafted. Not scouted. Just signed. In Redlands.

Lane attracted the attention of Rams’ coaches. He played receiver. Split end? Not with the Tom Fears and “Crazy Legs” Hirsch tandem still operating as the NFL’s top pass-catching duo in what was considered one of the most potent attacks in league history.

“You know,” Lane said, “I hate to say this, but I think I could’ve been a little better (receiver) than what they had there” – referring to Fears and Hirsch.

Fears, Hirsch and Lewis were each a Hall of Famer.

Said Lewis – or “Night Train”: “I covered them in practice. That’s how they noticed me on defense. That’s their thinking then: ‘If I could cover Tom and ElRoy, then I deserved a place on the team.’ ”

In one of Joe Stydahar’s final moves as Rams’ coach, one perhaps aided by defensive coach Hampton Pool, Lane was switched to defensive back. It was in that season that Lane picked off a record 14 passes over what was then a 12-game NFL schedule.

“Joe quit a game into the season,” said Lane. “I didn’t really get to know him that well. Both guys (Stydahar and Pool)  … I give credit to my making the team.”

Which enemy QBs did he fleece?

“I intercepted Johnny Unitas,” said Lane. “Otto Graham was another guy. Uh, Bobby Layne … (Y.A.) Tittle … got a long (return) against (Babe) Parilli when he was with the Packers … (Charlie) Conerly. A lot of guys.”

Parilli? With the Packers? This was before, of course, Bart Starr arrived in Green Bay.

By 1954, Lane, who came up with 68 career interceptions, those Rams  traded him to the Chicago Cardinals. “I don’t know why I was traded. It’s hard to have the kind of season like I had that first year. I’m pretty sure they felt I slacked off somewhat.”

While Lane’s career was just beginning, another was concluding.

Coming off a National Football League championship one season earlier in 1951, the Rams seemed to be the hot team. It would be the final season for Hall of Fame quarterback Bob Waterfield. Norm Van Brocklin, another Hall of Fame QB, had been drafted out of Oregon.

Lane, the incoming wide receiver, had little chance of making this team. By 1952, Hirsch and Fears were the best tandem of split ends in that far back NFL.

“Don’t ask me to pick between them,” said Lane, referring to the QB tandem. “Bob retired after my rookie season, though. Both men were great. Both were great quarterbacks. I couldn’t pick between them.”

It was all taking place right in Redlands; the scheming of Lane, who kept his split end jersey No. 81 while switching to cornerback. History was being set on that old University of Redlands field.

“I was only with the Rams for a couple years,” he said. “I moved on. Too bad.”

These were just a portion of the stories engaged at the Rams’ pre-season training camp.

“Night Train,” he said, referring to his nickname. “Ah, man. It was that song (by Buddy Morrow).”

Whoops. He made a mistake. “No, not Buddy Morrow. It was Jimmy Lester. Tom (Fears) gave it to me. Started calling me that.

“No one called me Dick or Richard,” he said. “I had the Necktie nickname, too. I got guys by their neckties. They outlawed that kind of tackle, the clothesline.”

Night Train Lane, however, stuck – all the way to that Hall of Fame.

Night Train was the hot song.

There were plenty of hot nights in the Redlands dorms, Lane recalled.

“I swear, if they’d invented air conditioning back then,” he said, “they wouldn’t have given it to us. They wanted us to sweat.

“Ha-haaaaa,” he said. “That’s what I remember about Redlands. Sweating a lot.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

BILLICK CAME OUT SWINGING FOR EVENTUAL NFL HALL OF FAMER

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, 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 between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10. Funny that this coach played football, played at Air Force, returning to Redlands to commence his post-playing career. – Obrey Brown

Brian Billick told the world about his star player, Ray Lewis. It was just about time for Super Bowl XXXV. Lewis, who was the Baltimore Ravens’ middle linebacker, had been linked to the murder of two men in Atlanta months earlier. That crime came just after a Super Bowl that the Ravens hadn’t yet played. It sure came up once that Ravens-New York Giants’ championship was about to be played.

Here was Billick, cast in the role as Lewis’ protector – as if this rugged defender that could knock down anyone in the NFL would need a protector – in a pushback role to NFL media. Media contact, via Billick, reached way beyond football. 

I’ll never forget Billick – watching on TV, of course – telling the media they weren’t qualified to cast themselves into the role of cop reporter. The case had been tried. Charges against Lewis, folks, were dropped by prosecution. It was closed. I can still remember, “We’re not going to retry this,” said Billick.

Twenty-nine years earlier, Billick had not only graduated from high school, but his football brilliance (12 interceptions one season) at that prep level concluded. 

On Lewis, there just wasn’t enough evidence. If not for the glaring spotlight of that Super Bowl XXXV, all matters would have been ignored.

Don’t ask, Billick was telling the media. He was, in fact, demanding it. It might have been the most memorable part of that year’s Super Bowl, in fact.

09_Billick_PreviewPreseason_news
Truth is, Redlands’ Brian Billick has been surrounded by NFL Hall of Famers, ranging from Bill Walsh and Tom Landry in the 1970s to the 2018 inductees, Randy Moss and Ray Lewis. Billick sounded off against the world’s top media on Lewis just before Super Bowl XXXV. (Photo by Wikipedia Commons.)

It was Super Bowl week. The Ravens, a 85-67 record under Billick over nine seasons, were getting set to take on the New York Giants for the National Football League championship in 2000 – which they did, convincingly. AFC wins over Denver, Tennessee and Oakland got Billick’s team into that championship against the Giants.

A few weeks later, Billick took time to share his thoughts with me.

On Lewis? No, I wasn’t asking him to retry. Or for any insight into the matter. Just how hard was it going through all that? How much of a distraction? Couldn’t have been much. After all, I told him, “you won, 34-7.”

“Boy, was that hard,” he told me in the same command performance manner he’d taken on with the media. “I still can’t believe I had to go through all that. How we, as an organization, had to go through all that. That never happened when I was at Redlands, believe me.”

Ray Lewis (Photo by Wikipedia Commons)
Ray Lewis was a mainstay on the Baltimore Ravens’ defense during Brian Billick’s 9-year tenure. (Photo by Wikipedia Commons.)

Billick, of course, was a star player at Redlands High, a 1972 graduate before setting sail to play at Air Force Academy and, eventually, at Brigham Young University. After a possible playing career was negated at Dallas and San Francisco in 1977, his coaching career started in 1978 in Redlands, of all places.

That 1978 season, believe it or not, he helped both that city’s high school and small university in Redlands. It was on to BYU as a graduate assistant, San Diego State, Utah State in smallish Logan and Stanford before heading off to Minnesota Vikings as an assistant under Denny Green.

Two decades following his collegiate playing career, after a myriad of assistant coaching stops along the way, Billick surfaced as Ravens’ head coach – 80-64 record over nine seasons.

Years later, Feb. 2, 2018, to be exact, Billick had another NFL Hall Famer. Lewis was, in fact, being inducted with seven others, including another Billick protégé, wide receiver Randy Moss.

Yes, Billick had worked in Minnesota – under Green – with a number of NFL Hall-bound greats.

Lewis was the focus of the ambulance-chasing media heading into the Tampa Bay showdown with the Giants. Billick admitted he was set for the showdown with the media.

“Yeah,” said Billick, “I had to try and attract all the attention to me. I didn’t have to play. Ray Lewis did have to play. I needed his attention – all his attention – on that game.”

Against that chasing media, it was the old hit-‘em-in-the-mouth-before-they-hit-you routine. It worked, Billick said.

Truth is, Billick has coached numerous Hall of Famers – Rod Woodson, Shannon Sharpe, Jonathan Ogden, and that’s a yes on Deion Sanders in Baltimore after his years playing in Atlanta, San Francisco and Dallas.

During Billick’s Minnesota days, there was, of course, Moon, plus Cris Carter and the great Moss.

No, don’t get him to talk about a missed field in the NFC Championship game against the Atlanta “Dirty Bird” Falcons. Carter, Moss and QB Randall Cunningham should’ve been more than enough firepower for the Vikings to win that game.

Placekicker Gary Anderson, who made every single field goal attempt and extra point throughout the season, missed a game-winner against Atlanta. It capped the Vikings’ season at 15-1 on that game-capper.

Billick, meanwhile, has surrounded himself by Hall of Fame talent. He was in Dallas for a while. Anyone remember Tom Landry?

Also in San Francisco, albeit briefly, where Bill Walsh was running the 49ers.

When Billick’s command performance with the media via Lewis had ended, what did he think?

“I’d knocked them on their ass.”

DAVE ARANDA: FAILING NAVY PHYSICAL TURNED REDLANDS PRODUCT INTO COACHING WIZARD

Dave Aranda, a 1995 Redlands High School graduate, made his way to San Bernardino Valley, California Lutheran University-Thousand Oaks, Texas Tech (Lubbock), Hawaii, Houston, Southern Utah, Utah State and Wisconsin before landing a role as defensive coordinator at Louisiana State University. Now Aranda is head coach at Baylor University, 12-2 after winning the Sugar Bowl in his second full season.

At the time of this chat, August 2019, Dave Aranda was just starting his final season as an assistant coach at Louisiana State University. By season’s end, his name was on the minds of a few handfuls of major university programs who were in search of a new coach. Aranda eventually landed at Baylor.

BATON ROUGE, La. — Injury-prone, poor grades and not blessed with a gift for classroom activities wasn’t exactly a glorified pathway into a record-setting pay-day at Louisiana State University for football coach Dave Aranda.

After graduating Redlands High School in 1995, the devoted Los Angeles Rams’ fan had a different plan in mind.

“I enlisted in the Navy,” said Aranda, born in September 1976,  “after high school, but they wouldn’t take me. I couldn’t pass the physical.”

All those high school shoulder injuries had worked against him.

Fast forward over a quarter-century. He’s now head coach at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. When highly-successful Bears’ coach Matt Rhule landed an NFL head coaching job at Carolina, Aranda won the open position at Baylor.

Even as an assistant, Aranda was considered one of college football’s most well-known coaches. He was defensive coordinator and associate head coach to an LSU squad — head coach, former USC man Ed Orgeron — that’s located in the heart of football country.

That “heart” would be the Southeastern Conference. It’s the same SEC that houses such perennial powerhouses as Ole Miss, Georgia, Auburn, Florida and, of course, Alabama, to take on those LSU Tigers. A former Terrier player, not to mention a one time junior varsity coach, was on hand in that SEC.

“No doubt about it,” said Aranda on Aug. 1, 2019 which was LSU’s first official day of training camp. “I would not be here if I didn’t get hurt playing in high school.”

All of which led to failing that Navy physical. It could be one of the most off-the-charts stories in a rise to prominence in, well, ever.

Forget, at least for a minute, that Aranda has game-planned against a pair of Heisman Trophy winners, Louisville QB Lamar Jackson and Alabama RB Derrick Henry, or such bluntly-talented receivers as LSU’s Odell Beckham, Jr., USC’s JuJu Smith-Schuster and Alabama’s Amari Cooper.

For the record, Aranda was defensive coordinator at Wisconsin when the Badgers took on Beckham’s Tigers’ squad in 2015. That was one season before LSU snatched Aranda away from leading a nation’s top 10 Wisconsin defense.

Lots of college programs “snatched” him up — beginning with California Lutheran University-Thousand Oaks (where he was roommates with onetime Texas coach Tom Herman), then Texas Tech, followed by Southern Utah, Houston, Hawaii and Utah State before he followed Aggies’ coach Gary Anderson to Wisconsin.

“I didn’t play (football) at Cal Lu,” said Aranda, reflecting on his injury-prone shoulder.

How he worked his way up the ladder in the Kingsmen’s coaching system, though — first as a water boy and film guy as a freshman, coaching one outside linebacker during his sophomore year, jetting up to coaching two guys as a junior.

“I was pretty involved in my senior year,” he said.

ARANDA’S FIRST BIG BREAK

A funny thing happened, though, between 1999 and 2000. He was set to take on more responsibility under then-Kingsmen coach Sean Squires.

In a summer prior to its 2000 season, he spent a week-long trip to Lubbock — Texas Tech country — alongside another Cal Lu assistant, Cory Undlin, which turned into an invitation. The Cal Lu coaching combo was there to peer into a major college program in hopes of gleaning some better understanding to take on the likes of Whittier, Occidental and the University of Redlands.

Said Aranda: “We were ready to leave and they called me in. They told me they didn’t have a graduate assistant. Asked if I wanted that position.”

Aranda took the opening at Lubbock. Mike Leach, perhaps one of the most innovative play-callers in the country, was Red Raiders’ head coach. Under Leach’s watch, Aranda was part of two bowl-winning outcomes over three seasons.

Undlin, incidentally, wound up on the Philadelphia Eagles’ coaching staff, first went back to Cal Lutheran. Aranda’s Red Raiders, meanwhile, had some well-trained players.

“Our quarterback,” said Aranda, “was Kliff Kingsbury (eventual head coach for the Arizona Cardinals). Wes Welker (now-retired New England Patriots) was one of our receivers.”

Throw in Sonny Dykes and Art Briles, two other well-known coaches in the college football ranks, plus Greg McMackin and Ron Harris. Aranda was, thus, solidly surrounded by coaching talent and opportunity.

By 2003, Aranda’s Texas Tech GA days were over. It was off to a bunch of new digs — Cedar City, Utah; Honolulu; Houston; back Utah, in way-north Logan; Madison, Wis.; eventually, LSU’s home city, Baton Rouge.

His digs by 2020 was Baylor, down Waco, Texas, a head coaching spot he took while basking in the championship glow of LSU’s national championship victory over Clemson in January 2020. Wins came over fourth-ranked Oklahoma and highly-ranked Georgia in its two previous games.

That Redlands-based Navy recruiting office, located over by the old Mervyn’s department store, has long since spun around Aranda’s mind.

“I think I spent a year talking to that recruiting guy,” he said. And it hit hard he couldn’t pass that Navy physical. “If I’d have passed that physical, I’d have never gone to college.”

REDLANDS’ COACHING FELLOWSHIP

Aranda, who had a perfectly healthy sophomore season as a Redlands High linebacker in 1992, hit nothing but turbulence over his next two seasons. At least four shoulder surgeries killed off his playing time.

In fact, Terrier head coach Jim Walker and top assistant Miguel Olmedo shifted him from linebacker, where his contributions were best felt, to the offensive line — perhaps because there wasn’t as much contact.

“It didn’t matter,” said Aranda. “I wore a harness when I played. Every now and then, the shoulder would slip out. I’d have to put it back in.”

Olmedo raved about his prize player, Aranda, who was reduced to about 50 percent able-bodied. “Most guys wouldn’t even try to play,” said Olmedo. “He was just this quiet guy that kept on trying, no matter how badly it hurt.”

It was Walker and Olmedo that put Aranda up to attending classes at San Bernardino Valley College, got him that department store job, plus coaching Redlands’ JV squad alongside the likes of now-deceased assistants, Mike Mauger and Sam Richey.

By 1996, Aranda was off to Thousand Oaks – a home base for the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys for pre-season workouts.

“The fellowship I had with those guys,” said Aranda, referring to Mauger, Richey, Walker, Olmedo and veteran line coach George Tesla, “taught me for the first time that I could make sure football didn’t end after (playing in) high school. We were so tight. I’ll never forget going to scout games for the Varsity.”

It’s unknown who paid that gas bill driving from Redlands to Poway, California. Aranda just didn’t say. It’s the home of onetime Univ. San Diego coach Bill Williams, who was running coaching clinics.

“I was helping him make the videos, doing the (demonstrations),” said Aranda. “That guy had stacks of video from the floor to the ceiling.”

RAMS DAYS COME FULL CIRCLE

All of which played into those little-boy days growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area community of Union City, 1980s, 30 minutes south of Oakland. It’s where Aranda’s family lived during his elementary school days.

His NFL rooting interests centered around the Los Angeles Rams, then coached by fabled former USC coach John Robinson. When the Rams played San Francisco, Aranda suffered through the 49ers’ domination.

“They had Jerry Rice, Roger Craig, Joe Montana, Bubba Paris, Guy McIntyre,” he said, rattling off a string of the 49ers’ best players. “We had (Rams’ QB) Jim Everett.”

Aranda described himself as “Super Fan.”

“Rice would run routes all over the field,” he said, “and catch a pass in front of the Rams’ defenders, then run around them for a touchdown. It made me sick.”

Even then, he was diagnosing defensive schemes to try and slow up that so-called West Coast offense.

“Jimmy Johnson showed up (as head coach) in Dallas and started those attacking defenses,” he said. Aranda hadn’t yet started cracking into high school defensive schemes.

Skip to nearly two decades into the 2000s. By 2018, Aranda had signed the richest-ever assistant coach’s contract in history at LSU — $10 million over four years — making him, perhaps, one of the best-suited coaches to try and crack those opposition offensive attacks.

“Things have changed so much,” he said, “in the sport since those 49er days when Joe Montana was throwing to Jerry Rice.”

As for Robinson, consider this:

“I just left him about 30 minutes ago,” said Aranda during that Aug. 1, 2019 chat. “I’m telling you, he loves football so much. (Robinson) moved his family from San Diego to Baton Rouge. He’s in his 80s. He’s been here for about a week. He’s helping us coach here.”

Aranda, that bad shoulder still killing him, can’t even throw a football during those LSU linebacker drills.

“It’s okay,” he said. “I usually have a GA do it.”

HEAD COACHING RECORD

2020 – 2-7, 2-7

2021 – 12-2, 7-2  (won Sugar Bowl)

2022 – 6-7, 4-5

2023 – 3-9, 2-7

2024 – 8-4, 6-3

Totals – 31-29, 21-24

 

ROBBIE HUDSON: STRANGE PATHWAY TO TEXAS LONGHORNS’ INFIELD

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, NASCAR, the Kentucky Derby and Indianapolis 500, Tour de France cycling, major tennis, NBA and a little NHL, aquatics and quite a bit more, that sparkling little city between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10. This guy took off for Riverside before landing in Austin, Texas en route to a hopeful baseball career, counting college and minor league baseball spots — Birmingham, Everett, Appleton, Kannapolis, Winston-Salem, Charlotte, Allentown and Tucson. – Obrey Brown

It was a key-charging, hard-working, unrelatable chase toward a major league team.

Redlands High School’s Robbie Hudson, playing in collegiate star-studded Riverside, Calif. and a bigger shot at Austin, Texas, seemed surrounded by a stack of top-ranked baseball players at both that level, plus his eventual pro baseball players.

Maybe he played a middle infield spot for the 2010 Charlotte Knights’ lineup when incoming southpaw teammate Chris Sale took the mound. Or that he was at shortstop when slugging team member Chris Carter was in that same lineup for the Kannapolis Intimidators.

Before getting surrounded by seven seasons alongside future top baseball players was just a start for Hudson’s pro-steeping career. That ex-Redlands High School star shortstop was hoping for an MLB spot.

  1. Still. Ask. Myself. How?

It was part of a guy named Hudson — Chattanooga, Tennessee-born — who was from a nice collection of Terrier ballplayers from his own prep era. There was outfielder Curt Mendoza drafted by Cleveland. Or infielder Chris Wilson selected by Texas. Neither signed. There was pitcher Chris Hernandez, plucked by the Pirates. Don’t forget catcher Bret Martinez taken by the Angels. 

Hudson, after four collegiate seasons, eventually got signed by Seattle. There were finesse players around him all along.

To grab a major league spot, minor league shortstop Hudson might’ve been battling for, say, Seattle’s big league shortstop Yaniesky Betancourt. A few years later, Juan Uribe shortstop for White Sox’s MLB team just a couple seasons after Chicago won the World Series. There could be others playing strong shortstops in MLB. Hudson was trying hard to hit that point.

Hudson, playing over four sensational collegiate seasons, eventually survived seven minor league seasons. It came after he served college ball at Riverside and Austin which forged a testament on how tough this quick, non-power, six-foot, 170-pound infielder was seeking a career.

I remember spotting Hudson’s Associated Press photo — leaping in the air to snag a throw from his Longhorns’ catcher, eventual MLB Texas Rangers’ third round pick Taylor Teagarden — that was highly publicized during the College World Series.

That’s big!

Robbie Hudson
Redlands’ Robbie Hudson, a state junior college champion at Riverside City College, then a College World Series champion in Austin, Texas.

HUDSON IN COLLEGE

By his pro conclusion, Hudson batted over 2,000 times in minor league games — a .249 average, 16 total HRs, playing mostly shortstop or second base with .963 glove contributions. Signed, though not drafted, by the Seattle Mariners, this defender was an all-out regular, appearing in a career-high 112 games for the Class A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers in 2006.

It was that same season after helping the Texas Longhorns win the College World Series.

Prep strength Redlands, then off to RCC? RCC to Texas? Texas, it seemed, wasn’t in the habit of picking up junior college recruits, especially from California. Hudson, it turns out, was lined up in a pair of championship-achieving teams.

In RCC’s 45-8 overall, state-championship record in 2002, Hudson’s .246 average over 42 games, never came close to pitching teammate Jesse Chavez – 13-2, plus a 1.96 ERA. Curiously, at high school, they were rivals in their Citrus Belt League. Hudson had played shortstop for Redlands while Chavez pitched at Fontana A.B. Miller.

A season later, in 2003, Hudson racked up a team-high .350, that catcher who left Redlands High for Redlands East Valley — catcher Bret Martinez (2 HRs, .275) — plus Chavez (11-5, 1.93) was just part of that 36-12 record for Tigers’ coach Dennis Rogers.

For Hudson, teammates at that Orange Coast Conference powerhouse was his state’s top program. He was making a signal for another step up. It was onto Austin, that Longhorn squad had a player from Colorado. Another from Oklahoma. Virginia and Louisiana each landed players. 

Hitting .287 and .292 in back-to-back seasons on that Longhorns’ team, 52-16 in 2005 and a 41-21 NCAA championship season in 2006, Hudson played a considerable role in that Texas’ title-seeking chase.

At Texas, Hudson was teammates with future No. 1 picks like Drew Stubbs, Huston Street, J.P. Howell, Kyle McCulloch, not to mention highly-regarded catcher Taylor Teagarden, an eventual third rounder.

Hudson had gone from one great coach, RCC’s Dennis Rogers, who coached at the minor league level, to another, Texas’ Augie Garrido.

Augie Garrido
Texas coach Augie Garrido, who left Cal State Fullerton to take over at the University of Texas, had Redlands’ Robbie Hudson in the Longhorns’ lineup when they won the 2005 College World Series (photo by Wikipedia Commons).

In 2004, Garrido’s Longhorns reached the College World Series championship finals, but lost to his onetime team. Cal State Fullerton wrapped up its fourth NCAA title – against Garrido’s Texas squad – in a two-game sweep, 3-2 and 6-4. Funny thing here. Garrido, a fellow California, coached Fullerton to those previous three College World Series championships (1979, 1984, 1995) before moving to that Austin-based campus. It was there that the Longhorns, under Garrido, captured two more collegiate titles (2002, 2005).

Those Texas teammates for Hudson?

Street, an eventual MLB closer? Hudson wasn’t in the Texas lineup Street saved. Street, 42 eventual lifetime MLB wins, 2.95 ERA, 324 career saves, American League’s 2005 Rookie of the Year for Oakland, pitching at Colorado, San Diego and the L.A. Angels.

There had to be some irony involved that Fullerton had once been Garrido’s team, having departed the Titans after 1996 for the legendary Longhorns.

Texas, part of those 64 College World Series chasers, wrapped it up. Hudson’s senior season, Garrido’s Longhorns won it all. Imagine having to get past Quinnipiac. Arkansas. Or Ole Miss. Or Baylor. Or Tulane. Or Florida. Texas, making it wins 51 and 52, beat Florida twice, 6-2 and 4-2, to wrap up that collegiate title.

MLB scouts must be salivating over collegiate championship-seeking teams, picking future major leaguers. Hudson, not drafted by signed after that 2005 signing by the Seattle Mariners, figured to be a prime example.

There may have been no better spot than Omaha, Neb., however — legendary site of Rosenblatt Stadium, home of the College World Series. Hudson singled in his final collegiate game.

Rosenblatt Stadium, it turns out, was home over a four-year stretch (2002-2005) to former Redlands ballplayers — Hudson and Hernandez, pitching for University of South Carolina, had been there in back-to-back years with the Gamecocks in 2002 and 2003.

Hudson showed at Texas in 2004 and 2005.

Hudson hit .287 and .272 in both of those seasons in Austin. In 2002 and 2003, he hit .246 and .350 for championship play back in California at RCC.

 

Garrido led his previous spot Cal State Fullerton to a trio of College World Series titles. Hudson, for his part, teamed up with future MLB players at both college spots. 

 

At Texas, catchers Curtis Thigpen (.378, 51 RBIs in 2005) and Taylor Teagarden (22 HRs, 52 doubles, .313, 125 RBIs – 3 seasons), base stealing outfielder Drew Stubbs (.325, 86 steals – 3 seasons), plus starting pitcher transferred from USC, J.P. Howell (25-4, 2.31, 271 strikeouts – 2 seasons) and reliever Huston Street (18-3, 41 saves, 1.39 – 3 seasons).

 

Those were all Hudson’s Texas teammates.

HUDSON IN PROFESSIONALS

The Redlands High prospect wound up in highly-prospective major league programs. Heading to a seven-year minor league career, that ex-Terrier swiped 69 bases, knocked out 88 doubles and 10 triples, hitting only into 29 double plays.

Spending time in the Seattle, Philadelphia, Chicago White Sox and San Diego chains from 2005-2011, his minor league stops included Class AA Birmingham, Class AAA Charlotte, Tucson and Lehigh (Pa.), opening at Class A Winston-Salem in such legendary spots as the Carolina League, Southern League and the International League.

In the minors, Hudson was teammates with plenty of No. 1 MLB picks – namely John Mayberry, Jr., Jason Grilli and Gordon Beckham, plus Buster Posey’s one time Giants’ backup catcher Nick Hundley.

Hudson’s minor league years had brief teammates with the slugging Carter, All-Star first baseman Anthony Rizzo, ex-Yucaipa High (that city next to Redlands) slugger Mark Teahan in 2010 with Triple A Charlotte, plus dozens of eventual big-league pitchers.

 

In case Hudson could be placed into that MLB portion, boy, check it out. Ramirez played there one season, then took over second base when Orlando Cabrera played shortstop for the White Sox.

That first season, 2005, the MLB Mariners’ big leaguers had the likes of Ichiro Suzuki, Adrian Beltre, Richie Sexton and second baseman Bret Boone, plus Raul Ibanez – just to name a few top-level players.

By 2007, Hudson had moved on to Chicago’s chain.

White Sox MLB shortstop Alexei Ramirez (18 HRs, 70 RBIs, .282) took over second base when Orlando Cabrera (.281 hitting, .978 fielding) wound up at shortstop.

The rest of Chicago’s big names? The likes of Jermaine Dye, Carlos Quentin and future Hall of Famer Jim Thome combined for 104 home runs in 2008. Another future Hall of Famer, Ken Griffey, Jr., spent part of that season there.

Once with the White Sox’s minor league team at Class AA Birmingham, Hudson spent three seasons. 

By 2009, Cabrera was still at ss, but 25-year-old Chris Getz took over at second – no MLB opening for Hudson. In 2010, Cabrera was still running shortstop, but that one time first-round pick, Beckham, took over second base.

A year, or so earlier, Hudson and Beckham were Birmingham teammates.

Hudson moved up to Triple A Charlotte, a 26-year-old blasting his highest HR season, seven, while playing both shortstop and a little second base. 

Lehigh Valley was next, part of Philadelphia. That 2010 season, the MLB Phillies fired up Jimmy Rollins (2007 National League MVP) playing shortstop, hitting .268 and 16 HRs on that 2011 season’s 102-winning team.  All-Star Chase Utley had second base. Neither middle position was a real opening for Hudson.

That Redlands-Riverside-Texas product never reached the big leagues.

Eventually, Hudson spent concluding weeks that season with the Padres’ Triple A team. He played his 572nd career minor league game, concluding his seventh season. By that 2011 season, he played 30 games, batted 79 times, and his career concluded.

That Tucson team released him. Hudson retired.

BAIROS’ OLYMPIC HOPES RESTED ON HIS BIKE SPEED, HEALTH

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, NASCAR, the Kentucky Derby and Indianapolis 500, Tour de France cycling, major tennis, NBA and a little NHL, aquatics and quite a bit more, the sparkling little city between Los Angeles and Palm Springs along Interstate 10. Cyclists from everywhere have ridden tons of roads all across the world, including in Redlands once per special year. – Obrey Brown

It’s September 17, the anniversary of a 2000 Sydney Olympic Games appearance.

After nearly four decades from Redlands Bicycle Classic mastery, a Johnny Bairos story might fall somewhere through the cracks. To this date, Bairos is the lone local cyclist who had ever found himself standing on the podium – first in a stage – after winning a downtown Street Sprint Prolog.

He was, in fact, going to be an Olympian. Bairos was considered a speed-whiz on a bike. He wasn’t a road cyclist or a criterium specialist. In a regular time trial, he was probably underwhelming. In a short race of a few hundred yards, he was your man.

It’s how Redlands Classic officials set it up in 1998. Armed with a myriad of world-class road racers at the 14th annual Redlands cycling clash, Bairos landed on a Sunshine Germany team.

Organizers set it up on State Street.

Kristin Holmes Bairos and Olympian Johnny Bairos

In a week dominated by U.S. Postal’s Jonathan Vaughters, who was chased throughout the weekend by future Tour de France champion Cadel Evans, along with team duels set up with Navigators, Volvo-Cannondale and Team Shaklee.

The 20-year-old Bairos out-quicked all comers in that opening street sprint. Bairos, for his part, was trying to claim a spot in the 2000 Olympic Games. A couple years later, I had a chance to chat with him for a story on his destination for Sydney, Australia.

Bairos was a track sprinting sensation, officially named to the U.S. Olympic cycling team by a female United States Cycling Federation official. The Redlands original, who found out he was on the team, had to pass a 45-minute physical by USCF doctor Gloria Beim on July 22, 2000. 

 

 

 

 

Jonathan_Vaughters_CA_2011
Jonathan Vaughters overcame a Street Sprint Prolog loss to local rider Johnny Bairos to win the 1998 Redlands Bicycle Classic, then racing for U.S. Postal (photo by Wikipedia Commons).

The 20-year-old Bairos out-quicked all comers in the opening street sprint.

Bairos, for his part, was trying to claim a spot in the 2000 Olympic Games.

A couple years later, I had a chance to chat with him for a story on his destination for Sydney, Australia.

He was a track sprinting sensation, officially named to the U.S. Olympic cycling team by a female United States Cycling Federation official.

“I’ve gone the entire emotional spectrum,” Bairos said. “On both sides. This is so much more of a relief to hear her say it. I couldn’t be happier.”

Bairos, who found out he was on the team, had to pass a 45-minute physical by USCF doctor Gloria Beim on July 22, 2000. She flew from Colorado to examine Bairos, who was just shaking off the effects of a near-fatal crash while competing in the World Cup Cycling Championships at Mexico City on June 17.

Beim put Bairos through a virtual torture test, ranging from sprints, starts, riding, plus examining his knee and the rest of his body.

“I think she was extremely surprised to see how well I was doing,” Bairos said. “She saw the force in my starts, the strength in my legs, and the only thing that was wrong was there was a little infection in my knee.”

She flew from Colorado to examine Bairos, who was just shaking off the effects of a near-fatal crash while competing in the World Cup Cycling Championships at Mexico City on June 17.

“I’ve gone the entire emotional spectrum,” Bairos said. “On both sides. This is so much more of a relief to hear her say it. I couldn’t be happier.”

Beim put Bairos through a virtual torture test, ranging from sprints, starts, riding, plus examining his knee and the rest of his body.

“I think she was extremely surprised to see how well I was doing,” Bairos said. “She saw the force in my starts, the strength in my legs, and the only thing that was wrong was there was a little infection in my knee.”

THE CRASH, FALL IN MEXICO

Bairos, the Redlands entry, was sailing along in perfect health and a lock for an Olympics berth before the disastrous fall during the Keirin portion – brakeless fixed-gear cycles – of the World Cup in which he went more than 20 feet over the track railing.

The torturous numbers – a 25-foot fall, seven days in the hospital, a non-finished 750-meter race.

“As soon as I went over the rail, I knew I was in trouble,” Bairos said after returning to the Inland Empire. “I just closed my eyes and prayed.”

During the race, a Venezuelan rider pushed his way to the front, forcing a French rider to react so he wouldn’t fall. They got tangled up and a Swiss rider behind Bairos hit his rear wheel, causing the chain-reaction crash.

Results were devastating.

A shattered right sinus cavity. A fractured left sinus cavity. A gash on his chin. Black eyes. Missing teeth. A broken jaw. Cuts, bruises and contusions all over his body. Doctors had to wire his jaw shut so his face could heal. Two screws were placed in his kneecap.

A little over two years earlier, he’d been celebrating a 200-yard downtown sprint win over guys like Vaughters, Evans, Trent Klasna, Chris Horner and a bunch more at Redlands.

In chasing Sydney’s Olympics, Bairos had surgery in Mexico then was transported to Loma Linda University Medical Center, where he had additional surgery.

“I learned that I never count my chickens before they’re hatched,” said Bairos.

In August, he said, “I’m not quite 100 percent. But I’m extremely close. Once it gets time to race, it’s not a question of being 100 percent. It’s a question of being 110 percent, 120 percent, 130 percent.”

ONE SECOND AWAY FROM QUALIFYING

Bairos had been regarded as the United States’ best cycling starter from a standing or stop position. He will lead off in the newly added sprint event, followed by longtime teammate and friend Marcelo Arrue, then by track veteran Jonas Carney.

“Nobody can go 200 meters from a stop position like Johnny can,” Redlands Bicycle Classic official Craig Kundig said. “That’s what he does, and he’s the best in the country. That’s why they have him leading off.”

There was no question in the minds of USCF officials that Bairos was the best man for the ride, so when the organization named the Olympic team in early July, it held open a spot for him until a deadline for submitting the roster. There was no medalist.

“It was whether I was healthy enough to fill the spot,” Bairos shared. And after passing the physical, it’s on to Sydney.

*****

Bairos won a gold medal in the 1999 Pan American Games at Winnipeg, Manitoba – a Canada stop. He had three top-four finishes in World Cup competition and five top-10 finishes in national events.

“It’s usually dominated by the French, but the Spanish team has been giving them a tough time the last nine months,” he noted. “There’s a big gap between them and everybody else.”

At Winnipeg, Bairos didn’t let his USA side down among a dozen on-track events. Between USA teammates, Arrue and Marty Nothstein, that trio racked up 47.19 seconds in their triple threat duel against the other teams.

Those USA teams had plenty of hopes of contending at least for a bronze medal. Arrue, Bairos and Nothstein edged Cuba for the win, taking home a gold medal. Argentina grabbed the bronze.

Bairos’ clairvoyance paid off: Eventually, the USA held its way up.

MISTY MAY, REDLANDS’ KERI NISHIMOTO WERE AMONG 6 STRAIGHT ALL-AMERICAN SETTERS

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, that sparkling little city that sits between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10. In this case, a local kid went to Long Beach. – Obrey Brown

Misty May, who became a household name along with Olympic beach volleyball companion Kerri Walsh, was part of Long Beach State’s legacy so strong that it defied imagination as to the person that would follow her as the school’s setter.

May’s replacement in Long Beach? Someone familiar.

Long a major collegiate powerhouse, it was the 49ers’ turn in the limelight back in 1997. What must have been running through coach Brian

Keri Nishimoto at The Beach
Redlands’ Keri Nishimoto took over as Long Beach State’s high-profile setter, leading the 49ers to an NCAA title matchup against Stanford (photo by Long Beach State).

Gimmillaro’s mind, however, was how to replace Misty in his lineup one season later. He reached out to Redlands High School product Keri Nishimoto, an eventual backup to May on that 1997 squad. Right off the bat, let’s remember that Nishimoto was part of a strong Lady Terrier team, one that copped its one and only CIF-SS title on their strongest ever team.

All of which led perfectly to a solid collegiate side. Say what you want about college sports, whether it’s college football or basketball, the sensational play of baseball and softball players, plus track & field, volleyball may well rest among the most exciting of all women’s sports.

It might get lost in the shuffle throughout the USA.

May, who was considered a catalyst for Beach’s 1998 NCAA championship triumph, captured the Honda-Broderick Cup as well as Collegiate Women Athlete of the Year title. May captured more awards and titles than any other collegiate volleyball player. She wound up a USA Olympian – a much-decorated, multiple gold medal winner on the beach.

The Beach’s heir apparent to May, originally, was Brittany Hochevar. They tried to replicate their May experiment with Hochevar. It didn’t seem to go right.

THE ULTIMATE TEAM PLAY

Nishimoto, summoned from Redlands High on a full-ride academic scholarship – she turned down Beach’s offer of an athletic scholarship – was the catalyst in leading Redlands High to a Southern Section Division 3 volleyball title.

In her high school setting, Redlands knocked off area powerhouse Rim of the World from mountainous Lake Arrowhead. The finals were played at Cypress College on a Saturday, which wasn’t all that far from Beach. Cypress College, incidentally, seemed fairly close to Long Beach.

Except for Rim of the World, there had been very little prep volleyball success from the so-called Inland Empire area. Redlands was next.

Nishimoto, surrounded by college-level talent like Lindsey O’Reilly (Brigham Young University), Gretchen Levander (Hofstra-New York), plus a few other significant cogs in the lineup, namely middle blocker Janiece Memmott and outside hitter Jackie Ostler in addition to a strong defender, Jamie Hackleman.

That lineup turned volleyball around in that Inland Empire. Nishimoto had long since been noticed, but more at the club-playing level than wearing Lady Terrier colors.

The CIF-Southern Section Division 3 Player of the Year at Redlands, it was Nishimoto who quarterbacked the Lady Terriers to an unforgettable championship performance over powerhouse Rim of the World at Cypress College in 1995.

One year earlier, Nishimoto actually split time with another player. Redlands coach Gene Melcher had co-setters at Redlands.

A BEACH ARRAY OF SETTERS

At The Beach, Nishimoto’s on-court performance seemed to add chemistry. She was small, but dangerous. Mostly a bench-warmer and defensive specialist during the May era, Nishimoto eventually emerged as Beach setter.

Nishimoto already contributed to Beach’s chemistry. Taking that academic scholarship instead of an athletic one allowed Gimmillaro to use that additional athletic stipend to stockpile even more talent. It was, perhaps, the ultimate team play.

In 1999, Nishimoto set a record for assists (14.58), having moved back to a defensive position in 2000 for the Hochevar experiment. Once “little Keri” was moved back to the setter role, the 16th-ranked Lady 49ers began rolling even more.

Over a period of time, there were six All-American setters at Beach.

The year after Nishimoto’s career concluded, Hochevar shined in 2002 – part of the school’s six All-American setters, which includes Nishimoto in 2001, May in 1997 and ’98, Joy McKienzie in 1993, Sabrina Hernandez in 1991 and ’92, plus Sheri Sanders in 1989.

Misty May
Misty May, a multiple Olympic gold medal beach volleyball champion, preceded Redlands’ Keri Nishimoto as Long Beach State setter in the late 1990s (photo by Wikipedia Commons).

May was selected as the AVCA Player of the Year for Division I in 1997 and 1998, becoming the first player in NCAA and AVCA history to win the award outright in back-to-back campaigns.

Sanders and McKienzie both quarterbacked the 49ers to national championships. Hernandez took The Beach to back-to-back Final Fours (1991-1992).

May led the 49ers to the 1997 Final Four and captained the 1998 squad to a perfect 36-0 mark and a NCAA national championship. Nishimoto mostly rode the bench celebrating the team title.

Along the way, the list of teams that Nishimoto and The Beach had been beating were among the nation’s richest and glowing programs – Brigham Young, Pittsburgh, UCLA, Arizona, you name it. She totaled 53 assists, 15 digs and three blocks against BYU to lead The Beach to an undefeated regular season record.

v8n48-nishimoto

In action: Long Beach State’s Keri Nishimoto, that brilliant player from Redlands, ran the 49ers’ attack on a 33-match winning streak into the 2001 finals against Stanford (photo by Long Beach State).Nishimoto, a national player of the week in November 2001, was named second-team All-American in 2001. The Beach went 33-1 and reached the NCAA title match – losing only in the championship to Stanford.

On December 15, 2001 in San Diego, Stanford All-American and USA Olympian Logan Tom led the Cardinal to a three-game sweep past those Long Beach hard-noses.

Check out these scores from Cox Arena in San Diego: 31-29, 30-28, 30-25. A Beach team led by Nishimoto’s 34 assists and a team-high nine digs fell after winning 33 straight.

It was Nishimoto’s final collegiate match.

 

ALLY VON L: GOING FROM A REV LADY WILDCAT TO AN ARIZONA LADY ’CAT

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, 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 between Los Angeles and Palm Springs along Interstate 10. Heading past Palm Springs, this Redlands East Valley High School brilliant softball player kept taking it to faraway to Tucson, the home for University of Arizona. – Obrey Brown

In honor of the NCAA College Softball World Series, which were unfolding, there was always something to check on with a checkout from Redlands – a kid called Allyson Von Liechtenstein.

There were telephone calls to the sports desk from Pam Martin, softball coach at Redlands East Valley High School when that campus opened in 1997. It was quite a ritual. There was often cheer in her voice. In all cases, Coach M had something newsworthy to report.

One of Martin’s top players, Ally Von L, probably went into as many big games as any Redlands-based product at the collegiate level during that outfielder’s post-REV years.

It’s simple. Von L, the twin sister of Elizabeth (Lizzie) and younger sister of Sarah, was part of a trio of Highland-based players who were raised under the softball thumb of their dad, Dave.

Ally Von L, a left-handed, slap-hitting, fleet-footed outfielder, played four sensational seasons at REV. It was nothing for Martin to report a 3-hit game for Ally Von L. Or maybe a couple of stolen bases to go along with her two singles and, maybe, a triple. At the time, she patrolled center field.

Von Liechtenstein
Ally Von L, a Redlands East Valley product who played big-time NCAA softball at powerhouse University of Arizona (Photo by UA).

It should’ve been no surprise, then, that she committed to play collegiately at the University of Arizona from 2002-2005. She was a 5-foot-5-inch slash hitter heading for Tucson.

Arizona’s Lady Wildcats’ softball program should be considered among the finest in the land. Ally Von L found herself playing four straight seasons at the College World Series.

Mike Candrea, coach, might’ve been USA’s best go-getter for UA. He went and “got” Ally Von L.

Ally Von L was a nice catch for her new Wildcats’ team. At that time, anyone caught playing for UA should’ve been considered quite a player.

Candrea, who led Team USA to the 2004 Olympic gold medal, was a fun interview. Make that a professional interview. He knew how to take control. He knew the questions before I’d even launched them at him.

At least when you could get hold of him. Schools this big have Sports Information Directors. Got to get through them to get to guys like Candrea. The man’s got coaching to do.

By the 2018 season, incredibly, Candrea was within a couple hundred wins away from 2,000.

Mike Candrea
Univ. Arizona softball coach Mike Candrea is closing fast on 2,000 victories – 211 of which came when he coached Ally Von Liechtenstein from 2002-2005 (Photo credit, University of Arizona).

This is the guy who landed Ally Von L. Not to mention landing Jennie Finch. Not to mention Alicia Hollowell. And Caitlin Lowe. And Autumn Champion. And Kristie Fox. Each of whom were teammates with Ally Von L.

Lowe hit .510 one year, swiping 27 out of 30 bases. Hollowell won 40 games in a single season. Finch went 32-0 in another. Lovie Jung hit .481 one season, stroking 25 bombs. Champion hit .489 with 26 steals one season. That same year, 2004, Lowe hit .437 with 46 steals.

These were the players Candrea landed. That coach was en route to winning more collegiate softball games than anyone else. Chats with this coach were special to take.

On Ally Von L, he said, “Listen … (pausing for a few seconds to collect some thoughts) this is a kid with speed. She can hit. She’ll run the bases. She can catch anything hit out there. She’ll help us here.”

Remember, he was taking a player right out of the area from UCLA should’ve been grabbing from (USC doesn’t have intercollegiate softball). At Arizona, Ally Von L had a solid career – .321, .381, .384 and .265 as a senior.

She started 105 games, playing in 172. Often used as a pinch-runner. Swiped 28-of-35 bases over four seasons. Ninety-four hits, 283 at-bats. Scored a batch of runs.

Said Candrea: “There was a time when if UCLA wanted a kid, they got the kid. We got a few breaks. We got some key kids.”

ALLY VON L AGAINST THE GREATS

Along the way, there were remarkable games played against the likes of Cat Osterman.

Tennessee’s Monica Abbott.

Michigan’s Jennie Ritter.

UCLA’s Keira Goerl.

Louisiana’s Brooke Mitchell.

Fresno State’s Jamie Southern was named to the ESPN Rise All-Decade team in 2009.

LSU’s Kristin Schmidt.

Georgia Tech’s Jessica Sallinger.

Alabama’s Stephanie VanBrakle.

These were the kids Ally Von L was playing against – the USA’s most decorated pitchers.

Von L hit against most of those pitchers. As close to being a starting player without actually starting every game, Von L was part of a team that included All-Americans almost everywhere on the diamond during her four-year stint from 2002-2005.

On Saturday, June 5, 2005: It was a Von L single in the 12th inning at the NCAA Women’s College World Series that knocked home the winning run in a 3-2 win over Cal-Berkeley – a game played in Oklahoma City.

Ally Von L’s heroics were only short-lived.

One day later, the fabulous Texas southpaw, Osterman, knocked off the Lady Wildcats, 1-0, to leave Arizona without a 50-win season for the first time in years. Arizona ended its season with a record of 45-12, having reached its 17th Women’s College World Series over an 18-year span.

Ally Von L and I connected a few times on articles about her collegiate experiences, which were vast. She wasn’t hamming it up, probably preferring to lay low. After all, this kid was one of REV’s finest athletes.

You always got the feeling she was battling. Aggressive. In awe of her surroundings, but highly respectful.

In 2005, the Lady Wildcats were co-Pacific-10 Champions. Playing against the likes of UCLA, Stanford, Cal, you name it, UA was a force in NCAA softball.

Wouldn’t you know it: Von L became a group of four Lady Wildcat players to play four seasons without winning at least a national championship, a battle of playoff chases since 1987. It was quite a streak, especially when Von L had played behind such stalwart pitchers as Hollowell and that sensational Finch.

Jennie_Finch_vs._China
Jennie Finch was a University of Arizona teammate of Ally Von Liechtenstein during a prime time of Lady Wildcats’ softball in Tucson (Photo by Team USA).

Finch was a senior during Von Liechtenstein’s freshman season.

A year after Ally Von L’s departure, Arizona – which had copped five NCAA titles over a seven-year span in the 1990s – won the NCAA World Series title again.

Who knows? Maybe it set the stage for a future NCAA Division 1 softball great. A decade after Ally Von L, Sahvanna Jaquish, also from Highland, showed up at REV. Off she went to Louisiana State University from 2014 through 2017, where she became a four-year All-American.

 

THE BUSTERS NOTCH TWO HOLLYWOOD PARK WINS, BUT LOSE BOTH VICTORS

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, 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 between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10. For sports editor Jeff Lane and myself, we headed out I-10 to find Hollywood Park. – Obrey Brown

Jeff Lane, the sports editor and my one-time classmate at Chabot Junior College up in Hayward, and I were on a mission. Hollywood Park was our destination on July 7, 1979.

Comprising the two-man sports staff of a small-city California daily in Redlands, we had something on mind that Saturday. Since our junior college days at Chabot Community College in Hayward, a Bay Area city about 20 miles south of Oakland, we showed up for a local item for our newspaper.

We were as sports-minded as they come – baseball, golf, football, basketball, college and pro, not to mention horse racing, you name it. The main Bay Area tracks were Golden Gate Fields and Bay Meadows, not to mention a handful of summer fair tracks in Pleasanton, Santa Rosa, Vallejo, Fresno, and Sacramento.

Hollywood Park, though, was much bigger. So much greater thoroughbreds. So many top jockeys. Cash was beyond anyone. Looking for an angle to bring horse racing to that Redlands newspaper, we’d stumbled upon a thoroughbred that couldn’t defy such attention.

It was the only way you could sell such a story to local readership. Our newspaper owners, Frank and William Moore, plus its devoted editor, Richard West, had vested their faith in us to report on local events.

We were the second paper on people’s city doorsteps. The Los Angeles Times, San Bernardino Sun and the Riverside Press Enterprise were regional papers. They’d cover the professionals, major colleges and, of course, they had a horse racing page.

For Jeff and I to make this work in a Redlands newspaper, there had to be a local angle. And we’d found one: The horse was called Old Redlands. There was another horse in that same barn, a filly called Milenka.

LOSING MILENKA IN A CLAIMER

On this particular Saturday, the two of us were on a mission to watch Milenka, entered in the first race at Hollywood Park. Owned by a Redlands couple, Bill and Benita Marie Buster, we were curious to see the outcome of this race.

Milenka won in 1:10.2, ridden by the apprentice Patrick Valenzuela – who would go on to have a solid racing career – but just prior to the race, the Busters faced the news.

Since it was a claiming race, rival owner Patrice Bozick put in the claim for that filly. Milenka outraced Bozick’s own filly, Geeme, a few weeks earlier. The Busters, of Redlands, had just one runner remaining in their racing pedal.

“It took us eleven months or a year to breed her,” Bill Buster said, noting Milenka. “Then another year, a year to train her, and then two and a half months of racing. And in one afternoon, she’s gone.”

Such were the perils of claiming races. You’ve got to sell at the claiming price. In this case, the claim was $20,000. “We’re going to try to get her back,” said Buster.

After being posted at 4-to-1 in that day’s morning line, Milenka wound up as the 2-to-1 favorite, the filly beating Hoisty Jen, ridden by Canadian jockey Sandy Hawley.

Later that day, legendary jockey Willie Shoemaker booted home his 7,700th career win aboard Parsec in the Hollywood Juvenile. By comparison, Old Redlands notched just 10 victories.

A few hours earlier that day, the Busters’ racing stable had been cut in half, having lost Milenka to the Bozick stable. Just Old Redlands remained in their barn.

“We’ve dreamed about having a stakes winner,” said Buster, noting that Milenka’s sire, Olympiad King, had been a stakes winner in the early 1960s.

Old Redlands, coming off a seventh-place finish in an allowance race at Hollywood Park, had been dropped into a claiming race. This thoroughbred had no hopes of winding up in the Kentucky Derby or Hollywood Gold Cup. It won just once in his first 11 races. The win came at Bay Meadows, about 40 miles south of San Francisco in December 1979, his final race as a two-year-old.

Buster, whose father was in construction and also a horseman, had bred Old Redlands. The sire was Gummo, he was out of Judena. Gummo had been a pretty good sprinter in his years on the track.

A couple weeks before Milenka’s win and claim at Hollywood Park, the Busters watched Old Redlands win a 1 1/16-mile allowance race.

Over a month later, he won a starter allowance race at Del Mar. The Hollywood Park win had lifted the spirits of the Busters’ trainer, Clay Brinson, who called him a “useful horse.”

“He’ll win a lot of races if we put him in the right ones.”

The Busters lost Milenka, lost Old Redlands, but held onto a yearling filly, named for Buster’s wife, Benita Marie. 

Milenka’s lifetime earnings at $59,600 reached six wins and second on four other runs during 25 races. She tucked five victories and a second place finish over an eight-race span between that July 21 victory and early January 1980.

Old Redlands rarely saw Southern California tracks again. Shipped up to the Bay Area, where he raced at Golden Gate Fields, just north of Oakland, and also at Bay Meadows down in San Mateo, then into the Pacific Northwest tracks Yakima Meadows and Longacres – both in Washington.

That horse would race 47 times over a six-year stretch – winning ten times with earnings just over $52,000. At one point, the colt won four straight claiming races. By then, the horse had been claimed by another owner.

Old Redlands would have to serve as the honorable mention to Buster’s all-time stable of runners.

What a final race day. The Busters ran two horses – Milenka and Old Redlands – losing both the same day after winning claiming races.

Feature image credit: “hollywood park” by Deidre Woolard licensed under CC BY 2.0.