A Redlands Connection – Page 3

January 15, 2025January 31, 2025

REDLANDS’ ED VANDE BERG SPENT SEVEN SEASONS ON MLB MOUNDS

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.

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.

It was career victory No. 25.

January 13, 2025February 2, 2025

‘CUP’ CHAT: DONOVAN SEEMED PREPARED TO MAKE THE CALL

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.

Landon Donovan 2 — 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_(35480124482) — *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_Player_of_the_Year_2011 — 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?

January 12, 2025January 31, 2025

TARK TOWELS SAW ITS BEGINNINGS AT REDLANDS HIGH SCHOOL

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 UNLV

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.

Rack it up again – A Redlands Connection!

January 11, 2025January 31, 2025

NO REV ATHLETE COMES CLOSE TO KRISTA VANSANT’S ACHIEVEMENTS

I could hear whispers in the stands at Redlands East Valley High, circa 2007. “She’s only on the team,” said one volleyball-players’ mom to another, “because her mom’s the coach.”

That was enough evidence for me. I glanced down that roster. Saw there was actually a Vansant, jersey No. 16. Freshman. Sure enough, Tricia Vansant was the coach. Her daughter? Krista!

Pushy parents are curious. Here’s one mom that pushed her daughter right onto the Varsity – as a freshman. It takes something special to make Varsity as a freshman. Right?

REV had a squared-away squad. Victoria Brummett, a college-bound (Univ. Colorado-Boulder) junior was playing middle. At setter was sophomore Johnna Fouch and libero Kyla Oropeza, both players eventually winding up at Univ. San Diego.

“Two Story Tori” – Brummett’s nickname – would eventually transfer back to NCAA Division 2 powerhouse Cal State San Bernardino and win All-American honors.

Then there was that little REV freshman, Krista. Little? She was listed at 6-feet, 2-inches. Talk about a “loaded” team.

COLLEGIATE POWERHOUSE IN SEATTLE

Krista Vansant probably wasn’t kidding when she spoke about hopes of winning a national volleyball championship for the University of Washington. She’s that competitive. There was a breathtaking come-from-behind win over Pac-12 rival USC in the 2014 NCAA Division I Western Region championship.

One match later, Washington landed in an NCAA semifinals against second-ranked Penn State. Jim McLaughlin, coaching those Lady Huskies, eventually became an AVCA Hall of Famer.

The onetime REV superstar outside hitter had risen from the Gatorade National Prep Player of the Year in 2010 to the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Player of the Year in 2013.

It was quite a run – for Vansant, her team and coaches, family and friends, plus all those that followed her exploits – in a season full of remarkable achievements. After that match against USC, though, she was full of hope.

She spoke about not being satisfied, setting goals, never reaching the Final Four despite great teams, winning a national title. For athletes like Vansant, nothing short of winning is ever enough.

Said Vansant: “So I think we’re not being complacent. We’re in the gym working hard every day to get better.”

(Speaking of working hard. During her REV days, Vansant might’ve been among two or three volleyball players working in the weight room – alongside that school’s high-achieving football team.)

When third-ranked University of Washington took the floor against No. 2 Penn State in the NCAA Division 1 women’s volleyball semifinals on a December night just before Christmas, Vansant was the logical force in the Lady Huskies’ attack.

Vansant, the Pac-12 Player of the Year, would likely be a factor in lifting the Huskies to the national title game two nights later. But the Nittany Lions swept Washington’s women in three sets.

One match earlier, top-ranked Texas, the defending NCAA champion, was knocked off by No. 16 Wisconsin – a huge surprise. In an all-Big Ten showdown, Penn State later knocked off Wisconsin for the NCAA title.

Against Penn State, Vansant looked tall, lithe and athletic, totally ready to fire. Penn State, no stranger to national championships (seven titles since 1999), took her out of the flow, its attack dwarfing Washington in that semi finals matchup.

Washington’s win over USC became the ultimate triumph.

Vansant’s efforts were key – 38 kills and 30 digs – the first-ever 30-30 performance for a Husky in the NCAA tournament’s long history. Her 38 kills notched a Washington record, beating Stevie Mussie’s 35 kills against BYU in 2007.

Washington, trailing USC by two sets in the NCAA Western Regional finals, likely stunned a national TV audience. Completing a comeback that included saving two match points knocked off those sixth-ranked Lady Trojans in five sets, 26-28, 23-25, 25-22, 25-18, 17-15.

I watched closely on TV. You couldn’t miss that REV product. Vansant was spotted breaking into tears on that court after the emotionally-draining marathon.

Vansant eventually joined eventual Team USA Olympian Courtney Thompson, a previous Washington star, as the only Honda Award winners in program history.

Finalists included Haley Eckerman (Texas), Kelsey Robinson (Nebraska) and Carly Wopat (Stanford). For good measure, Vansant was also the espnW Player of the Year.

Incidentally, Vansant was a two-time Honda Award winner.

It’s hard to keep all those awards straight.

CAPPING HER PREP CAREER

Back at high school. At REV, Vansant was a monster – part of a stacked REV lineup that won three CIF titles (2007-2009), winning CIF Player of the Year honors as a sophomore, junior and senior from 2008-2010 – her Lady Wildcats’ squad winning all 59 Citrus Belt League matches with her mother, Tricia, as coach.

In Dec. 2010, Vansant, who was REV’s Homecoming Queen, and later named national Gatorade Player of the Year just after completing her senior season at REV. Repeat, National Player of the Year. Not State, but National.

She was in my wife’s English class at REV. If I quoted Laura Brown properly, there’d be comments on her student level – classy and responsible, humble and honest, forthright and work-conscious.

Let’s not forget that it was in English class – not on the volleyball floor.

It was for that reason that Mrs. Brown forced Mr. Brown to drive all the way to Redondo Beach to watch REV play in a Division 1 playoff match. In a rarity, REV lost the Division 1 showdown to Redondo Union.

It was Vansant’s final prep match. She was a senior.

REV’s end was just the beginning for Vansant. She became the first-ever Lady Husky to win the AVCA Player-of-the-Year honor. On hand to present the award was none other than multi-Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh-Jennings.

The comments were typical Krista:

“I did not prepare a speech, I just want to thank my friends and family and all my teammates for everything you guys do for me. You make my life so easy and I love you all so much.

“Love you Mom and Dad (Robert). Thanks to my previous club coaches. I would say my previous high school coaches but those are my parents, so thanks again!”

As for Vansant’s freshman year at REV, there were 38 matches. Thirty-four of them were victories … team-high 367 kills … she could receive a serve (201) … she could serve well (30 aces) … she could play that net (26 blocks).

The Lady Wildcats went through the playoffs without blinking much – Monrovia, San Bernardino Cajon and Wildomar Elsinore, all in 3-game sweeps.

South Torrance went down in four.

In the finals against North Torrance, REV won in five.

So much for being the coach’s daughter!

Down The Road: Stories to come – Vansant came within an eyelash of making Team USA at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics … Her coaching career is underway at Indiana, later at Illinois.

January 8, 2025January 31, 2025

JIM SLOAN ‘SHOT’ BEN HOGAN

Jim Sloan never really seemed to push 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.

459px-Ben_Hogan_Walking — 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).

I glanced slyly at Sloan’s face. Hogan was a well-known recluse, a superstar who rarely claimed spotlight. Players from Hogan’s era had often commented on Hogan’s arms-length distance, a coldness, a reluctance to seek any spotlight – but a legendary golfer.

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 20s. 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.

All of which would have begged several questions: Why was he here? Who does he know from Redlands? Will he be returning here sometime? But, no, Hogan was never on that local turf.

I wish I could re-create that total conversation I had with Jim Sloan 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 Sloan 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.

Yes, credit was given toward Jim Sloan.

January 6, 2025January 31, 2025

“POP” LITTLED COLLEGE SUCCESS BEFORE ENTERING NBA

There was something strangely familiar about the way visiting Pomona-Pitzer College had put an end to the longtime men’s basketball domination by the University of Redlands one night in January 1983.

For years, that small SCIAC basketball chase had been a two-team race confined between powerhouse Whittier College with the Gary Smith-coached Bulldogs usually second best.

Located consistently at the bottom were two teams on historic losing streaks — Caltech, from Pasadena, and Pomona-Pitzer College from nearby Claremont. It certainly didn’t seem like a launching pad for an NBA Hall of Fame coaching career for the Sagehens’ top guy, Gregg Popovich.

Maybe it was the way Popovich used his bench that night. It was reminiscent of UCLA a few years earlier. The Bruins, then under coach Larry Brown, had reached the NCAA championship game against Louisville — later vacated over infractions.

Who’d have believed that Gregg Popovich would launch an NBA Hall of Fame coaching career having started at NCAA Division III, tiny Pomona-Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif.? Part of that trek went through the University of Redlands, Whittier, Claremont-Mudd, Occidental, La Verne, plus a few others. (photo by Wikipedia).

In that 1983 game at Redlands, Kurt Herbst was the Sagehens’ big banger against the Bulldogs. Redlands couldn’t penetrate the 6-foot-6 wide body, who had plenty of help that night against the Bulldogs.

Backtracking a few years later, it was Pomona-Pitzer that famously lost to Caltech, ending the then-dubbed Engineers’ 99-game losing streak. I remember that story went out on the Associated Press wire. I published that four-paragraph brief in the Redlands newspaper.

After all, two teams in Redlands’ conference seemed mildly interesting to our readership. That was our mandate, of course, to keep our pages local.

The Sagehens, for all intents and purposes, were no more talented than a college freshman team — maybe not even that good. So when I approached Popovich about those UCLA observations, he quickly summoned me inside the Sagehens’ locker room.

He seemed excited, perhaps impressed that I’d made that wise connection.

“Yes,“ he said, “that’s exactly the blueprint we use for this team I’ve got here. Larry Brown …“ his voice drifting off into a rash of interpretation, basketball lingo and connecting the dots between UCLA and Pomona-Pitzer’s rise to prominence.

Another coincidental connection! Popovich and Brown were connected. Those connections would later surface, re-surface and surface again.

Popovich spoke of his Air Force Academy background. He’d originally met Brown at the 1972 Olympic Games tryouts – those infamous Games where Team USA lost a controversial game to the Soviet Union. A handful, or so, years later, Popovich was hired at Pomona-Pitzer to coach and, along with his wife, run a campus dormitory — something like that, he told me.

His connection with Brown, he told me while Sagehen players were giddily showering after their upset win over Redlands, dated back to those 1972 Olympic tryouts.

If Brown coached it, Popovich tried it.

“That’s the relationship we have,“ said Popovich.

At Pomona-Pitzer, Popovich was using Brown’s system of defense, not to mention a substitution pattern that was eerily similar to that of UCLA’s 1979-80 squad. Strange as it might sound, in 1983, that system stood out.

Larry Brown, coaching here at Southern Methodist University, was the catalyst to an NBA coaching Hall of Fame career for Gregg Popovich, who lifted himself from tiny Pomona-Pitzer College to the San Antonio Spurs (photo by SMU).

It was a starting five, plus two key contributors off the bench.

Popovich copped to it all, via Brown. There was no possible way anything he told me that night could crystallize into Pop’s eventual NBA Hall of Fame career.

I’d keep an eye on Popovich, who took one season off to take a sabbatical at North Carolina, under the eye of Hall of Fame coach Dean Smith. By 1986, Popovich had lifted the Sagehens to the school’s first SCIAC championship in nearly seven decades.

Trust me on this: Some Redlands folks had a few “concerns“ on just how Popovich conducted recruiting basketball players on that remarkable Pomona-Pitzer campus in Claremont, Calif.

He’d turned it around on a campus that seemed oblivious to its athletics program. Pomona-Pitzer and Caltech, I’d written, cheated its student-athletes by not offering appropriate coaching and playing facilities. Yes, academics was a shrewd leadership at those campuses. Naturally, I received negative admonitions from a few corners of that SCIAC chamber.

I’d written about how some SCIAC campuses were cheating their student-athletes — taking their tuition monies and providing them with slighted athletic facilities, inauthentic coaching and only mild support. Popovich indicated some extra incentives were plugged into the program right around this time; saying, however, he didn’t know if it was related to the column I’d published.

These campuses were supposed to stand for academic strength. Sports, it was reasoned, was pay-for-play. Intramurals. Deemed not important enough. That was my take in the piece.

Frank Ellsworth, Pomona-Pitzer’s president at the time, told me in a telephone call, protesting my writing, “I think we need to have you on our campus to explain our educational mission.“ That mission, I guess, didn’t include a shiny basketball program that included a pristine gymnasium.

I’ve got to admit, though. Within years, that campus funded itself with enough money to include high-level renovations to its entire athletic facility. That came during Ellsworth’s watch, in fact.

Truth is, many of those coaches didn’t get enough support from their administrations. Maybe they didn’t hit the recruiting trail hard enough. Popovich, in fact, did that. I didn’t report that part of it. I should have. It’s how he landed Herbst. A few years later, Mike Budenholzer, a red-headed, non-scoring threat at point guard — the future head coach of the Atlanta Hawks and NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks. These days, he’s coaching the Phoenix Suns. Hey, he was born in Arizona.

Speaking of that, the article attacked a few of those SCIAC campuses: Some Redlands athletic officials were also mildly upset, perhaps thinking their SCIAC rivals suspected that they’d put me up for that piece.

Popovich, in his own way, bailed me out.

“I think you’re one of the reasons things improved here,“ he told me on that night in 1983. Solid as they were, Popovich’s Sagehens finished a hugely impressive 6-4 record in SCIAC play that season; by 1986, Pomona-Pitzer won its first league title in decades — eventually fourth in the NCAA Regionals.

In another nice twist, Brown — having led Kansas to an NCAA Division I championship in 1988 with Danny Manning being the key player — invited Popovich’s Division III Pomona-Pitzer team for a non-conference game the following season.

I’ll never forget the score of a Pomona-Pitzer vs. Kansas matchup at the Phog Allen Field House. It was 94-38, Jayhawks. It was Popovich’s final season, incidentally, a 7-19 record, 4-6 against SCIAC rivals, his worst season in years. Future into coaching in the NBA?

Eventually, the San Antonio Spurs hired Brown, who stands today as the only coach to win NCAA and NBA (with Detroit) championships. That Spurs’ hiring led Brown to bring on Popovich as an assistant.

Popovich spent a couple seasons with the Golden State Warriors, but considered that Nevada-Las Vegas’ legendary coach Jerry Tarkanian, who coached Redlands High School over 1959-61 seasons, had been railroaded out of his job with the Runnin’ Rebels.

Tark turned up, briefly, as Spurs’ coach. It didn’t last more than a half season. The guy that hired and fired both Brown and Tarkanian was former owner Red McCombs. When McCombs sold out to Peter Holt, a few years later, Popovich returned — his SCIAC connections forever bridging a gap to his NBA career.

Eventually, Popovich appeared as Spurs’ general manager. Bob Hill was their coach. All of which led to Popovich taking over as Spurs’ coach in 1996. Just over one decade earlier, he’d coaching at tiny Currier Gym in Redlands, his team playing the Bulldogs.

That Popovich-to-North Carolina connection was Air Force related. Smith had long ago been an Air Force assistant coach under Bob Spear. That was Popovich’s coach when he played for the Falcons. It’s why “Pop” went to join Smith.

Connections in the coaching world add up quickly.

I keep giving myself an “atta-boy“ for that 1983 observation on a cold, rainy night in Redlands.

*****

Speaking of basketball: Current Phoenix Suns coach Mike Budenholzer, the former Milwaukee Bucks and Atlanta Hawks coach, who has been NBA Coach of the Year, spent some time locally during his playing career at Pomona-Pitzer College – playing against both the University of Redlands and Cal State San Bernardino. It’s when the Coyotes were NCAA Division III members back in the early 1990s.

Budenholzer, who led Milwaukee to an NBA title? That redhead, seen playing point guard during his playing days at Pomona-Pitzer, took a different path into the NBA. It was mostly on Popovich’s shoulders Budenholzer served as a San Antonio assistant coach since 1996.

December 28, 2024January 31, 2025

RUTH’S JUMP: REDLANDS TO LOS ANGELES GAMES

University of Redlands track & field coach Clay Brooks raved about Ruth Kleinsasser. So did his boss, Ted Runner.

Brooks, who spent years at that university, seemed a true professor in that sport.

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 or Ruth Wysocki, stepped onto the track at the Los Angeles Coliseum 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 to that sport. 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 the CIF Southern Section 880-yard championship. She also sped around the track to win the 440 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.

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 great runs in both the 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.

Reel wrote about his own exploits. Part of his writings were about Kleinsasser, including her 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.

“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 in the days when women’s sports were governed by the old AIAW. Truth is, in those days, Redlands’ men were part of the NAIA, not the NCAA.

A more familiar name may well be Ruth Wysocki. Ruth married top top national distance runner Tom Wysocki. 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 the SPAA 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 that college in Redlands. In 1975, she ran fast – the 2:07.6 in the 800, plus a 56.80 in the 400 at the Long Beach Invitational – but 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 in both the 800 and 1500.

There was a pattern here. Like many international competitors, she was laying the groundwork for the Olympics. In fact, she ran a 2:03, qualifying for the 1976 U.S. Olympic Trials – still under Reel’s watch. She was 19. Ruth took eighth in the Trials.

She was on-again, off-again training – seriously, pondering, planning. She’d gone from Ruth Kleinsasser to Ruth Caldwell and, finally, to Ruth Wysocki.

RUTH SLAYED SLANEY

If there was a top-flight moment for the ex-Redlands runner, it might be these:

Ruth upset highly-touted USA star Mary Decker to win the 800 at the 1978 U.S. Championships in 2:01.99. Ruth scored another upset victory against Decker – eventually Slaney – at the 1984 U.S. Olympic Trials, this time in the 1500-meter.

It was huge at that time. Still is … well, huge, that is.

Ruth outsprinted Slaney to win the Trials in 4:00.18 – her lifetime best. It was Tom Wysocki, training for the Trials, that had convinced his wife to train for the Olympics.

Brooks, who was Reel’s successor at Redlands and Runner, who were both coming to the end of their Redlands careers, watched with curiosity as the one-year Lady Bulldog star made her way into the L.A. Games.

Ruth took sixth in the 800, eighth in 1500.

To veteran observers like Brooks and Runner, it was a Redlands victory. One of their own had reached the pinnacle of the sport.

Who cared if the Eastern Bloc nations had boycotted the 1984 Games? Remember, these were the games of Carl Lewis’ 4-event gold medal.

Women sensationalists included sprinters Valerie Brisco-Hooks, Evelyn Ashford, plus Flo Jo – Florence Griffith Joyner – plus onetime San Gorgonio High School star Sherri Howard (4 x 400 gold medalist), 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, ran 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 THE L.A. OLYMPICS

It wasn’t going to be easy. Despite the absence of the 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 the year that Ruth ran at Redlands.

“She was,” he 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.

December 28, 2024January 31, 2025

WEATHERWAX WAS SURROUNDED BY NFL HALL OF FAME TALENT

There are names that would roll off the lips of any Green Bay Packers’ fan. They could have been Bart Starr or Forrest Gregg, Herb Adderley or Dave Robinson, Henry Jordan or Ray Nitschke, Willie Wood or Willie Davis – or even Vince Lombardi.

Jim Weatherwax, an 11th-round pick in that 1965 NFL draft which produced the likes of linebacker Dick Butkus and running back Gale Sayers, was teammates with all of those Packers. Waxie was way behind those Chicago Bears picked third and fourth overall. He was 150th.

That Redlands High graduate, who played for Terriers’ venerable coach Frank Serrao in 1959 – one of Redlands’ best teams – took the field in 34 NFL games with the Pack from 1966-69.

Add another Hall of Famer from that era.

On Saturday, Feb. 2, 2018, Packers’ blocking great Jerry Kramer – author of Instant Replay – was granted that long-awaited spot in Canton after years of pondering by pro football historians on whether or not the one time right guard deserved the honor.

Instant Replay was, in fact, a book centered around that famous block thrown by Kramer, Green Bay’s right guard. It helped clear a small path for Starr’s QB sneak in the Packers’ 21-17 Ice Bowl win over Dallas.

That triumph led Green Bay into the second Super Bowl against Oakland.

Imagine, playing for a Hall of Famer – Lombardi – backing up Hall of Famers like Jordan and Davis on Green Bay’s defensive line, while practicing against Hall of Fame offensive blockers like Gregg and Kramer.

Henry Jordan (Photo courtesy of NFL Hall of Fame.)

That’s 10 Hall of Famer players on one team, not counting Weatherwax’s historical coach.

In the Redlands newspaper office years later, Weatherwax reflected those glorious times. “I was lucky. I can’t even begin to describe it. Those were great times. Every man that played on that team was great.”

Jeff Lane, the sports editor of that paper, kept listening, taking notes, getting ready to write a story on this legendary local player.

“To play for the greatest coach of all time,” he said, pausing, searching for words that, perhaps, had never been used before, “was like nothing you could ever imagine. Like I said, I was lucky.”

Two of Weatherwax’s 34 career NFL games were the first two championship games – 35-10 over Kansas City in 1967, plus a 33-14 win over the Oakland Raiders in 1968.

Weatherwax started three games in 1967, even coming up with his only career fumble recovery that season. It the playoffs, Weatherwax got his share of snaps in wins over the Rams, Cowboys and, ultimately, the Raiders.

He was 23-years-old during his 1966 rookie season, well-schooled by the time that 1968 championship game against Oakland took place in Miami. The Packers’ era was slowly crumbling. Starr & Co. were aging rapidly. Whispers were rampant that Lombardi, too, was contemplating retirement.

All of which fed into the energy for Super Bowl II.

It was Kramer, said Weatherwax, who told the team in pre-game moments, “Let’s win it for the old man.”

Jim Weatherwax - Cal State L.A. — Redlands’ Jim Weatherwax, pictured during his Cal State Los Angeles days, was an eventual teammate to 10 Hall of Fame players for the Green Bay Packers, coached by Hall of Famer Vince Lombardi. Footnote: Weatherwax wore jersey No. 73 for the Packers. (Photo courtesy of Cal State Los Angeles.)

Such a statement might have been Hall of Fame-worthy.

Weatherwax, whose knee injury knocked him out from football by 1969, seemed to bask in the glow of such prominent times. “The knee injuries that drove me out of the game, well, kind of make it worth it. I wouldn’t trade those moments – not the games, not the guys and not the coach.”

December 28, 2024February 1, 2025

NOT EVEN AIR DAMON’S MOM KNEW ABOUT OLYMPIC DREAMS

Bernardine Damon, a mere mother, heard me mention about her youngest of four children talk about Olympic Games as a goal during her prep days. It was news to her.

“My jaw just about dropped,” she said. “I had no idea she had those thoughts.”

That youngest in Bernardine’s family, a daughter, Karol Damon kept jumping. She’d cleared 5-feet, 1-inch as a schoolgirl in Europe.

High jump, Damon later claimed, “was a big fluke. The other girls had all their marks and I didn’t know what I was doing.” Still, she kept going. It’s the essence of that sport.

In high school, she cleared 5-4, eventually leaping as high as 5-10 as a Redlands High School athlete. She was known as “Air Damon.”

*****

A side note: Girls’ prep track had only been established for a little over a decade. In the mid-1960s, Riverside Poly’s Rosie Bonds – aunt to eventual HR champion Barry Bonds – told me stories about leaving California during her prep days in order to find competitive girls’ meets.

Rosie wound up at Olympics, 1964 in Tokyo. It would take about a decade for California to upgrade its athletics program to somewhat include competitive girls’ programs.

Damon_Karol — Three decades after being known as “Air Damon” at Redlands High School, onetime Olympian Karol Damon-Rovelto is coaching track at Kansas State (photo by Kansas State athletics).

*****

At Redlands, Jim Scribner left the boys’ team as its coach to take the girls’ squad. Scribner’s girls had bunked heads with the likes of San Gorgonio High’s Howard sisters in 1979. One of those, Sherri Howard, won a gold medal (4 x 400, 1984 L.A. Games).

Scribner had to dope out meets against a high-powered Eisenhower High team from nearby Rialto.

Redlands High track & field was one of that campus’ top athletic programs. Often, those Lady Terriers had to match their depth with other teams’ top performers – winning meets, perhaps, by piling up points by flooding events with a prolific group of athletes.

Few Redlands tracksters were legitimate multiple-event winners.

Triple jump star Camille Robertson, a CIF champion in 1983, might have been a multiple event star. Long jump champion Carolyn Zeller, in 1977, might have been the Lady Terriers’ first female track star. Damon was a key figure when she rolled along.

DAMON SHOWED UP AS AN AIR FORCE ‘BRAT’

Like a lot of athletes at Redlands High, Damon was there because her father was an Air Force man. Norton Air Force Base. open at that time, was nearby in San Bernardino.

Dean Olson had taken over as coach from Scribner. He had inherited a track & field jewel. Damon? Slim. Perky. Attractive. Lithe. Athletic. Blond. She climbed to a school record 5-feet-10 in actual meets. There were, at times, six-foot jumps … in practice.

“She wouldn’t tune you out,” said Olson. “She was just tuned into her event.”

As a prep star, she was a great interview. Alert. Humble. Knew how to size up her skills. Keen insight into her sport. Didn’t soak up many moments. There was much more to conquer. Never took away from teammates’ achievements, either.

By rule, prep coaches can only schedule an athlete into four events. That’s four events out of 14 – 15 when there was pole vault. Damon was good for 20 points in most meets.

In high school duals, event winners are awarded five points.

Four events, max. Five points awarded. That’s 20 points. In a dual meet where 65 points is the magic team-winning number, that’s almost one-third of point total.

Damon was like a 30-points-a-game scorer in basketball. Or averaging 38 kills in a volleyball match. Or hitting .480 in softball.

Someday soaring into Olympic games as a high jumper, Damon was always good for 5 ½ feet, or better, at a Redlands meet. She could also hurdle. Sprint. There was a 400. She could run relays. And long jump.

By Damon’s concluding prep career at Redlands, she had cleared 5-feet, 8-inches at that CIF-Southern Section championships held at Cerritos College in Norwalk.

Surrounded by Southern California’s most prestigious high jumpers, Damon soared to big school 4A championship. A week later, she won the CIF-Masters, clearing 5-6.

It was after Redlands that she started her ascent to that 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

POST-REDLANDS TO THE OLYMPICS

Damon arrived at University of Colorado, where she was a four-time NCAA All-American. She was Big Eight champion in 1990. That year, one season after suffering a stress fracture, Damon had finally cleared six feet.

By 1991, she was Big Eight champion again, clearing 5-11 ½. Heading into that season, she was third at NCAA Indoors, her best ever at 6-2. After winning a Big Eight crown, that 6-feet, ¾-inch took was good for third at NCAA Outdoors. It was easy to figure she was getting better.

By 1992, every jump was at around six feet – second at Big Eight Indoor (6- ¾), tied for 11th at NCAA Indoor (5-11 ¼), third in Big Eight Outdoor (6- ¾), fourth at NCAA Outdoor (5-11 ½). A quick note: She was ranked ninth in Track & Field magazine. Not all those ranked were necessarily USA.

For good measure, she tried to claim a spot on that 1992 Barcelona Olympic squad, clearing a career-best 6-1 ¼, but tying for 7th at USA’s 1992 Trials. By this point, plenty of athletes might call it a career. Not this Redlands product.

Rovelto_Karol — A member of the USA Olympic team in 2000, Redlands product Karol Damon made quality attempts to land in the Games at Barcelona and Atlanta before showing up at Sydney (photo by U.S. Track).

By 1996, Damon cleared a personal best, soaring to a personal best 6-3 ½ to take fourth, one spot out of qualifying for Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996. Appropriately, she was ranked fourth by Track & Field.

By then, Damon had married male high jumper Randy Jenkins, so she was then known as Karol Jenkins.

She participated in most big meets – USA Indoors (6- ¼, 5th), Pan Am Games (6-2, 4th), USA Outdoors (6-feet, 9th), clearing a personal best 6-3 ½ in 1995. It was one year before Olympics. But that 6-3 ½ was one place shy of qualifying.

Veteran USA star Amy Acuff also cleared 6-3 ½, claiming that third and final Olympic spot on fewer misses.

Bulgaria’s Stefka Kostadinova had a world record, clearing a massive 6-10 ¼. Louise Ritter claimed the American mark at 6-8, twice.

Damon-Jenkins. Quit? No!

ONE LAST ATTEMPT TO QUALIFY

In 1997 through that 2000 Sydney Games Olympic year, Damon was among USA’s top five high jumpers. Acuff. Tisha Waller. Connie Teabury. Ritter.

It was training for big meets, those USA Outdoors and Indoors, Goodwill Games, World University Games, all in preparation for a world stage.

Held at Hornet Stadium at Sacramento State University’s stadium, Karol, no longer married to Randy Jenkins, was now Karol Rovelto. She’d married her coach from Kansas State. She was soaring against the likes of Acuff, Waller and Erin Aldrich.

In a remarkable 6-foot, 3-3/4-inch effort, her lifetime best, that onetime Redlands High star had won Trials. It was a Trials dominated by sprint star Marion Jones.

Damon-Rovelto, for her part, was ranked high jump No. 1 by Track & Field.

It was on to Sydney for the Olympics.

At 1.89 meters, which is 6-feet, 2 ¼-inches, Damon’s 24th place finish wasn’t close to eventual gold medalist – Yelena Yelesina, of Russiam her 2.01 meters just better than 6-8. Damon, like Acuff, failed to reach the finals.

Only a dozen years earlier, Damon had been launching her career from Redlands. Sixteen years after her Olympic experience, Damon-Rovelto was back at it.

A longtime coach at Kansas State, Rovelto took efforts with high jumper Alyx Treasure and heptathlete Akela Jones at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.

You wonder if Bernardine knew about those dreams?

December 27, 2024January 31, 2025

NHRA SEASON OPENS, DRAGSTER STAR LEAH PRUETT TOOK OFF

That original Leah Pruett started speeding at a youthful age. Eight or nine, right in there. Yes, there was a 78-mph blast away. Ron, her dad, built that junior dragster for racing.

Leah’s grabbed her share of speed at the highest speeding level, National Hot Road Association. Fastest Leah blasted Ron’s-built junior dragster with that 78 mph. Youthful. Under 15. She didn’t hit 100-mph on the track until after she graduated from Redlands High. At age 18, Pruett piloted a Nitro Funny Car to a blazing 200-mph. By age 19, she hit 250.

Looking ahead. Fifth place in 2016 among Top Fuel speedsters, the Redlands product notched wins in 2017’s first two races, starting at Pomona – winning four times throughout that season. Yes, it was her best,

Ron, Lindsey Pruett — Ron Pruett, left, and Leah Pruett, who is now married to NASCAR and Indy top driver Tony Stewart, Pruett, stands alongside the family dragster in the early days of her racing career. Too bad, though. Ron died a few years ago. (Photo by Pruett family).

She’s a Top Fuel dragster. This is a huge connection to the auto racing world. A queen among speed thrill-seekers. Leah, then 29, whose older sister, Lindsey, got first crack on the track when her dad, Ron, started building junior dragsters.

Leah was eight when she started racing. No soccer. No volleyball. No softball. No track & field or cross country.

Think of the cost. You don’t buy those cars in a kit at K-Mart or Sears, folks. Lots of detail, lots of attention, lots of expertise – not to mention expense – goes into building each machine. It’s beyond normal thinking.

Ron’s Precision Alignment, located down on Park Street near the end of Redlands’ city border, was headquarters for his kid’s car-racing dreams. A few years back, Ron sold out. It left him and wife Linda to move back east, to North Carolina – NASCAR country – while Leah sought her career in a Top Fuel speed machine.

The sponsors over the years – Gumout, Papa John’s, Albrecht’s, Mopar, Pennzoil, FireAde 200, among others – have kept her in the cockpit.

Speed? She’s got it to burn.

Leah’s gone from the Sportsmen’s division to Nitro Funny Cars to Pro Mod to winning a Hot Rod Heritage Series and, finally, in 2013, she landed in a Top Fuel dragster for Dote Racing. More was to come. So much more. It came right up until the time Leah retired in December 2024. It was time to start a family with her new husband, Tony Stewart.

Years earlier, though, I could remember when Ron invited me up to his Redlands home to view the junior dragster he created for Lindsey, Leah’s sister. At least, I think it was Lindsey’s. Ron, who was a speed demon himself – setting land speed records in Utah, plus various points around Southern California – chose a different sport for his girls.

Drag racing.

Ron fed me all of his daughters’ achievements – Lindsey’s and Leah’s – for publication in the local paper. There were 37 junior wins for Leah at various tracks throughout SoCal.

Ron himself was a star on the circuit – a 12-time land speed record holder. I don’t think he ever reached the speed his youngest daughter ever registered, though.

Ron Pruett proudly holds a Wally trophy, which indicates a speed-filled victory on a drag-racing track. (Photo by Pruett family).

Speed, though. Leah was born into the chase.

It would ludicrous to list all of Leah’s achievements from the junior circuit to her Top Fuel days in which she held (as of Jan. 17, 2018) the fastest speed at 332.75 over a thousand yards which brought a 3.64 elapsed time – both world records.

Drag racing underwent a change a few years back when distances were shortened from 1,320 yards, a quarter-mile, to 1,000 yards. It was safer. It probably limited any further hopes of increasing speed milestones.

Then there’s the Wally trophy. Named for Wally Parks, the sport’s founder who took street racing and put it on the track. A Wally goes to each week’s champion.

Ron’s got a few Wallys.

Leah’s got a handful. More were likely to come. She’s had a team, sponsor and experience is gradually growing. At Pomona, it’s a home track for Leah, especially since she raced there as a kid from Redlands.

Back in 2014, assigned to cover Winternationals for an area newspaper, my assignment was to land a connection on the locals – Funny Car’s “Fast” Jack Beckman of Norco, plus Top Fuel’s Shawn Langdon from Mira Loma. And Leah.

“Do I remember you, Obrey?” she asked in amazement. “Are you kidding? Of course, I remember you. You’re some of my best memories.”

That brought a nice streak of electricity up my spine.

For my article in the Riverside Press-Enterprise, I got more than I needed from her. Leah brought me up to date on her folks, who’d moved back east. Ron had sold his Redlands business, moved to North Carolina with Linda. Their other daughter, Lindsey, was teaching in Redlands.

Leah was just getting started. Patrons of the sport might tend to overlook what it takes to arrive where Leah was just reaching. This isn’t a sport. It’s a career. Racing just a portion of the 2013 schedule, Leah racked up 15^th place.

Leah’s won at tracks in Denver and Indianapolis, which is near her home in Avon, Ind. She’s driven speed cars like Mustangs and Camaros. Speed records came with some of those drives.

Twice, though, she was part of teams that shut down, leaving her without a ride – and those much-needed sponsors.

Leah Pritchett – the Redlands Rocket.

Part 2 coming soon.