A Redlands Connection – Page 4

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 8, 2025April 28, 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, Director of Athletics Ted Runner.

Brooks, who spent years at that university, seemed a true professor. Runner, whose Redlands presence as an athlete, coach and, ultimately, director of athletics, was fond of track. He’d competed. For years, he coached.

Kleinsasser, eventually marrying as Ruth Caldwell and also Ruth Wysocki, stepped onto Los Angeles Coliseum’s Olympic Games track some nine years after spending that frosh season at Redlands. Those two men, Brooks and Runner, watched with great interest.

That Alhambra-born Kleinsasser, who competed at Azusa High School, was a prized performer at Redlands in 1975. What made Kleinsasser special was her true dedication. She was a lifer in track.

It started in age-group races in the late 1960s, starting an eventual period of about 30 years, until she became an over-40 Masters runner in 1997. In between, there was plenty to remember.

As an Azusa High senior in 1973, she ran a 2:16 to win a CIF-Southern Section 880-yard championship. She also sped around the track over 440 yards, winning in 57.3. That’s as tough of a double in any championship meet.

Since there was no State meet held for girls that year – one would start in 1975 – Kleinsasser never had a chance to prove her prep domination throughout California.

By 1975, Kleinsasser was running at Redlands, primarily because internationally-renowned Bulldog coach Vince Reel had come out of retirement. Reel, in fact, met her halfway, training her somewhere in California – between Redlands and Azusa. Kleinsasser gave runs in both 400 and 800.

Former University of Redlands runner Ruth Wysocki, then known as Ruth Kleinsasser, beat Mary Decker Slaney, right, at the 1984 U.S. Olympic Trials in the women’s 1500-meter – one of track’s shocking upsets that year (Photo by runmoremiles.com).

A YEAR IN REDLANDS

Reel, married to Chinese star Chi Cheng, had international status, especially since he’d lured some top talent – Chinese sprint star Lee Shiu-Chia, middle distance runners Chee Swee Lee, plus Donna Fromme and some dandy runners like distance star Molly O’Neil, hurdler Pam Ashe, sprinters Gloria Kennedy, Lynn Jones and Denise Becton.

Throw Kleinsasser into that mix. If only she’d lasted four seasons at Redlands. Reel wrote about his own exploits. Part of his writings were about Kleinsasser, including that season at Redlands.

Vince Reel, shown here as a Long Beach City College athlete, where he was State champion in the 100 and 220, in the early 1930s. A two-time sprint champion at Occidental College in 1936, he was fourth in the NCAA 220 championships for Occidental College.He would become a huge connection in the track world as a coach – Long Beach Wilson High School Track and Field Coach (1938-1957), moving on to Claremont College (1958-71), coming out of retirement to coach Redlands through 1979. He was also the Olympic track & field coach for India (1960) and China (1972). Reel was the founder of “Women’s Track and Field” magazine. (Photo credit: Long Beach City College).

Kleinsasser dropped out of Redlands, saying, “I realized I had chosen the wrong school. Not that it isn’t a wonderful place. It was not just the right place for me. That was before the NCAA for women.”

Ruth – just so readers don’t know she’s a Kleinsasser, Wysocki or a Caldwell – told Reel during days when women’s sports were governed by that old AIAW. Truth is, in those days, Redlands’ men were part of the NAIA, not NCAA. Face it. NCAA duels were well above what Redlands had going in those days.

A more familiar name may well be Ruth Wysocki. Kleinsasser? Wysocki? Caldwell? Well, let’s go with Ruth from this point.

In reality, Ruth wasn’t even the fastest half-miler on her own team. That same season, Lee Chiu-Shia ran a 2:05.36 in SPAA, a meet at track-rich Occidental College, just outside of Pasadena.

At the Bakersfield Invitational, Kleinsasser posted that 2:07.6.

What made Ruth “A Redlands Connection” was that year she spent running at Brooks’ college coaching. In 1975, she ran fast – 2:07.6 over 800 meters, plus a 56.80 over 400 at the Long Beach Invitational. Afterward, she transferred back to Citrus College, a junior college.

More domination. At Citrus, Ruth scored victories in the State cross country championship for both 1977 and 1978. During spring seasons in 1978 and 1979, she was State champion over both 800 and 1500 runs.

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

She was on-again, off-again training – seriously, pondering, planning.

RUTH SLAYED SLANEY

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

Ruth upset highly-touted USA star Mary Decker, racing 2:01.99 in an 800 chase at U.S. Championships in 1978. Ruth scored another upset victory against Decker – eventually Mary Slaney – at U.S. Olympic Trials for 1984, this time over 1500 meters.

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

Brooks, who was Reel’s successor at Redlands, along with Runner, who were both coming to the end of their Redlands careers, watched with curiosity as that one-year Lady Bulldog star made her way into those 1984 L.A. Games.

Ruth took sixth over an 800, eighth in 1500.

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

Who cared if Eastern Bloc nations had boycotted the 1984 Games? Remember, this was Carl Lewis’ 4-event gold medal blast in men’s events.

Women sensationalists included sprinters Valerie Brisco-Hooks, Evelyn Ashford, plus Flo Jo – Florence Griffith Joyner – plus onetime San Gorgonio High School star Sherri Howard, part of America’s 4 x 400 gold medal win, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, along with marathon champion Joan Benoit.

More men: Britain’s Daley Thompson scored his second straight decathlon title.

Americans. Hurdler Edwin Moses. Triple jumper Al Joyner.

ANOTHER REDLANDS CONNECTION

Step away from Ruth for a just a moment. It’s adding to the flavor of Redlands connections:

One year before the L.A. Games, in 1983, Redlands’ annual invitational came on its cinder track. Two interested participants were Colorado-home Air Force Academy and California’s Azusa Pacific University, among over a dozen other team entries.

In that meet-concluding 4 x 400 relay, Air Force’s Alonzo Babers and Azusa’s Innocent Egbunike ran neck-and-neck on that anchor. They might have even brushed against one another halfway during an unforgettable final lap.

From the home bleachers, 200 meters in, Egbunike could be seen turning his head toward Babers. Was there a connection? Did someone say something perplexing? Neither runner broke stride. Egbunike prevailed. Barely. There would be a highly interesting rematch. Of all places, it was at the Olympics.

It was that following year, both met in the open 400-meter – Egbunike for his native Nigeria and Babers for the U.S. Curiously, no one among national or international media mentioned their previous duel in Redlands.

Babers, in fact, won that Olympic gold in 44.27 seconds. Egbunike was last, 45.35. Those two dueled again in the 4 x 400 relay.

USA’s Sunder Nix, Ray Armstead, Babers and Antonio McKay won gold, prevailing in 2:57.91. Nigeria, anchored by Egbunike, took third in 2:59.32 for a bronze.

*****

Back to Ruth! That Redlands Connection kept going for years. Over a decade later, in 1995, Wysocki ran seventh in the 1500 at the Championships in Athletics in Gothenburg. That’s Sweden.

In 1997, Ruth set several Masters records at distances from 800 to 5000 on the track, plus 5K and 8K road races. She was surrounded by distance runners. Her dad, Willis Kleinsasser, was a successful Masters athlete.

Alan Kleinsasser, her brother, ran a 1:50.5 over 800 meters and a 3:52.2 clocking in the 1500 – both school records at Caltech Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Then, of course, her one time husband, Tom Wysocki, produced 13:35.33 in the 5000-meter and 28:19.56 in the 10,000.

RUTH AT THOSE L.A. OLYMPICS

It wasn’t going to be easy. Despite absences of Eastern Bloc nations, that boycott led by former Soviet Union, there was still plenty of international talent.

On Aug. 6, Romanian Doina Melinte circled the Coliseum track twice to score gold in 1:57.60. USA’s Kim Gallagher, whom Wysocki had often encountered, won silver in 1:58.63. Melinte’s teammate, Fita Lovin, took bronze at 1:58.53.

Ruth? Sixth in 2:00.34. She also qualified in the 1500, held on that 1984 August 11 race. Ruth took eighth as America’s best in 4:08.32, nowhere close at her USA Trials.

Melinte won the silver, barely nosed out by Italy’s Gabriella Dorio’s 4:03.25, the Romanian a fraction behind in 4:03.76. Another Romanian, Maricica Puica, took bronze in 4:04.15.

Ruth had to be thinking if she’d matched her lifetime best – that 4:00.18 at the Olympic Trials – she’d have been a gold medalist.

Said Ruth: “Even though the Olympics didn’t go really great for me, when I got to Europe after the Olympics, I beat everybody that beat me in the Olympics, including (Dorio).”

It was, she said, some vindication.

Brooks, for his part, sent plenty of half-milers out to do battle in Lady Bulldog colors. Runner, meanwhile, often reflected on that year Ruth ran at Redlands.

“She was,” Runner said, “not just a hard worker.” Runner said, observers could easily tell, “she had a game plan in any race she ran.”

She even made one last attempt to qualify for the 1996 Olympics at 38. Didn’t make it.

That one season, 1975, Ruth was A Redlands Connection.

January 8, 2025April 28, 2025

REDLANDS COACHING CONNECTIONS STRETCHES INTO NFL, CFL AND NCAA

Redlands Connection is a concoction of sports memories emanating from a city that once numbered less than 20,000 people. From the Super Bowl to the World Series, from the World Cup to golf’s U.S. Open and the Olympics, plus NCAA Final Four connections, Tour de France cycling, major tennis, NBA and a little NHL, aquatics and quite a bit more, the sparkling little city that sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10 has its share of sports connections. Plenty of athletic members took off from that spot. – Obrey Brown

It might seem easy to ignore football rumblings at the University of Redlands, an NCAA Division 3 program that doesn’t offer athletic scholarships, nor plays in such places as Tuscaloosa, South Bend or that nearby Los Angeles Coliseum, or attracts ESPN College Game Day staff during their Big Game against, say, Whittier College.

Ignoring them, however, would be a mistake.

Check sidelines for any guys that have coached at Redlands. Some major careers have been launched.

Mike Maynard, the Bulldogs’ head coach between 1988 and 2022, might be responsible for priming plenty of guys.

It’s underscored by a recent move of former Bulldog defensive coordinator Ed Lamb (1998-2000 at Redlands), who left as Southern Utah University’s head coach in Cedar City to take the assistant head coaching job at Brigham Young University – about four hours north on I-15.

2015-12-EdLamb-corrected — Ed Lamb spent two seasons as University of Redlands defensive coordinator before moving on to bigger programs, currently as assistant head coach at Brigham Young University (photo by Southern Utah University).

Maynard, not exactly shockingly, refers to most of his assistant coaches with words and phrases like “tireless worker,” “intuitive,” “patient,” “demanding,” “great communicator,” “structured and thorough,” “relentless drive,” “relates well to players,” and “passion for excellence” – plenty of high praise.

At Redlands, they got plenty of training in recruiting, game-planning, scouting and going through rigorous preparations – not to mention the games.

Lamb didn’t just show up at SUU before plopping up at Provo. One of his first stops after Redlands was landing a coaching gig at the University San Diego with Jim Harbaugh as head coach. It’s the same Harbaugh who led San Francisco to landing in 2012’s Super Bowl, later surfacing at Michigan.

Longtime Bulldog coach Ken Miller, who left Redlands in 2000, the onetime Bulldog and Yucaipa High head coach way back in the 1970s, retired after helping coach two Canadian Football League teams – Saskatchewan Rough Riders and Toronto Argonauts – win three Grey Cup championships.

MIller and Trestman admire Grey Cup — Montreal head coach Marc Trestman, left, and Saskatchewan coach Ken Miller, right, admire the Grey Cup, which is emblematic of the Canadian Football League championship. It was the night before the 2009 Grey Cup championship game (photo by Saskatchewan Rough Riders).

He didn’t stay retired long. Miller came up working for CFL’s Montreal Alouettes.

There’s Greg Hudson, who left Redlands (1991-92), taking over as defensive coordinator at Purdue, then University of Minnesota, assistant head coach at national powerhouse Florida State under head Jimbo Fisher, head coach, plus a former defensive assistant coach at Notre Dame when legendary Lou Holtz was top man.

Greg Hudson with ECU ... photo credit Pirate Radio 1250 — Since leaving Redlands in the early 1990s, Greg Hudson has coached at such places as Florida State, Notre Dame, Purdue and Minnesota (photo by Wikipedia).

“Best recruiter,” said Maynard, referring to Hudson, “anywhere.”

Ejiro Evero (2010 at Redlands) surfaced as a quality control coach with the Green Bay Packers after spending five NFL seasons with San Francisco.

That included 2012, that season when S.F. played Baltimore in the Super Bowl. That onetime Bulldog assistant came to Los Angeles in 2021 to coach Rams’ safeties.

Keith Carter, at Redlands in 2007-2008, showed up as a line coach with the Atlanta Falcons. In 2017, he helped construct a line that blocked for QB Matt Ryan in the Falcons’ quest for a Super Bowl championship — losing in that unbelievable comeback by New England.

Keith Carter ... AARON FREEMAN — Keith Carter, another of the growing list of ex-University of Redlands assistant coaches that have moved on, is shown here during his days at San Jose State. Currently, he’s running backs coach for the NFL’s Tennessee Titans (photo by San Jose State).

Carter’s grandfather, incidentally, is NFL Hall of Famer Gino Marchetti. Carter coached running backs at Tennessee.

If a question about why Redlands was unable to retain such coaching talent, well, just think about it.

There are no major radio or TV contracts, no network deals, no huge sponsorships that drop in major dollars in that Bulldog football world. No, Maynard got these guys when they were trying to make their football bones, hoping to learn the coaching craft in an environment created for teaching and coaching.

Their “pay,” was largely a two-year assistanceship while they got their Masters degrees, coaching as their portion. Maynard grabbed them when the price was right. He lost them when they got good enough to get better paying jobs.

Note any fact that most coaches stays lasted two seasons – the normal amount of time needed to get a Masters degree.

Part of “grabbing” those guys is this: Handfuls of applicants come in each year seeking a spot. Maynard, who looks awfully impressive in casting these guys, has to sift through all applicants.

There are former Bulldog assistants having shown up at Colorado, Virginia, Miami, Brigham Young, Arkansas State, Northern Arizona, Univ. San Diego, Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Southern University, plus Ivy League – and the NFL.

Garret Tujague, at Redlands in 1996-97, an offensive line coach at Brigham Young University left Provo to follow Bronco Mendenhall who took University of Virginia’s head coaching spot.

On Tujague, said Maynard, “is the kind of guy that is fired up when he’s sleeping.”

Even a partial list of those “connections” that these onetime Redlands assistant coaches have made is staggering.

Names like Holtz and Fisher, Harbaugh and Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry, Sean McVey and Wade Phillips in Los Angeles, an NFL Hall of Famer like Marchetti, plus coaching an offensive line that protected Ryan en route to a Super Bowl places plenty of success.

Those were multiple Redlands connections.

January 7, 2025April 28, 2025

JIM SLOAN ‘SHOT’ BEN HOGAN

Anyone ever heard of Ben Hogan?

There was a Redlands guy, Jim Sloan, who did. Sloan took photos, never really pushing his photos onto anyone. In that growing media business, whether it’s on large metropolitan dailies or a mid-size, there are also small town dailies that attract a group of contributors ranging from writing correspondents to photographers. Sloan was a true professional. Don’t get me started on telling about him. I don’t know enough.

That guy hustled, figured on angles, brandished his gear, fed film into canisters, throwing his heart in art-lengthy shots before modern technology – aka digital – was available.

Sloan, who specialized in Boy Scout photography for years, had presented his local newspaper with a lengthy list of photos over years. On back of those mostly black-and-white glossies was a familiar hand stamp – “Photo by James Sloan.”

There were photos of President Eisenhower, especially during that time when the World War II general was living out his final years in the Coachella Valley. Sloan caught the ex-president in a variety of poses, mostly on the golf course.

Fellow photographer Ansel Adams, musician Stan Kenton and politician Ted Kennedy were among the celebrity shots. Plenty of stories could be written about his photography connections with those famous faces. In his own way, Sloan, himself, was a celebrity photographer.

One of his photos, however, stood out. I remember when he brought it into my office. “I got this,” he said, pulling the 2 x 4 black-and-white out a small white envelope, “when I was down in Texas. I got him to pose for this.”

I looked at the mug shot. Smiling, handsome, almost stylishly posing, was a familiar face of golf legend Ben Hogan.

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).

Sloan’s photo was apparently opposite of such a philosophy. Was it a lie? Did Hogan occasionally shed that image? Was Sloan a personal friend? No way. Couldn’t be. Ben Hogan, who had captured every major championship – four U.S. Opens, a British Open in his lone attempt, two Masters and two PGA titles – while overcoming that infamous 1949 car collision with a bus that nearly killed him.

All of which is a well-known story by now, part of history – along with that picturesque swing, the calmness, ice water in his veins, the famous comeback, that movie that depicted his life around the crash, Follow the Sun: The Ben Hogan Story. No sense in reciting all that here. This story is A Redlands Connection between a local photographer and a golfing icon that breathed immortality.

It was hard to trust Jim; I didn’t know him all that well, but I had to trust him. In a way, Jim was far more worthy than I was on a local front. A trick? A way to claim some kind of connection to a legend? A little self-indulgence? Redlands was a golf community, its country club often playing host to a variety of legendary connections. Wouldn’t it be great to fabricate a story with those golf partisans? A story connecting Jim Sloan to Ben Hogan would be a good one.

Golf had plenty of prominent connections to Redlands.

Club manufacturer Mario Cesario, whose son Greg was an All-American golfer at Arizona State, made golf clubs for Tom Watson, Nancy Lopez, Gene Littler and others – in Redlands. Watson himself even journeyed to Mario’s local shop for consultation.

Tiger Woods came to Redlands as a well-known five-year-old.

Phillips Finlay, younger brother of Madison Finlay, once took on Bobby Jones in the Roaring 20’s. Or was it twice? Maybe three times?

Dave Stockton, who famously outdueled Arnold Palmer at that 1970 PGA Championship, hailed from San Bernardino – but moved to Redlands.

Here, though, was a photo print of that Ice Man, Hogan’s historical nickname, that bore all of Sloan’s photographic trademarks. Remember my cynicism. That started melting away. I believed Jim was telling a large truth.

First question that came into my head: “Did you shoot this photo in Redlands?”

Excuse my excitement. Jim, of course, had already told me that he was in Texas when he took it. Texas was Hogan’s home, somewhere near Dallas. I was excited to think that, somehow, Hogan might’ve traveled to Redlands.

I wish I could recreate that total conversation I had with Jim about his Hogan photo – but he was always in a hurry. There was no real conversation. Any time he showed up, it was always a quick-hitting visit. Sloan, in my memory, only showed up a few times for talk, presenting photos, or discussing some sports-related shot he’d taken. Something about that guy, always on the move, seemingly like he was late for something.

“I’ll give you this,” he said, noting that Hogan photo, “to use when he dies. Keep it in your obit file.”

And Jim disappeared. A few years later, Jim died. He was an heir to the R.J. Reynolds tobacco dynasty. Hogan outlived him by a few years. By the way, when Hogan passed away in July 1997, out came his photo from my desk for use in that Redlands newspaper.

Yes, credit was given toward Jim Sloan.

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.

December 26, 2024January 31, 2025

MICHELE LYFORD, TWICE AS OLD AS TIGER WOODS: ‘HE WAS HALF MY SIZE’

CORTE MADERA, Calif. — Michele Lyford-Sine, who lives in a quiet neighborhood in this smallish community a half-hour’s drive north of San Francisco, remembers running into PGA golf professional Dave Stockton in New York a few years back.

Stockton, who was playing the Westchester Open, stayed with Lyford-Sine and her family in that 1999-2001 era.

“When we lived there,” said Lyford-Sine, originally from Redlands, “he’d come stay with us when he played in that tournament.”

Stockton, now a Redlands resident, mentioned to Tiger Woods, said Lyford-Sine, telling the five-time Masters champion, “I’m sleeping at the house of the only girl that’s ever beaten you.”

That remark might have caught the 15-time major champion by surprise way back on Dec. 29, 1981.

5d1f827570ecc.image — *A few years after that exhibition duel with Tiger Woods, now 15-year-old Michele Lyford hits off the practice tee at Redlands Country Club.*

That remarkable date was one day before Tiger’s sixth birthday.

The site: Redlands Country Club.

“I was only 12,” said Lyford-Sine. “I was asked to play.”

Redlands Country Club golf professional Norm Bernard, described as a huge proponent of junior golf, had known Rudy Duran, Tiger’s personal coach during his youthful days. Together, Duran and Bernard formed the match – a 9-hole exhibition on RCC’s front nine.

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

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

In the end, she shot 43 — not a bad score for a 12-year-old on the par-35 RCC front nine — and Tiger shot 51.

“It was,” she said 38 years later, in 2019, “a little weird not having my dad there.”

Ted Lyford, the multi-year RCC club champion, was at work. Neither was her mother present, but younger sister, Jennifer, followed that duel.

“The way people hover over their kids,” said Lyford-Sine, “kind of made it seem strange. That’s the way it was back then. Parents didn’t hover as much as they do now.”

She recalled. “I remember his dad lifting him up so he could see the slopes of the course.”

Tiger, who was just turning six, had already appeared on the Mike Douglas Show, ABC’s That’s Incredible and, perhaps, another program or two. He was a golf prodigy. Few probably figured that this kid would someday turn professional golf on its ear.

Lyford-Sine shared another small connection with Tiger. They both eventually attended Stanford.

“My entire goal in life,” she said, “was to get a full scholarship to Stanford. I won a few big tournaments and that got me in.” Her grades probably had more to do with Stanford’s acceptance.

Among those “big” tournaments, though, was the 1987 Girls CIF-Southern Section championship, beating Rialto Eisenhower’s Brandie Burton, that year’s runner-up, by eight shots at North Ranch Country Club in faraway Thousand Oaks, Calif. Burton, if anyone can recall, would later become a top LPGA Tour player.

Lyford-Sine was a San Diego Junior World champion in 1983, shooting 227 to win the girls 13-14 division. Lyford-Sine repeated in 1986, winning the girls 15-17 division by shooting 295.

By the way, a kid named Eldrick Woods was the 9-10 champion in 1984, winning the first of six Junior World titles. Eldrick Woods, of course, is known as “Tiger.”

Stanford, though, was a tough haul for golfers — male or female — with certain majors in school.

“You’re in a school that has the smartest people on the planet,” Lyford-Sine said.

If she was looking to show off her golfing accolades and her academic prowess, consider most people would take on a major that’s routine enough to include both athletics and academics. “There are some majors you can do that with,” she said.

Woods was a Stanford student – at first. Said Lyford-Sine: “Tiger left (Stanford) after two years.”

Whether he left to pursue a brilliant pro golf career, or that he was caught up in that academic-versus-athletic war is unknown. “I’ve never thought to ask him,” she said.

“You cannot compete athletically and compete academically,” she said. As golfers, “we missed so much school. It doesn’t feel good.”

After two years, she left golf to complete her academic workload. “I did okay (in golf), not great,” she said.

It was six years earlier, just after Christmas at Redlands Country Club in 1981, that Tiger and Michele duel took place. She probably wasn’t thinking about a Stanford academic workload taking place in the distant future. It was that Redlands duel that took place first.

“We had people following us,” she said, “but I got over the nervousness.”

Afterward, once Lyford-Sine outdueled Tiger at Redlands Country Club, Bernard threw a birthday party for that little guy.

“I remember,” said Lyford-Sine, “we sang happy birthday to him and he blew out candles on a cake inside the restaurant at Redlands Country Club.”