A Redlands Connection – Page 7

August 14, 2018July 5, 2020

PRO GOLFER DAVE STOCKTON GAVE A LESSON OF A LIFETIME

Redlands Connection is a concoction of sports memories emanating from a city that once numbered less than 20,000 people. From the Super Bowl to the World Series, from the World Cup to golf’s U.S. Open and the Olympics, plus NCAA Final Four connections, NASCAR, the Kentucky Derby and Indianapolis 500, Tour de France cycling, major tennis, NBA and a little NHL, aquatics and quite a bit more, the sparkling little city that sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10 has its share of sports connections. – Obrey Brown

Here it is, August 16, 2018. On this date in 1976, another major golf championship was awarded. On Aug. 13, 1970, a previous major title had been awarded.

Pro golfer Dave Stockton taught me a lesson about sports I never forgot.

I’d never met the San Bernardino native. I’d interviewed him a couple times – years ago – by telephone. A onetime Pacific High School star, who won the 1959 CIF-Southern Section championship, had a stalwart golfing career.

Dave StocktonJACQUELIN DUVOISIN SI — Dave Stockton, a San Bernardino native now living in Redlands, holds the Wanamaker Trophy, symbolizing victory in one of professional golf’s grandest prizes — the PGA Championship (photo by Wikipedia Commons).

He’s won the PGA Championship twice, in 1970 and 1976. He’s a Senior U.S. Open champion. There have been other championships, including the Los Angeles Open and a few other prominent tournament titles. Around these parts, Stockton’s considered a General among those who’ve achieved at the highest levels in any sport.

The seeds of my life’s lesson were planted in August 1970. That’s when Stockton, who was in contention at the 1970 PGA Championship at Southern Hills Golf Club in Tulsa, Okla. was taking on a rather large challenge.

Arnold Palmer – not to mention Arnie’s Army – was the hurdle standing in Stockton’s pathway.

(A curious note, perhaps: About 15 miles from Redlands, the city of Beaumont includes a housing complex dubbed Tournament Hills. Street names include Trevino Trail, Woods Way, Casper Cove, Hogan Drive, Nicklaus Nook, Palmer Ave.

Other streets are named Crenshaw, Bean, Miller, Mickelson, Runyan, Irwin, Bean, Venturi, Shore (as in Dinah) and Pepper (Dottie), among others, plus parks named for Trevino, Palmer and Nicklaus.

Get it?

I happen to live on the corner at Stockton Street.)

At age 15, I’d only caught a minor glimpse on how formative Arnie’s supportive fans could be. I also had no idea how rugged they could get against a player who was challenging Palmer’s run to a memorable golf championship.

The PGA Championship is the fourth major golf tournament, following the Masters, U.S. and British Opens. I believe only Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and, eventually, Tiger Woods have won the Grand Slam of Golf.

Jack Nicklaus, who is receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom (photo by Wikipedia Commons), was very close to Dave Stockton in both of his PGA Championship victories, which came in 1970 and 1976.

Nicklaus and Woods are multiple ’Slam winners.

My Dad, Neal Brown, and I watched Palmer go after that elusive fourth major in 1970, a title he’s never won despite an otherwise illustrious career. Dad was such a fan of Palmer’s that he actually fashioned his own golf swing after Arnie’s, whose swing was often a source of discussion among the sport’s purists during his days.

In August 1970, Dad and I sat and watched, rooting for Arnie. We were definitely part of Arnie’s Army, TV-style.

Stockton stood up under the heat and the pressure.

Pressures of a major golf championship are immense. It included the likely possibility that gallery members – Arnie’s Army supporters – were doing things to irritate him.

Like Dad, I was disappointed that Arnie didn’t win.

INSIGHT INTO THAT 1970 PGA TITLE

Fast forward a decade, or so.

I was now working for the Redlands daily sports section.

The Stockton family had moved back to Mentone, a neighboring community next to Redlands. I got the telephone number where Stockton was staying while he was playing at a tournament in Canada.

He was obliging, honest and frank in his answers. I could hardly wait to hit him up with my remembrance on how he knocked off Arnold Palmer at the 1970 PGA Championship.

I was certain he could fill in some of the gaps from that experience.

It was likely the highlight of his career. When the subject came up, the onetime Pacific High and University of Southern California golf star was ready.

Arnold Palmer? The missing link in his trophy case? The destiny with history? Golf’s Grand Slam?

Arnold_Palmer_(cropped) — Arnold Palmer’s chances of winning golf’s Grand Slam was cut off by Dave Stockton at the 1970 PGA Championship in Tulsa, Okla. (Photo by Wikipedia Commons).

“My family,” said a serious Stockton, without missing a beat, “needed it more.”

Palmer, who was a remarkable golfer for decades, had won four Masters titles, two British Opens and the 1960 U.S. Open. He tied for second at the PGA Championship on three occasions — including 1970.

For the record, veteran golfer Bob Murphy tied for second with Palmer at one-over par. Stockton was two-under.

Jack Nicklaus was four shots back.

Johnny Miller held the first-round lead.

Stockton shared the second-round lead with Larry Hinson.

After three rounds, Stockton held a three-shot lead over Raymond Floyd heading into the final 18 holes. Palmer trailed by five.

Stockton, who shot a final round 73, shared the experience of holing out a 125-yard wedge shot.

He’d also shared that the media referred to him as an “unknown.”

After he notched the victory, he was no longer that unknown.

“I hit a tee shot into the trees,” he recalled, “and I heard (an Arnie Army reserve) holler, ‘go get ’em, Arnie.’ That made me hot.”

Said Stockton: “I had some work to do. That (final round) wasn’t easy.”

That was the lesson, folks. Who cares if there was a blank spot in Palmer’s trophy case? Palmer needed that championship about as much as the Yankees needed another World Series trophy.

The esteemed Palmer seemed to do quite well, I noticed, never having won that fourth major. It might be a blank space on his trophy case in 1970, but no matter. His bank account probably didn’t suffer all that much in 1970.

Neither did his career.

ONE MORE WANAMAKER TROPHY ADDITION

Stockton, however, added a jewel to his trophy case, which also included the L.A. Open. At Riviera Golf Club, Stockton outdueled another golf legend, Sam Snead a few years earlier.

Since learning that lesson from Stockton, I don’t necessarily root against the Yankees. Or against Notre Dame’s football machine. Or against the Lakers or the Celtics pulling out another NBA title.

I love the Final Four when a mid-major like Gonzaga or Marquette or George Mason or Butler, challenges for that elusive prize ahead of North Carolina or UCLA or Duke or Kentucky.

What I do love are the good stories coming from unexpected winners.

That lesson came via Stockton.

“My family needed it more,” keeps shooting through my mind.

The Wanamaker Trophy, symbolizing the PGA Championship, found its way back into the Stockton family six years later.

On the 72^nd hole in 1976 at Congressional Golf Club, Stockton connected on a 15-foot par putt to beat Floyd and Don January by a single shot.

The ever-dangerous Nicklaus, defending champion and looming closely to the top, was beaten by two strokes.

Let’s not overlook Stockton’s other top finishes at major championships.

He tied for second place at the 1974 Masters, trailing Gary Player by two shots alongside Tom Weiskopf.

In the 1978 U.S. Open, he tied for second place with J.C. Snead, one shot behind Andy North at, of all places, Cherry Hills (Colo.) Country Club – the site where Palmer notched his only U.S. Open victory.

Stockton’s best finish at the British Open, a tie for 11th place, came one year after winning the 1970 PGA Championship. Lee Trevino won at Royal Birkdale.

As for the San Bernardino native, Stockton moved to Mentone in the 1980s. A couple decades later, his family moved again — this time to Redlands, near the traditional country club.

Along with comedian Bob Hope, President Gerald Ford and Dodger owner Walter O’Malley, Stockton was presented as an honorary member at Redlands Country Club.

He told me, again by telephone, “I had no idea there were honorary members at Redlands.” Stockton seemed moved. This wasn’t an Arnie’s Army remembrance party.

It was part of that Redlands Connection.

July 23, 2018July 5, 2020

A 1952 LETDOWN: KAYAKING OLYMPIC SPOT ELUDED RUTH DEFOREST-COLLEY

She taught at Mentone Elementary School for decades, but Ruth Colley was probably never known by any of her students as an Olympian.

The year, 1952.

It was that year when Colley, qualified and trained, setting herself up for being that rare individual – a U.S. Olympian.

Rare? Ruth DeForest would’ve been the first female Olympian in her sport.

She was Redlands’ Mrs. Tennis – the first woman ever to win that distinction in a city of revered participants – in a sport she was totally devoted to during her years. Throw golf into that mix.

Colley, who married Joe Colley, was a lively gal. Athletically-minded and gifted, she has quite a resume.

One of the original organizers of the Redlands Racquet Club, a tennis-based spotlight that sailed high on the local radar for years.

Tennis, golf, track & field, figure skating, basketball, hockey, but kayaking?

It’s not the first sport that comes to mind when discussing Olympics.

That was Colley’s sport of choice when she, apparently, reached her ultimate goal – qualifying for the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Ruth DeForest was a canoe-racing specialist who attended Newark State College in the 1950s.

She even had a nickname – Woody. She bowled. Played basketball. She shot as a member of the school’s rifle club.

Kayaking shouldn’t seem all that outlandish. It’s been an Olympic sport since the beginning. Older than other Olympic sports, like basketball.

Training was off campus – there were no facilities at Newark State – so she trekked up to the American Canoe Association Camp. When she entered the National Canoe Races, held in the summer of 1951 on the Charles River in Boston, DeForest took second with her team.

There were 75 entries. Four-boat races. She was the lone female.

She took first in a national Ladies Kayak Race in Washington, D.C. in 1951.

Anyone out there believe that kayaking isn’t a sport? Guess again.

It’s beyond challenging. Those things go from 1,000 to 10,000 meters. In women’s, it’s a 500-meter sprint.

The sport is as old as it is traditional – dating back to the 1870s.

You start thinking: Male dominated.

RDF-L-LAWNBOWLING-0215.TLPa.jpg 2-14-2018 — A tennis player, golfer, rifle shooter, bowler and basketball player, Ruth DeForest-Colley might’ve been an Olympic medalist in kayaking if there had been a favorable reception to women on the U.S. squad (photo by permission of the Redlands Daily Facts).

Chatting her up was a blast. I could interview Ruth Colley for a week – and still not finish the conversation. She had plenty to say, all entertaining, pertinent and valued. The Colley name, Joe and Ruth, appeared in the local paper numerous times, perhaps an Olympic record number of times. Golf, tennis and plenty of other items.

By 2007, she was perhaps finally being recognized. That December, she was named “Living Legend” by the Alliance for Aging Research in Washington, D.C. Plenty of influential people, including Colin Powell, were nominated for that award, according to a local newspaper article.

Colley was living longer and loving it. There was enthusiasm attached to her golf and tennis-playing lifestyle.

She’s an honorary lifetime member of the Washington Canoe Club. There’s a trophy that’s given each year – named the Ruth DeForest-Colley Award.

In 1988, when she could’ve been playing tennis or golf in Redlands, she won four gold and four silver medals in kayaking at the Nike World Masters Games.

But that 1952 Olympic kayak spot was questionable.

She beat all the odds – time requirements, all the rigorous training, winning the qualifying events – to make the trip across the Atlantic.

Michael Budrock (1,000 meters) got to go. So did William Schuette. And Thomas Horton. And John Eiseman, plus John Anderson and Paul Bochnewich, John Haas and Frank Krick.

Footnote: None of those guys won medals.

DeForest could’ve competed in the lone women’s event, a 500-meter sprint, won by Finland’s Sylvi Saimo. Austrian and Russian kayakers took the silver and bronze medals.

By contrast, there were eight men’s events.

Talk about needing a MeToo movement.

Gender equity? There was no such thing.

In a word, DeForest wasn’t allowed to compete. She was a woman. It was a world of, perhaps, chauvinistic men. There were rules. A chaperone was required for a single woman headed to Europe. That was, at least, the excuse given. You get the feeling that, perhaps, the U.S. men didn’t want to be upstaged by a U.S. woman.

No accommodations were made for DeForest in a male-dominated sport.

Frank Havens, the 1948 London Games silver medalist, won the gold medal in 1952. DeForest had trained with Havens, a four-time Olympian.

frank_havens-72 — Frank Havens, said to be Ruth DeForest’s training ally in preparation for the Helsinki Games, won the 1952 gold medal in the 10,000-meter kayaking Olympic event (photo by canoemuseum.wordpress).

Some history: Havens’ father, Charles, missed the 1924 Paris Olympics – where he’d been favored to win a medal – to be home with his wife during Frank’s birth.

None of which should’ve meant anything to Ruth DeForest.

No Olympic trip? It was, perhaps, the disappointment of a lifetime. Train for 1956 in Melbourne?

DeForest instead graduated from Newark State in 1954. She got married, settled down with a family and taught elementary school in the Redlands school district. She didn’t stay away from athletics.

Colley taught tennis around Redlands for nearly two decades.

She goes down as the nation’s first female kayaker at a time when they had been shunned from the spotlight.

You get a strong sense that the men-at-the-club had quite a few conversations about keeping this kid from competing. They couldn’t keep her from graduating with a degree of Childhood Science.

Imagine the Redlands Connection if Ruth DeForest had won a gold medal.

July 16, 2018July 5, 2020

K.K. LIMBHASUT GOLFS HIS WAY FROM REDLANDS TO BERKELEY

For years, Redlands High’s K.K. Limbhasut worked his way into the Terriers’ golf lineup at the No. 1 position — all four seasons, in fact. When he notched a victory at the Ka’anapali Classic in Lahaina, Hawaii last November, he shot his way to collegiate golf’s mecca.

He has just capped his junior season at Cal-Berkeley, shooting just over 71. Limbhasut’s collegiate career includes two prominent wins, a dozen top 10 NCAA finishes, plus a 10^th place at the 2016 NCAA Championships as a freshman.

The Thai-born Limbhasut (pronounced Lip-ah-SOOD) was one of those athletes that showed up as a Terrier, who averaged 68 shots every time he played 18 holes as a prep.

KK LIMBHASUT — K.K. Limphasaut, a Redlands High School product, is playing his way through UC Berkeley on a golf scholarship. The fifth-year senior has won some collegiate events in his time (photo by Cal Bears).

He goes into a list of Terrier athletes that might’ve been surprises in the school’s traditional Blue Line.

Athletes like future Olympic high jumper Karol Damon, plus Brigham Young University tennis’ Hermahr Kaur, soccer’s Landon Donovan, football and track star Patrick Johnson, among others, who showed up, perhaps unexpectedly, to carve out a niche.

Those athletes could’ve easily shown up on some other campus.

When Limbhasut shot a 67 at the CIF-Southern Section championship at Mission Lakes, he’d outplayed Oregon-bound Aaron Wise (now on the PGA Tour), of Corona Santiago, by a single shot to win the 2014 championship.

Names like Tiger Woods (three times, in fact, for Anaheim Western) are on that same winner’s list. So are PGA Hall of Famers like Dave Stockton (San Bernardino Pacific) and Billy Casper (Chula Vista), plus Vista Murrieta’s Ricky Fowler.

Limbhasut probably won’t ever forget that eagle on the 16^th hole at Mission Lakes which lifted him to his win over Wise and an entire field of gifted prep players.

His grades, not to mention his game, got him a shot, literally, at the academically sound Berkeley campus.

He’s paid his dues at Berkeley. There was that 2014-2015 Aggie Invitational triumph in Texas, plus a tie for first place at the John A. Burns Intercollegiate Tournament in Hawaii one season later.

Limphasut has been a three-time All-West Region. Like most top-flight amateurs, he’s played in plenty of major events. He just finished playing at the Arnold Palmer Cup, held in France, losing in match play while representing the International team.

Let’s not forget that any time, he tees up in a collegiate match — particularly in the super talented Pac 12 — Limbhasut’s taking on top-flight future pros. In Cal’s NCAA Regionals, played in Raleigh, N.C., an 11th place finish failed to land a spot in the NCAA Championships.

Limbhasut’s tie for 32nd place, shooting 212, was middle of the road play.

It’s probably far too premature to pronounce a pro future on Limbhasut, which is the likely conclusion to draw from any golfer with such a growing list. It’s probably too premature to rule it out.

His final round 66 at the Royal Ka’anapali Course included three pars on the final three holes, shooting 12-under par for a 200 total, edging South Carolina’s Scott Stevens by a shot. Limbhasut’s Cal teammate Collin Morkiwaka started the final round in first place.

Limbhasut’s patience and iron play held steady.

“I controlled my ball flight this week,” he told an area magazine, “which helped when the trades (infamous Hawaiian winds) picked up.”

Noting a 25-foot uphill putt he sank for an eagle on the ninth hole, Limbhasut seemed perfectly up to that up-and-down part on the 18^th hole to close it out.

Next stop: Limbhasut, a fifth-year senior, will begin play this fall.

July 13, 2018July 5, 2020

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

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, Wimbledon 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. – Obrey Brown

It’s July 6, 2018. A World Cup quarterfinals day. 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 the days when young teenager Landon Donovan flashed up and down high school soccer fields, darting in to take a pass, dribble up the field, set up a teammate, or launch a shot into the mouth of a soccer goal.

In years ahead, he wasn’t worried about playing Rialto Eisenhower, San Gorgonio or Victor Valley from the Citrus Belt League.

What was on his mind that summer of 2014 is Group G – Germany, Ghana and Portugal. Or on just making the Team USA roster. America’s coach at the moment was German legend Jurgen Klinsmann.

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 a coach. Klinsmann, a goal-scoring superstar for the Germans, was brought over to direct the American side.

Donovan would eventually feel the sting.

In reality, his days at Redlands High as a freshman – when he was the ’96 CBL Most Valuable Player – and his half-season at Redlands East Valley, were just soccer matches in miniature.

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.

The 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 at the time.

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,” he said.

Was he being coy? After all, he’s one of the 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 in the Redlands area. Klinsmann, though, didn’t pick him.

Donovan to USA soccer is what Phil Mickelson is to golf, or LeBron James to basketball – American stars without controversial baggage away from the arena (Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, among others).

Asked to identify the 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 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.”

The pondering, perhaps, came just because he was trying to separate the 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.

Messi’s a goal-scoring legend.

Lionel_Messi_Player_of_the_Year_2011 — Lionel Messi might get the nod, at least from Redlands’ Landon Donovan, as the world’s greatest soccer player, as of July 2018, that is. Donovan’s played against the 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 the threshold of winning the 2018 World Cup. They’d taken down 5-time Cup champion Brazil, 2-1, in St. Petersburg, Russia. In the semifinals, however, France ended Belgium’s run with a 1-0 outcome.

Team USA wasn’t in the 2018 field.

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 the first breakdown of the American side. By 2018, Team USA couldn’t even qualify to be among the 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).

The USA/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’s 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 (to grow the same fascination between the USA soccer and the European Premiership).”

That’s part of the answer, perhaps: Grow up USA players on European rosters. To gain the toughness. To gain the experience. To gain the international flavor. It’s just the way Donovan 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 the 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.

Donovan, at 32, retired after the World Cup. Perhaps, but only as a Cup player. “We’ll see,” he said at the time.

By 2016, Donovan retired as a Galaxy striker.

Playing for six Major League Soccer Cup championship teams (four in L.A., two in San Jose), the Redlands kid was a goal-scoring dynamo — 160 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 in June 2018.

As a U.S. player, he played in more international matches than all but one.

It’s kind of cool, isn’t it, that Donovan sprung his worldwide legend from Redlands?

July 3, 2018July 5, 2020

NO REV ATHLETE COMES CLOSE TO KRISTA VANSANT’S ACHIEVEMENTS

I could hear the 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 the roster. Saw there was actually a Vansant, jersey No. 16. Freshman. Sure enough, Tricia Vansant was the coach.

Can’t stand a pushy parent. 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 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.

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.

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 the 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 semifinals matchup.

Washington’s win over USC became 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 to knock off the 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 her. Vansant was seen instantly breaking into tears on the 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

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.

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

Let’s not forget that 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 the 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.

June 27, 2018July 5, 2020

DAVID ROGERS: A BACK-RIDING PERFORMER WINS GOLD

Imagine staying up late on a Sunday night, listening – not watching – an Extreme sport on ESPN while doing some late-night writing. All of a sudden, this nothing event comes to life. The words sounded familiar.

“… and in the Street Luge category … a man made a name for himself … from Redlands, California … David Rogers.”

What’s that? Redlands? Late-night ESPN TV? Made a name for himself? I kept watching. Sure enough, Rogers was there, on his back, racing downhill, battling for a gold medal. From Redlands, of all places. As a media member, you’re always looking for local angles.

I had to get it into the newspaper the next morning. Late night phone calls. Early morning. Let’s see. If this took place on tape-delayed ESPN, he might be traveling home at this hour – and maybe just getting back.

Maybe I could catch him before he went to bed. It was 1 a.m.

I’ll do anything for a story on deadline.

David Rogers, of Redlands, won a gold medal at the 1999 Super Mass X Games competition in San Francisco on the street luge (photo by Wikipedia Commons).

Rogers, who resided in Redlands, took that ride down a San Francisco hill near the famed Cliff House restaurant on one June summer day. While the temperature soared to nearly 100 in his home town, the City By the Bay was nice and cool.

Rogers took first X Games Street Luge championship in August 1999, thus earning a gold medal along the way. It was a first. He’d come from last place on that daring dangerous downhill plunge at the Cliff House.

With names like Biker Sherlock, Rat Sult, Earl “The Squirrel” and Dennis Derammelaere in the sport of Street Luge, a name “Mr. Rogers” doesn’t seem all that exciting, does it?

By the way, the Godfather of the sport is Bob Pereyra.

It’s a Redlands Connection that Rogers copped a street luge gold in the Super Mass category.

Some background: The programming department of ESPN in 1993 came up with the idea of holding a meet for athletes from the alternative, or extreme, sports. After nearly two years of preparation, the first Extreme Games were held in Rhode Island and at Mount Snow, Vt., from June 24 through July 1, 1995.

Competition in nine sports attracted 198,000 spectators. Based on that success, ESPN decided to do it again in 1996, when the name was changed to the X Games.

The 1997 and 1998 Summer X games were staged in San Diego. The second Winter X Games, in 1998, were held at Crested Butte, Colo. By the following summer, arrangements had carried the event to San Francisco for two years in June.

Rogers’ racing expertise lied, perhaps, in the fact that he crafted his own racing machinery. A Texas A&M engineering graduate, Rogers fabricated his own boards on which he lied, facing up, as he rode downhill and steered in that crazed position.

The event was called Super Mass.

Summer attendance climbed continuously over a three-year period, to 221,000 in 1997, 233,000 in 1998, and 275,000 in 1999. ESPN hasn’t released attendance figures since then, so the supposition is that they’ve reached a plateau or declined somewhat.

Many competitors had arrived in Utah to compete in the Street Luge X Games’ “Last Chance Qualifier.” The weather had been hot but nice with moderately heavy winds in the evening. The hill features a steep grade with an off camber sweeping right followed by a very challenging left turn. Braking was required.

Redlands’ Rogers had a blistering qualifying run which would have placed him as a top 10 qualifier for Street Luge. Comparing the two related events, riders noted less fear of injury and little pressure to perform.

Whoosh! Rogers, from his past place sport, whizzed past Sean Slate in the rear position, taking the best line through the Cliff House Turn, winning the Super Mass category.

Position is everything. Pushing a racer into the hay bales might be perfect strategy.

Street Luge — This is the position that a street luge participant finds themselves in when competing 0 — lying flat on their back, racing downhill while surrounded by fans, haybales and thrill-seeking adventures (photo by Wikipedia Commons).

There might’ve been 10,000 watching in this remarkable view.

Unfortunately for the racers, lying on their backs, they had no view of the great Pacific Ocean as they raced downhill for the gold.

For the local newspaper, I had an off-the-beat story.

I couldn’t wait for my first face-to-face interview with Rogers. He’d given me his address. I met him at home. His wife, dressed to the max for this special interview with her husband, looked lovely and supportive.

One day later, Rogers met me on a road course – part of the Sunset Loop for the Redlands Bicycle Classic – for a photo spread with photographer Lee Calkins. It led to a full-page spread in the local newspaper.

The gold had one to Rogers – A Redlands Connection – with some nice

June 25, 2018July 5, 2020

WYSOCKI’S JUMP FROM REDLANDS TO L.A. GAMES

Clay Brooks raved about Ruth Kleinsasser.

So did Ted Runner.

Brooks, who spent years as the University of Redlands track & field coach, was a true professor of his sport.

Runner, whose presence on that campus as an athlete, coach and, ultimately, director of athletics, was fond of track. He’d competed. For years, he coached. It almost seemed like he kept a closer eye on that sport than he did anything else.

When Kleinsasser (eventually Ruth Wysocki) stepped onto the track at the Los Angeles Coliseum nine years after spending her freshman season at Redlands, the two men – Brooks and Runner – watched with great interest.

The Alhambra-born Kleinsasser, who ran at Azusa High School, was a prized performer at Redlands for one season.

What made Kleinsasser special was her true dedication to the sport. As a track star, she’s a lifer.

It started in age-group races in the late 1960s, starting an eventual period of about 30 years, until she became a Masters (over-40) runner in 1997.

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 (57.3). That’s as tough of a double is 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 domination.

By the 1975 season, Kleinsasser was running at Redlands, primarily because internationally-renowned Bulldog coach Vince Reel had come out of retirement. Reel, in fact, met Kleinsasser halfway. He trained her in Claremont.

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 the shocking upsets that year in track (Photo by runmoremiles.com).

A YEAR IN REDLANDS

Reel, who was 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 Ruth, including her season at Redlands.

Vince Reel, shown her 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).

Admittedly, Kleinsasser dropped out of Redlands. “I realize 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,” Kleinsasser 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.

In reality, Kleinsasser 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 her 2:07.6.

A more familiar name may well be Ruth Wysocki. That came after she married top national distance runner Tom Wysocki.

What made her a Redlands Connection was the year she spent at the University of 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 headed back to Citrus College.

More domination. At Citrus, running as Ruth Caldwell, she scored victories in the State cross country championship for both 1977 and 1978.

During the spring track 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.

WYSOCKI SLAYED SLANEY

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

Wysocki upset highly-touted USA star Mary Decker to win the 800 at the 1978 U.S. Championships in 2:01.99. Wysocki 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 … huge, that is.

Wysocki 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.

She finished sixth in the 800 and 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.

The women 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.

Hurdler Edwin Moses. Triple jumper Al Joyner.

ANOTHER REDLANDS CONNECTION

Adding to the flavor of Redlands connections:

One year before the L.A. Games, Redlands held its annual invitational on its cinder track. Two interested participants were Air Force Academy (Colo.) and Azusa Pacific University, among over a dozen other team entries.

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

Egbunike could be seen turning his head in Babers’ direction. Neither runner broke stride.

At the finish, Egbunike prevailed.

One year later, the two met in the open 400-meter – Egbunike for his native Nigeria and Babers for the U.S.

Babers won the gold in 44.27 seconds. Egbunike took last in 45.35.

The two would meet again in the 4 x 400 relay.

Sunder Nix, Ray Armstead, Babers and Antonio McKay won the gold, prevailing in 2:57.91. Nigeria, anchored by Egbunike, ran third in 2:59.32.

As for Wysocki, 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.

In 1997, Wysocki 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 in Pasadena.

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

WYSOCKI AT THE L.A. OLYMPICS

It wasn’t going to be easy. Despite the absence of the Eastern Bloc nations, that boycott led by the old 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 encountered on plenty of occasions, won silver in 1:58.63. Melinte’s teammate, Fita Lovin, won the bronze in 1:58.53.

Wysocki ran sixth (2:00.34).

She also qualified in the 1500, held on Aug. 11.

Wysocki was America’s best in that event, but she took eighth (4:08.32), nowhere close to her best mark set at the Trials.

Melinte won the silver, barely nosed out by Italy’s Gabriella Dorio (4:03.25), the Romanian a fraction behind in 4:03.76 with yet another Romanian, Maricica Puica winning bronze (4:04.15).

Wysocki 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.

She told Reel, “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 Kleinsasser 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 game attempt to qualify for the 1996 Olympics at 38.

That one season, 1975, she was a Redlands Connection.

June 19, 2018July 5, 2020

STEVE SCOTT: RUNNING UNOFFICIALLY THROUGH REDLANDS

This is part of a series of mini-Redlands Connections. This is Part 3 of the series, Quick Visits. Magic Johnson and John Wooden showed up at the University of Redlands as part of a Convocation Series. This piece on Tom Flores was another one. Hall of Fame pitcher Ferguson Jenkins, former NBA player John Block, legendary high school coach Willie West showed up. There are others. Cazzie Russell, for instance, came to Redlands with an NCAA Division III basketball team from Savannah, Ga. Russell, out of Michigan, was the NBA’s overall No. 1 draft pick by the New York Knicks in 1966.

Today’s feature: World-class distance runner Steve Scott.

Steve Scott could’ve wiped out the field at the 2001 version of A Run Through Redlands.

Think about it.

There were 136 times in his career that Scott ran the mile in four minutes, or better. He held the American record in that distance for a quarter-century. His place in track & field’s history books are cemented forever.

That he showed up to run in Redlands was incredible. He wasn’t there to compete, though.

“I’ve got friends here,” he said, standing in front of a crowd of local runners. “I ran with them in the 5K … but I didn’t enter the race. This was just a fun run for me.”

SteveScott — Upland’s Steve Scott, who ran a mile under four minutes a world record 136 times, stopped by to run for fun at the 2001 Run Through Redlands (photo by Wikipedia Commons).

It must’ve never occurred to runners on that Sunday morning that they were running next to a legend.

It occurred to me, however, that I had a genuine story on my hands.

I gigged the local newspaper photographer, Lee Calkins, to get Scott’s photo. Scott, charming as he was spectacular, had given me his telephone number for, perhaps, a future feature article. I could hardly wait.

INTERVIEW WITH A LEGEND

Talk centered around that remarkable record of sub-four-minute miles. He was a legitimate superstar on the track – nationally and internationally.

He was just 22 when Britain’s Sebastian Coe set the world mile record (3:48.95) in Oslo, Sweden in 1979. Running second that day was none other than Scott, the miler from Upland. Eventually, his lifetime best over one mile was 3:47.69.

It seems almost sub-human to recognize his lifetime best in the 800 was 1:45.05.

Olympics?

Like many athletes in 1980, ready to erupt at the Games, he was part of a U.S. contingent that wasn’t allowed to attend the Moscow Olympics because America boycotted.

“I won (the 1500) at the Olympic Trials,” he told me. “I was ready for the Olympics, believe me.”

Scott did win the gold medal at the Liberty Games, an event organized to allow boycotting nations to enter their athletes. Held in Philadelphia, Scott held off Sudan’s Omer Khalefa by a fraction of a second in 3:40.19 over 1500 meters.

In the 1984 L.A. Games, Scott ran 10^th in the 1500; fifth at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Only one of his lifetime bests – 800, 1000, 1500, mile, 3000 or 5000 – was run on American soil. In the 5000-meter, Scott ran a 13:30.39 at legendary Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.

“Running in Europe is great,” he said. “There’s nothing like it. Track is huge over there. You can really make some money.”

Appearance fees, purses, shoe sponsorships, bonuses for world records – “the big money is overseas,” said Scott. “There’s no big money in American track.”

Holder of the American one-mile record on three different occasions – becoming the first American to crack 3:50, incidentally – Scott set the American record (3:47.69) in July 1982.

When I spoke with Scott in 2001, he still held the American record in the mile (his record was broken in 2007 by Alan Webb, 3:46.91).

“I love road racing,” he said. “It doesn’t matter to me whether the race is on the track, indoor, outdoor, on the roads.”

I used to cover the Sunkist Invitational in Los Angeles, a pre-season indoor meet, when Redlands would send athletes. I wasn’t around when Scott ran his first mile under four minutes in 1977.

He raced against the likes of Sydney Maree, Ovett, Coe, Steve Cram – legendary figures over the mile distance.

Then there was the Dream Mile, he called it.

“Three of us,” Scott said, referring to New Zealand’s John Walker and Ireland’s Ray Flynn, “all ran under 3:50.”

It took place in Oslo, Norway in 1982. Scott won in 3:47.69, Walker was next in 3:49.08 and Flynn was third in 3:49.77.

“Whew,” Scott recalled. “I can’t remember a bigger race with that much speed.”

Walker’s run is still a national mark in New Zealand. So is Flynn’s mark in Ireland. Twenty-five years later, Webb cracked Scott’s record.

For Scott, it all started in high school. Who could have foreseen the moment that Scott would race against Walker, who logged 135 races under four minutes?

“I ran cross country at Upland High School,” he said. “There was a coach there who kept after me to run track.”

In the 1972 Olympics, a U.S. runner, Dave Wottle, had won the gold medal in the 800. Scott watched, then developed a strong desire to run track. In college at UC Irvine, Scott was NCAA Division 1 champion in the 1500.

“My times in high school were nothing special,” he said, referring to 1:58 in the 800 and 4:30 in the 1500.

“Running those (record) times in the mile, holding the record,” he said, “was the most special part of my career. Those were great feelings.”

COULD’VE WIPED OUT REDLANDS RACE

As for that 2001 Redlands’ 5K, consider that he once ran 5,000 meters in just over 13 minutes. In 2001, I seem recall the course record at just over 15 minutes – virtually a sprint.

Scott’s background produced a mark that was two minutes quicker.

What shouldn’t go unnoticed here is that A Run Through Redlands organizers, dating back to its origins in the early 1980s, couldn’t conceive they could offer up a significant event that a world figure might show up to run — even if it was a “fun run.”

Could he have wiped out the Redlands field, I asked him?

He smiled.

“Maybe.”

June 11, 2018May 21, 2022

GARY NELSON: WALTRIP’S WRENCH-TURNING WIZARD

For most of his 3 ½ years with 1981 NASCAR Cup Series champion Darrell Waltrip, chief mechanic Gary Nelson had met one challenge after another.

And the 26-year-old former Redlands mechanic can look back on over 20 years of experience working with engines as his credentials for time spent with the circuit’s hottest driver.

436px-GaryNelsonNASCAR1985 — NASCAR crew chief Gary Nelson wasn’t born in Redlands, but the eventual wrench-turning wizard spent plenty of time there as he got his racing career started (photo by Wikipidia Commons).

“I like to think I can look at a car and say ‘this area’s weak’ and then spend more time with that,” Nelson told me a couple days before the 1980 Winston Western 500 at the old Riverside International Raceway.

“This race,” he said, “is one of the toughest for mechanics because of the course.”

It’s a course that would cause any race team headaches.

Riverside’s 7-turn course each lap would depend on mechanics’ ability to maintain the clutch and brake systems.

“On a super speedway,” said Nelson, referring to the likes of Talladega or Martinsville or Bristol, “you don’t even use them. That is, until you come to a pit stop.”

Cars that pull into pit area at Riverside, well, it resembles organized mayhem. All that stopping, turning and rotating around that course.

Nelson was well-known around Redlands by all those race-lovers. I was urged by plenty, including newspaper advertising manager Jim Mundy, to produce a story for the locals as the Winston Western 500 beckoned. In fact, we rode out to Riverside Raceway together.

Nelson, born in Illinois before Arnold and Mildred Nelson moved to Redlands, started with engines when he turned five.

Arnold Nelson started teaching his son via motorbikes and race carts.

“My dad’s a real good mechanic,” said Nelson, who eventually got into racing with local legend Ivan Baldwin — “Ivan The Terrible.” When he was in his mid-teens, Nelson started sweeping the floors before working his way in as Baldwin’s lead mechanic.

Said Mildred: “He’s just like his dad. When Gary was 16, his dad gave him the family van. The first thing he did with it was take the engine out and put a bigger one in.”

She said Gary had always been interested in anything with wheels.

“I always worried about him, but I knew he was very careful. He wasn’t a wild driver.”

His early racing experience was local.

ORANGE SHOW SPEEDWAY SPECIAL

NASCAR had to be special, especially since the Ontario Motor Speedway and the Riverside raceway were so close to Redlands. To get there, however, required the paying of dues.

It was Saturday at Orange Show Speedway. Arguably, Baldwin might be the most successful driver that ever came out of OSS. Said Nelson: “We had a lot of fun.”

Baldwin, Nelson at 605 Raceway — At left, West Coast driving megastar Ivan Baldwin, while Gary Nelson checks the engine at Speedway 605 in the San Gabriel Valley (photo by legendsofnascar.com).

A connection to Baldwin was worth plenty in those years. Baldwin, later killed in a 1996 traffic accident, raced all over California’s racing circuit. That Nelson was part of his crew shouldn’t be a surprise.

“Racing was cheap in those days,” Nelson said. “And it wasn’t hard to do. But nowadays with the price of engines and tires, it’s hard to get into.”

All of which is why events led him into NASCAR. “I wouldn’t want to race unless I could go first class,” he said.

Waltrip and Nelson hard went after wins. At a race in College Station, Texas one week, a young driver named Dale Earnhardt., Sr. had a one-lap lead with 20 remaining. Nelson saved 10 seconds by replacing just two tires instead of four on the pit stop.

It saved the day. Waltrip won, leaving the driver praising his crew chief – typical comments. “Gary made the decision to change those tires. Goddammit, the kid is so good.”

Nelson countered by saying it had been a joint decision – crew, driver and chief mechanic each involved.

“We have a good crew,” said Nelson, noting future Hall of Famers Buddy Parrott and Robert Yates, plus Butch Stevens in the pits.

“Over the last three years,” said Waltrip, who won 13 races that season with Nelson as crew chief for DiGard Racing, “we’ve been successful because the good mechanics have stayed and the bad ones have left.”

Nelson’s teams won at Daytona and Riverside, Richmond and Bristol, Darlington and Michigan, Pocono and Martinsville, Wilkesboro and Charlotte, Richmond and Dover Downs – pretty much all the major stops on NASCAR’s fabled schedule.

WALTRIP CALAMITY NEARLY OVERCOME

In the 95-lap Winston Western 500, Waltrip crashed at the sixth turn on lap 65. The car limped into the pits. In 15 seconds, the crew changed two damaged tires and hammered out the dented body so Waltrip could drive his now-disfigured car back into contention.

Two days before that race, Nelson said Bobby Allison and Richard Petty would be the “toughest competition.”

He wasn’t necessarily ignoring the likes of Cale Yarbrough, Joe Millikan, Earnhardt or Benny Parsons.

Wasn’t it ironic that Allison took the race and Petty, with substitute driver Jimmy Insolo, finishing third?

DARRELL_WALTRIP_IMAGE — Darrell Waltrip was a stock car driving legend. Part of that success came with Redlands’ Gary Nelson running the team (photo by Wikipedia Commons).

Waltrip, his crew having made the quick-handed changes after the crash, took second.

Six laps were left. Waltrip was down 45 seconds. Crew member Don Sewell, another Redlands-based pit man, said, “It’s too much.”

Only an Allison mishap would cost him the race.

Allison knocked down his fourth win of that season.

Waltrip’s familiar green “88” car sped by some 32.9 seconds later. He was nearly out of gas.

“A few years ago,” said Nelson, “I wouldn’t have predicted I’d be where I am today. It’s hard, but I rely on a lot of luck.”

If that doesn’t leave you chuckling, consider that he was worried that a rebuilt transmission on Friday wouldn’t hold in Sunday’s race.

Tim Williamson, the driver who won the Hodgdon 200 just prior to the Winston Western 500, stood alongside Nelson. It was Nelson who said, “I was worried he’d run out of gas.”

Nelson didn’t last long with Waltrip, who left one year later for Junior Johnson’s racing team.

A portion of Nelson’s resume:

Crew chief for Allison, who joined DiGard when Waltrip left.
Turned up as Kyle Petty’s crew chief, 1989.
In 1988, Nelson was a part-timer with ESPN.
A West Coast Stock Car Racing Hall of Famer.
Worked for NASCAR in 1991 as its Winston Cup director. During that time, Nelson was credited with safety innovations – particularly after Earnhardt’s driving death.

Since April 2001, when he took on the safety portion of NASCAR, no life-threatening accidents have taken place at any of its speedways.

One final point: Isn’t it interesting that Nelson’s most prized racers, Allison and Waltrip, were tied for fourth place on NASCAR’s all-time victory list at 84?

All that wrench-turning started as a Redlands Connection.

June 7, 2018July 5, 2020

CAZZIE RUSSELL: FORMER NO. 1 NBA PICK BROUGHT SCAD TO REDLANDS

Today’s feature: None other than Cazzie Russell.

Truth is, there aren’t many NBA No. 1 draft choices that pass through Redlands.

Not just a No. 1 draft pick. We’re talking No. 1 overall.

Truth be told, Shaquille O’Neal showed up at the University of Redlands to film a commercial. Model Cindy Crawford was on that scene, too. It had been written up in the local press — nothing much to it.

Cazzie Russell comes to mind.

The Chicago native was a three-time All-American at Michigan in the mid-1960s.

At 54 years of age, Russell was coaching Savannah (Ga.) College of Arts & Design (SCAD).

In December 1998, SCAD came out west for a three-game trip to play Westmont College (near Santa Barbara), Univ. La Verne and Univ. Redlands.

“This school was founded in 1979 with 71 students, said Russell, “and a credit card.”

By 1998, it had grown to a campus of 4,000 students.

At the time of his hiring, SCAD’s Chairman of the Board was none other than Dr. Bernie Casey, who had been an NFL All-Pro receiver. Onetime major league pitching hero Luis Tiant was the school’s baseball coach.

As for Russell, hoops fans might recall that 6-foot-5 pure shooter who helped lead the Wolverines to the 1964 and 1965 Final Four, losing in the 1966 Regionals to eventual finalist Kentucky. A short time later, the New York Knicks made Russell the No. 1 pick.

Cazzie Russell

Cazzie Russell, a No. 1 overall draft pick by the New York Knicks in 1966, coached a small college team from the visitor’s bench in 1998 at the University of Redlands (photo by Savannah College of Art & Design).

Thirty years later, including an NBA title in 1970 — Knicks over the Lakers — Russell was sitting in an Ontario hotel, the midway point between La Verne and Redlands.

“I love coaching here,” he says. “Nobody expects anything from us. We’re a bunch of cartoonists, graphic designers, architects. We come into another school’s gym and they’re thinking they’ve got us.

“When the get us on the court, we fool ‘em.”

Someone else could write the connections between Russell had with a variety of NBA legends, including teammates though plenty of opponents that included Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, Willis Reed and Walt Frazier, Nate Thurmond and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Oscar Robertson and John Havlicek.

“I just saw Oscar two or three weeks ago,” said Russell. “I remember when he came to my high school and tried to get me to go to Cincinnati, his old school.”

Russell was traded by the Knicks to the San Francisco Warriors for legendary rebounder Jerry Lucas in 1971.

Three decades later at SCAD, Russell laid the groundwork for recruiting, basketball, getting his team a chance for an education at an NCAA Division 3 institution.

No one sees us at practice, he says. “We’re working on defense, shooting, fundamentals … just like everyone else, I suppose.”

At SCAD, Russell’s recruits are playing for a former No. 1 draft pick, a onetime NBA champion who played against the best basketball players in the world.

“A lot of kids are in awe of the fact that I was drafted No. 1,” he said.

Teaching those fundamentals at practice, he said, “is like trying to introduce them to a new cereal.”

That list of overall number one picks — O’Neal, Kareem, Robertson, Baylor, Patrick Ewing, Magic Johnson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Elvin Hayes or Bill Walton — does NOT include Michael Jordan or Chamberlain, Russell or Karl Malone.

Russell’s in rare company.

Joked Russell: “I don’t want to get into the difference in the amount of money we made then and what they make now.”

During his post-playing career, Russell coached at every level — high school, CBA, assistant in the NBA, collegiately in both NAIA and NCAA — before settling in at SCAD.

In its three-game swing out west in 1998, the Bees swept Westmont, La Verne and Redlands.

It seemed strange to see Russell seated on the bench as SCAD warmup up to play the Bulldogs inside Currier Gymnasium on that December 16, 1998 night.

It was a far cry from the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum when, playing for the Warriors, the smooth-shooting Russell was swishing shots in a rare win over the Milwaukee Bucks.

Averaging 15 points a game over a 10-year career, Russell not only played in the New York and Golden State, but also the Lakers and Chicago Bulls. When the Lakers signed him away from the Warriors, according to the rules of the day, Russell’s former team received draft compensation.

That pick turned out to be Robert Parrish, the 7-foot center later traded by the Warriors to the Boston Celtics.

As for SCAD basketball, Russell’s coaching career in Savannah lasted 13 seasons. The school cancelled the sport in 2009.

Russell was as well-versed in spiritual necessities as he was setting up a jump shot. He seemed to make as much joy in reporting that God was a huge factor in his life.

“If God is first in your life,” he told me, “then you’re going to be successful. I’m not talking about making money. I’m talking about faith in everything you do.

You can run from God, he said, “but you can’t hide. When I decided I was going to be obedient in 1989, it was the best thing I ever did.”

“I’ve got no plans to leave.”