PART 1 – REDLANDS IN THE SUPER BOWL

A Redlands Connection is a concoction of sports memories emanating from a city that once numbered less than 20,000 people. From pro football’s Super Bowl to baseball’s World Series, from dynamic soccer’s World Cup to golf’s and tennis’ U.S. Open, major auto racing, plus NCAA Final Four connections, Tour de France cycling, more major tennis like Wimbledon, tiny connections to that NBA and a little NHL, major college football, Kentucky Derby, aquatics and Olympic Games, that sparkling little city sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10. – Obrey Brown

Jim Weatherwax, who played in the fabled Ice Bowl game against Dallas, had a hand in helping Green Bay win its first two Super Bowl titles.

Brian Billick basked in the glow of his name joining names like Landry and Shula, Noll and Parcells, Walsh and Gibbs on the Lombardi Trophy. Curiously, eventual five-time Lombardi Trophy celebrant Bill Belichick would join that list after Billick.

Patrick Johnson, who caught a pass in Super Bowl XX, nearly made a diving catch for a touchdown in that same game against the New York Giants.

Welcome to A Redlands Connection-Super Bowl edition. That trio of former Redlands football players – Johnson (1994 graduate), Weatherwax (1961) and Billick (1972) – has surfaced in America’s greatest sporting spectacle.

It’s easy to break it down, too. Johnson’s speed. Weatherwax’s strength. Billick’s brains. It culminated with a spot in pro football immortality.

Johnson’s path to the Super Bowl might have been the shortest. He graduated from Redlands in 1994, committed to the University of Oregon and was selected by Baltimore in a second round pick in 1998’s NFL draft .

Weatherwax left Redlands after graduating in 1961, headed for Cal State Los Angeles before transferring to West Texas A&M in Canyon, Texas. Green Bay took him in round 11 during that 1965 NFL draft.

Billick’s path took him to Air Force Academy, eventually transferring to Brigham Young University. He was drafted by Dallas, but his career wasn’t as a player. He coached at Redlands, in San Diego, pushing onto Logan, Utah before Stanford in Palo Alto before surfacing as an assistant coach for Denny Green in Minnesota.

By 1999, Billick was named head coach in Baltimore.

It almost seems like pro football didn’t exist before 1967. It delivered a National Football League champion against an American Football League champion for professional football’s world title. It was a first.

In those seven years since AFL play had been developed, that league held its own championship. The Houston Oilers, Dallas Texans (future Kansas City Chiefs), San Diego Chargers and Buffalo Bills had won AFL titles.

NFL titles during that same span mostly went to Green Bay from 1961, 1962 and 1965 with Philadelphia , Chicago and Cleveland also winning pre-Super Bowl championships during those seasons.

SUPER BOWL ERA BEGINS

By that 1966 season, with 1967 showcasing its first AFL-NFL title game, Super Bowl’s era was born. In fact, Super Bowl terminology had yet to become adopted. That game was billed simply as an AFL-NFL Championship Game.

Green Bay going up against Kansas City was quite a spectacle. It was AFL’s best team going up against the NFL’s best. Vince Lombardi’s Packers playing Hank Stram’s Chiefs.

Redlands had a representative right in that package. It was none other than Weatherwax, known back in Redlands as “Waxie.”

MJS Jim Weatherwax — Redlands’ Jim Weatherwax of the Green Bay Packers. (Journal Sentinel file photo, 1966)

Weatherwax, for his part, played plenty in during second half in both championship games. He was seen spelling starters Ron Kostelnik and Henry Jordan on a few plays in that first half of Super Bowl II.

That particular showdown had been set up by that famous Ice Bowl game of 1967. That NFL Championship showdown came down to Bart Starr’s last-second quarterback sneak for a touchdown that beat Dallas on Green Bay’s “frozen tundra.”

It’s so well-known these days that winning play hinged on blocks from Packers’ center Ken Bowman and guard Jerry Kramer, who blocked Cowboys’ defensive tackle Jethro Pugh. That play, that win ultimately led Green Bay into its second NFL-AFL championship, now dubbed a Super Bowl, this one against Oakland in Miami.

Pugh, incidentally, was picked in that 1966 NFL draft five players ahead of Weatherwax in the 11^th round.

Green Bay, of course, won both “Super Bowl” games. The Packers, thus, set NFL history in virtual stone.

“That second Super Bowl was Lombardi’s last game,” Weatherwax told me several years later. “You should’ve heard the guys before that game, Kramer in particular. ‘Let’s win it for the old man.’ That’s what he was saying. Looking back, you couldn’t do anything but think that was special.”

Vince_lombardi_bart_starr Photo credit unkown — Legendary Green Bay Packers’ coach Vince Lombardi and quarterback Bart Starr are pictured. Redlands’ Jim Weatherwax was Starr’s teammate in Green Bay’s 1967 and 1968 Super Bowl championships. (Photo by Green Bay Packers)

AFL, NFL TACTICS LED TO MERGER

It was that first Super Bowl, however, that proved itself worthy of attention.

Referees in that first Super Bowl: Six overall, including three AFL and three NFL, including head referee Norm Schachter, who started his officiating career 26 years earlier. He was an English teacher in, of all places, Redlands.

The networks: The AFL’s NBC would be telecasting against the NFL’s CBS. Jim Simpson was on the radio.

Weatherwax, meanwhile, was playing behind the likes of Willie Davis and Bob Brown, Kostelnik and Jordan – Green Bay’s legendary defensive linemen. The Redlander gave a short chuckle as “The Hammer.”

Weatherwax said, “I can’t really say what happened out there.”

What happened? “The Hammer” was Chiefs’ secondary defender, Fred Williamson, who predicted he’d “hammer” Packers’ wide receivers during that initial championship games. It was Williamson himself that got knocked out of that game, Waxie noted.

Translation: He knew what happened, all right.

Kostelnik chasing Garrett (Photo by WordPress.com) — Kansas City’s Mike Garrett, 21 with ball, is being chased by Green Bay defensive tackle Ron Kostelnik during the first-ever championship game between the National Football League champion Packers and the American Football League champion Chiefs. Photo by WordPress.com)

When Packers’ placekicker Don Chandler sent his kick toward Kansas City’s Mike Garrett, it was Weatherwax who drove the onetime college Heisman Trophy winner out of bounds.

Credited with a tackle. First in a Super Bowl.

There were a few times that Weatherwax, part owner of restaurant in Orange County, later moving to Colorado, sat next to my desk. Earlier, he visited with Jeff Lane at that same office. Waxie showed up in Redlands visiting old friends.

Part of those visits included stopping by Redlands’ local newspaper. This dates back to the 1980s and 1990s. Sharing stories. Sharing memories. Showing off his championship jewelry. Great guy. Helpful. Willing to talk.

It was a huge part of a Redlands Connection.

Part 2 – About Super Bowl XXXV tomorrow.

February 3, 2025April 26, 2025

PART 2 – SUPER BOWL FROM TAMPA

Twenty-four years after Redlands’ Jim Weatherwax appeared in pro football’s first-ever title game between National Football League and American Football League champions, one of the most coincidental connections in Redlands’ Super Bowl-connected history took place.

A pair of ex-Terriers showed up in the NFL’s biggest game.

Brian Billick, whose Redlands High School days were beckoning when the first Super Bowl kicked off in nearby Los Angeles, had a future in the NFL’s big game.

Patrick Johnson, who caught a pass in Super Bowl XXXV, nearly made a diving catch for a touchdown in that same game against New York.

At Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., Baltimore Ravens – formerly a Cleveland Browns’ team – stopped New York, 34-7, to win Super Bowl XXXV. That date: Jan. 28, 2001.

All those football eyes from Redlands were squarely on those Ravens. By-lines appeared under my name about Billick’s early years in Redlands – his friends, starting football as a ninth grader at Cope Middle School, plus some of his Terrier playing days which included subbing for injured QB Tim Tharaldson in 1971.

09_Billick_PreviewPreseason_news — Brian Billick, whose high school play in Redlands was memorable in the early 1970s, eventually rose through the coaching ranks to take on of the most deadly defensive teams to win Super Bowl XXXV in Tampa, Fla. (Photo by Baltimore Ravens)

Thirty years later, he was coaching Baltimore in Super Bowl XXXV.

Johnson, a track & field sprinter who had raced to California championships in both the 100 and 200 less than a decade earlier, turned up as a second round pick by Baltimore in 1998. He wore Terrier colors. Picking football over track & field, Johnson was an Oregon downfield threat noticed by Baltimore.

It was during Johnson’s third season when Baltimore reached that Super Bowl. Twelve of his 84 career catches came in that 2000 season, two going for touchdowns. Tight end Shannon Sharpe (67 receptions, 810 yards, 5 TDs) was, by far, Baltimore’s top receiver. Running back Jamal Lewis (1,364 yards, 6 TDs) was that team’s most dangerous threat.

Baltimore’s defense, led by linebacker Ray Lewis, free safety Rod Woodson, end Rob Burnett and tackle Tony Siragusa helped keyed the Ravens’ drive to an eventual 16-4 record. Playoff wins over Denver, Tennessee and Oakland lifted Baltimore into the Super Bowl in Tampa Bay, Fla.

Billick’s high school coach, Paul Womack, traveled back east to see his former player. He showed up at the team’s Owings Mill practice facility. Basically, Womack had free run of the practice facility.

Womack heard Billick telling Johnson – dubbed the “Tasmanian Devil” for his uncontrollable speed – he had to run precise routes. The ex-Terrier coach quoted Billick, saying, “Pat, I can’t play you unless you run the right routes.”

In the Super Bowl, Johnson snagged an eight-yard pass from QB Trent Dilfer. It was good for a first down. There was another moment, though.

“I ran right by (Giants’ free safety Jason) Sehorn,” said Johnson.

Dilfer delivered the pass. Into the end zone. The ex-Terrier receiver dove.

“It hit my fingers,” he said. “It’s okay. It ain’t all about me.”

Patrick Johnson (Photo by Baltimore Gridiron Report) — Patrick Johnson, a Redlands High product, is shown after one of his 84 career NFL receptions, turning upfield to display some of his world class speed. (Photo by Baltimore Gridiron Report)

As for Johnson, I got him on the telephone a couple hours after that big win. He was on Baltimore’s team bus, sitting beside teammates Sam Gash and Robert Bailey. At that moment, Johnson said the Lombardi Trophy was sitting about six feet behind him.

“I just had it in my hands,” Johnson said, “right before you called.”

LOMBARDI, LANDRY, SHULA … BILLICK!

Billick, for his part, later shared time on the telephone with me, sharing some of his innermost thoughts for the benefit of Redlands readers. Baltimore beat Denver, Tennessee and Oakland to land in that Super Bowl.

“I can’t believe I’ll have my name on that trophy,” said Billick, days after that big event in Tampa. It was a chance to reflect on guys like Tom Landry, Don Shula, Joe Gibbs, plus a man he once worked for in San Francisco, Bill Walsh.

Billick named those legendary coaches he’d be sharing Super Bowl glory throughout the years.

After that game, that Lombardi Trophy was held aloft. On TV. Billick was holding it. Showing it to players. To fans. An Associated Press photographer snapped a picture. One day later, the Redlands Daily Facts’ single page sports section on Jan. 29, 2001 was virtually all Billick and that Lombardi Trophy. Confetti was falling all around him.

Framed around the Billick photo were two stories – one by local writer Richard D. Kontra, the other by-line was mine. As sports editor, I probably should have nixed the stories and enlarged that photo to cover an entire page.

Let the photo stand alone. Let it tell the whole story. As if everyone in Redlands, didn’t know, anyway.

One day after the enlarged photo, the newspaper’s Arts editor, Nelda Stuck, commented on why the photo had to be so large. “It was too big,” she said. “I don’t know why it had to be that big.”

Maybe she was kidding.

I remember asking her, “Nelda, what would you do if someone from Redlands had won an Academy Award? You’d bury it in the classified section, huh?”

That’s a newspaper business for you. Everyone’s got a different view of reporting.

A P.S. on Womack: Not only did he coach Billick in the early 1970s, but the former Terrier coach was Frank Serrao’s assistant coach in 1960. On that team was Weatherwax, who also played a huge role on Redlands’ 1959 squad.

It was a team that Serrao once said might have been better than Redlands’ 1961 championship team.

Another P.S., this on Weatherwax: While he had been taken by the Packers in the 1965 draft, the AFL-based San Diego Chargers also selected him in a separate draft. He played in 34 NFL games before a knee injury forced him from the game.

A third P.S., this on Johnson: Billick’s arrival as coach in 1999 was one year after Baltimore drafted the speedy Johnson. That would at least put to rest any notion that Billick played some kind of a “Redlands” card at draft time.

One final P.S.: That Jan. 29, 2001 Redlands newspaper headline in that Super Bowl photo was simple. To the point.

“Super, Billick.”

December 20, 2024January 31, 2025

BILLICK CAME OUT SWINGING FOR EVENTUAL NFL HALL OF FAMER

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, Kentucky Derby, aquatics and Olympic Games, that sparkling little city sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10. Funny that this coach played football, played at Air Force, Brigham Young University, returning to Redlands to commence his post-playing career. – Obrey Brown

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I’d knocked them on their ass.”