Redlands High School – Obrey Brown

January 27, 2025February 2, 2025

REDLANDS CONTAINS ATHLETIC CONNECTIONS BEYOND BELIEF

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.

REDLANDS – Mike Darnold was a curious “connection.”

Throw in football’s Jim Weatherwax and Brian DeRoo.

Villanova basketball coach Jay Wright showed up here, with his team, one Saturday morning in 2003.

“Black” Jack Gardner left here in 1928.

Jerry Tarkanian lifted off from here in 1961.

How many Redlands Connections can there be?

It’s a basis for that Blog site, www.obreybrown.com. Dedicated to an idea that there’s a connection from Redlands to almost every major sporting event, athletic lovers should check on it.

The afore-mentioned have already been featured. There have been others. Plenty of others.

Golf. Track & field. Tennis. Baseball and basketball. Softball and soccer. The Olympic Games and the Kentucky Derby. The Super Bowl? Yes.

For a city this size, connections to all of those are remarkable.

Softball’s Savannah Jaquish left Redlands East Valley for Louisiana State, later made Team USA.

Bob Karstens was just shooting a few baskets, using a few balls, shooting entertainingly at those outdoor Redlands High courts. Turned out he was one of three white men ever to play for the usually all-black Harlem Globetrotters.

Brian Billick coached a Terrier Hall of Famer. Together, they won a Super Bowl.

09_Billick_PreviewPreseason_news — Brian Billick, a key Redlands Connection.

Speaking of Super Bowls, not only was a former Redlands High player involved in the first two NFL championship games, there was a head referee who stood behind first championship QBs Bart Starr and Lenny Dawson. That referee got his original start in Redlands.

One of racing’s fastest Top Fuel dragsters is a Redlands gal, Leah Pritchett.

LEAH PRITCHETT (leahpritchett.com) — Leah Pritchett has punched her Top Fuel dragster over 330 mph many times.

Greg Horton forcefully blocked some of football’s greatest legends for a near-Super Bowl team.

At a high school playoff game at Redlands High in 1996, Alta Loma High showed up to play a quarterfinals match. It was Landon Donovan of Redlands taking on Carlos Bocanegra, future teammates on a USA World Cup side.

Karol Damon’s high-jumping Olympic dreams weren’t even known to her mother. She wound up in Sydney, 2000.

There are so many more connections.

A surfing legend.
Besides Landon Donovan, there’s another soccer dynamo.
When this year’s Indianapolis 500 rolls around, we’ll tell you about a guy named “Lucky Louie.”
Fifteen years before he won his first Masters, Tiger Woods played a 9-hole exhibition match at Redlands Country Club.
University of Arizona softball, one of the nation’s greatest programs, was home to a speedy outfielder.
As for DeRoo, he was present for one of the pro football’s darkest moments on the field.
In 1921, an Olympic gold medalist showed up and set five world records in Redlands.
The Redlands Bicycle Classic might have carved out of that sport’s most glorious locations – set in motion by a 1986 superstar squad.
Distance-running sensation Mary Decker was taken down by a onetime University of Redlands miler.
Collegiate volleyball probably never had a greater athlete from this area.

As for Darnold, consider that the one-time University of Redlands blocker is the father of Sam Darnold, a USC quarterback who was the NFL’s 2018 No. 1 draft selection.

Jaquish, that REV star, became a first-ever 4-time NCAA Division 1 All-American at talent-rich LSU.

Jacob Nottingham, drafted a few years ago by the Houston Astros, probably never knew he’d be part of two “Moneyball” deals.

Gardner, who coached against Bill Russell in the collegiate ranks, tried to recruit Wilt Chamberlain to play at Kansas State. Gardner graduated Redlands High way, way back.

Wright, whose team went into the March 31-April 2 weekend in 2018 hoping to win an NCAA championship for the third time, brought his team to play the Bulldogs as sort of a warm-up test for a pre-season tournament in Hawaii.

Tarkanian? Few might’ve known that legend, Tark the Shark, started chewing on towels while he was coaching at Redlands High.

Norm Schachter was head referee in three Super Bowls, including Green Bay’s inaugural championship win over Kansas City.

Norm Schachter with Hank Stram — Norm Schacter, wearing No. 60 (not his normal official number), synchronizes with Kansas City Chiefs’ Hall of Fame coach Hank Stram during halftime of the inaugural Super Bowl in 1967.

Speaking of Tarkanian, Weatherwax played hoops for him at Redlands. Eight years later, Weatherwax wore jersey No. 73 at Green Bay. It makes him the only man to ever play for Tarkanian and Vince Lombardi.

There are plenty more Redlands connections.

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!

December 28, 2024January 31, 2025

LEAH FIRED IT UP FROM REDLANDS TO POMONA … AND BEYOND

Leah Pruett, who has battled to third place in NHRA Top Fuel standings in a season, was often in the hunt. Pruett, of Redlands, got her start early when her dad, Ron Pruett, built her a junior dragster. Photo provided by Allison McCormick.

Think of Leah Pruett’s connection to the National Hot Rod Association. Figure 2013. It was, finally, part of entering its fastest group of racers, drivers, developers, model-builders, each paid by fascinating ownerships.

NHRA? So quick? So off the charts! Fans were observing. Motor builders were huge parts. The drivers? All ready to fire it up.

Every NHRA season begins and ends in that spinning city of Pomona, California. It’s an hour’s drive from Leah’s home town of Redlands. Every two weeks, there’s an NHRA blast, 24 during each season.

Leah, it seems, was all over it. She reached NHRA duels, in fact, a few years after NHRA’s 2008 rules switch.

Right up until then, it was a quarter-mile blaze. That’s 1,320 yards total. Had to be shortened, though. A racer, Scott Kalitta, was killed. Other drivers were quite concerned. Speed had been built up so brilliantly by car-contending experts, drivers, you name it, there was a danger to those quarter-mile crashes. Rules shortened those speedy events from that 1,320-yard length to just 1,000 yards. It was, they said, safer.

Leah entered this speed-oriented blazing display to a drop in distance.

Wait! Why call her Leah instead of Pruett? Easy. She’d been married to Todd LeDuc. Then Gary Pritchett. Finally, a guy named Tony Stewart — her current marital partner.

Let’s just refer to her as Leah.

*****

Top Fuel, the fastest land speed racing on earth, has attracted the Redlands-born racer, Leah, since she was eight. That’s when her dad, Ron Pruett, engineered a junior dragster for both his daughters — Leah and Lindsey.

“I enjoy the speed,” says Leah. “It’s exhilarating physiologically. I love speed. To get into the cockpit … I approach it with excitement.”

Top Fuel racers are closing in on 340-mph, though Pruett doubts it would occur that 2020 year. Too many distractions and delays, courtesy of COVID.

Speed? Fastest she blasted her dad-built junior dragster with a 78 mph. Leah 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.

At that same age, Leah sizzled to a 300-mph speed in a Funny Car. It’s no wonder she was able to get her Top Fuel license to blaze away at earthly top speeds.

Speed isn’t easy. Yes, there are drivers that won’t go beyond, say, those 180-mph Sportsmen division cars. Said Leah: “You just have to believe you’re bigger than your car. I’ve got a car that’s 12,000 horsepower. You’ve got to believe that you’re greater than your car.”

It must’ve been her dad, Ron — owner of 13 land speed records — who turned his oldest daughter onto speed. Ron Pruett’s the same guy who drove “Pretty Woman” to a land speed record of 250-mph back in the 1990s. That’s his nickname.

Ron, though, attacked California-based El Mirage and Utah-based Bonneville speed-racing sites often, firing out his self-built racing engines to assault the speed record book. El Mirage is where he’s part of the Dirty Two Club; last anyone heard, it numbered about 130 speed-crazed drivers.

In years ahead, those Ron’s results could amount to Leah’s next speed challenge. “I’d love to be in the Dirty Two Club,” she said.

Too bad, though. Ron died a few years later.

*****

Indy or NASCAR racing isn’t her discipline. There’s this, though: Leah’s third husband turned out to be Tony Stewart, who retired from his highly-successful NASCAR, eventually taking over his new wife’s spot in NHRA. The reason? She retired in 2024, blazing a way for them to start a family.

Leah and Tony. Married a few years back. At a spot in New Mexico.

*****

A few notes on Leah:

She sizzled to a 334-mph speed at Chandler, Arizona in February 2018 — her lifetime best. Part of a team owned by Don Schumacher Racing (DSR), Leah landed on NHRA’s top team after years of ups and downs. Back in his racing days, Schumacher piloted his way to 302 wins and 16 championships.

Eight of Leah’s now 12 career triumphs have come in Top Fuel – 18 total, adding three Pro Mod and three Factory Stock Showdown triumphs to those massive Top Fuel chases.

Incidentally, Schumacher is Leah’s teammate in Team DSR, a once-racing stable of drivers that also includes past champion Antron Brown, plus Funny Car drivers Ron Capps, “Fast Jack” Beckman of Norco and Matt Hagan, along with Pro Stock racers Tim Johnson, Jr. and Mark Pawuk.

Schumacher as a boss?

“There’s no sprinkles to someone who’s not winning,” Leah said. “He’s a tough boss. But he takes care of his people. He’s very good at separating business from interpersonal.”

Schumacher caught some mighty races from this 5-foot-9 Leah, the Redlands kid who achieved highly in both 2017 and 2018. Little Leah nailed four wins during that 2017 season, counting the Winternationals in Pomona – her first of two.

A year later, 2018, she cracked off 3.631 seconds, her best-ever ETA – that’s Elapsed Time – at the final season race in Pomona. Nine months earlier, she was measured at 334.15-mph at Chandler, Arizona.

During that 2017 season, Leah racked up 2,452 points. In an open season, it was just 238 points behind series champion Brittany Force. Another female.

Quick note: Brittany was daughter of Funny Car legend John Force.

*****

Top Fuel, incidentally, is the most fired-up car on NHRA’s circuit — Funny Car, Pro Stock, plus the motorcycles — that deals up wicked speed.

Leah’s been at that Autoplex Speedway in Pomona often, starting during her junior days with her dad. Those Redlands days are gone. Leah in 2013 gave a footnote about Ron and Linda: “My dad and mom got tired of tires and traffic … moved North Carolina.”

A few years later, in 2021, 64-year-old Ron died there.

Lindsey, who shared their dad’s-built alcohol-altered junior dragster, taught school in Yucaipa. At that point, Leah called Columbus, Ind. her hometown.

*****

A note about her first career national event at the pro level, Feb. 28, 2016. At that year’s Carquest Auto Parts NHRA Nationals in Chandler, Arizona, she finished ahead of Brittany Force in the first all-female final run at the Top Fuel level since 1982.

Leah was 34 years of age. Brittany had her by about two years. And Leah? Had nothing to do with male or female. It was about speed.

“I’ve made the proper progressions of speed,” said Leah. “Nothing is going to properly train you for 335-miles an hour.

“Nothing.”

*****

Stewart? Leah’s husband?

That one-time Cal State San Bernardino University graduate stepped aside from racing in 2024, replaced by Stewart – yes, her husband Tony – while she retired, marking time to start a family.

Stewart, meanwhile, has won championships in NASCAR and Indy, now seeking the top-level finishes in NHRA.

Yes, they got married in 2021.