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. That I-10 freeway was often used by baseball players looking to jump from their high school ranks to a major league opportunity. This baseball hopeful went from his high school to Riverside to faraway Atlanta to nearby Anaheim, home of the Angels. – Obrey Brown
Tommy Hanson struck high during his third league season, 2011, with those Atlanta Braves. Pitching numbers were 11 wins, 7 losses, a 3.60 ERA over 22 games, tossing pitches to All-Star catcher Brian McCann, picking off with throws to another All-Star, first baseman Freddie Freeman, plus future Hall of Fame third baseman Chipper Jones.
Try to figure how many of Hanson’s 11 triumphs were saved by closer Craig Kimball, who had 46 saves, including a few for starters like Tim Hudson’s 16 victories.
You figure there were plenty of Redlands East Valley High School connected folks checking out Hanson, that 2004 graduate. Don’t forget, he was an original catcher, then a first baseman.
REV’s baseball program produced that solid major leaguer. From the mound. To a strong university. Originally, he wound up 11-4 with a 2.89 ERA during his 2009 rookie season pitching for the Braves.
Hanson, 49-35, 3.85 lifetime, spent five seasons in the majors, mostly with Atlanta, plus a season with the Angels. He concluded his 2006-2015 professional career — injuries, soreness, perhaps some other health problems — in the minors with San Francisco’s Class AAA team in Sacramento.
Tragically, he was struck down at age 29 when he died on November 9, 2015.
In 2005 after Atlanta grabbed him on that 22nd round, a 677th overall selection, he signed with the Braves. Hanson was pitching for dominant California junior college, Riverside City, that season. Dozens and dozens of baseball players have been taken out of RCC.
Tommy Hanson, an original Redlands East Valley right-handed pitcher, lifted himself into the major leagues from that Mentone city next to Redlands and Yucaipa, getting drafted by Atlanta from Riverside City College in 2005.
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Hanson was the first of REV’s growing list of professional baseball signees. There were a couple handfuls more that eventually joined him.
Hanson established himself as baseball’s top pitching prospect after he dominated as the 2008 MVP of the Arizona Fall League.
As that much-anticipated major league debut that following June there were four straight starts, including two straight against the Yankees and Red Sox at Turner Field.
After producing a 3.28 ERA over the 77 starts made during his first three Major League seasons, Hanson was hit by injuries— shoulder, plus a back ailment. There was another setback.
His younger brother died in 2013. Hanson was then with the Angels. He told reporters, “I was having mental issues with the death of my younger brother. I was just trying to get through it. I didn’t know how to handle it.
“That was the first time anything like that had ever happened to me. I didn’t know how to cope with it.”
In grieving his brother, Hanson left those Angels for three weeks. There were 15 appearances by his conclusion, his final major league work.
A SURPRISE CONCLUSION
It was a long way from REV, which is where Hanson had pitched brilliantly. What dropped feelings back home was simple and disruptive: That ex-Braves’ pitcher died, caused by delayed complications of cocaine and alcohol toxicity, according to an autopsy report. It was a Coweta County coroner in Georgia, Dr. Richard Hawk, who ruled that death as an accident, the cause being illicit cocaine use.
No one, absolutely no one, wanted to see this conclusion. Hanson was 29. At the beginning, born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. At the end, buried in Roswell, Georgia.
IT WAS HANSON THAT LED THOSE REV STEPS
Sure, sure, sure … there was more than a handful of other REV baseballers taken in the draft by various MLB teams – catcher Brett Martinez and outfielder Josh Cowles, both taken by the Angels, infielder Paul Eshlemen by the Brewers, plus Matt Andriese’s brother David, an outfielder taken by the Pirates out of UC Riverside.
Then there’s pitchers Justin Jacome by the Marlins, plus a pair taken by the Blue Jays, Jackson McClelland and Griffin Murphy.
Neither of those players ever made it to the big leagues.
Matt Andriese and Tyler Chatwood, both pitchers, came along at REV just a couple seasons following Hanson’s REV seasons, eventually winding up in MLB play.
For that 1997 first-ever school year, baseball beginning at REV in 1998, Hanson was the original star.
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. An Olympic-bound athlete used that road to take some real track travels. – Obrey Brown
University of Redlands track & field coach Clay Brooks raved about Ruth Kleinsasser. So did his boss, Director of Athletics Ted Runner.
Brooks, who spent years at that university, seemed a true professor. Runner, whose Redlands presence as an athlete, coach and, ultimately, director of athletics, was fond of track. He’d competed. For years, he coached.
Kleinsasser, eventually marrying as Ruth Caldwell and also Ruth Wysocki, stepped onto Los Angeles Coliseum’s Olympic Games track some nine years after spending that frosh season at Redlands. Those two men, Brooks and Runner, watched with great interest.
That Alhambra-born Kleinsasser, who competed at Azusa High School, was a prized performer at Redlands in 1975. What made Kleinsasser special was her true dedication. She was a lifer in track.
It started in age-group races in the late 1960s, starting an eventual period of about 30 years, until she became an over-40 Masters runner in 1997. In between, there was plenty to remember.
As an Azusa High senior in 1973, she ran a 2:16 to win a CIF-Southern Section 880-yard championship. She also sped around the track over 440 yards, winning in 57.3. That’s as tough of a double in any championship meet.
Since there was no State meet held for girls that year – one would start in 1975 – Kleinsasser never had a chance to prove her prep domination throughout California.
By 1975, Kleinsasser was running at Redlands, primarily because internationally-renowned Bulldog coach Vince Reel had come out of retirement. Reel, in fact, met her halfway, training her somewhere in California – between Redlands and Azusa. Kleinsasser gave runs in both 400 and 800.
Former University of Redlands runner Ruth Wysocki, then known as Ruth Kleinsasser, beat Mary Decker Slaney, right, at the 1984 U.S. Olympic Trials in the women’s 1500-meter – one of track’s shocking upsets that year (Photo by runmoremiles.com).
A YEAR IN REDLANDS
Reel, married to Chinese star Chi Cheng, had international status, especially since he’d lured some top talent – Chinese sprint star Lee Shiu-Chia, middle distance runners Chee Swee Lee, plus Donna Fromme and some dandy runners like distance star Molly O’Neil, hurdler Pam Ashe, sprinters Gloria Kennedy, Lynn Jones and Denise Becton.
Throw Kleinsasser into that mix. If only she’d lasted four seasons at Redlands. Reel wrote about his own exploits. Part of his writings were about Kleinsasser, including that season at Redlands.
Vince Reel, shown here as a Long Beach City College athlete, where he was State champion in the 100 and 220, in the early 1930s. A two-time sprint champion at Occidental College in 1936, he was fourth in the NCAA 220 championships for Occidental College.He would become a huge connection in the track world as a coach – Long Beach Wilson High School Track and Field Coach (1938-1957), moving on to Claremont College (1958-71), coming out of retirement to coach Redlands through 1979. He was also the Olympic track & field coach for India (1960) and China (1972). Reel was the founder of “Women’s Track and Field” magazine. (Photo credit: Long Beach City College).
Kleinsasser dropped out of Redlands, saying, “I realized I had chosen the wrong school. Not that it isn’t a wonderful place. It was not just the right place for me. That was before the NCAA for women.”
Ruth – just so readers don’t know she’s a Kleinsasser, Wysocki or a Caldwell – told Reel during days when women’s sports were governed by that old AIAW. Truth is, in those days, Redlands’ men were part of the NAIA, not NCAA. Face it. NCAA duels were well above what Redlands had going in those days.
A more familiar name may well be Ruth Wysocki. Kleinsasser? Wysocki? Caldwell? Well, let’s go with Ruth from this point.
In reality, Ruth wasn’t even the fastest half-miler on her own team. That same season, Lee Chiu-Shia ran a 2:05.36 in SPAA, a meet at track-rich Occidental College, just outside of Pasadena.
At the Bakersfield Invitational, Kleinsasser posted that 2:07.6.
What made Ruth “A Redlands Connection” was that year she spent running at Brooks’ college coaching. In 1975, she ran fast – 2:07.6 over 800 meters, plus a 56.80 over 400 at the Long Beach Invitational. Afterward, she transferred back to Citrus College, a junior college.
More domination. At Citrus, Ruth scored victories in the State cross country championship for both 1977 and 1978. During spring seasons in 1978 and 1979, she was State champion over both 800 and 1500 runs.
There was a pattern here. Like many international competitors, she was laying groundwork for Olympic chase. In fact, she ran a 2:03, qualifying for Olympic Trials in 1976 – still under Reel’s watch. She was 19. Ruth took eighth at those Trials.
She was on-again, off-again training – seriously, pondering, planning.
RUTH SLAYED SLANEY
If there was a top-flight moment for that ex-Redlands runner, it might be these:
Ruth upset highly-touted USA star Mary Decker, racing 2:01.99 in an 800 chase at U.S. Championships in 1978. Ruth scored another upset victory against Decker – eventually Mary Slaney – at U.S. Olympic Trials for 1984, this time over 1500 meters.
Ruth outsprinted Slaney to win in 4:00.18, her lifetime best. It was her husband, Tom Wysocki, training for Olympic Trials, that had convinced his wife for Olympic training.
Brooks, who was Reel’s successor at Redlands, along with Runner, who were both coming to the end of their Redlands careers, watched with curiosity as that one-year Lady Bulldog star made her way into those 1984 L.A. Games.
Ruth took sixth over an 800, eighth in 1500.
To veteran observers like Brooks and Runner, it was a Redlands victory. One of their own had reached a pinnacle in that sport.
Who cared if Eastern Bloc nations had boycotted the 1984 Games? Remember, this was Carl Lewis’ 4-event gold medal blast in men’s events.
Women sensationalists included sprinters Valerie Brisco-Hooks, Evelyn Ashford, plus Flo Jo – Florence Griffith Joyner – plus onetime San Gorgonio High School star Sherri Howard, part of America’s 4 x 400 gold medal win, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, along with marathon champion Joan Benoit.
More men: Britain’s Daley Thompson scored his second straight decathlon title.
Americans. Hurdler Edwin Moses. Triple jumper Al Joyner.
ANOTHER REDLANDS CONNECTION
Step away from Ruth for a just a moment. It’s adding to the flavor of Redlands connections:
One year before the L.A. Games, in 1983, Redlands’ annual invitational came on its cinder track. Two interested participants were Colorado-home Air Force Academy and California’s Azusa Pacific University, among over a dozen other team entries.
In that meet-concluding 4 x 400 relay, Air Force’s Alonzo Babers and Azusa’s Innocent Egbunike ran neck-and-neck on that anchor. They might have even brushed against one another halfway during an unforgettable final lap.
From the home bleachers, 200 meters in, Egbunike could be seen turning his head toward Babers. Was there a connection? Did someone say something perplexing? Neither runner broke stride. Egbunike prevailed. Barely. There would be a highly interesting rematch. Of all places, it was at the Olympics.
It was that following year, both met in the open 400-meter – Egbunike for his native Nigeria and Babers for the U.S. Curiously, no one among national or international media mentioned their previous duel in Redlands.
Babers, in fact, won that Olympic gold in 44.27 seconds. Egbunike was last, 45.35. Those two dueled again in the 4 x 400 relay.
USA’s Sunder Nix, Ray Armstead, Babers and Antonio McKay won gold, prevailing in 2:57.91. Nigeria, anchored by Egbunike, took third in 2:59.32 for a bronze.
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Back to Ruth! That Redlands Connection kept going for years. Over a decade later, in 1995, Wysocki ran seventh in the 1500 at the Championships in Athletics in Gothenburg. That’s Sweden.
In 1997, Ruth set several Masters records at distances from 800 to 5000 on the track, plus 5K and 8K road races. She was surrounded by distance runners. Her dad, Willis Kleinsasser, was a successful Masters athlete.
Alan Kleinsasser, her brother, ran a 1:50.5 over 800 meters and a 3:52.2 clocking in the 1500 – both school records at Caltech Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Then, of course, her one time husband, Tom Wysocki, produced 13:35.33 in the 5000-meter and 28:19.56 in the 10,000.
RUTH AT THOSE L.A. OLYMPICS
It wasn’t going to be easy. Despite absences of Eastern Bloc nations, that boycott led by former Soviet Union, there was still plenty of international talent.
On Aug. 6, Romanian Doina Melinte circled the Coliseum track twice to score gold in 1:57.60. USA’s Kim Gallagher, whom Wysocki had often encountered, won silver in 1:58.63. Melinte’s teammate, Fita Lovin, took bronze at 1:58.53.
Ruth? Sixth in 2:00.34. She also qualified in the 1500, held on that 1984 August 11 race. Ruth took eighth as America’s best in 4:08.32, nowhere close at her USA Trials.
Melinte won the silver, barely nosed out by Italy’s Gabriella Dorio’s 4:03.25, the Romanian a fraction behind in 4:03.76. Another Romanian, Maricica Puica, took bronze in 4:04.15.
Ruth had to be thinking if she’d matched her lifetime best – that 4:00.18 at the Olympic Trials – she’d have been a gold medalist.
Said Ruth: “Even though the Olympics didn’t go really great for me, when I got to Europe after the Olympics, I beat everybody that beat me in the Olympics, including (Dorio).”
It was, she said, some vindication.
Brooks, for his part, sent plenty of half-milers out to do battle in Lady Bulldog colors. Runner, meanwhile, often reflected on that year Ruth ran at Redlands.
“She was,” Runner said, “not just a hard worker.” Runner said, observers could easily tell, “she had a game plan in any race she ran.”
She even made one last attempt to qualify for the 1996 Olympics at 38. Didn’t make it.
That one season, 1975, Ruth was A Redlands Connection.
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. This Pruett family used that freeway to get at plenty of places to race, speed and win trophies. – Obrey Brown
That original Leah Pruett started speeding at a youthful age. Eight or nine, right in there. Yes, there was a 78-mph blast away. Ron, her dad, built that junior dragster for racing.
Leah’s grabbed her share of speed at the highest speeding level, National Hot Road Association. Fastest Leah blasted Ron’s-built junior dragster with that 78 mph. Youthful. Under 15. She didn’t hit 100-mph on the track until after she graduated from Redlands High. At age 18, Pruett piloted a Nitro Funny Car to a blazing 200-mph. By age 19, she hit 250.
Looking ahead. Fifth place in 2016 among Top Fuel speedsters, the Redlands product notched wins in 2017’s first two races, starting at Pomona – winning four times throughout that season. Yes, it was her best,
Ron Pruett, left, and Leah Pruett, who is now married to NASCAR and Indy top driver Tony Stewart, Pruett, stands alongside the family dragster in the early days of her racing career. Too bad, though. Ron died a few years ago. (Photo by Pruett family).
She’s a Top Fuel dragster. This is a huge connection to the auto racing world. A queen among speed thrill-seekers. Leah, then 29, whose older sister, Lindsey, got first crack on the track when her dad, Ron, started building junior dragsters.
Leah was eight when she started racing. No soccer. No volleyball. No softball. No track & field or cross country.
Think of the cost. You don’t buy those cars in a kit at K-Mart or Sears, folks. Lots of detail, lots of attention, lots of expertise – not to mention expense – goes into building each machine. It’s beyond normal thinking.
Ron’s Precision Alignment, located down on Park Street near the end of Redlands’ city border, was headquarters for his kid’s car-racing dreams. A few years back, Ron sold out. It left him and wife Linda to move back east, to North Carolina – NASCAR country – while Leah sought her career in a Top Fuel speed machine.
The sponsors over the years – Gumout, Papa John’s, Albrecht’s, Mopar, Pennzoil, FireAde 200, among others – have kept her in the cockpit.
Speed? She’s got it to burn.
Leah’s gone from the Sportsmen’s division to Nitro Funny Cars to Pro Mod to winning a Hot Rod Heritage Series and, finally, in 2013, she landed in a Top Fuel dragster for Dote Racing. More was to come. So much more. It came right up until the time Leah retired in December 2024. It was time to start a family with her new husband, Tony Stewart.
Years earlier, though, I could remember when Ron invited me up to his Redlands home to view the junior dragster he created for Lindsey, Leah’s sister. At least, I think it was Lindsey’s. Ron, who was a speed demon himself – setting land speed records in Utah, plus various points around Southern California – chose a different sport for his girls.
Drag racing.
Ron fed me all of his daughters’ achievements – Lindsey’s and Leah’s – for publication in the local paper. There were 37 junior wins for Leah at various tracks throughout SoCal.
Ron himself was a star on the circuit – a 12-time land speed record holder. I don’t think he ever reached the speed his youngest daughter ever registered, though.
Ron Pruett proudly holds a Wally trophy, which indicates a speed-filled victory on a drag-racing track. (Photo by Pruett family).
Speed, though. Leah was born into the chase.
It would ludicrous to list all of Leah’s achievements from the junior circuit to her Top Fuel days in which she held (as of Jan. 17, 2018) the fastest speed at 332.75 over a thousand yards which brought a 3.64 elapsed time – both world records.
Drag racing underwent a change a few years back when distances were shortened from 1,320 yards, a quarter-mile, to 1,000 yards. It was safer. It probably limited any further hopes of increasing speed milestones.
Then there’s the Wally trophy. Named for Wally Parks, the sport’s founder who took street racing and put it on the track. A Wally goes to each week’s champion.
Ron’s got a few Wallys.
Leah’s got a handful. More were likely to come. She’s had a team, sponsor and experience is gradually growing. At Pomona, it’s a home track for Leah, especially since she raced there as a kid from Redlands.
Back in 2014, assigned to cover Winternationals for an area newspaper, my assignment was to land a connection on the locals – Funny Car’s “Fast” Jack Beckman of Norco, plus Top Fuel’s Shawn Langdon from Mira Loma. And Leah.
“Do I remember you, Obrey?” she asked in amazement. “Are you kidding? Of course, I remember you. You’re some of my best memories.”
That brought a nice streak of electricity up my spine.
For my article in the Riverside Press-Enterprise, I got more than I needed from her. Leah brought me up to date on her folks, who’d moved back east. Ron had sold his Redlands business, moved to North Carolina with Linda. Their other daughter, Lindsey, was teaching in Redlands.
Leah was just getting started. Patrons of the sport might tend to overlook what it takes to arrive where Leah was just reaching. This isn’t a sport. It’s a career. Racing just a portion of the 2013 schedule, Leah racked up 15th place.
Leah’s won at tracks in Denver and Indianapolis, which is near her home in Avon, Ind. She’s driven speed cars like Mustangs and Camaros. Speed records came with some of those drives.
Twice, though, she was part of teams that shut down, leaving her without a ride – and those much-needed sponsors.
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. Heading past Palm Springs, this Redlands East Valley High School brilliant softball player kept taking it to faraway to Tucson, home for University of Arizona. – Obrey Brown
In honor of the NCAA College Softball World Series, which were unfolding, there was always something to check on with a checkout from Redlands – a kid called Allyson Von Liechtenstein.
There were telephone calls to the sports desk from Pam Martin, softball coach at Redlands East Valley High School when that campus opened in 1997. It was quite a ritual. There was often cheer in her voice. In all cases, Coach M had something newsworthy to report.
One of Martin’s top players, Ally Von L, probably went into as many big games as any Redlands-based product at the collegiate level during that outfielder’s post-REV years.
It’s simple. Von L, the twin sister of Elizabeth (Lizzie) and younger sister of Sarah, was part of a trio of Highland-based players who were raised under the softball thumb of their dad, Dave.
Ally Von L, a left-handed, slap-hitting, fleet-footed outfielder, played four sensational seasons at REV. It was nothing for Martin to report a 3-hit game for Ally Von L. Or maybe a couple of stolen bases to go along with her two singles and, maybe, a triple. At the time, she patrolled center field.
Ally Von L, a Redlands East Valley product who played big-time NCAA softball at powerhouse University of Arizona (Photo by UA).
It should’ve been no surprise, then, that she committed to play collegiately at the University of Arizona from 2002-2005. She was a 5-foot-5-inch slash hitter heading for Tucson.
Arizona’s Lady Wildcats’ softball program should be considered among the finest in the land. Ally Von L found herself playing four straight seasons at the College World Series.
Mike Candrea, coach, might’ve been USA’s best go-getter for UA. He went and “got” Ally Von L.
Ally Von L was a nice catch for her new Wildcats’ team. At that time, anyone caught playing for UA should’ve been considered quite a player.
Candrea, who led Team USA to the 2004 Olympic gold medal, was a fun interview. Make that a professional interview. He knew how to take control. He knew the questions before I’d even launched them at him.
At least when you could get hold of him. Schools this big have Sports Information Directors. Got to get through them to get to guys like Candrea. The man’s got coaching to do.
By the 2018 season, incredibly, Candrea was within a couple hundred wins away from 2,000.
Univ. Arizona softball coach Mike Candrea is closing fast on 2,000 victories – 211 of which came when he coached Ally Von Liechtenstein from 2002-2005 (Photo credit, University of Arizona).
This is the guy who landed Ally Von L. Not to mention landing Jennie Finch. Not to mention Alicia Hollowell. And Caitlin Lowe. And Autumn Champion. And Kristie Fox. Each of whom were teammates with Ally Von L.
Lowe hit .510 one year, swiping 27 out of 30 bases. Hollowell won 40 games in a single season. Finch went 32-0 in another. Lovie Jung hit .481 one season, stroking 25 bombs. Champion hit .489 with 26 steals one season. That same year, 2004, Lowe hit .437 with 46 steals.
These were the players Candrea landed. That coach was en route to winning more collegiate softball games than anyone else. Chats with this coach were special to take.
On Ally Von L, he said, “Listen … (pausing for a few seconds to collect some thoughts) this is a kid with speed. She can hit. She’ll run the bases. She can catch anything hit out there. She’ll help us here.”
Remember, he was taking a player right out of the area from UCLA should’ve been grabbing from (USC doesn’t have intercollegiate softball). At Arizona, Ally Von L had a solid career – .321, .381, .384 and .265 as a senior.
She started 105 games, playing in 172. Often used as a pinch-runner. Swiped 28-of-35 bases over four seasons. Ninety-four hits, 283 at-bats. Scored a batch of runs.
Said Candrea: “There was a time when if UCLA wanted a kid, they got the kid. We got a few breaks. We got some key kids.”
ALLY VON L AGAINST THE GREATS
Along the way, there were remarkable games played against the likes of Cat Osterman.
Tennessee’s Monica Abbott.
Michigan’s Jennie Ritter.
UCLA’s Keira Goerl.
Louisiana’s Brooke Mitchell.
Fresno State’s Jamie Southern was named to the ESPN Rise All-Decade team in 2009.
LSU’s Kristin Schmidt.
Georgia Tech’s Jessica Sallinger.
Alabama’s Stephanie VanBrakle.
These were the kids Ally Von L was playing against – the USA’s most decorated pitchers.
Von L hit against most of those pitchers. As close to being a starting player without actually starting every game, Von L was part of a team that included All-Americans almost everywhere on the diamond during her four-year stint from 2002-2005.
On Saturday, June 5, 2005: It was a Von L single in the 12th inning at the NCAA Women’s College World Series that knocked home the winning run in a 3-2 win over Cal-Berkeley – a game played in Oklahoma City.
Ally Von L’s heroics were only short-lived.
One day later, the fabulous Texas southpaw, Osterman, knocked off the Lady Wildcats, 1-0, to leave Arizona without a 50-win season for the first time in years. Arizona ended its season with a record of 45-12, having reached its 17th Women’s College World Series over an 18-year span.
Ally Von L and I connected a few times on articles about her collegiate experiences, which were vast. She wasn’t hamming it up, probably preferring to lay low. After all, this kid was one of REV’s finest athletes.
You always got the feeling she was battling. Aggressive. In awe of her surroundings, but highly respectful.
In 2005, the Lady Wildcats were co-Pacific-10 Champions. Playing against the likes of UCLA, Stanford, Cal, you name it, UA was a force in NCAA softball.
Wouldn’t you know it: Von L became a group of four Lady Wildcat players to play four seasons without winning at least a national championship, a battle of playoff chases since 1987. It was quite a streak, especially when Von L had played behind such stalwart pitchers as Hollowell and that sensational Finch.
Jennie Finch was a University of Arizona teammate of Ally Von Liechtenstein during a prime time of Lady Wildcats’ softball in Tucson (Photo by Team USA).
Finch was a senior during Von Liechtenstein’s freshman season.
A year after Ally Von L’s departure, Arizona – which had copped five NCAA titles over a seven-year span in the 1990s – won the NCAA World Series title again.
Who knows? Maybe it set the stage for a future NCAA Division 1 softball great. A decade after Ally Von L, Sahvanna Jaquish, also from Highland, showed up at REV. Off she went to Louisiana State University from 2014 through 2017, where she became a four-year All-American.
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.
It couldn’t have been a better sports Redlands reporting summer in 2001. It was, at least, glamorous for a local sports editor, that’s myself, who sought sports news for a local reading public that rejoiced over such information.
Heather Aldama was playing pro soccer for the Boston Breakers.
Landon Donovan was up in San Jose, playing for the Earthquakes. Donovan, for his part, would eventually become arguably Team USA’s greatest player.
Aldama had been a strongly amazing scorer before graduating Redlands High just as Donovan was arriving at that campus 1995-1996. The Lady Terriers, built around Aldama’s goal-scoring and goal-producing passes, won four league championships with plenty of hard-commencing CIF-Southern Section playoffs.
In one season alone, she racked up a phenomenal 38 goals and 22 assists. Over four seasons at Redlands, Aldama was All-CIF Southern Section each year. Her Lady Terrier teams reached the CIF quarterfinals twice and the semifinals once. That post-season play usually stood in the top tier of Division 1.
Redlands’ Heather Aldama (photo by Santa Clara University).
Aldama, surrounded by terrific talent along with talented coach Rolando Uribe who had been a scoring phenom for RHS’ boys side a few years earlier.
Part of a Southern California Blues side that won a state Under-19 title is, most likely, what landed Aldama in the collegiate spotlight; and, eventually, a professional move.
Besides the Olympics and those American male stars in the World Cup, Donovan racked up U.S. pro time in San Jose, Calif.
That summer of 2001 was great for a small-town daily sports editor – Aldama and Donovan.
SUMMER STOPS: ALDAMA, DONOVAN
The way it works on a small daily newspaper basis is simple. Real simple. You’re obligated to produce as much local copy as possible. Such a routine wasn’t necessarily so simple during non-school summer athleticism. High school – Redlands, Redlands East Valley and a growing Arrowhead Christian Academy – was holding off between June and September.
Due to shrinking budgets, the Associated Press wire services were all but unavailable to produce a sports section. Local copy was becoming even more mandatory.
You’d have to make up for it with all-star baseball results, country club golf results, bowling scores from the local House, maybe some Junior Olympic swimming results courtesy of Redlands Swim Team, while we followed the exploits of that year’s Redlands Bicycle Classic racists throughout their summer seasons.
But when that pair of soccer-playing, midfield scorers put on their professional uniforms, they attracted plenty of attention.
That summer, though, was great. For me. For readers. You rarely read much in the county or regional newspapers about either player. Each time in that summer 2001 Aldama, or even Donovan took the field – Aldama’s first season Boston, Donovan’s first season for the San Jose Earthquakes.
It was an opportunity for local coverage.
It almost defied the odds when AP would often staff plenty of shots for both Aldama and Donovan. A handful of photos from their matches would come across the wire on game nights. Both players, Aldama and Donovan, showed up in photos of those local sports pages in their hometown.
In a way, it almost defied the odds. At any point on a soccer pitch, there are 22 players. One AP photographer. It seemed like every match included a shot of those Redlanders. It’s not hard to really imagine. Aldama and Donovan were playmakers. Photographers like action. Their lenses are usually aimed toward those making plays.
Those AP shots filled at least one-third of that sports page. It’s one way to fill a local sports section.
This is an example of a photo that was available to the local sports desk in Redlands during summer play in WUSA. While Redlands’ Heather Aldama walks off the field in disappointment, the Washington Freedom is celebrating a playoff semifinals triumph (photo by Women’s United Soccer Association).
SANTA CLARA, A COLLEGE CHOICE
Unlike Donovan, who skipped college to play the European pro leagues in his midteens, Aldama chose NCAA powerhouse Santa Clara University as her collegiate stop. Four seasons of varsity play as a Lady Terrier attacker, plus her club-playing roots, she left for a top-collegiate program.
There were some highlights for this Lady Bronco. As a freshman in 1997, Aldama nailed a game-winning goal against West Coast Conference rival Loyola-Marymount.
She played against No. 3 Florida in the 1998 NCAA semifinals, against No. 19 Brigham Young University, playing in virtually every big Santa Clara match during her 1997-2000 collegiate career.
Aldama netted a 16-yarder against third-ranked Nebraska in a 2-1 win over the Lady Huskers on Sept. 19, 1999. In an NCAA playoff match against UCLA that same season, she scored in the 23rd minute, assisting on another goal in a crucial win.
Against Connecticut in the NCAA quarterfinals one match later, Aldama assisted on a pair of Aly Wagner goals, helping produce a 3-0 triumph.
In other words, Aldama always seemed to find herself in the mix – scoring, setting up goals and other plays, streaking downfield to work her way open.
Once college was over, though, so what next?
REPLACING TEAM USA
Aldama was part of a replacement for Team USA at a Jan. 13, 2000 match in Adelaide, Australia. In an event called the Australia Cup, Aldama surfaced as a substitute in the championship match, 3-1, over the Matildas.
Team USA’s main side had boycotted the match.
Sherrill Kester, Danielle Slaton and Wagner, Aldama’s college teammate, scored in front of 3,500 at Hindmarsch Stadium.
Playing against a more experienced Matildas’ squad, the U.S. held a 20-6 shots advantage, plus a 10-5 edge in corner kicks. It was in the 82nd minute that Aldama fed Wagner for Team USA’s final goal.
Mandy Clemens was part of that team, plus Jenn Mascaro, Michelle French and Veronica Zepeda with Lakeyshia Beene in goal.
Team USA, 2-0-1 in the four-nation tournament, had the same record as Sweden – playing to a 0-0 draw– winning on goal differential, holding a plus-nine to Sweden’s plus-four. The Czech Republic and host Australia made up the remaining tournament qualifiers.
It was that 8-1 win over the Czech Republic that did it for Team USA.
Up next was the Sydney Olympics of 2000. Considering that Sydney, Australia would be the host of that year’s 2000 Olympics, it had to occur that Aldama could see Team USA action when the Summer Games started.
That American’s co-coach, Lauren Gregg, noted the team’s approach – contract protests. She told Associated Press that Team USA achieved its objectives.
“First,” Gregg told the media, “we won by playing some exciting, attacking soccer. Second, these players invested in their development every minute they were on the field and took every advantage of this opportunity.
“Finally,” she said, “these games gave us a chance to evaluate our young personalities against much more experienced players, which gives us extremely valuable information as we go forward toward the Olympics.”
Team USA, Olympic gold medalists in 1996, 2004, 2008 and 2012, took silver in the 2000 Sydney Games. That team was largely built around the same group of historic women that notched World Cup triumphs in Pasadena a couple years earlier.
Team USA beat Brazil, 1-0 in that semi final duel, the Americans reached the finals against Norway. Norway, a 1-0 triumph over Germany, got three goals in its 3-2 triumph over the Americans. Curious that that USA side knocked off Norway, 2-0, during Group F play.
Aldama, incidentally, was not part of that Team USA side.
SQUARING OFF AGAINST ’99 CUP
While USA’s women were forming a global powerhouse at the international stage, Aldama was on the bubble to crack onto a formidable national team that included the likes of Mia Hamm, Michelle Akers, Carla Overbeck, Kristine Lilly, Brandi Chastain, Cindy Parlow, Tiffeny Milbrett, Clemens, Tisha Venturini, Joy Fawcett, Shannon MacMillan, Julie Foudy and goalkeeper Brianna Scurry – huge stars among those American players.
Brandi Chastain, a 1999 World Cup hero, was a Heather Aldama rival during their days in the Women’s United Soccer Association (photo by Wikipedia Commons).
Its most famous World Cup triumph in 1999 came in a 5-4 shootout win over China after a 0-0 draw through extended time. Chastain’s famous goal-winning shot was celebrated, spotted dropping to her knees, whipping off her jersey and photographed in her sports bra.
That match was played at the Rose Bowl in front of nearly a packed house while shown on live international TV. The U.S., who knocked off North Korea, Nigeria and Denmark in pool play, had beaten Germany, Brazil and China, all world soccer powers.
By contrast, Team USA’s men had never been able to produce a winning equation during World Cup play – with Donovan.
Aldama had a few national team appearances. The timing of her departure from Santa Clara, however, was met with the formation of a new pro women’s soccer league.
DONOVAN: TEAM USA’S BEST
It cannot be held back.
Donovan’s career has carried a long way, perhaps considered one of this country’s top male players, perhaps even through 2024. It’s hard to make it that Aldama, USA’s women’s side, doesn’t even compare to the men’s side.
It can’t compare. To this day, Team USA’s women has worked itself way past the men, regardless of, say, Donovan versus Aldama. Seems like he played plenty for sides in Europe, plus huge brilliance over nearly two decades as U.S. professional at both San Jose, but more at Los Angeles.
He played at plenty of growth for Americans – scoring hundreds of goals, setting up with dozens of assists, brilliant attacks against virtually every major opponent.
Unlike Aldama, Donovan was an Olympian, a Team USA part of the World Cup appearances – never champions.
Unlike Donovan, however, Aldama came close to reaching USA’s women’s highly-smoked international attack.
SETTING STAGE FOR WUSA
In 2001, the Women’s United Soccer Association, or WUSA, was created. One of the founding eight teams was the Boston Breakers. That league lasted three seasons.
Aldama was part of that Breakers’ side that included Lilly, plus Kate Sobrero and Tracy Ducar. International players came over from Germany – Maren Meinhart and Bettina Wiegmann, plus Norway’s Dagny Mellgren and Ragnhild Gulbrandsen.
Kristine Lilly, another of the 1999 USA World Cup heroes, was a Boston Breakers teammate of Redlands’ Heather Aldama (photo by Wikipedia Commons).
Aldama showed up in Boston, courtesy of being the 28th player selected in a 2001 draft, that being a fourth-round pick by the Breakers. They played the former Redlands High/Santa Clara scoring gem on defense.
It was tough beginnings for Boston, which played to an 8-10-3 mark in its inaugural season, following that up with a 6-8-7 mark in 2002 – but no playoffs.
Matches were played at Nickerson Field in Boston. The team was owned by Amos Hostetter, Jr., who had served as chairman of C-SPAN Network.
That third and final season, though, under coach Pia Sundhage, former Norwegian scoring playmaker, was a little different. Boston finished 10-4-7 and reached the semifinals before a shootout against the Washington Freedom ended the Breakers’ season.
Aldama, wearing jersey No. 12, missed a shot in the penalty kick phase. Eventually, when WUSA suspended operations because of cash slowness, that was about it for the 25-year-old Aldama.
The Breakers reappeared, however – twice.
In 2007, they showed up as part of the Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS), folding in 2012. After that, the Breakers became part of the Women’s Pro Soccer League Elite.
Who was Aldama playing against in WUSA?
It was that same core group of 1999 World Cup players.
Mia Hamm took her celebrated career into the WUSA ranks, where she competed against the likes of Redlands’ Heather Aldama (photo by Wikipedia Commons).
Aldama was attacking the likes of Scurry, plus defending against the all-star talents of Fawcett, MacMillan, Akers, Parlow, Milbrett, Venturini, Foudy, Hamm, Chastain and Clemens, among others, perhaps considered among America’s best players.
In a July 3, 2003 match between Aldama’s Breakers and the Washington Freedom, Aldama notched her first professional goal in the 66th minute. There were 8,105 fans at Boston’s Nickerson Field to witness the two sides play to a 1-1 draw.
That shot was a curving, 25-yarder into the upper right hand corner of the net.
Such brilliance of such a shot lifted from Redlands.
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. In April 1921, a gold medal Olympian showed up at the University of Redlands to set world track-running records. There was, however, no I-10 freeway to land anyone there. – Obrey Brown
It’s now, these days, over 100 years from a brilliant run in Redlands.
There was a guy who took a Golden Streak of the Golden West. A USC superstar. He was Sir Charles. Also known as the Winged foot of Mercury. Let’s not forget that Charles Paddock was part of Team USA.
At the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, Paddock was a gold medal sprinter, winner at 100-meter and part of the USA’s winning 4 x 100 relay. Overall in his career, Sir Charles wound up with two golds and two silvers during his Olympic appearances.
That 1920 Olympian was, in fact, that same Olympiad at which Redlands-based hurdler William Yount had participated.
Paddock was likely the track’s version of baseball’s Babe Ruth. Or boxing’s Jack Dempsey. Or tennis’ Bill Tilden. Or golfer Robert Jones. But he was a decorated sprint champion.
On April 23, 1921 – less than a year after he’d won the gold medal in Belgium – Paddock showed up at the University of Redlands. That day, Paddock broke four world records and equaled another one.
Charles Paddock, a 4-time Olympic medalist, two gold and two silver, showed up in Redlands and set four world records, tying another on April 23, 1921 (photo by Pasadena Sports Hall of Fame).
Paddock, whose historically significant role in a 1981 motion picture, “Chariots of Fire” – portrayed, incidentally, by Dennis Christopher – had shown up at Redlands for an exhibition within that USC-Pomona dual. That day, he reached no less than five world records.
In “Chariots of Fire,” there was nothing about Redlands, of course. Paddock had just a brief appearance next to those great Englanders, not to mention his USA mates. There was, in fact, nothing about those world marks he’d set on that April 23, 1921 afternoon in that San Bernardino County city.
Paddock, in fact, was a mere character at the 1924 Paris Olympics – a favorite who was chased down by Britain’s Harold Abrahams in the 200-meter.
Still, Paddock was part of America’s winning 4 x 100 relay that year.
FOUR RECORDS SET, ANOTHER TIED AT REDLANDS
Let’s not forget on that April 23 day at Redlands, that Pomona College outscored USC, 39-33, in a dual track meet. Paddock? Well, no. He was not a collegiate athlete, just making a high-level appearance at this meet not including that local university.
That same April 23 day, the four marks – 100-meter, 200-meter, 300-yard and 300-meter – while equaling the world mark at 100 yards, made that tiny little San Bernardino County city a mark in international track history.
Paddock was clocked at 9 and three-fifths seconds in the 100-yard dash.
For the close-by 100-meters, he sped 10.40, cracking 1912 U.S. Olympian Donald Lippincott’s mark by a fifth of a second.
Multiple Olympic gold medalist – St. Louis in 1900, Athens, Greece in the original 1896 – Archie Hahn’s 21 3/5-seconds over 200-meters fell to 21 1/5 via Paddock. That was more in Redlands on that April 23 day.
The world’s fastest human, Bernie Wefers’ 300-yard mark of 30 3/5 seconds was broken by two-fifths – Paddock in 30 1/5 at Redlands.
As for the 300-meter mark, held by 1912 Olympian Pierre Failliott of France in 1908 and equaled by Frigyes Mezei of Hungary in 1913 at 36 2/5 seconds was smashed by Paddock’s speed – 33 4/5 seconds.
That 220-yard mark, incidentally, was a mere three-fifths of a second for that world mark.
No, this April 23 field did not include the likes of Abrahams, Wiefers, Hahn, Lippincott, Failliott, Mezei – nor even Yount of Redlands.
IN REDLANDS, PADDOCK WAS WELL-KNOWN
Much-later Ted Runner, the longtime athletic director at the University of Redlands, was careful to point out Paddock’s connection to Redlands. Long before Runner’s time, but as a lifetime devotee of track & field, Runner was aware of Paddock of his lore that preceded him on that venerable university’s grounds.
No less than Guy Daniels, Jr. – whose dad, Guy, Sr. was a Redlands coach of that era – and another ex-Bulldog, Terry Roberts of Yucaipa, who was a student of Olympic history, knew of this Paddock legend. Throughout the years, a few weighed in with me on Paddock’s visit to Redlands.
Of course, neither Runner, Daniels, Jr., nor Roberts were present for Paddock’s 1921 appearance. They were in high admiration, however.
At Redlands that day, there were two races. Bob Weaver, president of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), was the starter.
No less than a reporter from the old Los Angeles Examiner had shown up that day to record the events. The local newspaper from Redlands was also on the scene. Weaver, president of that AAU, was the starter. That the AAU president, Weaver, was in attendance helped make it official.
Those records were verified.
Those on-the-scene reporters had shown up that day to record the events. They described conditions as “bitter” cold. Overcast, a little wind, some rain sprinkles, but it had died by race time. In other words, it was a likely surprise that Paddock could set any world records.
*****
Paddock, the racing, the background, some 3,000 to 5,000 attendees, was part of Southern Pacific’s AAU on that April 23 gathering. It was, according to that local paper, “shivering weather and a cold west wind.” Over a 20-minute period, this star-studded sprinter was ready.
This was a typical Charles Paddock finish, turning his left shoulder to the left as he crossed a finish line. This was the scene on April 23, 1921 at the University of Redlands when Paddock, 33 on his jersey, set world records in four events, tying another mark that same day (photo by USC sports information).
That highly significant Olympic sprinter ran two events, each extending events in both meters and yards with dual timers for each point. Familiar leaps across the finish, Paddock pulled off a straightaway siege in that 100-yarder, tying the world record in 9.6-second mark, winning a world mark with 10.4 seconds over 100-meters.
It wasn’t 20 minutes later, call it the 220-yards, then 200-meters, then 300-yards and 300-meters for Paddock – those further events going around a turn of that far different track spot that eventually faced on Brockton Ave.
Sure, Paddock was from Pasadena – close to where the University of Redlands’ top collegiate duelists Occidental and Cal Tech existed – he capped 300-meters in tiring form, described as collapsing into arms of a friend.
Here were the marks: a 21.1-second world mark in the 200-meter, 30.1-second world mark in the 300-yard, then cracked the 200-meter record by more than two full seconds.
That 220-yard mark was a mere three-fifths of a second for that world mark.
Paddock’s main competition came from the likes of Vernon Blenkiron, a 17-year-old from Compton High School, second against Redlands High’s Bob Allen, that year’s 1921 state 220 high school champion. Forrest Blalock, who spent two seasons on USC’s track team, also ran.
Paddock was described as “two yards in front of Blenkiron.” At one point, Paddock was “20 yards ahead of Blalock.”
TRACK & FIELD NEWS REDLANDS ACCOUNTS
According to Track & Field News, “with one jump he passed the 200-meter and 220-yard marks.
“On the sharp turn he ran, he seemed to weaken and slow down. Finally, he reached 300 yards. His sprint was nearly gone. Fighting every inch of the way he raced on toward the last tape, the 300-meter mark. He was now on the straightaway again. Pulling with eyes half shut and mouth open he passed the finish line and fell in a heap into the arms of waiting friends.”
On the shorter run that day, T&F News reported it this way:
“Down the stretch they came, Paddock seemingly unable to increase his lead. Fifteen feet from the tape Paddock gave a mighty bound and fairly flew over the finish line two yards ahead of Blenkiron. He came down heavily. Recovering, he took two quick strides and leaped for the tape at 100 meters.
“His first leap had enabled him again to equal the record for 100 yards. The two together gave him the record for 100 meters. Two such leaps as these made it appear that the boy must have had wings or a kangaroo hoof.”
Three years later, in Paris, it was Jackson Scholz who outdueled the Golden Streak of the Golden West in that for the gold. Paddock took the silver medal back to America – losing only that 100-meter to a fellow American.
There was a third Olympics in 1928 at Amsterdam. No medals. No finals. By 1943 at Sitka, Alaska, Paddock perished in an airplane crash. Nearly 43. Born in Texas, having moved to California as a child. He was a U.S. marine. Thirty-eight years later, his memory flashed forward in “Chariots of Fire.”
By 1976, Paddock was inducted to the National Track & Field Hall of Fame.
It’s curious that Paddock was California’s prep 220-yard champion in 1916, 1917 and 1918 for Pasadena High, then supplanted by Redlands’ Bob Allen in 1919, then again in 1921. By that point, Paddock was USC’s Golden Streak.
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
Curiously, there was a direct link from the NBA to the University of Redlands basketball program. Rob Yardley came in the form of a role player in the late 1979s, early 1980s. Upon examination, Yardley, an outgoing, intelligent and seemingly Christian-living soul, stood 6-foot-6 in a Bulldog uniform. Basketball historians, incidentally, might recognize the name of Yardley.
It was George Yardley, believe it or not, scoring a seasoned 2,000 points for the first time NBA history. From the past: Newport Harbor High School. Stanford. Seventh pick, NBA draft, 1950. Didn’t start playing until the 1953-54 season.
George Yardley, wearing the NBA uniform of the old Syracuse Nats, was the league’s top scoring threat until Wilt Chamberlain came into the league. Yardley was the first NBA player to surpass the 2,000-point milestone. (Photo by Wikipedia Commons).
In 1958, Yardley, then of the Detroit Pistons, scored 2,001 points. The NBA’s previous scoring mark came in 1951 when Minneapolis Lakers’ 6-foot-10 center George Mikan racked up 1,932 points. At 6-5, Yardley was a good-sized forward in 1950’s NBA hoops, and was “an offensive-minded player with a knack for scoring,” he noted on himself. Described as a “flamboyant” and “gregarious” player who “never did anything without flair,” Yardley had a stellar seven-year career, making the NBA All-Star team every year except for his rookie season.
He led the Fort Wayne Pistons to two NBA Finals before the team moved to Detroit in 1957. In 1957-58, that being these Pistons’ first season in Detroit, Yardley led the league in scoring, averaging 27.8 points.
That year, named All-NBA First Team the lone time over seven season, Yardley set NBA records with 655 free throws on 808 attempts. There was a curious trade by the Pistons to the Syracuse Nationals, the future Philadelphia 76ers. Following his sixth all-star season with Syracuse in 1959-60, averaging 20.2 points, George Yardley retired at the age of 31. He was the first player in NBA history to retire after averaging at least 20 points in his final year.
Although Alex Groza had a 21.7 scoring average in his final NBA season in 1951, his career ended as a result of a lifelong ban for point shaving, instead of a voluntary retirement like that of Yardley’s.
A year later, 1959, St. Louis Hawks’ center Bob Pettit broke Yardley’s mark. By 1962, Chamberlain’s single-season total in 1962 eclipsed that of Yardley and Pettit combined. Chamberlain wiped every scoring record off the books, averaging a shade over 50 points a game.
Who was this Yardley guy again?
George Yardley, incidentally, was Rob’s dad.
Rob Yardley, looking a little older and grayer than in his University of Redlands days in the early 1980s, was the son of an NBA great (Photo credit: LinkedIn.)
“No,” said the younger Yardley, who stood 6-foot-6, “he never did (pressure me) to play basketball. I thought I was going to be a tennis star, and he introduced me to tennis. I think he likes tennis more than basketball, anyway.”
One night, Yardley came off the bench to score eight points – hardly in Chamberlain’s class, or that of Pettit, or even his dad – in a 63-52 win at Occidental College, a campus located just outside Pasadena. But he did hit all four of his shots, eventually fouling out. He said, “I was a butcher out there. I kept leaning. Coach (Gary) Smith has told me a thousand times to keep my hands off the guy on the baseline.”
George was in Eagle Rock, Occidental’s home city, to watch his son play that night. In fact, that brilliant ex-NBA star was often seen at Currier Gym, the Bulldogs’ home gym in Redlands.
Think about it: George Yardley played against the likes of Chamberlain, Pettit, Bill Russell, Bob Cousy and Elgin Baylor, Mikan — you name it. There were wire service photos of George Yardley going up against Russell and Cousy. Retired at 31, George played a little in 1961-62 with the Los Angeles Jets, a much-forgotten team from the old American Basketball League.
By contrast, Rob Yardley was neither an NBA player or even an All-Conference player at Redlands. Like his dad, both were wport Harbor High. Then it was off to Orange County Junior College, then a two-year stint at Redlands.
For locals, it was an interesting Redlands Connection.
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. It is a reality that almost every major sport, plus a bunch of others, can be connected to Redlands. This story’s connector has connected in a far away expectation anyone could imagine. – Obrey Brown
BACK IN THE LATE 1990s, an older man was spotted shooting baskets at the outdoor courts at Redlands High School. A few feet away, a high school baseball game was about to take place. The man shooting baskets, who looked around his 80s, was shooting hook shots from half court. Repeat that: Hook shots from half court. A man in his 80s? Remarkably, if they didn’t swish through the net, his shots at least hit the rim.
It was startling to meet Bob Karstens.
There he was, from the top of the key, he hiked the ball through his legs – in the manner of a football center – at the hoop. Again, if his shots didn’t go in, they were close.
At one point, he broke out three basketballs, dribbling them simultaneously, as if he were a hoops-playing magician. I was waiting to cover a high school baseball game a couple hundred feet away. Something was up with this elderly man, though. I couldn’t take my eyes off his activity.
Friendly. Outgoing. Gentle. The man spoke in respectful terms.
“I’m Obrey Brown. I write for the local newspaper, about to cover that baseball game over there. Saw what you were doing and decided to come over.”
Bob Karstens, photographed around 1942 and ’43, during which time he was one of three white men to play for the all-Black Harlem Globetrotters. (Photo by Harlem Globetrotters.)
Yes, he introduced himself. “Bob,” I told him, “it’s nice to meet you.”
“Thanks. Likewise.”
There was something different. I had an eerie, inner sense. We continued to chat, this smallish man who stood a couple inches shorter than my 5-foot-10 height, seemed to brighten up when I told him I was from the local newspaper.
“You might be interested in this …” he started saying.
After three decades in the newspaper business, it’s a phrase I heard often enough from folks seeking publicity. Usually, it might come from a pushy parent, or a publicity-seeking coach, or a public relations/Sports Information Director informing me about a once-in-a-lifetime story that I just couldn’t miss. Hey, I came after him, though. Okay, Bob, finish what you were saying. “I might be interested in this – in what, Bob?”
Karstens, who was standing in front of me, was not Black. As a matter of fact, without his shirt on, I could tell that he needed a little sun. It pays to listen, though. Outwardly, his sunless white guy mentioned he spent a season playing for the Harlem Globetrotters.
In case you’re wondering, the Globies were a dedicated Black man hoops squad.
“I spent a year with them back in the 1940s,” Karstens explained, “during the war.” It was, he told me, legendary Reece “Goose” Tatum was taken into the Army. The Globetrotters needed a clown prince.
Harlem Globetrotters’ Clown Prince Reece “Goose” Tatum went into the military in 1942, opening up a spot for Bob Karstens, who became one of three white players ever to suit up for basketball’s magicians. (Photo by Blackthen.com.)
Abe Saperstein, the Hall of Fame founder and orchestrator of the ‘Trotters, apparently tapped Bob on the shoulder and said, “You’re it.”
Abe Saperstein, the Hall of Fame founder of the Harlem Globetrotters, was the man who signed Bob Karstens to fill in for Goose Tatum during the 1942-43 season. (Photo by Wikipedia Commons.)
Karstens himself had been a gifted ball handler from the House of David (Benton, Mich.), the famous traveling bearded baseball team that barnstormed the country. Not much known for anything in sports beyond baseball, Karstens told me, the House of David had dabbled in some hoops play during the late 1930s and into the 1940s.
Here’s the rub: I didn’t necessarily believe Bob, not at first. In my business, you’ve got to hold people at arm’s length when they tell you curious stories. I could, literally, share experiences about people that turned out to be half-true. Or true for a week, but not the next. Or outright false. Still, there was something genuine about Bob.
Suddenly, I placed covering that high school baseball game in my back pocket. Bob invited me over to his house a couple blocks away – down Roosevelt, across Cypress, over onto Lytle. When Bob opened his garage door, he led me to three huge boxes full of stuff.
It was full of Harlem Globetrotters’ memorabilia. Suddenly, all my doubts about this guy ended in a hurry. Karstens, I could see, was standing in photos with Saperstein, Tatum, Meadowlark Lemon, a bunch of well-known Globies … and WILT CHAMBERLAIN!
Suddenly, my notebook was produced. Pen in hand, scribbling madly, all the ramblings and utterings he’d voiced over at the high school – you know, when I didn’t originally believe him — started getting recorded. I had a lot of catch-up to do, including asking a bunch more questions.
“How long have you lived in Redlands?”
“Where’d you learn to play basketball?”
“What kind of money did you make?”
“Did you really start that pre-game Magic Circle routine?”
Truthfully, I didn’t have to ask many questions. Bob was spinning tale after tale. Just follow along, Obrey. Keep listening. Keep writing. What a story – and I had it! My pen just had to keep up with his stories. Reporters came along later and fabricated the idea that they’d uncovered this man, somehow sniffing out a story that I had handed to me by the man himself.
Karstens, who was from Davenport, Iowa, took over for that Army-bound Tatum on the ‘Trotters’ 1942-43 roster. Any memory of the ‘Trotters will instantly recall their legendary pre-game introductions at center court, dubbed the Magic Circle pre-game routine.
It’s recorded: This was Karstens’ invention. He organized this ritual. He played on the all-Black ‘Trotters eight years before even the NBA was integrated. Part of the ‘Trotters’ history is that playing doubleheaders with those early NBA teams, thus allowing this relatively unknown league to grow into prosperity.
Also this: Karstens invented the “goof” ball, the ball that bounces in all different directions because of various weights placed inside, plus he invented the “yo-yo” ball. Seasoned ‘Trotter fans know the routines well.
This guy lived in Redlands?
He loaned me some photos from his stash for my next day’s sports section. I had a gold mine of a notebook – quotes, stories, photos and prime history. I sent our photographer, Lee Calkins, over to Bob’s house for an updated mug shot of my new best friend; the guy I had originatedly cynically, though silently, doubted. I made up with myself, though.
Karstens. The Globetrotters. Tatum. Saperstein. Chamberlain. A bunch of brilliant players. Once Tatum returned from the service, Karstens returned to the sidelines. Leave it to the ‘Trotters, though, to promote someone on their all-Black team that wasn’t Black!
Karstens, for his part, stayed on as ‘Trotters’ team manager until 1954, having coached the infamous Washington Generals along the way. That team was the ‘Trotters’ nightly opponent. After leaving the ‘Trotters (changes in management, pay, plus family, always on the road), Karstens went into construction. By 1994, he was inducted into the ‘Trotters’ Hall of Fame.
At 89, Karstens died on Dec. 31, 2004. I covered his Redlands funeral that was attended by former ‘Trotter players Geese Ausbie and Govonor Vaughn. When that pair of retired Globies took their turn at Karstens’ services, Ausbie looked down at Bob’s widow, Pauline, asking, “Did anyone bring a ball?”
It was classic clowning, a special moment for a departed member of their legendary team. A wife, three sons and four grandchildren were among Karstens’ attending survivors in a fully side service. There were plenty of funeral onlookers. This man had quite a following at the Church of the Nazarene.
The ball? Vaughn smoked his former teammate, Ausbie, a shadow ball pass. To those in attendance at this church — corner of Citrus and Grove — this couldn’t have been a better sendoff. Shadow ball, incidentally, is an invisible ball. One guy pretends to throw it, another guy pretends to catch it. If the right group of guys are performing this, it’s highly entertaining. This was, apparently, Bob’s ball entry into Heaven.
Looking back, there were personal stories about track legend Jesse Owens and baseball’s amazing Jackie Robinson — Karstens right in the middle of everything. Bob told me that he ran into both of those sports legends on the railroad. A railroad conductor once asked him to depart from the Blacks-only section of the train. The Globetrotters were the most powerful basketball team in the world during the 1940s, long before the NBA produced its eventual gold mine of hoops-playing legends.
It was, of course, always a delight to watch them play. Probably few know the full history of Saperstein’s original creation from the 1920s.
The ‘Trotters are a full century old. A small portion of their rich history had surfaced about an hour’s drive east of Los Angeles, in Redlands – a long way from Harlem, a New York City suburb.
“I had the skills to fit in and do the tricks,” Karstens said.
Showed at an old age on that outdoor court at Redlands High.
Three generations of Jackie Robinson descendants are pictured, including his oldest nephew, Ted Colbert, right, Colbert’s daughter, Jennette, center, and his granddaughter, Kristina, front left, a freshman at San Gorgonio High School. The trio live in Highland. Photo by Obrey Brown
* From my files: Eighteen years ago, three generations of Jackie Robinson descendants living in Highland
It was April 15, more than just the deadline for filing income taxes.
On that date in 2004, Kristina Williams, a freshman member of San Gorgonio High School’s track & field team, couldn’t attend her dual meet against San Bernardino.
“Family,” she said, “is more important.”
Family, in this case, means Jackie Robinson.
Williams is the great, great niece of baseball’s pioneer player who broke the color barrier in the major leagues in 1947. On April 15 across the land, it was Jackie Robinson Day at every major league stadium hosting a game.
It corresponds with the date, April 15, 1947, when Robinson stepped onto a major league field for the first time in a regular season game.
Rachel Robinson, Jackie’s widow, stood on the field at Shea Stadium in New York — center stage for the heritage day. Robinson has plenty of relatives spread across the land.
That includes Highland, a city located next to San Bernardino, Calif.
Williams lives with her mother, Jennette, in Highland. Jennette Williams’ father, Ted Colbert, is the oldest nephew to the onetime Brooklyn Dodger star who retired after the 1956 season. Robinson’s family legacy lives on.
“I see him,” says Williams, who has played JV volleyball and varsity basketball for the Lady Spartans prior to the spring track season, “as an inspiration. In our family, we talk about him a lot.
“It took up a lot of courage to stand up against a lot of animosity.”
The Williams family moved to Highland from Glendale, Ariz., due mainly to Jennette Williams’ bout with cancer. She is a patient at the City of Hope. They have been around Highland for about six months. They may be gone soon; possibly to Pasadena — closer to her medical center.
On that April 15 date, Jennette Williams, along with her mother, Ola, attended the Jackie Robinson Day ceremony at Anaheim Stadium. “I got to see a lot of people I hadn’t seen for a long time. I saw my uncle Mack’s family,” she said.
Mack Robinson, a fairly famous athlete before Jackie Robinson’s prominence started on the American baseball scene, was his older brother . “You’ve got to know, I grew up with this, all this talk,” said Jennette Williams.
Neither Colbert, nor Kristina Williams attended in Anaheim. At first, the notion seemed to be that Colbert was ill. Or that Williams wasn’t dressed properly for the pre-game event.
But Colbert spilled the true facts. “There are certain family members they’d allow on the field for something like this. I’ve done it a lot. Kristina wasn’t going to be allowed on the field for the ceremony.
“I stayed home with her. I let her go out with her friends.”
A shrug of the shoulders. Yes, she feels bad. Kristina , an ailing travel softball player suffering from a rotator cuff injury, said, “I’d be out playing softball instead of track.”
In class, it’s a different story. When it comes to writing essays about famous Americans, she didn’t have far to go for anyone. “I’m related to him,” she said.
Of course, she wrote about Jackie Robinson.
“Everyone (at San Gorgonio High) thinks I’m lying about all this.”
Before that April 15 Mariners-Angels game in Anaheim, representatives from both teams said they were delighted to take part in the celebration of a great life and a greater legacy. Garret Anderson and Chone Figgins, said Jennette, each expressed great admiration for what Robinson did.
Colbert, 64, says there are players in this generation who don’t know the name of Jackie Robinson. “I really believe that,” he said. “There aren’t very many, but there are a few. I’m disappointed in that.”
Being a nephew of baseball’s great legend didn’t bother Colbert, who noted there were still barriers for Black players, even after Jackie’s MLB debut in 1947.
“That kind of thing (racist reactions) happened every day when I played a game. It was O.K. with me. Other players would give me their best.”
His memories of Robinson are immense. “I was a bat boy in a lot of the games he played in,” he said. “I remember a game at Wrigley Field in L.A. when Satchel Paige pitched against Bob Feller. There were 43 strikeouts in that game.
“I think Jackie went 0-for-3.”
Colbert talked about a time Robinson returned from Brooklyn after his 1947 rookie season. “He must’ve had 30, 40 cousins who were at his (Pasadena) home, ” said Colbert, “and he gave them all a dollar. That was a big deal.”
Colbert recalled the patience Robinson had with fans. Colbert said, “We went to the theatre one night to see the Ten Commandments. We walked up to the mezzanine level. All of a sudden, everyone started coming at him for autographs.
“He was just as cool as anyone I’ve ever seen.”
If Robinson hadn’t broken the color barrier, said Colbert, “I don’t know who’d have done it.”
Colbert doubted that it would have been Larry Doby, the first American League black player. Nor could Roy Campanella, the famous Dodger catcher, an eventual teammate of Robinson’s in Brooklyn.
“It would’ve probably been Willie (Mays),” he said. “Nothing bothered Willie.”
Kristina Williams has learned her family history well. She said, “He didn’t play baseball just to be the first Black player. He wanted to play baseball.”
Right, said Colbert. “He wasn’t out for that. They had to get the right man for that. He was that man. He went to college. He was in the military. He was a little older. He had everything they needed.”
Seventeen years after Robinson’s 1972 death, Kristina Williams was born. She started figuring out who her famous relative was in about fifth grade.
Williams had one elite memory about Robinson before moving to Highland. During an eighth grade basketball game in Arizona, Williams said she was walking down the hall at a rival school. She spotted a poster of Robinson in a classroom, walked in and told the teacher she was a relative of the Hall of Famer.
“The teacher took the poster off the wall and gave it to me,” she said. “Right now, it’s on my wall at home.”
A 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, 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
Villanova University basketball coach Jay Wright seemed perfectly content to discuss why the Wildcats were playing at Redlands – a major college program with full-ride athletic scholarships against a small-college team that isn’t allowed to offer athletic scholarships.
As open-minded as anyone, Wright spoke openly and honestly about the Wildcats’ trip to Redlands. Nineteen years later, Wright is still coaching the Wildcats. Villanova has since won two NCAA championships (2016, 2018). This past Sunday, Villanova outlasted Ohio State in lifting itself to a 2022 Sweet 16 spot.
Villanova University coach Jay Wright brought his Wildcats to small University of Redlands in Nov. 2003 to clear his team for the Maui Tournament (Photo by Wikipedia Commons.)
Philadelphia-based Villanova University, way back in November 2003, showed up to play a 10 a.m. Saturday matchup at Currier Gymnasium. It’s the home court of the University of Redlands.
In a rarely-seen duel between a major-college, athletic scholarship-backed program against a small-college, non-athletic scholarship team, Villanova beat the Bulldogs in that showdown. But it was close and memorable. That game had since taken on additional significance. Four of the Wildcats’ starting five played prominent roles in that game at Currier Gymnasium.
The Wildcats, who would be the No. 1 seed one season later at the Minneapolis Region (eventually losing to fabled North Carolina in the Sweet 16), seemingly had a strong shot at a national championship. It was a far cry from that Nov. 22, 2003 showdown at Redlands.
For a Redlands-Villanova game to have taken place at all was an unlikely scenario.
“It was,” said Bulldog senior Carson Sofro, then a sophomore, “the craziest, most memorable time I’ve ever had in basketball.”
“That was my first college game,” said Amir Mazarei, who scored 15 against Villanova, third highest among the Bulldogs. “I didn’t know what to expect going in.”
“I’ve played in a few big games,” said Bulldog player Donald Brady, “and I’ve been to The (Anaheim) Pond (site of high school’s championship games). But nothing compared to playing Villanova.”
Adding to the flavor was major media coverage – TV, radio and large daily newspapers.
“We brought eight kids,” Wright told me that day. “Five are on scholarship. The other three are walk-ons (non-scholarship players).”
At Redlands, every Bulldog player is a “walk-on.” There are no athletic scholarships.
Yes, it was a game completely out of the ordinary, a middle-of-the-road small college team taking on a powerful presence in college basketball.
For visiting Villanova, it was a glance at small college basketball. Mazerai himself noted that Redlands plays in a 1,100-seat gymnasium – “nowhere close” to the 10,000-plus seat arenas that normally house Wildcat games.
For Redlands, it was a chance to rub elbows against a major college, Big East Conference program.
“They needed to dial up a win,” said Gary Smith, Redlands’ coach through 2007. “Originally, they were going to play Claremont (one of Redlands’ SCIAC rivals) on Friday and then us the next day. But Temple was on their schedule and they forced Villanova to play that game. Claremont got aced out of a chance to play them.”
The game had come about due to a strange set of circumstances. Some Villanova players had unauthorized use of a telephone, making calls that were deemed “extra benefits” by an NCAA ruling. Sanctions were imposed. Some players had been suspended for six games. The school chose to take those suspensions over a six-game stretch – the final three of 2002-2003 and the first three games to start 2003-2004.
Wright spoke to me as if we were old friends – charming, personable, honest, you name it. If there’d been classes for dealing with the media, he’d probably get an A-plus.
“They had asked us to bring a representative team to Maui,” said Wright, meaning a competitive team to that season-opening tournament in the islands. “A lot of our alumni and boosters had bought tickets to that. It was up to us to field a decent team.
“All because of the phone issue.”
In order to carry its full roster in Maui, Villanova needed to get rid of that six-game sanction and clear its suspended players.
When Villanova’s undermanned roster blasted Temple in a late Thursday night game back east, it seemed as if Redlands might be in for a worse beating early on Saturday.
Former University of Redlands basketball coach Gary Smith — wearing a Wildcats’ T-shirt — led his Bulldogs up against powerhouse Villanova at Currier Gymnasium in Nov. 2003. Redlands lost, but it wasn’t an easy win for the eventual NCAA champions. (Photo courtesy of the NorCal Wildcats.)
“A Big East team, of all things,” said Smith, who coached Redlands over a thousand games between 1971 and 2007. “For them to be (competitive) in the game (against Temple), I think, was just amazing.”
Smith, said Sofro, “had warned us we could blown out of the gym.”
They played at Currier Gymnasium on Nov. 22, 2003. It was, said Smith, “the first time we’d ever played a D-1 (Division 1) school in our gym.”
Nineteen years later, Villanova’s still the only D-1 team to show up and play Redlands.
This was a typical Charles Paddock finish, turning his left shoulder to the left as he crossed a finish line. This was the scene on April 23, 1921 at the University of Redlands when Paddock, 33 on his jersey, set world records in four events, tying another mark that same day (photo by USC sports information).
