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
All talk of trading Chris Archer might be music to the ears of Tampa Bay Rays’ pitcher Matt Andriese.
Tyler Chatwood, meanwhile, could be in for a stunning summer in Chicago.
Andriese and Chatwood, a pair of former teammates on some very strong Redlands East Valley High School teams, are headed for spring training with one thought in mind:
Claiming a spot in the starting rotation with their current teams.
Both seem destined for mound duty when the 2018 season opens. Both will be in Florida on March 28 when the season opens. Tampa hosts the Boston Red Sox and the Cubs will be in Miami.
Former Redlands East Valley pitcher Matt Andriese, drafted originally by the San Diego Padres, is now toiling for the Tampa Bay Rays. (Photo by Wikipedia Commons)
Andriese, an original draft pick by San Diego, was dealt to the Rays in a Jan. 22, 2014 deal that sent southpaw reliever Alex Torres and right-handed starter Jesse Hahn to the Padres. Andriese was joined by second baseman Logan Forsythe (now with the Dodgers), plus right-handers Matt Lollis and Brad Boxberger.
The onetime REV star, who was drafted out of UC Riverside in the third round of the 2011 draft, is a career 16-18 over 72 games with a shutout, four saves and a lifetime 4.35 earned run average.
Andriese heads into spring training as a possible fifth starter in the Rays’ rotation behind Archer, Jake Odorizzi, Blake Snell and Jake Faria.
Both Archer and Odorizzi, meanwhile, have been rumored to be a target of the New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins, among other teams, since the Rays likely have no shot at pennant contention in 2018. Dealing them might be the team’s best chance to land some coveted prospects.
Chatwood, on the other hand, was dealt to the Colorado Rockies by his original team, Anaheim Angels, on Nov. 30, 2011 for catcher Chris Ianetta.
Tyler Chatwood, the former Redlands East Valley ace, is shown pitching for the Anaheim Angels during his rookie year in 2011. (Photo by Wikipedia Commons.)
When his Rockies’ contract expired following the 2017 season, the 2016 World Series champion Cubs quickly sprung to sign Chatwood on a 3-year, $38 million deal. It could be the under-the-radar signing of the off-season.
Chatwood, 40-46 with a 4.31 ERA between 2011-2017, may be ready to fire on all cylinders. Moving from hitter-friendly Colorado to a more pitcher-friendly Wrigley Field could lift numbers of the the 2008 second-round draft pick.
He’ll follow the likes of Jon Lester, recently-signed Yu Darvish, Kyle Hendricks and Jose Quintana in what appears to be a solid Cubs’ rotation heading into 2018.
REV has produced one other major leaguer. Right-hander Tommy Hansen (49-35, 3.85) spent five seasons in the majors, mostly with Atlanta, plus a season with the Angels. He concluded his 2006-2015 career in the minors with San Francisco’s Class AAA team in Sacramento.
Tragically struck down at age 29 when he died on Nov. 9, 2015, Hansen was the first of REV’s growing list of professional signees. He signed in May 2006 after being taken by the Braves in the 22nd round of the 2005 draft.
The Chatwood-Andriese combination led REV into the 2007 Southern Section Division 2 championship game at Dodger Stadium against El Toro High School. El Toro, buoyed by the presence of future Rockies’ slugging third baseman Nolan Arenado in its lineup, handed Chatwood the loss in a 7-0 win.
Chatwood and Andriese pitched against each other in the majors in 2016 – Chatwood with the Rockies and Andriese with the Rays.
Andriese didn’t start for Tampa Bay and Chatwood lost for Colorado when the Rays beat him badly in a 10-1 outcome on July 20 in Denver.
Long after Chatwood was knocked out by Rays’ hitters – lasting three innings, surrendering seven runs – Andriese entered the game for the final three innings.
Andriese had relieved Matt Snell, pitching three frames of three-hit ball (three strikeouts, no walks) and picked up the save, surrendering a ninth inning home run to Rockies’ rookie sensation Trevor Story.
Snell surrendered just one hit to a Rockies’ lineup featuring All-Stars Carlos Gonzalez and Arenado.
For some reason, the Rays continued to pitch Andriese – who concluded that game with a sparkling 2.78 earned run average – out of the bullpen while most of their starting pitchers had much higher ERAs.
As for Chatwood, he surrendered a home run to Rays’ slugger Evan Longoria, among other hits.
“I didn’t throw any curveballs tonight,” he said, “and it’s always been my best pitch. I threw a lot of fastballs and didn’t miss barrels (of the bat) and kind of put us in a hole.
“I lost the game for us, pretty much. At some point, you’ve got to make an adjustment, and I didn’t make an adjustment.”
Redlands Connection is a concoction of sports memories emanating from a city that once numbered less than 20,000 people. From the Super Bowl to the World Series, from the World Cup to golf’s U.S. Open and the Olympics, plus NCAA Final Four connections, NASCAR, the Kentucky Derby and Indianapolis 500, Tour de France cycling, major tennis, NBA and a little NHL, aquatics and quite a bit more, the sparkling little city that sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10 has its share of sports connections. – Obrey Brown
Subbing for the Cashman part of the song, “Willie, Almost Mickey and the Duke.”
I never came close to chatting with The Mick. I’d only seen him play in person a couple times. That came in 1968, his final season, but only because the Oakland A’s had moved to the Bay Area. It meant the Yankees had a few stops to make out there.
About a decade later, during the 1977 season in Oakland, I got a press pass to a mid-week afternoon game with the visiting Yankees, a team managed by Billy Martin. These were the Reggie Jackson Yankees who, incidentally, wasn’t in the lineup against his old team.
For some reason, Billy Martin, one of baseball’s fiercest managers, showed up in Redlands sometime in the early 1980s (Photo by Wikipedia Commons).
It was Vida Blue against Ron Guidry.
The world champion A’s had long since been disbanded – trades, free agency, you name it. The Yankees, meanwhile, had picked up Jackson and Catfish Hunter from those old A’s teams.
Guidry, leading 2-0, had tamed the A’s for 8 1/3 innings before he gave up ninth inning home runs to Manny Sanguillan and Dick Allen to knot the score at 2-2. Martin replaced Guidry with Sparkly Lyle, who was the Cy Young Award winner one season earlier.
The game went 15 innings. Blue lasted 13. Finally, in the 15th, the Yankees broke through for three runs, winning, 5-2. There weren’t even 10,000 fans in Oakland’s park that day.
I couldn’t wait for the post-game chat in the clubhouse. I wasn’t really working for anyone. I’d gotten a media credential through my college, Chabot. There was no difficulty getting a pass – not like it is today.
As a budding reporter, I wanted to watch the New York reporters talk about the game with Martin. I wanted to experience the give and take between media and manager. I’ll never forget that as long as I live. I figured that was part of my “education.”
With Martin, the media discussed Guidry’s brilliant game, despite giving up the ninth inning HRs. There was expected second-guessing: Why didn’t you bring Lyle in to start the ninth. Martin, a little annoyed, told them he felt Guidry had “enough gas left.”
There was some discussion of Jackson not being in the lineup on his return to Oakland. He’d played the day before and struck out three times. Martin said, “We just wanted to give him a day off.”
Vida Blue, he told reporters, looked sharp and strong.
The chat lasted, maybe, 20 to 30 minutes. It started to break up. Guys had deadlines. Martin probably had plans, too, especially since he was a Bay Area guy. I was one of about a dozen guys that circulated in the visitor’s office.
I won’t ever forget how he looked right at me, saying, “Something I can do for you, son?”
In all honesty, I had a couple questions for him. I’d hesitated to ask. After all, I was a nobody.
“That play (Graig) Nettles made in the ninth, the double play,” I said, “was unbelievable. Went to his left. Sort of a semi dive. That bailed Lyle out of a tough spot.”
It came in the ninth. Sanguillan and Allen had homered. Wayne Gross drew a one-out walk off Lyle. Earl Williams, a home-run hitting catcher, was looking to drive one out, too. But he cracked a shot into the hole toward left field. Nettles, reacting quickly, got the ball to Willie Randolph at second in a hurry.
Double play, ending the threat.
I also asked him about a couple of steal attempts that catcher Thurman Munson had shut down. A’s speedster Bill North was one of those. There was some dispute on the call at second by North, but he was called out.
There were a couple other plays I wanted to ask about, but I didn’t want to press my luck.
Martin took those questions on with a full head of steam. Those N.Y. reporters ready to depart instead hung around. On Nettles and Munson, Martin rhapsodized about how “this game wouldn’t have been won without those plays. Big keys to the game.”
Was I done? He wanted to know. Yeah, I said.
“You know, we’ve got a lot of high-priced talent here from New York that didn’t even pick up on those plays,” said Martin. “You keep asking questions like that, young man, you’re going to go a long way in this business.”
Where was my Mom? My friends? A tape recorder?
I couldn’t believe this.
Billy Martin said that to me? In later years, I wondered if he was just picking away at his regular press corps.
SHOWING UP AT A REDLANDS AMERICAN LEGION
Seven or eight years later, I was sitting in my Redlands newsroom office. I got a call from an area baseball-lover, Fred Long. Guy had been a scout for Montreal, maybe Kansas City or Milwaukee. Can’t remember each of Fred’s affiliations.
“O.B.,” he said, “Billy Martin’s here.”
He was drinking beer at a local American Legion Post.
What the hell was Billy Martin doing in Redlands?
I dropped everything. Rushed over to the legion post. Sure enough, there was Billy Martin, a beer in front of him, four guys sitting around him, a bar tender hanging out. Talking baseball. I snuck myself into the mix, listening, hearing the chat back and forth.
For nearly three hours, I watched him down one beer after another. He never cracked. Kept talking baseball. There was talk of Mickey Mantle, his good buddy. “No one,” said Martin, “could come close to his power … or speed.”
How he shouldn’t have lost his jobs in Minnesota or Texas or even the Yankees. He’d just gotten finished managing in Oakland, of all places – Billy Ball!
It was the off-season, I should report. Martin was in the Redlands area because he’d married a gal who had Yucaipa connections. Yucaipa was the city just east of Redlands. While she was visiting friends and family, Billy visited the legion post. He’d had a little military in his background. He felt comfortable in such a place.
Finally, when I felt comfortable enough, I mentioned that Yankees-A’s game in Oakland from a few years earlier. How he’d been real classy to me in the clubhouse after the game. I asked him, despite all the beer he’d downed, if he’d remembered.
He stared right at me. Took a swig of beer. He even grabbed a pretzel and stuck it into his mouth, kind of smiling as he thought. I figured he was getting ready to say he’d remembered.
“No,” he finally said, “I can’t quite remember anything like that. It’s been a few years, right?”
Oh, yeah.
Said Martin: “A lot’s happened since then.”
Part 3 of Willie, Almost Mickey and The Duke next week.
Redlands Connection is a concoction of sports memories emanating from a city that once numbered less than 20,000 people. From the Super Bowl to the World Series, from the World Cup to golf’s U.S. Open and the Olympics, plus NCAA Final Four connections, NASCAR, the Kentucky Derby and Indianapolis 500, Tour de France cycling, major tennis, NBA and a little NHL, aquatics and quite a bit more, the sparkling little city that sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10 has its share of sports connections. – Obrey Brown
Talkin’ baseball. Terry Cashman. His song, released in 1981, seemed to summarize a special part of baseball. A musical contribution to baseball history. It surrounded the great center fielders in three New York boroughs – the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Cashman wrote about … “Willlieeeeee … Mickey … and The Duke.”
Duke Snider came to Redlands.
Mickey Mantle came to … well, as far as anyone knows, he didn’t come to Redlands. But his longtime friend, Billy Martin, showed up here at least once.
Then there was Willie Mays. I can’t honestly say that the “Say Hey Kid” ever set foot on Redlands soil. But me, the sports editor from Redlands, took part in a rare discussion that probably never came up in baseball circles.
It would’ve made a nice little change in Cashman’s song, “Willie … Almost Mickey … and the Duke …”
Say, hey!
Say, hey!
Say, hey!
Willie Mays talked about a “trade” that could’ve happened regarding a Dodger pitcher named Koufax? (Wikipedia Commons photo)
It was in the early 1980s. Bob Hope Desert Classic. Deep in the heart of Coachella Valley. Willie Mays, a golf lover, was playing in the celebrity Pro-Am, along with plenty of others from music, film and sports.
There we were in the VIP tent. Food was being served. It was the middle of the day. Willie had played his round. I was talking a break. Other than the serving staff, no one else seemed to be around.
Sitting at a table near him, I could just feel the opportunity. I grew up in the Bay Area watching this guy play in the twilight of his career in the late 1960s.
What should I ask him? Finally, I came up with something out of sheer desperation.
“Willie,” I said, “tell me something about your career that didn’t get much attention.”
He responded crudely, which shouldn’t have come as a complete shock. In sports, you often run into replies like that. In the clubhouse. In a locker room. On a field or court. Willie had probably been approached by thousands of media guys looking for something – stories, opinions, recollections, you name it.
He wouldn’t be talking – at least to me. It’s okay. I tried. No big deal.
Suddenly, out of the blue, he blurted, “We almost got Koufax.”
Huh? What? Say that again!
Yeah, he said. A year, or two, before Dodger southpaw Sandy Koufax really hit his Hall of Fame stride, the fireballing southpaw was stewing about how the Dodgers were using him.
Translation: Or not using him.
Apparently in Willie’s presence in San Francisco – likely at Seals Stadium – Koufax approached team general manager Buzzie Bavasi to request a trade.
Said Willie: “He told Bavasi, ‘you’re not using me. Why even keep me? It’s better to let me go. Trade me somewhere so I can pitch.’ ”
Willie said he jumped right into the discussion. “Trade him to the Giants,” he remembers telling Bavasi. “Trade him to us.”
There was some discussion. Wow! The Giants’ star player was discussing a trade with the GM of their chief rival, the Dodgers.
Willie was told by Bavasi to tell Horace Stoneham, the Giants’ owner who made all deals for the San Francisco-based team.
“Did you do it?” I asked him.
He nodded. “I talked to Mr. Stoneham. Didn’t hear much about it for awhile.”
Willie was chewing his food. Some guys were entering the VIP tent. Hoping that it wasn’t people looking for Willie – which would interrupt our chat – I prodded him a little.
“Any discussions take place about Koufax going to the Giants?”
Willie Mays nodded again. He was chewing. Swallowing. Didn’t seem to be in much of a hurry to answer.
“They wanted Cepeda.”
Orlando Cepeda, one of baseball’s younger star sluggers, was a San Francisco favorite. He was an established star.
Koufax had yet to reach that portion of his career that would get everyone’s attention. At that time, Cepeda-for- Koufax might not have seemed logical for San Francisco.
(Funny thing, though, was in 1966, the Giants sent Cepeda to St. Louis for southpaw Ray Sadecki – not quite the same caliber of pitcher that Koufax had been. At least Sadecki had won 20 games a couple years earlier.)
Koufax had a little success in his early years, but had yet to really hit his consistently Hall of Fame stride. In his mind, apparently, the Dodgers weren’t treating him respectfully.
Between 1961 and his final season, 1966, Koufax was unhittable, unforgettable and, evidently, untradeable.
I summarized this for Willie Mays.
“Are you telling me that you guys almost had Sandy Koufax, Juan Marichal and Gaylord Perry on the same pitching staff?” It would have been a couple of years before Perry joined the Giants’ staff.
Wow!
Willie didn’t answer. Just kept chewing. I wasn’t all that much of an interest to him. At the moment, though, I was the only one sitting near him to chat about this remarkable trade possibility.
“How close do you think this came to happening?”
I should mention this: During this entire chat, Willie Mays never looked at me. Not once. Didn’t have to, though. This was more than I’d bargained for. I don’t even know if he had even heard that last question.
At that point, more people started entering the tent. Food was being served. Willie Mays acknowledged some of the people he’d played golf with that day. My time with him was apparently over.
It was exciting, to say the least. I was practically finished with my sandwich and potato salad. I was nursing my drink when Willie Mays got up to leave. My heart kind of sank. I’d have really liked to get more conversation with him.
I watched him shake hands with a few guys.
“Nice to see you again, Willie.”
“Thanks, Willie.”
“Let’s get together soon, Willie.”
You know, typical sendoff lines.
Willie Mays was leaving. He’d walk right behind where I was sitting. When he walked past me, he said into my good ear (I only hear out of one ear), “Stoneham would’ve never traded Cepeda.”
One-third of the Cashman song – done.
Part 2 of Willie … Almost Mickey … and The Duke next week.
REDLANDS — It was a race worth waiting for, but only few people really knew about it. That race took place after a lengthy schedule of track & field events. Of all places to launch an Olympic showdown. Check that: A pre-Olympic showdown.
Innocent Egbunike, at far right, races to the finish against gold medal-winning Alonzo Babers at the 1984 Los Angles Olympic Games. Babers won the 400-meter in a race against Egbunike. The two raced against each other over a year earlier in Redlands, California.
It took place in the spring of 1983 at the University of Redlands, its annual T&F invitational attracting a number of small college squads, though a couple of interesting programs showed up.
Azusa Pacific, coached by legendary Terry Franson, would win that year’s NAIA team championship in June, was on site. So was the U.S. Air Force Academy.
The meet, which featured men’s and women’s events – jumping, all throws, pole vault, every conceivable distance race, sprints, plus relays – took over eight hours to complete.
By the time both finishing relays took place, the hour was close to 9 p.m.
There they were, Azusa Pacific University squaring against the U.S. Air Force Academy team in a 4 x 400 men’s finale.
It would be memorable, especially since 1980 Nigerian Olympian Innocent Egbunike would be racing the anchor lap for APU. His opponent for that lap was senior Alonzo Babers, already a lieutenant in the USAF. Babers still holds his school’s indoor 400 (46.86) record from 1982.
Throw this in: In that 1983 season, Babers ran 45.36, still the school’s outdoor mark. He took fourth (45.51) at the NCAA Division I finals later that June.
Against much easier competition at the NAIA finals, Egbunike sprinted to national championship wins in the 100 (10.34), 200 (20.94) and anchored the winning 4 x 400 relay – John Shalongo, Doug Laisel and Ted Campbell, plus the Nigerian, in 3:09.77.
***
At the Redlands Invite, Egbunike’s Azusa Pacific teammate Mike Barnett, a future Olympian, ripped off a winning 275-foot javelin mark – still the Ted Runner Stadium record – on that day. Oregon State’s Mark Fricker, from nearby Hemet, posted a still-existing 5,000 record of 14:09.30 on that 1983 date.
USAF’s Bret Hyde, a winner at Redlands, still holds his school’s mark over 3,000 meter steeplechase (8:31.87). Hyde, incidentally, also placed at the 1984 L.A. Games.
For good measure, APU sent discus and hammer competitor Christian Okoye, the future NFL “Nigerian Nightmare” with Kansas City. In this same stadium, Okoye would terrorize the University of Redlands’ football team.
There was even a Redlander on the USAF women’s squad, NCAA Division II All-American Laureli Mazik, who won that day and stands on the school’s indoor mile (4:53.9) all-time list at No. 9. She’s No. 16 outdoors (4:32.09).
All of which is a reminder how relevant the Redlands Invitational seemed at the time.
***
By race time, hardly anyone remained inside Ted Runner Stadium’s grandstand. It was late, after 9 p.m. Interest had long since waned when most events were finalized. Most participating teams departed for their Southern California campuses.
A few teams remained, including Azusa Pacific and Air Force.
When the batons were exchanged for that memorable anchor 4 x 400 lap, Egbunike and Babers were in full stride. That duo raced side by side for their entire 400-meter run. At the midway mark, Egbunike and Babers were seen bumping in their one-on-one duel.
The APU sprinter edged the USAF officer, though both runners had plenty of season left – Egbunike in the lower level NAIA ranks while Babers had top NCAA runners like Bert Cameron and Antonio McKay to square off against later that season.
It was that very season that Babers ran the third leg with Ted Holloway and Todd Scott with Rick Goddard anchoring, setting the school record (3:10.11) – currently the school’s eighth best.
Babers? The dude still holds the school mark over 500-meters, a discontinued event in which he posted a 1:01.7.
All of which was just preparation for the 1984 Los Angeles Games. He’d come across Egbunike again.
At Redlands, the Nigerian Olympian, escorted to the final handoff by Shalongo, Laisel and Campbell, got his triumph over Babers that night. The real race was over a year away.
***
In fact, there were two events in L.A.
At the L.A. Coliseum, both wound up in the open 400-meter finals. There was plenty of buildup, much of the spotlight falling on Antonio McKay, that year’s NCAA champion. Babers prevailed over McKay. Egbunike finished last in the seven-man finale.
As for the 4 x 400 relay, Babers needed McKay’s help. The two were mixed in with a lineup that included Ray Armstead and Sunder Nix. The USA won the gold ahead of Great Britain (silver) and Nigeria’s bronze medal finish behind Egbunike and his three running mates, Rotimi Peters, Moses Ugbusien and Sunday Uti.
Unlike that Redlands finale, it was Egbunike against McKay in the final lap. Babers had taken a 7-meter lead after his portion of the relay, handing off to McKay.
Beyond the bronze medal, Nigeria got another consolation – the African continent record.
***
While training for and competing in the 1984 Olympics, Babers held the rank of lieutenant. Just one month after his double-gold performance in Los Angeles, Babers reported to flight training school and began his career as a pilot. His athletic career was over. He was an active duty officer in the United States Air Force from 1983 to 1991, continuing to serve as a member of the Air Force Reserves. As of 2019, he was a 777 pilot for United Airlines.
Egbunike? He’s currently the track coach at Pasadena City College – a campus just a few miles from those Azusa Pacific digs. As head coach of the 2008 Nigerian Olympic team (coaching also in 1996 and 2000), Egbunike appeared in the winner’s circle again, having coached gold medalist Angelo Taylor.
These two world-class speedsters brought an Olympic showcase to Redlands in March 1983.
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 San Bernardino County city that sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10 has its share of sports connections. – Obrey Brown
There they were, lined up, one shot apart among the leader board at the 1997 “Augusta Invitational.” It’s called The Masters. In the world of professional golf, this event is considered sacred.
Tom Kite had Tommy Tolles beaten by a stroke after 72 holes, 282-283. At 284, there was a legend, Tom Watson, a multiple major tournament champion. He was followed by a pair of golfers at 285, Constantina Rocca and Paul Stankowski. Previous Masters champion Fred Couples, two-time Masters champion Bernhard Langer, British Open champion Justin Leonard, PGA Tournament champions Davis Love III and Jeff Sluman closed out their tournament with identical 286s.
They trailed by a lot. At 270 stood Tiger Woods. A dozen shots ahead. Dominant. A record 18-under par. Augusta, it seems, would never be the same.
He’d won The Masters.
Tiger Woods, shown here winning the 1997 Masters. Sixteen years earlier, a 6-year-old Eldrick “Tiger” Woods showed up to play a 9-hole exhibition match at Redlands Country Club. (Photo by Wikipedia Commons.)
It would be the lead story in the April 14, 1997 Redlands Daily Facts.
There was a local angle, a major one.
Sixteen years earlier, Redlands Country Club head golf professional Norm Bernard had called me with an invitation. Maybe it was an assignment. Or a request. Maybe he was begging.
Little Eldrick Woods, already known to the world as Tiger, had been invited to Redlands to play in a 9-hole exhibition match. On Dec. 30, he would turn six.
Norm and I started a little verbal sparring. I didn’t necessarily want to be there. He very definitely wanted me to be there.
“I don’t know, Norm. A 9-hole exhibition?”
Would our readers even care?
“What else have you got going on?” Norm asked.
In truth, he was correct. Nothing, at least locally, was taking place. School was shut down for winter break. Except for the San Bernardino Kiwanis Tournament, a basketball extravaganza for Redlands High, nothing of a sporting nature was taking place on the local front.
This was before an eventual explosion of boys and girls soccer tournaments, or prominent basketball tournaments for both sexes would take place during the winter holiday break, which has now been stretched to three weeks instead of two.
In reality, there weren’t many options to cover much local sports during this period. It seemed like I could be working on something more meaningful that day, which would be Dec. 29.
“Aw, Norm.”
“C’mon. I’ll buy you lunch.”
He was being as gracious as possible. While being demanding. Charming. A little pushy. Norm was always under fire at that club. Private golf members can be really demanding. They want their privacy. They also wanted a little publicity when it mattered.
Redlands CC was full of private club members that were movers and shakers in our community. One of them, Bill Moore, had been my publisher. There had long been rumblings and grumblings about country club coverage in our local pages.
The women’s club had its set of demands.
Of course, there was the club tournament.
Weekly twilight play, results in the summer. Usually, it was the same names. Norm’s edict was simple: Make certain those results were printed.
It was Norm’s job to process results for newspaper publication.
No resentment from me. All part of the job. Bowling had its own set of demands. So did recreation tennis. We had local motorsports. The soccer people were always on the move. Youth baseball. Little boys football. You name it. The sports section is for everyone. Any achievements should be duly noted.
That was the undercurrent of the relationship between the local country club and the local newspaper. Ah, the life of a local journalist.
The year was 1981. It was just after Christmas. Bill Moore, who’d sold the paper a year or so earlier, was gone. His country club cronies were no longer bugging him to light a fire under me. Meanwhile, they’d light the fire under Norm. No longer were there job-related demands hanging over my head. This was truly my decision. I had to admit I was a little curious.
The day after this nine-hole match would be little Tiger’s sixth birthday. Already, the little guy had been celebrated on television, once on the Mike Douglas Show as a three-year-old that could amazingly swing a golf club. Bob Hope, an avid golfer in his own right, was also a guest that day.
Another appearance came on ABC-TV’s “That’s Incredible,” hosted by John Davidson, Fran Tarkenton and Cathy Lee Crosby.
Norm’s connections led to an invitation to Tiger to play golf at Redlands.
Twelve-year-old Michele Lyford, who would one day go on to win the girls’ CIF golf championship, was selected to be Tiger’s playing opponent on that day. There was a small gallery as Tiger finished the nine-hole round by shooting 51.
Lyford, who shot 41, was also the champion of the 1986 Junior World in the older 15-17 age category, an event held every summer in San Diego. It should also be pointed out that other yearly winners included Carolyn Hill, Kim Saiki, Brandie Burton (who was from nearby Rialto) and Christi Erb – future LPGA professionals.
Lyford, in fact, beat Burton, the runner-up, by eight shots in the 1987 CIF-Southern Section girls championship at North Ranch Country Club.
Tiger, of course, was the headliner at Redlands on Dec. 29, 1981.
The highlight of the day was, at least for me, came on the final hole at No. nine. Tiger had knocked his ball smack into the bunker, smack dab against the lip – an impossible shot for even the most experienced of golfers.
The little guy was poised even then.
One day shy of his sixth birthday, Tiger took out his club chipped his shot onto the green.
Then he knocked the ball in position for a double bogey. Even then, he was trained to minimize trouble. Of the 30, or so, people in attendance for this little showcase match, they had to be awestruck at his shot and club selection.
No one discussed the shot. No one told him what to do. The kid was left alone.
Bernard, described as a huge proponent of junior golf, had known Rudy Duran, who was Tiger’s personal coach. Together, they formed the match, a 9-hole exhibition on RCC’s front nine.
It was Duran, Tiger, Michele and Earl Woods, Tiger’s dad who, at one point, hoisted the little guy up so he could see down the fairway.
“I was nervous,” Lyford-Sine said. “I couldn’t let this 6-year-old beat me. I was twice as old as he was and he was half my size.”
In the end, those scores, 41 — not a bad score for a 12-year-old on the par-35 RCC front nine — and Tiger’s 51 came under the guise as a “friendly.”
This little golf prodigy had played bogey golf throughout the match. That in itself was incredible!
Afterward, the club gave Tiger a birthday party.
Afterward, I’m somewhat embarrassed to say, I handed this little guy a piece of paper – and a pen. Yes, I asked him for his autograph. He made his letters carefully, his little tongue sticking out the corner of his mouth while he wrote, “Eldrick Woods.”
Wish I still had that little slip of paper.
Sixteen years later, he won the Masters. That was just the beginning.
My column on April 14, 1997 was all about Tiger. Redlands. Winning the Masters. My reluctance to cover it. I’d written, “I’m glad Norm convinced me to come.”
Norm called later to recall the memories.
I asked, “Any more birthday parties you want me to cover, Norm?”
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.
Redlands Connection is a concoction of sports memories emanating from a city that once numbered less than 20,000 people. From the Super Bowl to the World Series, from the World Cup to golf’s U.S. Open and the Olympics, plus NCAA Final Four connections, NASCAR, the Kentucky Derby and Indianapolis 500, Tour de France cycling, major tennis, NBA and a little NHL, aquatics and quite a bit more, the sparkling little city that sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10 has its share of sports connections. – Obrey Brown
A little baseball player hitting off a tee. The origin of Tee ball is difficult to trace, but onetime Redlands resident Art Till claimed to have invented the process in his Hawaii workshop. (Photo by Skoch3)
Art Till, inventor of T-Ball? In the military, stationed in Hawaii during the 1970s, Till went to work in his workshop one day and developed a stand on which a baseball could be placed, then hit off. It worked out.
“There’ll be people that will tell you,” said Till, “that someone else invented tee ball. I’m quite certain it was me.”
As youth leagues in both baseball and softball get ready to tee off in 2018, including a barrage of tee ball-based leagues, Till’s invention bears some attention.
It may seem strange to an outsider. T-Ball may have changed the plight of youth baseball forever. In a sport that requires a great deal of hand-eye coordination, placing a ball on a tee for a five- or six-year-old instead of pitching it seemed like a stroke of genius.
Eventually, Till moved to Redlands where the sport caught on in the 1970s. “It was such a simple idea,” he said.
Youth baseball in Redlands used to begin for kids when they were about eight-years-old. But as youth soccer players began surfacing in that sport at age five, baseball needed a gimmick to bring youths into its sport at an earlier age.
“This,” said Till, referring to T-Ball, “did the trick.”
Till says he was the one. There were others who made the claim.
It could have been St. Petersburg, Florida’s John Zareas, who claimed he developed tee ball at Seymour Johnson AFB in North Carolina back in 1960.
During the 1990s, a physician Zareas knows challenged the retired Air Force lieutenant colonel’s claim to the game. Browsing the Internet, the doctor found the name of another man credited with developing tee ball, Zareas said.
Zareas had published a copyrighted tee ball rules book for youngsters in 1965. A copy resides in the Baseball Hall of Fame library in Cooperstown, N.Y., reference librarian Claudette Burke said.
Copies of Zareas’ service records reflect his effort. The governor of New Hampshire nominated him for a presidential Point of Light award during former President George H.W. Bush’s administration. Newspaper articles and television reports have discussed his role in the development of a game now played by an estimated 2.2-million youngsters nationwide.
A Milton, Fla., Reverend, Dayton Hobbs, said he began a local tee ball program in 1960.
The Hall of Fame also has a newspaper article saying an Albion, Mich. man began the game there in 1956.
Bing Broido is president of Tee Ball USA, a non-profit support group for youth organizations. Broido said Branch Rickey, owner of the old Brooklyn Dodgers, had his players use a tee in the 1940s. Later, Broido said, some Canadian players put a ball atop a cow-milking device on a flexible tube.
Who should get credit for inventing the game is a tough call, he said.
Zareas continued to promote tee ball when the Air Force assigned him to Japan, which was where he wrote down rules.
It cost $20 to copyright them. From Japan, the game gradually spread among service families to Hawaii, Southern California, across the southern United States, then to New York and New England, he said.
Hawaii was where Till was stationed. And the onetime Redlander, whose wife Norma was librarian for years at Mentone Elemengary, disputed all of these claims.
Tee Ball USA, a national organization to which Till was not a member, doesn’t charge to belong and sponsors no leagues.
Hobbs, who trademarked tee ball in the 1970s, had been pastor at Milton’s Grace Bible Church for well over 50 years. He said he got the idea to use a tee while reading about college coaching techniques in California. He first used a tee to help a teen team practice its hitting, then started using the tee for the youngest players as a safety measure.
He said he registered a tee ball trademark with the federal government in the early 1970s. “It’s become general because we couldn’t make any claims to tee ball,” he said, crediting the Navy with spreading the game.
Till was sure of himself. “I’m not out to make a big deal out of this. I built the tee and we organized T-Ball games back in Hawaii. I brought it to Redlands when we moved here.”
It was only a possible Redlands Connection.
FROM ART TILL’S DAUGHTER, KELLIE O’CONNOR, March 13:
Please allow me to correct the record on a few of your statements about my father, Art Till and his connection to T-ball in Redlands. You quote Art Till as if you recently spoke to him about this subject. Art Till passed away in June of 1996, almost 22 years ago. Your article makes it sound like Art is very braggadocios with statements such as: “There’ll be people that will tell you,” said Till, “that someone else invented t-ball. I’m quite certain it was me.” My father never made this claim. My father’s claim was that he introduced t-ball to Redlands Baseball for Boys, as it was known then. My father was introduced to t-ball when he was stationed in Hawaii in the 1960s. After we moved to Redlands in 1967 (your article said Art Till was stationed in Hawaii in the 1970s), my father was coaching a farm team that had probably two dozen players. He proposed the idea that the younger players participate in t-ball games on Sundays, so they would not interfere with the Redlands Baseball for Boys regular games and the younger kids would get a positive first exposure to baseball. After confirmation that coaches and parents were on board with the idea, my father went to the hobby shop at Norton Air Force Base to make the first tees. My father, Art Till, never claimed to be the inventor of t-ball but was proud to acknowledge his connection to t-ball in Redlands and was an active coach for many years in town for both his sons and grandsons. May I suggest you refer back to the Redlands Daily Facts article you wrote that was published August 25, 1996, to refresh your memory of the facts.
Hello, Kellie,
First of all, GREAT to hear from you. I’m a little fuzzy on the dates – you write that Art passed away in June 1996, then refer to an article that I wrote in Aug. 1996 about him. Are you sure that article came out two months after he passed away? My recollections, especially since I kept my notes, were that he actually did claim to be the inventor of T-Ball. I kept trying to zero in on that, especially since it’s a relatively spectacular fact (I believed him, incidentally — still do). As for the your assertion that I make it sound like Art is “very braggacodios with statements” … the fact is, he said it exactly that way. He made the claim. I didn’t. I simply wrote it up. I love the additional information about playing T-Ball games on Sunday so not to interfere with Farm games, plus his devotion to his sons and grandsons. Typical good Dad, always willing to pitch in.
Keep your eyes on Louisiana State University. The Tigers’ win last weekend kind of underscored something taking place in Baton Rouge.
LSU, once the softball home of former Redlands East Valley softball stud Sahvanna Jaquish, is also the home of another local product.
David Aranda, whose brother, Mike, has long been a key basketball assistant coach at REV, always seemed to be injured during his playing days at Redlands. Longtime Terrier defensive coach Miguel Olmeda loved this guy during his prep days.
Technique. Attitude. Warrior mentality. All grade-A.
David Aranda is LSU’s high-achieving defensive coordinator.
David Aranda, a Redlands High School football player, once roomed with current Texas head coach Tom Herman at Cal Lutheran. These days, Aranda is defensive coordinator at Louisiana State University (photo by LSU).
When LSU fired a highly-regarded head coach Les Miles a couple years back, they kept Aranda. He’s paid dividends at whichever campus he’s been — Utah State, Hawaii, Southern Utah, Texas Tech, Wisconsin — in a typical life of a career college coach.
Aranda, meanwhile, might be among the hottest coaches in college football.
LSU’s head coach is Ed Orgeron, the same guy that slotted in as USC’s head man a few years back. In order to keep Aranda at LSU instead of going with Jimbo Fisher to Texas A&M, he got a 4-year, $10 million deal (the highest among assistant coaches) to stay in Baton Rouge.
QB Joe Burrow transferred from Ohio State. LSU also picked up a strong placekicker, Cole Tracy, from NCAA Division 2 ranks.
TIGERS GETTING A-PLUS DEFENSE
Here’s what LSU has gotten ever since Aranda came down from Wisconsin in 2016:
On Sept. 1, LSU’s defense stood off No. 8 Miami, an offensive powder keg, 33-17, holding the ‘’Canes to 342 total yards, picking off two passes, including a 45-yard interception return for a TD, four QB sacks. It was 33-3 entering the final quarter.
In five seasons of Aranda-coached defenses, including three seasons at Wisconsin, his teams have been ninth twice, second, fifth and 12th overall in the nation for total defense.
There were a handful of 2017 NFL draft picks, including two first-rounders, plucked from Aranda’s LSU defense from 2016. Linebacker Duke Riley, who was spotted in last Thursday’s NFL opener for Atlanta, was one.
It might say something that when Aranda’s Wisconsin defense was second in the country in 2015, there wasn’t a single Badger taken in the following spring’s 7-round NFL draft.
Yes, there some underclassmen in ’15, but there were no superstar leaders — just a sound defensive system under Aranda’s watch.
All it takes is one quick glance at the Southeastern Conference. You’d note that it’s split into two divisions, Eastern and Western. The West includes No. 9 LSU, not to mention Top 10 teams Alabama and Auburn.
Talk about being in the fire pit of a red-hot fireplace inferno.
By the way, Fisher’s Texas A&M plays in that same division.
Lost for the season in that Miami win was a promising pass rusher, K’Lavon Chaisson. Aranda countered with a trio of replacements in last Saturday’s win over Southwestern Louisiana.
ESPN TALK CENTERS AROUND ARANDA
During ESPN’s televised coverage, announcers gave Aranda thumbs up.
“Highest paid coordinator in college football … sharp guy … he lit the room up … he’s got the air of a guy who could run a program. … just a joy to talk to.”
After Redlands, Aranda played at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. The Kingsmen play in the same conference as the University of Redlands. In a sense, they got him from under the noses of the Bulldogs’ hierarchy. It’s more complex than that, of course, but he wore purple instead of maroon.
While at CLU, he roomed with a guy named Tom Herman. If you google Herman’s name, you might discover he’s head coach at Texas. That’s Univ. of Texas, the famed Longhorns of Earl Campbell, Darrell Royal, Vince Young, a ton of college football legends.
Wait a minute: Aranda and Herman in one dorm room?
Redlands Connection is a concoction of sports memories emanating from a city that once numbered less than 20,000 people. From the Super Bowl to the World Series, from the World Cup to golf’s U.S. Open and the Olympics, plus NCAA Final Four connections, NASCAR, the Kentucky Derby and Indianapolis 500, Tour de France cycling, major tennis, NBA and a little NHL, aquatics and quite a bit more, the sparkling little city that sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10 has its share of sports connections. – Obrey Brown
I could hear the whispers in the stands at Redlands East Valley High, circa 2007.
“She’s only on the team,” said one volleyball-players’ mom to another, “because her mom’s the coach.”
That was enough evidence for me. I glanced down the roster. Saw there was actually a Vansant, jersey No. 16. Freshman. Sure enough, Tricia Vansant was the coach.
Can’t stand a pushy parent. Here’s one mom that pushed her daughter right onto the Varsity – as a freshman. It takes something special to make Varsity as a freshman.
Right?
REV had a squared-away squad. Victoria Brummett, a college-bound (Univ. Colorado-Boulder) junior was playing middle. At setter was sophomore Johnna Fouch and libero Kyla Oropeza, both eventually winding up at Univ. San Diego.
“Two Story Tori” – Brummett’s nickname – would eventually transfer back to NCAA Division 2 powerhouse Cal State San Bernardino and win All-American honors.
Then there was that little REV freshman.
Little? She was listed at 6-feet, 2-inches.
Talk about a “loaded” team.
COLLEGIATE POWERHOUSE IN SEATTLE
Krista Vansant probably wasn’t kidding when she spoke about hopes of winning a national volleyball championship for the University of Washington. She’s that competitive. There was a breathtaking come-from-behind win over Pac-12 rival USC in the 2014 NCAA Division I Western Region championship.
Team USA was Krista Vansant’s final stop on a brilliant volleyball career that included Rancho Volleyball Club, Redlands East Valley High, University of Washington, a little European pro ball, capped by a near-miss on reaching the 2016 U.S. Olympic team (photo by Team USA).
One match later, Washington landed in an NCAA semifinals against second-ranked Penn State.
The onetime REV superstar outside hitter had risen from the Gatorade National Prep Player of the Year in 2010 to the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Player of the Year in 2013.
It was quite a run – for Vansant, her team and coaches, family and friends, plus all those that followed her exploits – in a season full of remarkable achievements. After that match against USC, though, she was full of hope.
She spoke about not being satisfied, setting goals, never reaching the Final Four despite great teams, winning a national title. For athletes like Vansant, nothing short of winning is ever enough.
Said Vansant: “So I think we’re not being complacent. We’re in the gym working hard every day to get better.”
(Speaking of working hard. During her REV days, Vansant might’ve been among two or three volleyball players working in the weight room – alongside the school’s high-achieving football team.)
When third-ranked University of Washington took the floor against No. 2 Penn State in the NCAA Division 1 women’s volleyball semifinals on a December night just before Christmas, Vansant was the logical force in the Lady Huskies’ attack.
Vansant, the Pac-12 Player of the Year, would likely be a factor in lifting the Huskies to the national title game two nights later. But the Nittany Lions swept Washington’s women in three sets.
One match earlier, top-ranked Texas, the defending NCAA champion, was knocked off by No. 16 Wisconsin – a huge surprise. In an all-Big Ten showdown, Penn State later knocked off Wisconsin for the NCAA title.
Against Penn State, Vansant looked tall, lithe and athletic, totally ready to fire. Penn State, no stranger to national championships (seven titles since 1999), took her out of the flow, its attack dwarfing Washington in that semifinals matchup.
Washington’s win over USC became ultimate triumph.
Vansant’s efforts were key – 38 kills and 30 digs – the first-ever 30-30 performance for a Husky in the NCAA tournament’s long history. Her 38 kills notched a Washington record, beating Stevie Mussie’s 35 kills against BYU in 2007.
Washington, trailing USC by two sets in the NCAA Western Regional finals, likely stunned a national TV audience, completing a comeback that included saving two match points to knock off the sixth-ranked Lady Trojans in five sets, 26-28, 23-25, 25-22, 25-18, 17-15.
I watched closely on TV. You couldn’t miss her. Vansant was seen instantly breaking into tears on the court after the emotionally-draining marathon.
Vansant eventually joined eventual Team USA Olympian Courtney Thompson, a previous Washington star, as the only Honda Award winners in program history.
Finalists included Haley Eckerman (Texas), Kelsey Robinson (Nebraska) and Carly Wopat (Stanford).
For good measure, Vansant was also the espnW Player of the Year.
Incidentally, Vansant was a two-time Honda Award winner.
It’s hard to keep all those awards straight.
CAPPING HER PREP CAREER
At REV, Vansant was a monster – part of a stacked REV lineup that won three CIF titles (2007-2009), winning CIF Player of the Year honors as a sophomore, junior and senior from 2008-2010 – her Lady Wildcats’ squad winning all 59 Citrus Belt League matches with her mother, Tricia, as coach.
In Dec. 2010, Vansant, who was REV’s Homecoming Queen, and later named national Gatorade Player of the Year just after completing her senior season at REV.
She was in my wife’s English class at REV. If I quoted Laura Brown properly, there’d be comments about how classy and responsible, humble and honest, forthright and work-conscious.
Let’s not forget that was in English class – not on the volleyball floor.
It was for that reason that Mrs. Brown forced Mr. Brown to drive all the way to Redondo Beach to watch REV play in a Division 1 playoff match. In a rarity, REV lost the Division 1 showdown to Redondo Union.
It was Vansant’s final prep match. She was a senior.
REV’s end was just the beginning for Vansant. She became the first-ever Lady Husky to win the AVCA Player-of-the-Year honor. On hand to present the award was none other than multi-Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh-Jennings.
The comments were typical Krista:
“I did not prepare a speech, I just want to thank my friends and family and all my teammates for everything you guys do for me. You make my life so easy and I love you all so much.
“Love you Mom and Dad (Robert). Thanks to my previous club coaches. I would say my previous high school coaches but those are my parents, so thanks again!”
As for Vansant’s freshman year at REV, there were 38 matches. Thirty-four of them were victories … team-high 367 kills … she could receive a serve (201) … she could serve well (30 aces) … she could play the net (26 blocks).
The Lady Wildcats went through the playoffs without blinking much – Monrovia, San Bernardino Cajon and Wildomar Elsinore, all in 3-game sweeps.
South Torrance went down in four.
In the finals against North Torrance, REV won in five.
So much for being the coach’s daughter!
Down The Road: Stories to come – Vansant came within an eyelash of making Team USA at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics … her coaching career is underway at Indiana.
Redlands Connection is a concoction of sports memories emanating from a city that once numbered less than 20,000 people. From the Super Bowl to the World Series, from the World Cup to golf’s U.S. Open and the Olympics, plus NCAA Final Four connections, NASCAR, the Kentucky Derby and Indianapolis 500, Tour de France cycling, major tennis, NBA and a little NHL, aquatics and quite a bit more, the sparkling little city that sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10 has its share of sports connections. – Obrey Brown
Clay Brooks raved about Ruth Kleinsasser.
So did Ted Runner.
Brooks, who spent years as the University of Redlands track & field coach, was a true professor of his sport.
Runner, whose presence on that campus as an athlete, coach and, ultimately, director of athletics, was fond of track. He’d competed. For years, he coached. It almost seemed like he kept a closer eye on that sport than he did anything else.
When Kleinsasser (eventually Ruth Wysocki) stepped onto the track at the Los Angeles Coliseum nine years after spending her freshman season at Redlands, the two men – Brooks and Runner – watched with great interest.
The Alhambra-born Kleinsasser, who ran at Azusa High School, was a prized performer at Redlands for one season.
What made Kleinsasser special was her true dedication to the sport. As a track star, she’s a lifer.
It started in age-group races in the late 1960s, starting an eventual period of about 30 years, until she became a Masters (over-40) runner in 1997.
As an Azusa High senior in 1973, she ran a 2:16 to win the CIF Southern Section 880-yard championship. She also sped around the track to win the 440 (57.3). That’s as tough of a double is in any championship meet.
Since there was no State meet held for girls that year – one would start in 1975, Kleinsasser never had a chance to prove her domination.
By the 1975 season, Kleinsasser was running at Redlands, primarily because internationally-renowned Bulldog coach Vince Reel had come out of retirement. Reel, in fact, met Kleinsasser halfway. He trained her in Claremont.
Former University of Redlands runner Ruth Wysocki, then known as Ruth Kleinsasser, beat Mary Decker Slaney, right, at the 1984 U.S. Olympic Trials in the women’s 1500-meter – one of the shocking upsets that year in track (Photo by runmoremiles.com).
A YEAR IN REDLANDS
Reel, who was married to Chinese star Chi Cheng, had international status, especially since he’d lured some top talent – Chinese sprint star Lee Shiu-Chia, middle distance runners Chee Swee Lee, plus Donna Fromme and some dandy runners like distance star Molly O’Neil, hurdler Pam Ashe, sprinters Gloria Kennedy, Lynn Jones and Denise Becton.
Throw Kleinsasser into that mix. If only she’d lasted four seasons.
Reel wrote about his own exploits. Part of his writings were about Ruth, including her season at Redlands.
Vince Reel, shown her as a Long Beach City College athlete, where he was State champion in the 100 and 220, in the early 1930s. A two-time sprint champion at Occidental College in 1936, he was fourth in the NCAA 220 championships for Occidental College.He would become a huge connection in the track world as a coach – Long Beach Wilson High School Track and Field Coach (1938-1957), moving on to Claremont College (1958-71), coming out of retirement to coach Redlands through 1979. He was also the Olympic track & field coach for India (1960) and China (1972). Reel was the founder of “Women’s Track and Field” magazine. (Photo credit: Long Beach City College).
Admittedly, Kleinsasser dropped out of Redlands. “I realize I had chosen the wrong school. Not that it isn’t a wonderful place; it was not just the right place for me.”
“That was before the NCAA for women,” Kleinsasser told Reel in the days when women’s sports were governed by the old AIAW. Truth is, in those days, Redlands’ men were part of the NAIA, not the NCAA.
In reality, Kleinsasser wasn’t even the fastest half-miler on her own team. That same season, Lee Chiu-Shia ran a 2:05.36 in the SPAA meet at track-rich Occidental College, just outside of Pasadena.
At the Bakersfield Invitational, Kleinsasser posted her 2:07.6.
A more familiar name may well be Ruth Wysocki. That came after she married top national distance runner Tom Wysocki.
What made her a Redlands Connection was the year she spent at the University of Redlands. In 1975, she ran fast – the 2:07.6 in the 800, plus a 56.80 in the 400 at the Long Beach Invitational – but she headed back to Citrus College.
More domination. At Citrus, running as Ruth Caldwell, she scored victories in the State cross country championship for both 1977 and 1978.
During the spring track seasons in 1978 and 1979, she was State champion in both the 800 and 1500.
There was a pattern here. Like many international competitors, she was laying the groundwork for the Olympics. In fact, she ran a 2:03, qualifying for the 1976 U.S. Olympic Trials – still under Reel’s watch. She was 19. Ruth took eighth in the Trials.
She was on-again, off-again training – seriously, pondering, planning. She’d gone from Ruth Kleinsasser to Ruth Caldwell and, finally, to Ruth Wysocki.
WYSOCKI SLAYED SLANEY
If there was a top-flight moment for the ex-Redlands runner, it might be these:
Wysocki upset highly-touted USA star Mary Decker to win the 800 at the 1978 U.S. Championships in 2:01.99. Wysocki scored another upset victory against Decker (eventually Slaney) at the 1984 U.S. Olympic Trials, this time in the 1500-meter.
It was huge at that time. Still is … huge, that is.
Wysocki outsprinted Slaney to win the Trials in 4:00.18 – her lifetime best.
It was Tom Wysocki, training for the Trials, that had convinced his wife to train for the Olympics.
Brooks, who was Reel’s successor at Redlands and Runner, who were both coming to the end of their Redlands careers, watched with curiosity as the one-year Lady Bulldog star made her way into the L.A. Games.
She finished sixth in the 800 and eighth in 1500.
To veteran observers like Brooks and Runner, it was a Redlands victory. One of their own had reached the pinnacle of the sport.
Who cared if the Eastern Bloc nations had boycotted the 1984 Games?
Remember, these were the games of Carl Lewis’ 4-event gold medal.
The women included sprinters Valerie Brisco-Hooks, Evelyn Ashford, plus Flo Jo – Florence Griffith Joyner – plus onetime San Gorgonio High School star Sherri Howard (4 x 400 gold medalist), Jackie Joyner-Kersee, along with marathon champion Joan Benoit.
More men: Britain’s Daley Thompson scored his second straight decathlon title.
Hurdler Edwin Moses. Triple jumper Al Joyner.
ANOTHER REDLANDS CONNECTION
Adding to the flavor of Redlands connections:
One year before the L.A. Games, Redlands held its annual invitational on its cinder track. Two interested participants were Air Force Academy (Colo.) and Azusa Pacific University, among over a dozen other team entries.
In the meet-concluding 4 x 400 relay, Air Force’s Alonzo Babers and Azusa’s Innocent Egbunike ran neck-and-neck on the anchor lap. They might have even brushed against one another halfway on the final lap.
Egbunike could be seen turning his head in Babers’ direction. Neither runner broke stride.
At the finish, Egbunike prevailed.
One year later, the two met in the open 400-meter – Egbunike for his native Nigeria and Babers for the U.S.
Babers won the gold in 44.27 seconds. Egbunike took last in 45.35.
The two would meet again in the 4 x 400 relay.
Sunder Nix, Ray Armstead, Babers and Antonio McKay won the gold, prevailing in 2:57.91. Nigeria, anchored by Egbunike, ran third in 2:59.32.
As for Wysocki, that Redlands Connection kept going for years.
Over a decade later, in 1995, Wysocki ran seventh in the 1500 at the Championships in Athletics in Gothenburg.
In 1997, Wysocki set several Masters records at distances from 800 to 5000 on the track, plus 5K and 8K road races.
She was surrounded by distance runners.
Her dad, Willis Kleinsasser, was a successful Masters athlete.
Alan Kleinsasser, her brother, ran a 1:50.5 over 800 meters and a 3:52.2 clocking in the 1500 – both school records at Caltech in Pasadena.
Then, of course, her husband, Tom produced 13:35.33 in the 5000-meter and 28:19.56 in the 10,000.
WYSOCKI AT THE L.A. OLYMPICS
It wasn’t going to be easy. Despite the absence of the Eastern Bloc nations, that boycott led by the old Soviet Union, there was still plenty of international talent.
On Aug. 6, Romanian Doina Melinte circled the Coliseum track twice to score gold in 1:57.60. USA’s Kim Gallagher, whom Wysocki had encountered on plenty of occasions, won silver in 1:58.63. Melinte’s teammate, Fita Lovin, won the bronze in 1:58.53.
Wysocki ran sixth (2:00.34).
She also qualified in the 1500, held on Aug. 11.
Wysocki was America’s best in that event, but she took eighth (4:08.32), nowhere close to her best mark set at the Trials.
Melinte won the silver, barely nosed out by Italy’s Gabriella Dorio (4:03.25), the Romanian a fraction behind in 4:03.76 with yet another Romanian, Maricica Puica winning bronze (4:04.15).
Wysocki had to be thinking if she’d matched her lifetime best – that 4:00.18 at the Olympic Trials – she’d have been a gold medalist.
She told Reel, “Even though the Olympics didn’t go really great for me, when I got to Europe after the Olympics, I beat everybody that beat me in the Olympics, including (Dorio).”
It was, she said, some vindication.
Brooks, for his part, sent plenty of half-milers out to do battle in Lady Bulldog colors.
Runner, meanwhile, often reflected on the year that Ruth Kleinsasser ran at Redlands.
“She was,” he said, “not just a hard worker.” Runner said, observers could easily tell, “she had a game plan in any race she ran.”
She even made one last game attempt to qualify for the 1996 Olympics at 38.
That one season, 1975, she was a Redlands Connection.
