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Paul Yarbrough: Fond Memories All Add Up for the Late J.R. Richards
» The gymnasium at Santa Barbara High is named after the late J.R. Richards, a former principal. But I’ll always remember Mr. Richards as a wonderful, gifted math teacher at Dos Pueblos. On registration day in the cafeteria, the line at his table was always the longest and it was considered a major plum if you got in his class. The only downside was that he seemingly always had a student teacher working in his classroom ...
» You are moving toward old-timer status if you remember area football great Kerry Van Davis. Actually, Kerry Van Davis was a very clever invention of sports writer John Zant to mark the three-headed tri-most valuable football player after the 1972 Channel League football season. All three were quarterbacks: Kerry Moriarty from San Marcos, Greg Van Ness of Dos Pueblos and Joe Davis of Hueneme High in Oxnard. The trio helped produce a most memorable season ...
» The first football game I ever covered for the Santa Barbara News-Press came the fall before when Bishop Diego visited Santa Ynez in the rain. I remember my dad joining me in the stands (there was no press box) to help me keep statistics. I covered Santa Ynez High coach Will Stensland for many years, and he was always such a joy to deal with ...
» Back in the 1970s, we wrote a league football advance roundup every week, complete with starting lineups, both offensively and defensively from every team in Santa Barbara County. It made for a difficult Wednesday each week, trying to track down the coaches who often had regular classroom duty right up until taking the practice field. The most difficult coach for me to track down was Mike Warren from Lompoc High. On one Wednesday, when I had left message after message for him with no results, I got desperate. And creative. The next message I left for him, I identified myself as John Nadel, a colleague at the News-Press (and later at The Associated Press) and one of Warren’s best friends. Warren called back almost immediately, asking for John. I explained how he had “just stepped out, but I know why he was calling.” Been my little secret. Until now ...
» On the News-Press sports desk, we fielded calls on a nightly basis, asking for local scores, national scores. One of our favorite callers earned the moniker, “The Cincinnati Kid” because he would ask for anything and everything associated with Ohio: Jack Nicklaus, Tom Weiskopf, Ohio State, etc. He had a very recognizable voice and we spent years trying to figure out who he was. Zant finally came as close as anyone, recognizing the voice when “The Kid” called in some bowling results from the old San Marcos Lanes ...
» One Saturday afternoon in the fall, I fielded a call from “The Cincinnati Kid,” who started asking me for major college football results, one at a time. “How did Notre Dame do? How did Michigan do? How did Ohio State do?” Then he got to the game he really had called to inquire about: “What about Wittenberg?” ...
» Another memorable caller, seeking scores on almost a nightly basis, was a young man who opened every phone call the same way, “Hi, this is Rick. Remember me?” It was impossible to forget Rick. He would usually call midevening, looking for results of his beloved Chicago Black Hawks. We would try to encourage him to catch the score on the 11 o’clock news (this was wayyyyyyyy before SportsCenter!), but he would nearly start crying, explaining how he couldn’t stay up that late. He was the most patient caller we ever had, sometimes waiting on hold for 20 minutes while we went through the wire copy looking for the hockey result he sought ...
» We got rid of callers altogether for a spell, telling them we weren’t allowed to give scores over the phone. “It’s a new FCC regulation,” we explained. That kept most of the callers away for a long time, but eventually “The Cincinnati Kid” and “Rick, Remember Me?” returned ...
» We also were forever taking phone calls to settle a bet between two guys, with the call usually coming from an area watering hole. Results of boxing matches from years gone by seemed to be a particular favorite. One night, a fellow dialed us and explained how he and a buddy had a bet on who won a particular boxing match 30 or 40 years before. I told him Boxer A won and he said, “That’s what I thought! Here, tell my buddy,” and he would hand the phone to his friend. “Boxer B won,” I would tell the second guy. Always imagined the continued argument that would ensue ...
» The answer to a recent trivia question: UCSB’s basketball team was forced to play away from Robertson Gym in 1970 because of curfews imposed on the university and surrounding areas during the violent anti-war protests, that included the burning of the Isla Vista branch of Bank of America. The site the Gauchos chose? Dos Pueblos High’s Sovine Gym ...
— Noozhawk columnist Paul Yarbrough can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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» on 07.30.09 @ 11:28 AM
Yarby:
Good to see you alive and well, and able to share memories that predate even me. My favorite call, by the way, was on a Christmas eve, working alone, when some lady called to say that she had seen someone with a rifle crossing a fence that bordered the Reagan ranch. I tried to explain that this was the sports desk and not the police or even the news desk, which was gone for the night. I asked her if she wanted those numbers, or any scores, but she said no, that this was too important and that something needed to be done “right now, before it’s too late.”
“What if they kill the President?” she asked. “What if they kill the President?”
“Well,” I said, “that is why they have a vice president.”
She hung up.
Reagan, by the way, was not in town that week.
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