» In all of my travels, I haven’t found anything approaching the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table …
» Such a simple concept, but such a great part of the Santa Barbara sports scene …
» The Monday Athlete of the Week luncheons are good, but I always loved the end-of-the-year Athletes of the Year banquet. I hosted many of them, and they were always emotional events …
» UCSB has had great success on the basketball court, including trips to the NCAA Tournament, but none of the trips were during my years as the “Voice of the Gauchos.” Now-UCLA head coach Ben Howland always tweaked me about that. In fact, the Gauchos never had a winning record during any of the three seasons I was mikeside …
» The broadcasting chore was even more enjoyable by being able to hang out with Santa Barbara News-Press sports writer and Gaucho beat writer Mark Patton and UCSB’s sports information directors during my years on the air, first Jay Lucas and then (and now) Bill Mahoney …
» I remember quite well a trip we made to San Diego. The hotel we stayed at was undergoing renovations, and the “front desk” was on the sidewalk in front of the hotel. We took the elevator up to our room, but as soon as we opened the door to the room, we knew there was a problem. It was pitch black, with the curtains drawn tight. Just as our eyes became accustomed to the dark, we noticed two people trying to sleep in the bed. They were members of the Stanford volleyball team, between matches in a tournament. UCSB coach Jerry Pimm said, “There were no volleyball players in my room.” …
» The radio stations that owned the rights to UCSB games never seemed to have enough money to put the play-by-play announcer up right. More often than not, I would sleep on a cot or rollaway bed in the room with Patton and the UCSB SIDs …
» To make the road trips more interesting, we would set a “betting line” on that night’s game, with the “real bed” as the prize. I never won. One memorable night in San Jose, when the San Jose State Spartans still played at the old Civic Auditorium, I had the bet virtually locked up, relegating Patton to the cot that night. Then the Gauchos missed a string of last-minute free throws and failed to cover the “spread” we had established for the contest. Hello, cot …
» Patton always insisted on taking the bed, although more often than not he would fall asleep while writing his game story and the bed would go unused …
» One year, the Gauchos had a two-game road trip to San Diego, with games scheduled at San Diego State and the University of San Diego, with a day off in between. For some reason, Patton and I drove back to Santa Barbara on the off day to attend the News-Press Christmas party. What were we thinking? …
» I began 1984 as the night sports editor at The Associated Press in Los Angeles, but returned to Santa Barbara that summer and rejoined the News-Press, but on the news desk rather than the sports desk. That allowed me, for the first time, to purchase season tickets to UCSB basketball games. Before the season started, however, I was named the team’s play-by-play announcer. My broadcast location in the Thunderdome was farther from the court than my seats were, but my friends enjoyed the nice location …
— Noozhawk columnist Paul Yarbrough can be reached at pyarbrough@noozhawk.com.