Former Santa Barbara city councilman and SBCC coach Harold P. “Rusty” Fairly passed away Saturday after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Fairly died at the Absolute Care Residential Home. He was 83.
Fairly served three terms on the city council. He did two consecutive terms and left the post because of term limits and was voted back in four years later.
Before delving into public service, Fairly had an illustrious career in athletics.
He’s a member of the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table Hall of Fame as a coach and an inductee in the Long Beach City College and University of Denver halls as an athlete.
Fairly was the head baseball coach at SBCC from 1965 to 1981, and amassed a record of 225-160 and won a Western State Conference championship in 1972.
As a college athlete, he was a star football player at both Long Beach City College and the University of Denver. He led Denver to a national ranking and a 1954 Sun Bowl victory over the University of Utah as both a quarterback and defensive back.
Fairly was known as the “Mad Magician” during his football-playing days.
He was named the MVP at both the Sun Bowl and the Salad Bowl College All-Star Game, and earned All-America honors in 1954.
He came to Santa Barbara in 1961 to be an assistant football coach at UCSB under Jack Curtice. Curtice was a coach at Utah when it lost to Fairly’s Denver team in the Sun Bowl.
SBCC hired Fairly to be its baseball coach and an assistant football coach in 1964. He helped head coach Bob Dinaberg win four Western State Conference football championships in five seasons before stepping down after the 1974 season to concentrate on baseball.
He coached several players who signed professional baseball contracts, including Jesse Orosco and Gary Woods.
Fairly remained active at SBCC after his retirement as baseball coach in 1981, serving as division chair for Health, Recreation, Physical Education and Athletics from 1978 to 1986, and as president of the Academic Senate from 1985-86.
He was elected to the Santa Barbara City Council in 1987 and served consecutive four-year terms before stepping down because of term limits. He ran again in 1999, won a seat and was on the council until 2002.
“When this opening came up, I realized I’d love to have the opportunity again,” Fairly told reporters after the 1999 election. “I want to celebrate what’s good about Santa Barbara.”
Fairly came from an athletic family. His younger brother, Ron, played for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In 2014, SBCC honored Fairly during a halftime ceremony at a football game at La Playa Stadium. Several of his former players, including his son, Steven, were there to pay tribute to him.
No services are planned, according to his wife, Lynda.
Arrangements are under the direction of Welch-Ryce-Haider Funeral Chapels.
— Noozhawk sports editor Barry Punzal can be reached at bpunzal@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.