All Ball Sports: A great runner passes; A great job opening at Mira Costa
by Paul Teetor
The Lakers incredible late-season run from 13th place in the Western Conference to the Western Conference Finals – making them one of the final four teams in the NBA playoffs – was such a big deal here in LA that it overshadowed some significant local sports stories that broke in the last few weeks. Stories that are worth catching up on.
The most significant of them all was the passing of Jim Brown, the greatest running back in football history, at age 87. And he may very well have been the greatest football player of all time, regardless of position. That’s up for debate, but not his status as the greatest ever to lug a football across the line of scrimmage.
Los Angeles has been home to many, many elite, multi-sport athletes over the years, from Jackie Robinson (football and baseball) to Kobe Bryant (soccer and basketball) to Sandy Koufax (baseball and basketball). But none were more accomplished than Brown, who not only was the greatest running back ever but is also enshrined in the Lacrosse Hall of Fame. (Yes, there is such an institution.) At 6-foot-2 and 230 pounds he was also a standout basketball player and a star in track and field in both high school and college.
On top of all those athletic accomplishments, he was one of the first black actors to break through to semi-star status in Hollywood, a couple of levels below Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte, the first two true black superstars in Hollywood history. Brown was a black forerunner to Arnold Schwarzenegger, a muscle-and-malice kind of tough guy with minimal acting skills but plenty of cinematic charisma. He was also a leader in the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, and later took a leading role in trying to steer LA gang members in the ‘80s and ‘90s into living more productive lives.
This multi-talented, complex man had a dark side, too. He was charged with domestic abuse several times. In other words, he was a great athlete, and a born leader but also a flawed human being, as all people are.
James Nathaniel Brown first gained national notice as a running back at Syracuse University from 1953-57. He was drafted sixth overall by the Cleveland Browns, and led the NFL in rushing in eight out of his nine seasons. He made the Pro Bowl every year and was voted the NFL’s Most Valuable Player three times.
He was fast, and he was shifty, as all great runners are. But he was also a notoriously fierce runner, a fearless guy who prided himself on punishing anyone who tried to tackle him. Rather than avoiding tacklers, his style was to take them on head first and try to run right over them. “Next time they come to tackle me, I want them to remember how much pain they felt the last time,” he said.
In 2002, the Sporting News named him the greatest pro football player ever, and no one has come along in the last 20 years – with the possible exception of Tom Brady – to seriously challenge that ranking.
Always a rebel, always ready to challenge authority, Brown quit pro football at the peak of his career when the Browns owner, Art Modell, ordered him to return from Hollywood, where he was making his first film. He insisted that Brown be there at the opening of training camp or face a series of escalating fines. Brown didn’t like ultimatums and simply walked away.
He attacked his new career the same way he attacked linemen and linebackers: all out and head first. He appeared in 53 films. In the 1969 film “100 Rifles” he made cinematic history by appearing in an interracial love scene.
At the same time that he was building his acting career he became one of the few prominent athletes to lend his voice to the civil rights movement, supporting Muhammad Ali at a time when the public had turned on Ali for refusing to fight in the Vietnam War.
He later founded the Black Economic Union to help promote economic opportunities for minority-owned businesses, and he launched a foundation focused on diverting at-risk youth from violence by teaching them life skills. He was celebrated as the broker for the so-called Watts Truce, which helped reduce street fights between rival LA gangs, although it never stopped them completely.
Rest in Peace, Jim Brown.
You had a life well lived, a life that will be remembered forever.
And you made a difference in a lot of other people’s lives.
No man or woman can ask for more than that.
Lakers scapegoat lands on his feet
Congrats to Manhattan Beach resident Frank Vogel, who was fired by the Lakers as their head coach after the 2021-22 season but was hired this week as the new head coach of the Phoenix Suns.
Vogel was made the scapegoat for the Laker management’s doomed and predictably disastrous trade for Russell Westbrook in the summer of 2021. Vogel, a defensive genius, quickly recognized that Westbrook would never fit in alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis. But after management ignored his warnings and went ahead with the trade anyway, he did his best to make it work.
He never could get Westbrook to play team ball, and when he did what he had to do to try and save the season – bench Westbrook in crucial late-game situations – Westbrook went crying to the media and to Lakers management.
So when the Lakers failed to make the playoffs, did management look in the mirror to place blame, or look at LeBron, who had insisted that they bring Westbrook in and assured them he could control him?
Nope.
They placed the blame directly on Vogel, and fired him just two years after he guided the Lakers to the 2020 NBA title. It was a shameful move by owner Jeannie Buss and General Manager Rob Pelinka, but Vogel was a convenient scapegoat and somebody had to take the fall.
Now he gets to coach a team with superstars Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Chris Paul. It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving guy.
Mira Costa Loses a Championship Coach
After six years as head coach of the Mira Costa boys volleyball team, Avery Drost is reluctantly walking away from one of the most talented teams in the South Bay.
His first year at traditional volleyball powerhouse Mira Costa was the 2017-2018 season. In 2019, he led the Mustangs to the CIF-Southern Section final. In 2021, the Mustangs won the CIF-SS title, their first since 2012, and the CIF SoCal Regional title. The last two seasons the Mustangs advanced to the semifinals.
And they are well set up for next season, with two of the area’s outstanding players in Tread Rosenthal and Victor Loiola coming back. That makes it a plum job opening, and there figure to be plenty of highly qualified applicants.
But all good things must come to an end. After six years of juggling his coaching duties with family time with his wife and three little children, Drost knew something had to give.
“It was an emotional decision,” he said. “It was so hard …I love Costa, the families and the guys so much, but I definitely felt like I gave it all I had. I loved it with my whole heart.”
So he chose family over a job he truly loved and excelled at. But that doesn’t mean he’ll be out of organized volleyball. He also said he plans to play the summer volleyball circuit with a new partner, the 6-foot-9 Olympic champion Phil Daulhausser, on the AVP tour.
Local fans will be able to see the Drost/Dalhausser pairing at the Hermosa Beach Open Open July 7-9.
“He’s somebody I’ve respected a lot,” Drost said of Dalhausser. “We have plans for a full summer of beach volleyball.”
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com. Follow: @paulteetor. ER