Remembering a local legend
- Redondo Union High School alum John Stevenson is the winningest high school baseball coach in California. Photo
He may have had numerous offers to coach at high levels, but John Stevenson’s passion for the game of baseball and desire to turn teenage boys into the best players – and productive citizens – they could be kept the lifelong South Bay resident at the same high school for a half century.
Memorial services for the legendary El Segundo High School baseball coach will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday in the El Segundo High School auditorium. A celebration of Stevenson’s life will follow at Chevron Park in El Segundo.
Stevenson, 76, died Monday, Jan. 12 of an apparent heart attack after leaving a restaurant. He was a fixture in the South Bay baseball community, creating the small town of El Segundo into a factory of talented baseball players that included major leaguers Ken and George Brett, Scott McGregor, Bobby Floyd, Billy Traber and Zak Shinall in addition to major league umpire Derryl Cousins.
Stevenson amassed more victories than any other coach in the history of California, beginning his head coaching tenure in 1960 at the tender age of 26. His 1,059-419 record stands alone in the record books.
El Segundo teams reached the playoffs in 42 of Stevenson’s 50 years at the helm of the program, winning 30 league championships and winning seven CIF titles in 13 appearances.
In March 2007, Stevenson won his 1,000th game becoming the first coach in California — and only the seventh in the nation — to accomplish the feat.
In the late 1980s, Stevenson ended his 30-year position as a geography teacher to become athletic director at the school, a position he held for 13 years.
A strict disciplinarian, Stevenson’s love and dedication to the game helped get the most out of his players.
“The City of El Segundo has lost a great man,” El Segundo High School Athletic Director Steve Shevlin said. “If there was ever one constant it was always that John would be on the baseball field at the start of the spring season, hitting fungos and going over baseball strategy with a group of young El Segundo Eagles. He truly was an icon in this community that was respected and revered for everything he brought to this community.
“Not only was John an incredible coach, but he was a great mentor, teacher, and ambassador for the city of El Segundo and El Segundo High School. And while his records and championships will always be quoted and written about, for the people who worked with Coach Stevenson it will be his passion, and commitment to excellence, and his ability to hold his players accountable that will always be remembered and cherished.”
Stevenson grew up in Manhattan Beach and attended Grand View Elementary School. It would be years before Little League Baseball leagues would be organized in the South Bay, but Stevenson’s knowledge of the game was apparent at an early age. He attended Redondo Union High School where he was a catcher on the baseball team until he graduated in 1951.
Stevenson continued his playing career at El Camino College and UCLA. In 1993, Stevenson was inducted into the El Camino College Athletic Hall of Fame.
Former Daily Breeze sports editor Henry Burke graduated from Redondo Union High School in 1947 and remembers watching the young Stevenson play, an introduction that turned into a friendship that lasted decades.
“When Stevenson was a catcher for RUHS his mother always sat next to me at Memorial Field while we watched him play ball,” Burke recalled. “She really enjoyed talking to spectators about her fabulous young son. He took everything he did very seriously. That is the reason he was so successful as a coach. Attending his 1,000th baseball victory with me in 2007 were (fellow Sea Hawks) Socko Torres, Peter Serrato and Donnie Hand. Stevenson always appreciated when former school chums came to his games.”
Stevenson, who declined many offers to coach at higher levels, opted to remain in the South Bay where he was fond of his roots. He was a regular attendee of Senile Sea Hawk luncheons, where RUHS alumni meet to reminisce and keep up to date with the lives of other graduates.
“The only time Stevenson and I were at odds was around 1965 when I did some part time work for the Torrance Press-Herald covering Torrance North, South, West and Bishop Montgomery high schools,” Burke recalled. “When I wrote that Bishop’s star center Pleck had mysteriously transferred to El Segundo for his senior year of basketball, I knew it would be well read. Stevenson saw me at a game during the season and complained bitterly what I wrote. I told him I was trying to do my job. The next time he saw me he bought me a beer. What an honor it has been to have John Stevenson as a personal friend.”
Burke said he received many calls after the shocking news of Stevenson’s death, one of them from Torres, a 1989 inductee in the El Camino Hall of Fame as a football star. “Socko was heart broken like myself with the notice,” Burke said. “He reminded me that when he was a senior pitcher at Redondo in 1948, his sophomore catcher was John Stevenson. Two months ago when Socko was a patient at Torrance Memorial Hospital, one of his visitors was John Stevenson.”
A large attendance is expected for Stevenson’s memorial, including current and former players and a Who’s Who of baseball in the South Bay, many who stood in dugouts across the diamond as coaching adversaries.
“When I attend the Memorial Service Saturday the athletic greats I expect to see there and their personal remarks will probably be unequaled in the history of South Bay sports,” Burke said. “The only other similar RUHS legend who could possibly be acknowledged in the same way would be Dick Keelor (Class of 1955) who keeps inviting me to be his guest in Washington D.C. where he once managed the President’s Council on Physical Fitness for 16 years. The reason I put these two in the same category is Dr. Keelor and John Stevenson are so much alike. Success in life has so much to do with the way a legend treats his friends. The last time I saw Coach Stevenson at the November Senile Sea Hawk luncheon, all he did was tell me he hoped I would live forever.”
Howard Bugbee, a Grandview School alum and 1948 graduate of RUHS, posted a remembrance of Stevenson on the Redondo Memories blog at casearcher@aol.com.
“There are a whole lot of us that remember ‘over the line’ games that John organized at the old girls’ gym. We had to jump the fence to get in and there were never enough gloves to go around! Years later John would talk about this and would say sadly that ‘now you can’t get the kids out to play without uniforms, umpires, etc.’ Yes, he’s missed greatly.”
Stevenson was preceded in death by his wife Gail, who died in September at the age of 68. He is survived by his son Eric, who played second base on El Segundo’s 1989 CIF championship team, daughter-in-law Sue-Jean, and a 2-year-old granddaughter, Allie. ER