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Home , Jeff Rutledge, Pat Haden, Roman Gabriel, Steve Bartkowski, Vince Ferragamo

June 2016

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE / Chris Roberts PAST PRESIDENTS

Tom Harmon 1958-60 Mid-Year Report: A-Plus Gil Stratton 1961-62 Bill Welsh 1963-64 Wow. I can’t think of a better word to describe how this year Fred Hessler 1965-66 has gone for the Southern Sports Broadcasters. We Chuck Benedict 1967-68 Allin Slate 1969-70 had a record-setting awards luncheon in January, an excellent Stu Nahan 1971-72 baseball preview program in March and a successful experiment Tom Kelly 1973-74 Mike Walden 1975-77 with a breakfast featuring radio talk show hosts Steve Mason Ed Arnold 1978-79 PRESIDENT and John Ireland in May. Joe Buttitta 1980 Chris Roberts Steve Bailey 1981-82 [email protected] And I think our June 22 luncheon will keep the ball rolling, as Chuck Benedict 1983-84 we celebrate the return of the Rams to . Confirmed Steve Roah 1985-86 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR - as special guests are former and Steve Bailey 1987-88 VICE PRESIDENT Lisa Bowman 1989 Rand Elkins former defensive end Fred Dryer. We are still working on getting Stu Nahan 1990-91 [email protected] a representative or two from the current Rams team. Mike Walden 1992-93 (805) 390-4733 Bill Welsh 1994-96 Kudos to executive vice president Rand Elkins, our tech whiz Stu Nahan 1997-07 TREASURER Martin Leon and our board, which has four new members, in Bob Miller 2008-12 Joe Cala Joe Cala 2013-15 Chris Roberts 2016- [email protected] making this such a successful year. Rand, or Randy, deserves special recognition. He did all the BOARD MEMBERS heavy lifting in putting together the May 18 breakfast. Ray Rosenbaum [email protected] It turned out to be a success despite some Pete Arbogast difficulties. Rand wanted to hold the breakfast [email protected] Lynda Burns downtown, near the ESPN studios where Ma- [email protected] son and Ireland work. When that didn’t work Jeff Rose Larry Stewart out, Rand had to do some scrambling. He was [email protected] able to get Lakeside to put on the breakfast, Patrick O’Neal but by then there wasn’t a lot of time to pro- [email protected] Tom Hoffarth mote it. [email protected] Rand Elkins, Patrick O’Neal, Cheryl Brown, John Ireland Still, the turnout was good and Mason and Isaac Lowenkron [email protected] Ireland were funny, informative and entertaining – just like they are on the air. When someone asked Ireland if they both had the same salary, he cracked, “I get a NEWSLETTER EDITOR dollar more because I signed a contract that said the show will always be called ‘Mason & Larry Stewart Ireland,’ never ‘Ireland & Mason.’ Worst deal I ever made.” NEWSLETTER AND WEBSITE In the audience was Jude Ocañas, a sixth grader whose mother Margot asked, “What DESIGN Martin Leon advice would you have for my son, who wants to be a sports broadcaster?” [email protected] Said Mason: “He has an advantage we didn’t have. He can start a podcast. He can do it Continue on page 2 PAGE 1 Continued from page 1 now. Get it started.” We couldn’t have had Mason and Ireland as guests if we hadn’t had the flexibility to have a breakfast instead of a lunch. Our board has since talked about that flexibility, and we plan to explore such things as using a different site on occasion in order to attract a top guest. Nothing in the works, just an idea at this point. As we continue to encourage young people interested in broad- casting to attend, they will be our guests for their first luncheon experi- Steve Mason Rand Elkins Joe Cala ence. The hope is that they will become dues-paying members after learning what we are all about. I, for one, am really looking forward to the June 22 luncheon. Growing up in Baldwin Park, I was a Rams fan. One of my favorite players was quarterback , who coincidentally was the head foot- ball coach at Cal Poly Pomona when I was broadcasting those games. Gabriel was the coach there for the last three seasons the school had a football program (1980-82). And then in 1990, I had the privilege of working with the legendary former Rams coach, George Allen, when he was at Long Beach State and I was the play-by-play announcer on radio and TV. One of my fond- est memories was attending a boosters’ function with Coach Allen and telling him at the end of the evening, “Thanks for including me.” He put his arm around me and said, “Are you kidding? You are part of the team.” Considering it took time for him to warm up to people, I melted right there and then. In 1993, after one year of announcing UCLA football and basketball, I also pinch-hit for Rams radio announcer Bob Starr, who was ill. Do- George Herbert Allen, legendary football ing both the Bruin and Ram games was broadcasting heaven. coach — NFL, USFL and Long Beach Did I love UCLA? Absolutely? Did I love the Rams? Always! State. Inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2002. Chris Roberts - SCSB President EDITOR’S CORNER / Larry Stewart The Quarterback As noted elsewhere in this newsletter, SCSB guest speaker Vince Ferragamo is the only quarterback to ever appear in a . But there was much more to Ferragamo’s Rams career than that achievement. Twice he passed for more than 3,000 yards in a season (1980 and ’83). In 1980, he threw for 30 , second best in the NFL that season. He passed for 9,376 yards and 70 touchdowns in seven regular seasons with the Rams, plus 1,227 yards and seven touchdowns in seven Ram post-season games. On Dec. 26, 1982, he passed for 509 yards against the . That was second-best ever in the NFL at the time. (Another Rams quarterback, , still holds the NFL record for most passing yards in a game – 554 in 1951 against the New York Yanks, a team that lasted only two seasons in the NFL.)

Continue on page 3 PAGE 2 Continued from page 2 Ferragamo, who was on the cover of Sports Illustrated twice (1980 and ’81), ended up playing nine years in the NFL and one year (1981) in Canada. He finished his NFL career with Buffalo (1985) and Green Bay (1986). Not bad for a fourth-round draft pick (the 91st selection in the 1977 draft). He got his big break with the Rams in 1979. After starting quar- terback suffered a broken hand, was the starter for one game as the Rams’ record fell to 5-6. Ferragamo then became the starter, and the Rams finished 9-7. They made the playoffs as the NFL West champions and beat Dallas, 21-19, and Tampa Bay, 9-0, to advance to the 1980 Super Bowl at . Before a crowd of 103,985, the Rams led the Pittsburgh Steel- ers, 13-10, at halftime. passes to and keyed a 21-point second half and the 31-19 victory for the Steelers. Reached recently while on vacation in Hawaii with his family, Ferragamo looked back favorably on that game. “There have been only 50 Super Bowls,” he said, “so I feel privileged to be in a group of great players who can say they played in the Super Bowl. I was proud of that experience and proud to have been one of the guys on that team.” The 1979 season was the last one the Rams played in the Coliseum. They played in Anaheim be- fore moving to St. Louis in 1995. And now they are back. “It’s great to have a team back in L.A., especially the Rams,” Ferragamo said. “I didn’t end my career with the Rams, but they have always been my team. Bringing them back to L.A. is going to be great for the team, the fans and this city.” On a personal note, my path first crossed Ferragamo’s in 1971. I was covering L.A. City high school football for the old Herald Examiner, so I was at the 1971 City championship game at Veterans Stadium in Long Beach between rivals Banning and Carson. The Banning coach was Chris Ferragamo, and the quarterback was his brother Vince, who was that season’s L.A. City Player of the Year. Banning lost the title game on a 70-yard punt-return touchdown as time expired. “It was a heart-breaking loss in front of a packed house,” Vince Ferragamo recalled. “You never forget those kinds of losses. But they help you grow and become a better football player. “It was still a very satisfying season. What made Banning so great was the tradition and Chris’ at- tention to detail and hard-working, never-quit coaching style. A great characteristic for young kids to learn to become successful in whatever they do.” After high school, Ferragamo ended up at Cal. He led the Bears over Stanford as a freshman and split time with as a sophomore before deciding to transfer to Nebraska. Coach Mike

Continue on page 4 PAGE 3 Continued from page 3 White tried to convince Ferragamo to stay at Cal, but earlier recruiting violations by resulted in a probation that prompted a number of players to transfer. “I always wanted to play in the Rose Bowl but now that was not going to be possible at Cal,” Ferragamo said. “My dad really liked (Nebraska AD) Bob Devaney, so Nebraska was the right school.” Ferragamo was the starting quarterback under Coach Tom Os- borne for two seasons after redshirting. He was all-conference and made the ’ All-American first team as a senior. He was also an Academic All-American. He was a premed major at Nebraska and later attended Creighton Medical School and UC Irvine Medical School. “My medical career was cut short, but I have my oldest daughter, Venessa Ann, following my footsteps. She is now a pediatrician at St. Joseph’s Medical Clinic in Santa Ana,” Ferragamo said. While at Nebraska, Ferragamo met his wife Jodi. “She is Italian, like me,” he said. They have three daughters, Venessa, Cara, and Jenna, and two grandchildren, Javier Vincenzo and Sofia Francesca. Of his grandson, Ferragamo said, “JaviCenzo is what we call him. He looks like a future athlete.” Ferragamo runs his own real estate company in Orange County and he and his wife have a grape vineyard where they produce an Italian wine Sangiovese and a Cabernet named “Caressa J” after their three daughters. There’s also the Ferragamo Foundation, which for 30 years through an annual charity golf tournament has raised money for the Orange Coast Memorial Foundation for breast cancer, Special Olympics and the Speech & Language Development Center in Buena Park.

The Defensive End Fred Dryer, the other former L.A. Rams star who will be a featured guest at the June 22 luncheon, would be a little out of place in today’s NFL. He was a 225-pound defensive end. weigh more than that these days. But Dryer’s size – or lack of it – didn’t keep him from playing 14 seasons in the NFL, making All-Pro and playing in the twice – and also setting an NFL record that is guaranteed to never be broken. On Oct. 21, 1973, in a game against the , Dryer recorded two safeties. Another defensive player might tie the record someday. But it would take three safeties by one player to break it, and that is never going to happen – guaranteed! The secret to Dryer’s success was style over strength. “You don’t spend any time mixing it up with the offensive lineman,” he said. “Get rid of him and get to the ball. Your objective is to get to the ball carrier or the quarterback, and to do that you always have to be moving. My approach was to be as smart as I possibly could and use whatever talent God gave me.” The talent was always there, first at Lawndale High, then El Camino College, then San Diego State, Continue on page 5 PAGE 4 Continued from page 4 where Dryer earned first team All-American honors. He was a first-round draft pick of the in 1969, the 13th pick overall. He played for the Giants for three seasons until a trade that involved the New England Patriots sent him back to Southern Califor- nia to play for the Rams in 1972. He retired in 1981. Dryer was often portrayed as an off-beat charac- ter who at one time lived in a VW van. “I never lived in a van,” he said. “I drove it across country a couple of times, but never lived in it.” I got to know Dryer while covering the Rams along with Doug Krikorian for the old Herald Examiner from 1974-78 before leaving that newspaper for the L.A. Times. On road trips, there were always three buses that transported the players, coaches, executives, sponsors, special guests and media members from airports to team hotels and from team hotels to game stadiums. Dryer usually was the only player who rode on the third bus, known as the media bus. Besides the me- dia, special guests on the bus included such people as Jonathan Winters, Ricardo Montalban, Willie Shoemaker Fred Dryer and Cal Worthington. “I rode that bus to the games because I didn’t like getting there too early,” Dryer said. “I didn’t like all the pregame hoopla. The other thing was, it wasn’t as crowded. There were smaller people on that bus, so you didn’t get stuck getting crammed in next to an offensive lineman.” When I told Dryer I always thought he rode the media bus because of a fondness for reporters, he laughed. After retiring, Dryer was hired by CBS as an NFL commentator. He got as one-year contract. “I worked with , and we got along well together,” Dryer said. “I learned it’s the commentator’s job, using replay, to explain to the viewer why something is happening, to give the viewer a better understanding of the game. You don’t see much of that these days. There is so much dialogue, everything becomes a blur. “After doing 12 or 14 games that first year, I can’t remember the exact number, I was offered a two-year contract, but turned it down. I didn’t like the traveling. I was out of football but still living the football life. I was bored and wanted to concentrate on acting.” In 1982, he auditioned for the TV show “Cheers,” and was one of three finalists for the role that went to Ted Danson. He did make several guest appearances on that show, then hit it big in 1984, landing the lead role in the TV show “Hunter.” These days, Dryer is back involved in sports broadcasting. He and SCSB member Michael Horn do a weekly one-hour show, Wednesday, 4-5 p.m., for the CRN digital talk radio network. The studio is currently located in Sunland, but Dryer said the plan is to soon move the studio to Chatsworth, where he and Horn would do a daily show.

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L.A. Rams SCSB Luncheon June 22 at Lakeside Golf Club , 11:30 a.m. (No Denim Allowed)

Guest speakers: Vince Ferragamo -- Only L.A. Rams QB to appear in a Super Bowl Fred Dryer -- Former L.A. Rams All-Pro defensive end

Cost is $40 in advance, $45 at door (credit cards, checks acceptable) Send advance payments to: Rand Elkins, 44103 Village #44, Camarillo, CA 913012 (make checks payable to SCSB) RSVP to Rand at [email protected]

Martin Leon 1329 East Bennett Avenue Glendora, CA 91741

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