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 California 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 Los Angeles. Confirmed Steve Roah 1985-86 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR - as special guests are former quarterback Vince Ferragamo 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 Roman Gabriel, 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 Los Angeles Rams quarterback to ever appear in a Super Bowl. 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 touchdowns, 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 Chicago Bears. That was second-best ever in the NFL at the time. (Another Rams quarterback, Norm Van Brocklin, 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 Pat Haden suffered a broken hand, Jeff Rutledge 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 Rose Bowl. Before a crowd of 103,985, the Rams led the Pittsburgh Steel- ers, 13-10, at halftime. Terry Bradshaw touchdown passes to Lynn Swann and John Stallworth 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 Steve Bartkowski 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.