Author: fartheroffthewall

This is the latest post for an ongoing media project — SoCal Sports History 101: The Prime Numbers from 00 to 99 that Uniformly, Uniquely and Unapologetically Reveal The Narrative of Our Region’s Athletic Heritage.  Pick a number and highlight an athlete — person, place or thing — most obviously connected to it by fame and fortune, someone who isn’t so obvious, and then take a deeper dive into the most interesting story tied to it. It’s a combination of star power, achievement, longevity, notoriety, and, above all, what makes that athlete so Southern California. Quirkiness and notoriety factor in. And it should open itself to more discussion and debate — which is what sports is best at doing.

The most obvious choices for No. 26:

=Jon Arnett: USC football; Los Angeles Rams
= DeShaun Foster: UCLA football
= Chase Utley: Los Angeles Dodgers
= Slava Voynov: Los Angeles Kings

The not-so-obvious choices for No. 26:

= Kirk Altenberg: UCLA football
= JoJo Townsell: UCLA football, Los Angeles Express
= Willie Brown: USC football; Los Angeles Rams
= Wendell Tyler: Los Angeles Rams
= Eric Karros: UCLA baseball

The most interesting story for No. 26:
Gene Autry: Los Angeles Angels inaugural owner (1961 to 1998)
Southern California map pinpoints:
Anaheim, Palm Springs, Hollywood

How does the No. 26 become decommissioned from Los Angeles/California/Anaheim/rebranded Los Angeles Angels wardrobe department and truly honor the founding owner of the sometimes-treated second-class Major League Baseball team in the city’s history?

In simple terms: Rosters (for a long time, until somewhat recently) were limited to 25 players.

Autry was considered, by this gesture, the “26th man.”

Who, then, in 1982, decided this needed to happen?

“The players,” as a group, is pretty much the answer if anyone asks. More specifically, the gaggle of handsomely overcompensated employees receiving a generous Autry-signed pay check felt some guilt pangs as they too often rambled toward another an AL West title only to get trip up miserably en route to a World Series.

Among that Class of ’82 bamboozlers was Reggie Jackson, Rod Carew, Bobby Grich, Fred Lynn, Don Baylor, Ken Forsch, Bruce Kison, Doug DeCinces, Bob Boone and, for some reason, 41-year-old Luis Tiant. They were beneficiaries of Gene-Gene the ATM Machine on the Anaheim “Gong Show.”

Autry may have given them all seven-digit incomes, but some felt a need to throw him back some gratitude with their loose change. In the end, did we really need to see the then-75 year old Autry wear the pull-over jersey and sansabelt slacks to prove his ownership of No. 26? More appropriate might have been giving him No. 61 — the year the team was created? Or No. 00, for all the titles they re-reimbursed him for during his lifetime?

By this point, Autry was already a Hollywood success story, all dressed up as a cowboy, with real stirrups. Not the nylon baseball type. That’s the visual we wanted to keep.

This is the latest post for an ongoing media project — SoCal Sports History 101: The Prime Numbers from 00 to 99 that Uniformly, Uniquely and Unapologetically Reveal The Narrative of Our Region’s Athletic Heritage.  Pick a number and highlight an athlete — person, place or thing — most obviously connected to it by fame and fortune, someone who isn’t so obvious, and then take a deeper dive into the most interesting story tied to it. It’s a combination of star power, achievement, longevity, notoriety, and, above all, what makes that athlete so Southern California. Quirkiness and notoriety factor in. And it should open itself to more discussion and debate — which is what sports is best at doing.

The most obvious choices for No. 10:

= Ron Cey: Los Angeles Dodgers
= Landon Donovan: Los Angeles Galaxy
= Carlos Vela: LAFC
= Norm Nixon: Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers
= Gus Williams: USC basketball
= Justin Herbert: Los Angeles Chargers
= Pat Haden: USC football
= Rick Neuheisel: UCLA football

The not-so-obvious choices for No. 10:

= Willie O’Ree: Los Angeles Blades hockey
= Mauricio Cienfuegos: Los Angeles Galaxy
= Giovani dos Santos: Los Angeles Galaxy
= Marta: Los Angeles Sol
= Cooper Kupp: Los Angeles Rams
= Lyman Bostock: California Angels
= Justin Turner: Los Angeles Dodgers
= Don Klosterman: Loyola University and Los Angeles Rams

The most interesting story for No. 10:
Landon Donovan: Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder (2005 to 2014, 2016)
Southern California map pinpoints:
Ontario; Redlands; Rancho Cucamonga; Carson (Galaxy Home Depot Stadium)

In early 2024, Landon Donovan lamented about the state of the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Once the brightest star in the Major League Soccer universe, the franchise had logged more losses than wins over previous last eight seasons and had been lapped, by almost measurements, by the expansion LAFC team across the city.

“It feels to me,” Donovan told the Los Angeles Times, “like the Galaxy has lost its soul.”

A soulful response from someone who had led the Galaxy to the MLS Cup five times. To the playoffs eight times. Who retired as the league’s all-time leading scorer. Whose league MVP Award is now named after him. Plus, there’s that statue of him outside the Galaxy’s home field.

If Donovan’s words carry a lot of weight, it’s because he once carried the weight of the franchise, as well as the league.

When he assumed custody of the number 10 from 2005 to 2014 in Galaxy lore, it was the core point of the 15 MLS seasons he has a player. It can be argued that he saved the league when it was in danger of going bankrupt.

Donovan became the face of U.S. soccer and marked its growth. He played in the most World Cup games and scored the most World Cup goals of any American. He played with the with San Diego Sockers of the Major Arena Soccer League in 2019. He coached the San Diego Loyal of the second-tier USL Championship and the San Diego Wave of the National Women’s Soccer League while doing work as a broadcaster for Fox.

He’s also carried a lot on his own shoulders — now even more evident as he is assessing his life and how he might help others reach their ultimate goal of personal happiness.

This is the latest post for an ongoing media project — SoCal Sports History 101: The Prime Numbers from 00 to 99 that Uniformly, Uniquely and Unapologetically Reveal The Narrative of Our Region’s Athletic Heritage.  Pick a number and highlight an athlete — person, place or thing — most obviously connected to it by fame and fortune, someone who isn’t so obvious, and then take a deeper dive into the most interesting story tied to it. It’s a combination of star power, achievement, longevity, notoriety, and, above all, what makes that athlete so Southern California. Quirkiness and notoriety factor in. And it should open itself to more discussion and debate — which is what sports is best at doing.

The most obvious choices for No. 11:

= Anze Kopitar: Los Angeles Kings
= Matt Leinart: Mater Dei High football, USC football
= Pat Haden: Los Angeles Rams
= Jim Everett: Los Angeles Rams
= Jim Fergosi: Los Angeles/California Angels
= Manny Mota: Los Angeles Dodgers
= George Best: Los Angeles Aztecs

The not-so-obvious choices for No. 11:

= Don Barksdale: UCLA basketball
= Bill Sharman: USC basketball
= Norm Van Brocklin: Los Angeles Rams
= Dwight Anderson, USC basketball

The most interesting story for No. 11:
John Elway: Granada Hills High football quarterback and baseball pitcher (1977 to 1979)
Southern California map pinpoints:
Granada Hills; Northridge; Dodger Stadium

John Elway’s 16-year NFL career, all with the Denver Broncos (1983 to 1998): Back-to-back Super Bowl wins to close out the 20th Century and his playing days, including the game MVP Award in the final contest he played; 47 fourth-quarter comebacks; 300 touchdown passes; 51,475 yards passing (second all-time upon his retirement) and going into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year eligible of 2004.

Elway’s four-year college career, all at Stanford (1979 to 1982): Two-time Pac-10 player of the year, second in the Heisman voting as a senior, career passing leader with 9,349 yards and 77 touchdowns, No. 33 in ESPN’s list of the greatest 150 college football players in the game’s first 150 years, and No. 1 overall NFL Draft pick.

But what best sums up the high school legend of John Elway at Granada Hills?

“Oh, John, you are God’s gift to womanhood. You are the perfect specimen.”

Elway admitted to a Valley News of Van Nuys reporter in the fall of 1977 that some girl at school gave him that note in the hall, and then ran off before he could figure out who sent it. Elway, who had come to Granada Hills a year earlier as a sophomore, was still a bit shy and feeling his way around Southern California.

Before he made No. 7 somewhat his identity in college and the NFL, there was a vintage No. 11 Elway, both in football and baseball, who upon graduation was the focus of a Valley News story in its June 30, 1979 edition with the headline: “Is Elway best Valley athlete of all time?”

The questions still comes up in conversation 40 years later.

He didn’t win an MVP as a high school senior in football. His trophy came in baseball.

Elway’s Granada Hills High School senior class yearbook –the 1979 Tartan — has action shots of Elway playing football, basketball and baseball. There’s also the senior photo section, with John in his white suit and striped tie and large smile, next to his twin sister, Jana. Alphabetically, she came first.

They were actually considered “old” seniors,” born in late June, turning 19 right after that graduation. To all others in the high school athletic world of Southern California, maybe that didn’t seem quite fair.

In Elway’s high school yearbook from his junior year in 1978, with Jana again, next to him in their class shots, less dressed up and more “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” mode.

A classic shot of Elway in a football team photo shows him laughing out loud.

When you’re the son of a nomadic college football coach — John’s dad, Jack, brought the family to Northridge for a three-year run as the program’s head coach after he was a quarterbacks coach at Washington State — the fact you got to have three years at one school in Southern California was seen as something of a lucky break. Even when Jack left Northridge to take the head job at San Jose State in 1979, John stayed back to finish his high school at Granada Hills.

John Elway would consider going to nearby USC for college, but he gravitated to Stanford. He’d become the 1983 No. 1 overall draft pick of the NFL’s Baltimore Colts in a quarterback-rich field, nudge a trade to the Denver Broncos, and become one of the game’s legendary figures.

“John Elway was one of the single greatest athletes who ever lived,” says Adam Schefter, the ESPN NFL reporter, near the end of a 2025 Netflix documentary, “Elway,” that takes viewers through his life from high school to the Hall of Fame.

A 2004 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee is celebrated as the only player in NFL history to pass for more than 3,000 yards and rush for more than 200 yards in the same season seven consecutive times. He is the second QB to record more than 40,000 yards passing and 3,000 yards rushing during his career.

He even got to play for his dad, who was as Stanford’s head coach starting in 1984.

But that time in Granada Hills … That’s when Elway cranked it up to 11.

This is the latest post for an ongoing media project — SoCal Sports History 101: The Prime Numbers from 00 to 99 that Uniformly, Uniquely and Unapologetically Reveal The Narrative of Our Region’s Athletic Heritage.  Pick a number and highlight an athlete — person, place or thing — most obviously connected to it by fame and fortune, someone who isn’t so obvious, and then take a deeper dive into the most interesting story tied to it. It’s a combination of star power, achievement, longevity, notoriety, and, above all, what makes that athlete so Southern California. Quirkiness and notoriety factor in. And it should open itself to more discussion and debate — which is what sports is best at doing.

The most obvious choices for No. 72:

= Miguel Rojas, Los Angeles Dodgers
= Don Mosebar: USC football and Los Angeles Raiders

The not-so-obvious choices for No. 72:

= Jack McDowell: Anaheim Angels
= Art Alper: UCLA basketball
= Kent Hill: Los Angeles Rams

The most interesting story for No. 72:
Bailey, Los Angeles Kings mascot (2007 to present)
Southern California map pinpoints:
Los Angeles (Staples Center/Crypto.com Arena)

Before we take the temperature in the room …

In 2008, when Belle met Bailey, something magic seemed to be happening.

Isabella Masenga, whose parents call her Bellie, was almost 10 years old when she asked if they could take her to a Los Angeles Kings’ hockey game at Staples Center. They didn’t even realize she knew hockey existed.

Her mom said it was “probably the best day of her life” at the time. Her dad said it was “the happiest I’ve ever seen her.”

As we wrote in a story for the Southern California News Group at the time, what made it special was that Bellie’s wish to see a Kings game could only be communicated through a special portable word processor. She had a form of autism that prevented her from verbal interaction.

A group of 12 went with her, including her two caretakers, and her twin sister Sophia. None knew how Bellie might react with all the audio and visual stimulation.

They arranged to have a suite at Staples Center, and Kings personnel made it a VIP experience.

Including having their team mascot, Bailey, pay a visit. Bellie knew who he was. They embraced.

The Kings won in a shootout that Saturday afternoon against Dallas. They also crowned a new fan. That was the goal. Assist to Bailey.

The courageous humans who squeeze into exaggerated over insulated costumes and prance around at a sporting event impersonating a team mascot – occasionally wearing a jersey with a number attached – need to be recognized.

Along with the caveat: Why do any L.A. or O.C. teams even need to cheapen themselves with this idea? Because others do it? It’s fan-friendly? It’s great PR – no matter how bizarre the figure (see: Gritty, Philadelphia).

Of all the non-primal mascots in Southern California history, perhaps the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings is likely the most  identifiable. And the largest.