Author: fartheroffthewall

This post is part of a media project called 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 consider the list of athletes attached to it. Who wore it best? Or, what’s the most compelling story linked to it? Any person, place or thing is in play with Southern California connections. Star power, transformational achievement, longevity, notoriety and quirkiness all factor in. Whatever leads to a lively discussion and interpretation.

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
Justin Herbert: Los Angeles Chargers
Pat Haden: USC football, Southern California Sun
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
Gus Williams: USC basketball
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) via Redlands High School and Redlands East Valley High School
Southern California map pinpoints:
Ontario; Redlands; Rancho Cucamonga; Carson (Galaxy Home Depot Stadium)

Reference books on the subject:
“Landon: A Memoir,” by Landon Donovan, 2026

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

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

Once the Major League Soccer’s brightest franchise, the Galaxy had somehow endured more losses than wins over previous last eight seasons. This expansion team across the way, LAFC, seemed to stolen the local spotlight.

When Donovan speaks as the home-grown talent who kickstarted the Galaxy to the MLS Cup five times, retired as the league’s all-time leading scorer and has the league MVP Trophy named after him, the soccer world pays attention. Donovan’s words carry weight, because he once carried the weight of the franchise, as well as the league, at a time not so long ago when it needed someone to do a lot of heavy lifting.

It can be argued that he saved a league in danger of going bankrupt. The Galaxy wanted to repay him on some way and put a statue of him outside its home field.

Donovan purposefully took ownership of the number 10 from 2005 to 2014 with the Galaxy, the sweet spot in his 15-season MLS run. He had invested in the sport going back to the AYSO fields of the Inland Empire. He was the face of U.S. soccer. Its growth was measured by his successes as someone who played in the most World Cup games and scored the most World Cup goals of any American.

It comes from knowing about the power of 10 in the global world of football.

This post is part of a media project called 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 consider the list of athletes attached to it. Who wore it best? Or, what’s the most compelling story linked to it? Any person, place or thing is in play with Southern California connections. Star power, transformational achievement, longevity, notoriety and quirkiness all factor in. Whatever leads to a lively discussion and interpretation.

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
Karl Malone: Los Angeles Lakers

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

Reference books on the subject:
“Elway: A Relentless Life,” by Jason Cole, 2021

John Elway’s 16-year NFL career, all with the Denver Broncos from 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 from 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.

Elway’s three years at Granada Hills to end the decade of the ’70s, includes: “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.

He outgrew that at some point.

Before he made No. 7 somewhat his identity in college and the NFL, before he was lumped into the most heralded athletes of his time, 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 post is part of a media project called 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 consider the list of athletes attached to it. Who wore it best? Or, what’s the most compelling story linked to it? Any person, place or thing is in play with Southern California connections. Star power, transformational achievement, longevity, notoriety and quirkiness all factor in. Whatever leads to a lively discussion and interpretation.

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)

Reference books on the subject:
“B is for Bailey,” by the Kings Care Foundation, 2007

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 I 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 employed as team mascot – often wearing a jersey with a number attached – are to be recognized for their services.

Along with the question: Do L.A. or O.C. teams need them? Is it really fan-friendly? It’s great PR – no matter how bizarre the figure (see: Gritty, Philadelphia).

Bailey seems to under-promise and over-deliver in that scenario. 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.

This post is part of a media project called 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 consider the list of athletes attached to it. Who wore it best? Or, what’s the most compelling story linked to it? Any person, place or thing is in play with Southern California connections. Star power, transformational achievement, longevity, notoriety and quirkiness all factor in. Whatever leads to a lively discussion and interpretation.

The most obvious choices for No. 58:

Rey Maualuga: USC football
Al Sparlis: UCLA football
Isiah Robertson: Los Angeles Rams
Roman Phifer: UCLA football; Los Angeles Rams

The most interesting choice for No. 58:
Cal State Northridge: Athletic program (1958 to present)
Southern California map pinpoints:
Northridge

Reference books on the subject:
“California State University, Northridge: The Campus History Series,” by Ellen Jarosz and Stephen Kutay, 2018

In February of 2014, Cal State Northridge’s athletic department took the honorable approach in making an intriguing declaration: It would retire the No. 58 among all its sports teams.

Not to honor a particular athlete in a specific sport. Or find some way to acknowledge how the campus was used in the 1984 classic, “The Karate Kid,” as the site for the All Valley Karate Championship.

It was to honor its entire faculty.

The number represents the year – 1958 – when the university launched as San Fernando Valley State, separating itself from a satellite campus of Cal State L.A.

It’s been better known as sun-drenched CSUN since 1972.

Brandon Martin, the CSUN athletic director at the time and former USC basketball guard who once prepped at Cleveland High in Reseda, was someone who we had come to know and admire. He said of this move:

“This is a fitting tribute to our faculty for its nearly 60 years of service and for supporting our athletics programs during times of challenge and prosperity … “I am proud of our student-athletes who excel in the classroom. Building a solid academic foundation is paramount for success now and later in life.”

On the day before Valentine’s Day, a heart-felt Faculty Appreciation Night took place with the halftime ceremony to retire the number at a CSUN-Cal Poly San Luis Obispo men’s basketball game played at the team’s home gym, The Matadome. CSUN then went out and lost a game where it never had a lead, 62-55, falling to 12-14 overall, 4-7 in the Big West, before an announced attendance of 1,083.

Eh, that happens. At least they almost scored 58 points.

Mind you, later that 2014 year, UCLA announced it would retire No. 42 from all its athletic teams to honor Jackie Robinson, its most heralded sports person – who actually never wore No. 42 at the school when he was there from 1939 to 1941, playing football, basketball and a little baseball, and deciding not to graduate. But that’s beside the point.

CSUN did it first, with a number that even makes sense. On a SoCal landscape when some of the most recognizable institutes for higher learning are dominated by a certain private school (USC) and a very visible University of California system entity (UCLA), let’s hear it for the power of the California State system campuses of Long Beach State, Cal State L.A., Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal State Bakersfield, Cal State San Bernardino, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal Sate Channel Islands …

And the one up on the northern ridge of the San Fernando Valley as its north star.