By Sue Pascoe
Editor
The Los Angeles City Section held its fourth Hall of Fame induction ceremony on April 23 and Palisades High School was well-represented among the 44 inductees honored at the Doubletree in Culver City.
They included veteran tennis coach Bud Kling, former basketball player and current Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr (1983), volleyball players Ricci Luyties (1980) and Chris Marlowe (1969) and swimmer and volleyball player Tauna Vandewegh (1977).
Football player Keyshawn Johnson, who attended PaliHi for two years before deciding he didn’t fit in a rich neighborhood (he now lives in Calabasas), graduated from Dorsey (1992) and went on to play 11 seasons in the NFL as a wide receiver. Another inductee with Palisades connections was Major League outfielder Charles “Chili” Davis, who graduated from Dorsey (1978), and whose younger brother, Kenneth, is the Palisades Lutheran pastor.
Sportscaster Fred Roggin, who served as the emcee, quipped, “City Section is where the real athletes are. Well, except for my kid Jack, who is in the Southern Section.” Rogin said that only one percent of the kids who play high school sports ever reach the professional level, but athletics at the high school level is still vitally important because “Every one of those kids mean something to their community, their family and their friends.”
A video clip of each honoree was shownbefore they were introduced.
Kling, who won his 42nd city team title on April 25, has acquired 25 titles with the boys and 17 with the girls (he coached from 1984-2008 and from 2015 to present). During his 37 years of coaching, he has accumulated more than 1,100 victories and is shooting for the National record of 1,185 wins. In his acceptance speech, Kling thanked his family and friends, the school administration for its support and all of his current and past players.
Marlowe played basketball and volleyball in high school and at San Diego State University. He was voted USA Volleyball’s Most Valuable Player in 1976 and 1978, and was team captain of the 1984 gold medal-winning U.S. Volleyball team. He’s currently the play-by-play announcer for the NBA’s Denver Nuggets.
“This is quite an honor,” Marlowe said.
“Back in the day, 1950s, ‘60s, no one knew a pineapple from a volleyball.” He said that PaliHi hired a coach whose responsibilities included gymnastics, football and volleyball. Still, the Dolphins won 10 City Section titles before volleyball became a sanctioned sport.
Kerr, Luyties and Vandeweghe were unable to attend the ceremony.
Kerr’s Warriors, who won the 2015 NBA championship in his first year as head coach, had a playoff game that night. After playing at PaliHi, he played at Arizona and then won three championship rings with the Chicago Bulls and two with the San Antonio Spurs before going into front-office management and TV commentating. Luyties, who played volleyball at Pali from 1976 through 1980, earned City Section Player of the Year honors. He attended UCLA and led the Bruins to four consecutive national titles. He was a member of the men’s national volleyball team from 1985 to 1988, helping to win a gold medal in the Seoul Olympics.
Vandeweghe swam backstroke in the 1976 Olympic Games. After graduating from PaliHi, she swam for UCLA, but with the boycott of the 1980 Olympics, switched sports and earned a silver medal with the U.S. Volleyball team at the 1984 Olympics.
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