GODS to GHOSTS Volleyball

Spike Boarts Stories Part 1.
Spike Discusses: The 1962 USVBA Nationals in Philadelphia where his team finished 5th, watching the Hollywood YMCA led team there that year coached by Harry Wilson compete against Gene Selznick's Westside Jewish Community Center team in the finals, and not getting to see Dick Clark's American Bandstand :) , the 1963 USVBA Nationals when he played for the Hollywood Y Stars alongside all the legends when he was an 18 year old kid against Stockton in the finals, and how coach Harry Wilson inserted him in game 2 ( after they lost game 1, in a best of 3) and they were down 8-13, and he served several points in a row and they ended up winning game 2 and the match and championship, Bill Olsson and how amazing he was as a hitter, Gene Selznick and how he was such an otherworldly talent on the court as the best all around player - hands down, some classic stories about Mike Bright ( including getting Bright drunk at the Panther Room on a Saturday night before his match the next day at Laguna in '62, and how Bright was so hung over, it helped Dave Bordwell and Gordon Evans win the Laguna Open, , some great stories about Pete Ott, Mike Anderson, and Nate Parrish, and playing at Shattuck's in Hermosa beach as teenager growing up, including a story when Mike Bright bounced a ball over the house one day, and how he had too much to drink one another time there at the age of 18 on Bourbon ( first time he drank hard liquor), then puked his guts out in the 9th street alley, and couldn't go out for his date that night and had to have his parents call his date to let her know, meeting Keith Erickson at the age of 14 at the El Segundo Rec center and setting him balls that he pounded , the best hitters he ever saw ( Olsson, Suwara, and Chamales), and his recollection of Bill Imwalle, Buzz Swarts, and Matt Gage as young upstarts in the south bay....
-

Support the show

Interview with Larry Rundle - Part 1:
Larry discusses:
His start in the sport at John Adams Junior high school during the summer when he would hang out there from 9 am until 5 pm playing basketball, volleybal, (and PING PONG, if he lost)l, the influence Coaches Don Steere and Dave Heiser had on him at such a young age, that he held the John Adams JR High School consecutive free throw record ( 17 in a ROW!), from 1956 until 1998, and how Dave Heiser sent him a REGISTERED letter in '98 letting him know his record was broken :), how at age 16 he was all of 5'2" and 95 pounds when he got his drivers license and how he was too weak and small to take the volleyball with his hands and had to bump everything, which made him an incredible passer, the players he was in awe of coming up as a youngster, his time playing at UCLA with Keith Erickson and Ernie Suwara, and how incredibly talented they were ( Ernie was the HARDEST hitter he EVER saw, and Erickson is far and AWAY the BEST athlete he has ever known), his legendary weight training program he learned from the UCLA water polo coach and Von Hagen, his UCSB Gaucho daughter Brooke Rundle, the amazing experience of playing on Wilt's Big Dippers led by the legendary player and personality Gene Selznick and their fun times together, Henry Bergmann (how their partnership came to be, and all that made Henry such a unique player and human being), the epic 1968 Manhattan Beach Open in which he and Bergmann battled Von Hagen & Lang for 7 + hours between the winners finals and finals in what is considered to be the highest level of beach volleyball ever played until the darkness ended it what he considers to be a tie as Lang could no longer see the ball in the dark, and his admiration and respect for Von Hagen & Lang for their unique ability to compete at the highest level week in and week out for years on end.

Support the show

Butch Discusses:
- MUSCLE BEACH. The players that played there over the years he was there, the eclectic group of people from ALL walks of life that hung out there ( body builders, gymnasts, mobsters, pro sport athletes, war heroes, successful business owners, you name it), the CHARACTERS like Steven "TheMatsa" Cahn, the infamous card games played there with Wilt Chamberlin, Bob Vogelsang, etc... Hot Dog on a Stick, the beach clubs located close by, including how Doug Badt's Sand & Sea Club had the BEST food on the beach :), the legendary Barber family that was an integral part of the scene, and how bonded the Muscle Beach (Sewer of Volleyball) crew from that golden era is to this day......

Support the show

Ron Lang Interview. From August 30th_2018 Part 1
Ron Lang Discusses:
- Why he thinks Gene Selznick is the GREATEST American volleyball player in history, ever!, the strategy he would use playing against the modern day best player, Phil Dalhausser, a classic story of playing a young Jim Menges when he taught him a lesson!, how he didn't play the game to make friends, but rather looked at it as a business, and did his BEST to crush and demoralize the competition so they wouldn't think they had a chance against him, how he moved on from Gene Selznick to Ron Von Hagen as a partner, and why, what he did as a digger that made him so successful, some of the best hitters he faced over his career, and his recollection of the legendary '68 Manhattan Beach Open final played in the dark between him and Von Hagen vs. Larry Rundle & Henry Bergman, and how he handled that devastating loss...

Support the show

Bob Vogelsang discusses: - Some of the other legendary players he competed with and against, including, Doug Dunlap, Jim Menges, Randy Niles, Wilt Chamberlin, Greg Lee, Gene Pflueger, Steno Brunicardi, Mike Stormin' Normand, Kathy Gregory, the Best Hitters he ever saw, the best diggers ( including Manny Saenz).....

Support the show