NBA great Bill Walton relays gratitude, lessons learned at fundraising gala

Walton, noted as one of the NBA’s 50 greatest players, served as the featured speaker for La Sierra University’s 2019 Frank Jobe Memorial Gala held Oct. 23 at the Riverside Convention Center. Before an attentive audience of nearly 450 university and community members including La Sierra Golden Eagles athletics teams, he passed along lessons learned from his parents, from business leaders and coaches particularly the renowned UCLA Bruins Coach John Wooden, and from his immense struggles with multiple injuries. 

The gala, named in memoriam for famed sports orthopaedic surgeon and La Sierra alum Frank Jobe, served as a fundraiser for athletics scholarships. The first Frank Jobe gala was held in 2017 and featured Major League Baseball player Tommy John on whom Jobe performed the first ever ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction surgery in 1974, a groundbreaking procedure that saved the careers of many athletes. John also attended this year’s gala.

Festivities included an 80th birthday celebration for acclaimed former University of California athletics director, basketball coach Stan Morrison who chairs La Sierra’s Athletics Advisory Board. Morrison sits on the boards of 30 Riverside area nonprofits and was lauded by gala emcee Jeff Fellenzer for his servant leadership. “No one I know leaves more footprints of kindness wherever he goes than Stan Morrison,” said Fellenzer, a noted University of Southern California communications professor, former journalist and sports commentator.

Fellenzer brought Walton on stage for a sit-down interview and Walton decided to first get comfortable. With help from his wife, Lori, he took off his black dress shirt and revealed underneath a brightly colored tie-dye shirt. On that cue, Fellenzer and then Morrison and other key members of the audience stood up and took of their tailored white shirts to reveal brightly swirled tie-dyed shirts as well, to the amusement of attendees. 

Walton’s career includes three successive College Player of the Year awards during the 1970s when he played for the renowned John Wooden and the UCLA Bruins. He also earned Academic All-American honors three years in a row. During that time, he led the Bruins to two NCAA Championships. Professional highlights included an NBA Most Valuable Player award, two NBA championships with the Portland Trail Blazers and the Boston Celtics, and induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Walton is also an Emmy-winning sports commentator. He arrives as the 2019 Frank Jobe gala keynote through his connections with Morrison who first met Walton in 1968.

A native of San Diego, Walton noted his connections to Riverside and the Inland Empire through friends in the area, his past hiking trips to the region’s mountains, as well as the area’s ties to professional sports through the likes of acclaimed sibling basketball players Reggie and Cheryl Miller.

He riveted the audience with stories of his college basketball days under the influential Wooden and of the inspiration of his father, “absolutely the best dad ever,” he said, a social worker and music teacher who sacrificed all of his free time to drive a young Walton to play basketball. “Basketball like in life, you have an opportunity to make a positive contribution to the goal, to what the dream is, what the mission, what the purpose is,” Walton said. “That’s what this is about tonight, trying to develop that level of honor, sacrifice and discipline for what’s coming next.”

His love for basketball took root in the fourth grade and became the passion of his life. “I just fell in love with it from the beginning because it was perfect. Basketball was the most surreal and excellent game of all,” Walton said. “Basketball was the easiest part of my life and second was academics.”

His life, however, was challenged by a stuttering impediment which he overcame during his late 20s, and by multiple injuries and 37 orthopedic surgeries including surgery on his spine. He recounted a four-year period during which his body stopped working and despair drove him to suicidal thoughts. He credited the support of his wife, Lori, and others who encouraged him. 

 “… I’m here tonight to say thank you … tomorrow is worth living for and worth fighting for,” he said.

Walton noted the lessons on leadership he learned from his coaches which is “the illumination of the path forward, … the ability to never ask anyone to do something that you haven’t already done or are not willing to do yourself, to pull the team together, to define the terms of the conflict, to do what others can’t and won’t do, … and the ability of the leader to say no.”

And he noted the many maxims of the famed Coach Wooden with whom he was close friends -- “make each day your masterpiece, failing to prepare is preparing to fail” -- and Wooden’s pursuit of perfection. “We [Bruins] set all the records that still stand 50 years later and the most acknowledgement we ever got from the guy was ‘ok, that’s pretty good, now let’s see you do it again faster,’” recalled Walton.

Following the gala, Walton and his wife met onstage with attendees for photos and autographs.

Riverside attorney and La Sierra University Foundation board member Daniel Hantman expressed his enthusiasm Walton’s presentation. “It was fantastic, truly wonderful to have a fellow who has done so much with his life,” Hantman said. 

La Sierra psychology major Duane Darrett plays guard and forward with the Golden Eagles basketball team and noted Walton’s down-to-earth demeanor. “He’s just a cool guy … and he has a lot of wisdom,” Darrett said. “He’s such a great personality to be around.”

Darrett enrolled at La Sierra on an athletics scholarship after graduating from Newbury Park Adventist Academy and commented on the importance of scholarships to students seeking to join an athletics program. “It means I’m wanted and I can add some value to the team,” he said.

Ethan Davis, a La Sierra Health and Exercise Science major and a graduate of Escondido Adventist Academy plays forward on the Golden Eagles basketball team. Growing up in Walton’s hometown of San Diego he heard often of the legendary basketball player. “He’s a cool guy, a funny guy,” Davis said following Walton’s presentation. “He motivates me because he never gave up on his career.”

To view a photo album of the 2019 Frank Jobe Memorial Gala, visit www.LaSierraU/facebook.com