La Sierra University fundraising gala to feature NBA legend Bill Walton

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Toward supporting the education and career dreams of its student athletes, La Sierra University this month will hold its second athletics scholarship fundraising gala featuring some of the sports industry’s best-known talent.

The 2019 Frank Jobe Memorial Gala will be held Wednesday, Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. at the Riverside Convention Center with featured guest and NBA legend Bill Walton. The black-tie event will also include a special tribute and 80th birthday celebration for Stan Morrison, an acclaimed former college basketball coach, university athletics director and well-known Riverside community supporter. Media commentator, educator and entrepreneur Jeff Fellenzer will serve as emcee.

La Sierra’s inaugural gala was held in 2017 and featured Major League Baseball’s Tommy John, a four-time MLB All-Star. Sports commentator and journalist Roy Firestone emceed the event. The gala fundraisers are named for renowned sports orthopaedic surgeon Frank Jobe who invented and performed the first ever ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction surgery on John’s left elbow in 1974. The groundbreaking procedure became known as Tommy John surgery. Jobe passed away in March 2014 less than a year after receiving a special recognition the previous July from the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He was a 1949 alumnus of La Sierra University, then known as La Sierra College and received the university’s Alumnus of the Year award in 2013.

Walton’s award-studded career includes three successive College Player of the Year awards during the 1970s when he played for renowned Coach John Wooden and the UCLA Bruins. 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 when he started recruiting him while Morrison was an assistant coach at San Jose State University. Their friendship grew over the ensuing years, particularly during the last 10, Morrison said.

Morrison serves as chair of La Sierra University’s Athletics Advisory Board and is a gala organizer. Through his own experience as an athletics scholarship recipient while a young basketball player and his extensive career in varsity sports, he knows well the value of scholarships to student athletes and to athletics departments. Noted Morrison, “The single most important tool for a coach is scholarship funding. With it, the coach is in a position to be able to compete more effectively as a recruiter.” Scholarships also provide students with more flexibility to focus on academics, weight training, and team workouts, he said.

Morrison retired in August 2011 from 12 years as athletics director for the UC Riverside Highlanders. He led the program into NCAA Division I status and oversaw the expansion of the university's sports offerings. Prior to arriving at UCR, he achieved national recognition at four other Division 1 universities -- San Jose State, the University of Southern California, the University of the Pacific, and UC Santa Barbara. 

As a coach he led the University of the Pacific Tigers, the San Jose State Spartans, and two USC Trojan teams to the coveted NCAA tournament. He is known as the only coach in NCAA history to lead three different basketball teams from the same state to the championships. As a college basketball player, Morrison captured national attention as a center for the UC Berkeley Bears when the basketball team won the NCAA title in 1959, and when it earned a runner-up status in 1960. His many recognitions and awards include his induction in 2018 into the California Sports Hall of Fame. 

Morrison knows firsthand the lifechanging impact success in athletics and academics can make in an individual’s life. “I was poor as a youngster and didn’t know it until I went to the University of California, Berkeley,” he said. “It was a revelation to me. I so appreciated my athletics scholarship and the opportunity it provided to me that I learned to never, ever take anything for granted.”

As a coach and athletics director he observed the myriad backgrounds of his players and realized the enormous impact parenting had on his student athletes and their behaviors, ambitions and direction in life. “I sincerely hoped that my work, enthusiasm, effort, connectivity, positive demeanor and consistency would provide significant positive influence,” he said. He cited a variety of inspirational quotes that represent values he strives to live out and inspire in others including the following by John C. Maxwell, “Leadership is not about titles, positions or flow charts. It is about one life influencing another.”

Community champion 

While at UC Riverside, Morrison played an active role in the community and continued his involvement following retirement by serving on the boards of multiple nonprofits including La Sierra’s Athletics Advisory Board. He has been recognized with key awards for his civic contributions including the 2016 Citizen of the Year by the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce. 

“Riverside is the best place we have ever called home,” Morrison said. He operates his own consulting firm and previously served seven years in positions with Security Bank of California and its acquiring company Pacific Premier Bank after retiring from athletics. “People genuinely care about each other and quality of life issues. The community works at making it better for everyone. I want to be a part of that process and commit time to it every day I am here,” he said.

Ron Loveridge, Riverside’s mayor from 1994 – 2012 and current director of the UCR Center for Sustainable Suburban Development interacted frequently with Morrison through Morrison’s wide-spread civic engagement. He recalled watching Morrison play basketball for UC Berkeley many years prior and noted his fundraising efforts during his tenure as UC Riverside athletics director. “Stan brings energy, good will, and vision to all his community involvement, and strikingly so. He always raises the bar,” said Loveridge. “So many people and groups have benefitted from Stan Morrison's role as a community champion.”

Loveridge also noted the importance of athletics in higher education. “In many forms, athletics bring into focus teamwork and hard work. Sport teams can also connect university students to shared experiences [and] objectives,” Loveridge said. “My favorite team, without question, was the UCLA basketball team when coached by John Wooden. And the Walton years were certainly an unforgettable highlight.” 

“Stan is a strong advocate for education and he consistently encourages life-long learning for all. He understands how educating young people through physical activities and through team sports is beneficial to our society,” said Jerry Hurley, vice president and a charter member of the Riverside Sports Hall of Fame Executive Board. He has known Morrison for about 10 years and while a city recreation supervisor worked with Morrison to bring free youth basketball clinics to the community.

“Participation in sports at any age is of tremendous value to our community,” Hurley said. “Players learn the essential values of team work, striving collectively toward team goals, selflessness, enthusiasm and commitment. These attributes are also necessary for societies to succeed.” 

Opportunity to soar

La Sierra University’s Golden Eagles varsity athletics program operates as part of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and competes in the California Pacific Conference. The Eagles program offers men’s and women’s basketball, soccer and cross country, men’s baseball, women’s softball and women’s volleyball. The university currently budgets for roughly one athletics scholarship per sport. 

The Golden Eagles athletics program has garnered multiple NAIA awards. This summer the athletics department announced all nine sponsored intercollegiate Golden Eagles teams had achieved the distinction of Scholar-Team for 2018-19 by earning an average minimum grade point average of 3.0. In 2018 six teams made the CalPac play-offs.

Athletics scholarships are critical recruiting tools in attracting top talent that will represent the program competitively and scholastically, said Golden Eagles Athletics Director Javier Krumm. “[Also] for many student athletes and their families, this is the only way to get a college degree,” he said.

Individual tickets for the 2019 Frank Jobe Memorial Gala are $150 and a table of 10 is $1,500. Sponsorship opportunities range from $3,500 to $10,000.