Now it's official

It has been quite a year for the Pac 12 from football until the final baseball tournament that ended last week. The Arizona Wildcats defeated the USC Trojans 4-3 to earn the last Pac 12 title. Two days later on May 27th, Bill Walton passed away after a battle with cancer. Walton was a basketball announcer or more accurately a color commentator. And yes he was definitely colorful.

Like most listeners, you either liked Walton or put your TV on mute when he would go off on a story that he thought was important to the game at hand. He was an acquired taste for sure as a fan.

Whenever Walton would do a broadcast of a Pac 12 team he would always say the ‘Conference of Champions’ which irritated a lot of people but Walton wasn’t always talking about basketball or football championships. He was also talking about the so called Olympic sports that have been won by numerous schools. So he wasn’t a crazy liar but very accurate and astute.

My friend Kenny G. and I talked and texted about Walton this past week. He asked me if I was a Walton fan and I said I was a John Wooden fan and enjoyed watching his teams play going back to UCLA’s first national championship game in 1964 played on a Saturday night. I told him I watched the game in black and white. He said they were all black and white back then usually with an 18” screen.

I don’t remember exactly when we got our first color TV and instant replay was really only worth watching for baseball games. That’s history right there folks. Most people would have trouble watching TV black and white TV today with no remote after watching a 50” color set with HD.

Anyway by the time I was going to college, Bill Walton was the next great Bruin center a tall red headed kid who was pretty darn good and yes I became a fan because of his coach but because he was a great player.

Walton idolized Coach Wooden for all of the right reasons. There is a story about Walton going into Wooden’s office after the summer around the time that school would begin and Walton had long hair and a beard. Walton said this was his new look for basketball season. He asked Wooden what he thought and Wooden said, “We’ll miss you.” Walton got on his bike and rode to the nearest barber and got his haircut and a shave. If that would happen today I’m sure a lesser man would have put his name in the transfer portal. But Walton respected and loved John Wooden and understood that the extra hair on his face and head didn’t make him a great player but being disciplined and having a great mentor was much more important.

After he graduated from UCLA Walton was drafted by the Portland Trailblazers in 1974. Walton battled some foot injuries while playing there his first two years. I remember reading that some people thought the reason he was having these issues was because he was a vegetarian. I’m not sure there was any follow up on the theory but understanding Walton I don’t think he would have started eating hamburgers because of something a sportswriter would have added to the morning paper. Walton was going to do it his way and he always did after college.

Portland would win the NBA championship in 1977 and he would be named MVP. After some trades and foot issues Walton would play for the Boston Celtics and win another NBA championship near the end of his career in 1986. Most young people only know Walton as the gregarious color commentator for NCAA basketball. But he also did the same for NBA games after his playing days.

There are a lot of things you can say about Bill Walton but he was intelligent and if he believed in something he would give it all of his energy and he was passionate about it. I’m sure there are a lot of things that we would have disagreed on but there were a lot of things where I did agree with him. And that is what is important about Bill Walton’s life. Live it with passion and enjoy it because we have no Idea how long our voices will be heard.

I wondered when the Pac 12 Conference of Champions would announce that they were officially done and we found out on May 27th with the announcement that their biggest cheerleader, Bill Walton had died. RIP Bill!

— Dale Anderson is a sports columnist from Ritzville. To contact him, email [email protected].