Orange County / The Year in Sports : Even Record Events Could Not Overshadow Olympic Games

Take your pick.

The Orange County sports story of the year could easily be:

The Rams’ Eric Dickerson running past O.J. Simpson for a record 2,105 rushing yards in one season. Or . . .

The Angels’ Reggie Jackson becoming the 13th man in major-league history to hit 500 home runs. Or . . .

Cal State Fullerton winning its second NCAA baseball championship. Or . . .

The Titans going 12-0 in football, despite all the obstacles that have so burdened the program in previous years.

You might also consider Mike Witt’s perfect game against the Texas Rangers, the establishment of the Freedom Bowl or the return of Gene Mauch as manager of the Angels.

But then you happen across the Olympics.

And you stop.

Regardless of whatever else happened in sports during the past 12 months, 1984 will most be remembered as an Olympic year. And that goes particularly for Orange County, which contributed so much to the Los Angeles Games.

Orange County had gold medal winners. Among them:

--Laguna Hills’ Edwin Moses (men’s 400-meter hurdles).

--Mission Viejo’s Greg Louganis (men’s platform and springboard diving).

--Mission Viejo’s Mike O’Brien (men’s swimming, 1,500-meter freestyle).

--Cal State Fullerton’s Leon Wood (men’s basketball).

--Mission Viejo’s Tiffany Cohen (women’s swimming, 800-meter and 400-meter freestyle).

--Newport Beach’s Steve Timmons, Laguna Beach’s Dusty Dvorak and Newport Beach’s Mike Blanchard (men’s volleyball).

--Dana Point’s Steve Hegg (men’s cycling, 4,000-meter individual pursuit).

Orange County also had silver medalists--in water polo (Irvine’s Peter Campbell, Costa Mesa’s George Newland and Newport Beach’s Jamie Bergeson); in women’s volleyball (Laguna Hills’ Carolyn Becker, Mission Viejo’s Jeanne Beauprey, Westminster’s Debbie Green, El Toro’s Flo Hyman and Fountain Valley’s Tauna Vandeweghe); in women’s swimming (La Habra’s Jenna Johnson and Mission Viejo’s Amy White); in men’s swimming (Placentia’s John Mykkanen); and in women’s diving (Mission Viejo’s Michele Mitchell).

Mission Viejo’s Wendy Wyland (women’s diving) and Huntington Beach’s Kathy Johnson (women’s gymnastics) added to Orange County’s medal collection by earning bronze in their respective sports.

And, then, there was perhaps the most poignant and dramatic moment of the Olympics--the controversial collision between Great Britain’s Zola Budd and the United States’ Mary Decker. Decker, an Orange High School graduate, almost surely figured as another Orange County medalist until her feet became entangled with Budd’s and her hopes for Olympic gold came tumbling down on the Coliseum track.

Finally, the county also played a major role in the staging of the Summer Games. More than 300,000 spectators turned out to witness the cycling in Mission Viejo. Cal State Fullerton hosted the team handball competition, the United States captured eight wrestling gold medals at the Anaheim Convention Center, and the modern pentathlon competition was held at Coto de Caza.

The Olympics dominated the sports news in 1984--in Orange County as well as the world. But there were other moments, to be sure.

The best of the rest in Orange County sports, 1984:

Squeezing Out The Juice: For more than a decade, it had stood as O.J. Simpson’s incredible and unapproachable odyssey--2,003 rushing yards in a single season. But in 1984, a second-year running back for the Los Angeles Rams named Eric Dickerson came along and made O.J. passe.

On the afternoon of Dec. 9, at Anaheim Stadium against the Houston Oilers, Dickerson rushed for 215 yards on 27 carries to give him the NFL record: 2,007 yards. He added 98 the following week to up the total to 2,105--now the standard for pro running backs.

Along the way, Dickerson set other National Football League records such as best back-to-back rushing seasons (3,915 yards) and most 100-yard games in one season (12).

After two professional seasons, Dickerson already is inviting comparisons to the finest runners in NFL history. The career possibilities, in Dickerson’s mind, are intriguing.

“I’d like to get 2,000 yards every season,” he said. “I’d like to push the record so far out there that the next guy who breaks it is going to have to break his neck.”

The Jackson 500: By the first week of August, it had become a foregone conclusion--Reggie Jackson was going to hit his 500th career home run. A post-All-Star break power surge brought Jackson to 497 and sent him to New York with a chance to make history in George Steinbrenner’s face.

But Jackson went 0-for-New York. He also went 0-for-a-month. Jackson put some suspense into the Race for 500--too much, as even Jackson would admit.

Finally, on Sept. 17 at Anaheim Stadium, it came. Kansas City’s Bud Black was the pitcher and his first delivery of the seventh inning wound up landing over in the right-center field fence. Jackson had joined the 500 Club.

“I don’t think you have to hit 500 home runs to get into the Hall of Fame,” Jackson said after the game, “but it is probably a ticket in.”

He’s probably right. Jackson finished the 1984 season with 25 home runs, giving him 503 for his career. He’ll get a chance to add to that total in 1985, which could be his final season.

Then, most likely, it will be on to Cooperstown.

Murphy’s Miracle: The school has no home football stadium, not much of a fan following, a scant recruiting budget and virtually no name recognition outside of California. It’s long been considered a truism: You can’t have a winning football team at Cal State Fullerton.

But somehow, Gene Murphy did. In 1983, he won the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. championship, guiding the Titans into their first-ever California Bowl. Then, in 1984, he went undefeated--12-0, including a win via forfeiture from Nevada Las Vegas.

It was a Coach-of-the-Decade type of achievement. Building a wide-open offense around the talents of quarterback Damon Allen and a fleet corps of receivers, Murphy overcame all the obstacles to go where no one at Cal State Fullerton had ever gone before.

Still, in typical Titan fashion, Murphy and his players pretty much came up empty for their efforts. They only flirted with Top 20 recognition--making the UPI poll one week before dropping out after beating a 6-2 Fresno State team. They didn’t go to a bowl game--Las Vegas was locked into the California Bowl before the NCAA ruled it had to forfeit its PCAA title and the Freedom Bowl, amid much controversy, turned them down.

And Murphy, who coveted the University of Missouri coaching job and was courted by Oregon State and Utah, wound up going nowhere. “I’m a Titan,” Murphy said, ending weeks of speculation by agreeing to return to Fullerton next season.

Then, the hard part begins--the encore.

Augie Gets No. 2: The year 1984 will be remembered as the finest in Cal State Fullerton athletic history. The football team went 12-0, basketball point guard Leon Wood won an Olympic gold medal and Augie Garrido’s baseball team collected its second national championship in six years.

Title No. 2 didn’t come easily for the Titans. For the first time in years, Fullerton wasn’t the preseason choice to win its conference. The Titans started slowly, splitting their first 10 games, and Garrido decided to revamp the infield at midseason. They finally jelled in time to win the Southern California Baseball Assn. and the West Regional I championship, but in the College World Series at Omaha, more trouble cropped up for Fullerton.

The Titans lost early in the tournament--6-4 to defending titlist Texas--and spent the rest of the World Series always one defeat from elimination. However, that final defeat never came.

Fullerton’s pitching staff, led by 133-pound Eddie Delzer, shut down the prolific offenses of Arizona State and Oklahoma State to force a rematch against Texas. There, Delzer pitched seven innings of two-hit ball, reliever Scott Wright came on to earn his NCAA-record 22nd save and the Titans upset the Longhorns, 3-1, for the championship.

“This is a great team because it had to be a team,” Garrido said. “We didn’t match up physically with most of the other teams in this tourney, but we were the best balanced and most consistent team here.”

Perhaps not as talented as Garrido’s first champion, his 1979 squad. But, in the end, just as successful.

A Perfect Witt: It was a perfectly fitting climax to the Angels’ 1984 Summer of Frustration, a case of too little too late.

Mike Witt, the Angels’ 6-7 tower of untapped potential, finally had his moment--a 1-0, perfect-game victory against the Texas Rangers on the season’s final afternoon, with the American League West championship already in the hands of the Kansas City Royals. A meaningful accomplishment in a meaningless game.

By retiring 27 straight batters, Witt recorded only the 13th perfect game in major-league history and the first in a nine-inning game since Cleveland’s Len Barker stopped the Toronto Blue Jays on May 15, 1981.

“This is not a surprise to me,” said Witt’s catcher, Bob Boone. “I think he’s the premier pitcher in the league. When he’s on, they’re not going to hit him. The only hurdle he had to overcome was finding his consistency and concentration.”

For one day, for Mike Witt, it all came together.

Freedom’s Just Another Word . . . : For just another in a seemingly bottomless sea of postseason college bowl games. Or so it seemed, when the NCAA gave approval to Orange County’s first major-college bowl in August. But the Freedom Bowl quickly became a major news story, both locally and nationally.

First came the Cal State Fullerton controversy (To Tab Or Not To Tab the Titans), with irate Fullerton fans phoning the Freedom Bowl office with bomb and death threats in protest over the Titans’ non-candidacy. Then, there was the eventual selection of Top-20 teams Iowa and Texas, a coup for a first-year bowl. And finally, there was the game itself, with Iowa quarterback Chuck Long passing for 461 yards and 6 touchdowns in a 55-17 Hawkeye victory in the rain at Anaheim Stadium.

The first Freedom Bowl didn’t draw well--30,365 tickets sold, 24,093 in the house--but enough to probably earn a second go-round in 1985.

“We don’t plan on ending this thing,” Executive Director Tom Starr said afterward. “I would think the good people on (the NCAA Postseason Football) committee will give us another shot.”

The Little General Returns: The Angels played yet another round of their favorite game, Musical Managers, in 1984, but this time, there was a twist. This time, they reached back into the past--replacing John McNamara with the man whom he replaced, Gene Mauch.

Mauch brought the Angels to within one victory of their first World Series in 1982, but resigned after what he felt was lukewarm support from players and management. McNamara left under similar circumstances--turning down a 1985 Angels’ offer to move to the Boston Red Sox.

Will Mauch II enjoy a successful run? Only if Gene Autry and new General Manager Mike Port exhibit some patience, because the current Angels--sans Fred Lynn, sans Don Aase--are in need of an extensive overhaul. But patience has never been a virtue with the Angels.

Troubled Dynasty: In 1983, Mater Dei High School made a major breakthrough when its basketball team became the first Orange County school in more than 40 years to win a CIF Southern Section 4-A title.

In 1984, the Monarchs discovered the price of such achievement.

The championship, won by a team that started five underclassmen, thrust Mater Dei into the national spotlight. The Monarchs, led by All-Americans Matt Beeuwsaert and Tom Lewis, began the 1983-84 season ranked No. 1 in the country. Everyone who followed high school basketball knew Mater Dei and the Monarchs became a marked team--both on and off the court.

Opposing coaches charged Mater Dei with everything from recruiting (three starters transferred from other schools) to running up scores against inferior teams, accusing Coach Gary McKnight and his staff of questionable ethics. Both the CIF and the Catholic Athletic Assn. investigated the school’s basketball program, neither uncovering any illegalities.

Amid the controversy, the Monarchs kept winning, advancing to the 4-A championship game for the second straight season. There, however, this all-star conglomerate which McKnight described as “a once-in-a-lifetime” team, stumbled--losing to Long Beach Poly in overtime, 45-44.

Beeuwsaert went on to receive a scholarship to Notre Dame but Lewis remains, switching from center to guard for his senior season. And his scoring has the Monarchs winning again at the start of the 1984-85 season. Mater Dei has already won the Tournament of Champions, taking a 13-0 record into the new year.

Hazzard’s Road: Or, how to go from Compton College to Chapman College to UCLA in four short years.

Walt Hazzard didn’t have the experience to become the head coach at the shrine of college basketball, UCLA, in the spring of 1984. His resume: two years coaching at a junior college and two more at a private institution secluded away privately in the city of Orange.

But Hazzard had results. He won at Compton and his two seasons at Chapman produced records of 22-8 and 22-6--sending the Panthers into the Division 2 West Regionals both years.

He also had tradition on his side. Hazzard played on the Bruins’ first NCAA championship team in 1964, and memories go over big at Westwood these days. In looking to the future, the UCLA athletic administration turned to the past and named Hazzard to replace Larry Farmer as coach after Farmer handed in his resignation.

Hazzard has yet to restore the Spirit of ’64 at UCLA, however. He inherited a team lacking talent and a difficult nonconference schedule. After nine games, Hazzard’s Bruins were 3-6.

But his hiring was big news in Orange County--the most significant contribution to UCLA basketball this area has made since John Vallely graduated from Orange Coast College.