Notebook : El Segundo High’s Keith Erickson, Hearn’s Happy Sidekick, Once Was the Star

Keith Erickson wasn’t a born sidekick. He was a multisport star at El Segundo High School. He was a basketball star at UCLA who helped John Wooden win his first two NCAA titles. He kept his volleyball skills polished well enough to make the 1964 Olympic team. He played for the Lakers’ championship team of 1971-72 that won 33 straight games and he had a 12-year pro basketball career. Wooden has called him the best athlete he ever coached.

But in 1979 Erickson took a turn into Sidekick City--he became Laker announcer Chick Hearn’s kimo sabe. Tonto, Pat Brady and Sancho Panza got more airtime (and better lines). There’s never been a more faithful companion. Can you say, “That’s absolutely right, Chick”?

But as the Lakers opened training camp last weekend and Erickson prepared for his seventh tour as Hearn’s radio-TV color man, he said he doesn’t foresee looking for a change. He and wife Adrienne and their five school-age children live comfortably in Santa Monica. Erickson hosts his own radio program interviewing Christian athletes. And as for basketball, Erickson said, “My interest is primarily the Lakers.”

After retiring from the National Basketball Assn., Erickson auditioned with CBS and did network games for two years. Then he went to USA cable and hooked up with the Lakers through ON-TV broadcasts. When Pat Riley unexpectedly left the broadcast booth to become Lakers assistant coach, Erickson became Hearn’s interim partner.

Besides statistics and pregame interviews, Erickson sometimes gets in little beyond a puckish pun. There was a time when Hearn admittedly had little use for a color man, and his play-by-play dominates the airtime. “It’s not easy but it’s a great education,” Erickson said.

“Chick is great. He’s so good, so quick. It’s an education every night just listening to him. Which is what I do mostly.”

Several high school leagues around the South Bay will have new looks starting with the upcoming basketball season.

San Pedro High, which has won three straight league titles after dropping to the 3-A level, will return to 4-A competition this winter and will be back in the Marine League with local rivals Carson and Banning. San Pedro lost only one league game in the last three years and reached the 3-A championship game last year.

The CIF has announced another two-year re-leaguing plan that will put the four Torrance schools back in the Bay League. The re-leaguing takes effect for the 1986-87 school year. The six-team Bay League will also have Palos Verdes and Rolling Hills.

The revamped Ocean League will have Santa Monica, Mira Costa, Inglewood, Hawthorne, Culver City and Beverly Hills. The Pioneer League will keep Centennial, El Segundo, Leuzinger, Miraleste and Morningside and will pick up Redondo.

In the parochial schools, St. Bernard will remain in the Camino Real League in most sports but will play football and basketball in the Angelus League.