O.C. Sports Hall Inductees Share Memories : Honors: Ceremony for distinguished group allows public to experience athletic history.

“I never had a job; all I did was play.”

Hal Sherbeck said it with the straightest of faces Sunday, but the standing-room-only crowd witnessing the 13th Orange County Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony Sunday outside the Hall’s new museum at Anaheim Stadium knew exactly what the retired Fullerton College football coach was all about.

Sherbeck had made it a habit of beginning his “play days” at Fullerton at 5:30 a.m. during the football season, a work ethic that produced a 241-71-4 record over 31 seasons (1960-91). At the time he retired, the 241 victories represented the most a community college coach has ever recorded.

Baseball players Bert Blyleven and Gary Carter and football players Maurice (Red) Guyer, Jerry Shipkey and Ray Willsey were inducted with Sherbeck, with Guyer’s entrance being posthumously.

The induction ceremonies, conducted outside the newly opened Hall of Fame museum, proved an avenue to recall the glories of the past, some not too distant.

With many of his former players looking on, Sherbeck drew the largest applause accorded the inductees when he spoke of the special relationship that exists within the Hornet family. “Nothing brought me more joy than sitting in my office and having many players come in and watching them grow and mature before my eyes. That’s the thing I miss most now,” said Sherbeck who is now living on a lake in his native Montana.

Blyleven retired last year, but not before laboring 23 years in the major leagues, winning 287 games, pitching 4,969 1/3 innings, and striking out 3,701 batters.

“I had a dream in my junior year in high school (Santiago) to be a major league pitcher. With a lot of hard work, I realized those dreams, including getting to play in front of my family and friends of many years (with the Angels 1989-92).”

Shipkey could relate to that experience as well. A football and shotput star at Anaheim High, Shipkey entered the Naval Officers Training program during World War II and had the unusual experience of playing for Rose Bowl teams at USC and UCLA.

Of the five seasons he played for the Pittsburgh Steelers (1948-52), Shipkey, 69, said “that was the finest period of my life, years I thoroughly enjoyed.”

Willsey, who quarterbacked Tustin High before going on to an illustrious playing career at Cal and the Edmonton Eskimos and a coaching career as the head man at Cal and an assistant with the St. Louis Cardinals, Washington Redskins and the Raiders, gave credit for his success to some legendary people.

“I’ve been fortunate to be mentored by people like Bill Cook, Lynn (Pappy) Waldorf and Darrell Royal,” said Willsey, speaking of the former coaches at Santa Ana College (now Rancho Santiago), Cal and Texas.

Don Guyer represented his dad, the “Laguna Legend,” who before dying of cancer in 1989 lived a storied life as a football and track star at Santa Ana College and USC, where he ran on Trojan world-record setting 440- and 880-yard relay teams; as the first athletic director and coach of many sports at Laguna Beach High, and as a track official.

“It was football that was his passion,” Don Guyer told the crowd. “Dad was at the school for 35 years, but it was the 18 years he coached football that he loved the most.”

In those 18 years, the Artists were 100-47-7, winning six Orange League titles and a CIF championship.

Carter’s father, Jim, represented the former major league catcher of 18 seasons. “Gary couldn’t be here because of broadcasting commitments he had at home (Florida), so I’m pleased to accept this in his honor.”

Jim was his son’s first coach and taught him well. Gary went on to captain the baseball, basketball and football teams at Sunny Hills High School before turning to a professional baseball career. He left the game last year after accumulating a .262 lifetime batting average, with 2,092 hits, 324 home runs and 1,125 RBI.

Others honored in an awards-filled ceremony:

Angel Manager Buck Rodgers (Woody Dietch Courage Award); the late auto racing great Mickey Thompson (Lifetime Achievement Award), former Fullerton City Councilman Dick Ackerman (Good Guy Award), former Mater Dei and USC football star and now Dallas financier Toby Page (Ralph Clark Distinguished Citizen Award) and long-time Fullerton youth coach Jack Hutcherson (Youth Sports Development Award).

The Hall also presented Field of Dream Award checks to representatives of the Huntington Valley and Bolsa Little Leagues for refurbishment of their facilities, and $1,000 Los Angeles Times/Hall of Fame Youth Fund Award checks were presented to 14 groups.