UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK / JOHN WEYLER : After 15 Years, Tennis Coach Decides He Wouldn’t Mind a Flashback

Myron McNamara knew he wanted to be back at UC Irvine the minute he saw Brad Gilbert’s boxer shorts. And the realization came moments before his first match as the tennis coach at Arizona State.

Gilbert, the Sun Devils’ star player, exited the dressing room and headed toward the court with about three inches of underwear extending below his tennis shorts.

“We were picked like fifth or sixth in the preseason polls and Brad was my No. 1 player,” McNamara said, “but the kid isn’t going to school and I hate that. Then, he shows up for our first tournament with those polka-dot boxers hanging down to here.

“So I said, ‘What the heck are you doing?’ And he says, ‘I always play like this.’ I said, ‘Look, this is a first-class club, we’re guests here and we’re going to be first-class too.’ So he slams the door on me, but he changes.

“Well, on the third point, the kid he’s playing hits a really nice cross-court winner. I’m sitting right there, the ball’s six inches in from the corner and there’s only one mark on the court, six inches in. Brad calls it out. So I walk up to the court and say, ‘What’s going on?’ He says, ‘It was out.’ I said, ‘There’s only one mark, do you see something I don’t see?’ He says, ‘It was out.’ Then he starts to give me some lip, so I bounced him off the team right there.”

Three weeks later, football Coach Frank Kush was seen on television trying to rip the head off of one of his players and soon Athletic Director Fred Miller, the man who had talked McNamara into leaving Irvine, was fired.

“It was a stupid move on my part,” says McNamara, who is back with the Anteater men’s team as an assistant coach. “I’ve always loved it here and I never should have left, but like every other idiot, I wanted to be in the Pac-10.”

He stayed at Arizona State three years before returning to the Southland in 1981 to teach and consult at the Riviera and John Wayne tennis clubs, facilities he helped establish.

When Irvine Coach Steve Clark approached McNamara with the idea of returning to Irvine 15 years after leaving, McNamara admitted he “thought long and hard.”

“I like the guy a lot,” McNamara said. “He’s a very nice person and he’s got a blow torch. And I guess when it’s in your blood, it’s in your blood. I’ve always liked coaching, the relationships with the kids, and if I’m any good, I should be able to help this bunch. So I figured, if they’ll put up with me, then I’m the luckiest old dude in the world.”

Clark and McNamara are a bit of an odd couple. Clark doesn’t hand out much praise in practice, so McNamara will yell, “How about that backhand, Coach? Doesn’t that deserve a smile?” while Clark is working with a player.

“Philosophically, we’re right on target, the same values, the same expectations,” Clark said. “I’m a little more intense and he’s a bit of a cornball, so that keeps things loose.”

Although McNamara teaches many young players privately--UCLA’s Keri Phebus, a former Corona del Mar standout, to name one--he still wondered how he would be accepted on collegiate courts after being away a decade and a half.

“Sure, I was scared to death they’d say, ‘Look at that old fogy, where did that clown come from and where’s his wheelchair?’ ” McNamara said. “But it doesn’t seem to be that way. They seem to take you for what you have to offer.”

McNamara, who answers questions about his age with “Jeepers, creepers, let’s don’t talk about that ,” has offered and given much over the years. And he isn’t ready to stop.

“There’s nothing I haven’t been through with kids,” he said. “I’ve had some tragic things happen, but the good things that come out make up for that. Forty years later, they still call and say, ‘Coach, how are you doing? Glad you’re still vertical.’

“In some cases, I’ve taught mom and dad, and then their kids, and now I’m teaching the grandchildren. That’s how stupid this whole thing is. But really, how lucky can you be? And as long as your enthusiasm is up . . . “

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Breakfast with Duke: One morning about 7 a.m., the gate to Court 6 at UCI Tennis Stadium opened and John Wayne walked in.

“He used to support our program,” McNamara said. “It was in the last weeks of his life and he just showed up. He said he hadn’t been feeling well and he woke up early and decided to come by. I asked him if he had eaten anything yet and we sat and talked and had doughnuts and orange juice.

“It was the last time I saw him.”

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If you build it . . .: Basketball Coach Rod Baker hopes this season’s recruiting class, which includes three potential starters, will be the first step in building the program into a winner.

Then, he hopes, the Bren Center won’t be only half full when the Anteaters play and he’ll have a home-court advantage to rival some of the Big West’s best teams.

But, first things first.

“Our part of it is winning games,” he said. “I don’t necessarily know if that’s the entire answer, but first we’ve got to win some games and then we’ll find out if the people will come.”

Anteater Notes

The women’s basketball team, which beat Estonia, 75-72, in an exhibition game Saturday night, opens the regular season Friday night with a 7:30 p.m. game against Pepperdine in the Bren Center. The Waves have beaten the Anteaters five times in a row. UCLA will play host to Irvine Monday night. . . . The water polo team ended its season Saturday with an 11-10 victory at UC Santa Barbara. The Anteaters won six of their last eight games to finish 11-13. It was only the second time in 30 years the team has slipped under .500. . . . The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will play host to Hawaii at 5 p.m. today in Crawford Pool.