Rivalry Renewed : Titans, 49ers Have Battled Over the Years in Many Sports; This Week It’s Baseball

It begins anew tonight. Yet another chapter in this on-going story about old foes--and good friends.

It isn’t the longest-running rivalry, neither nationally nor regionally. And even those there from the beginning, who have claimed and nurtured it, say there are bigger, and better, annual college battles--another in the Southland in particular.

But it has its place, and it belongs to them. That’s enough.

Sometime shortly after 7 p.m., an opening pitch at Blair Field will signal the beginning of a key three-game Big West Conference series between Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State, longtime opponents who have traveled this road before. The teams are tied atop the conference standings, and postseason positioning, typical of this matchup, is at stake.

But the meeting is special for more than the obvious.

The sport is baseball, but it doesn’t have to be. This is the latest edition of a much larger show, one played out on lush, green baseball diamonds and softball fields, in tiny gyms and, at one time, in football stadiums. Most of the participants grew up playing with and against each other and, in some cases, living with each other.

They know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. They revel in success at each other’s expense, and occasionally commiserate because of a common fate.

“It’s a great rivalry because the schools are so close to each other, they’re so similar and [many] of the kids at both schools have grown up around here together,” said Ed Ratleff, an All-American basketball player at Long Beach from 1971 to 1973.

“Not only do the kids know each other well, but so do the [athletic directors] and the coaches, and they all talk. It’s not the same thing as UCLA-USC, but it’s special in its own way.”

That’s for sure, Long Beach baseball Coach Dave Snow says.

“Yeah, I’ll admit it, it’s a little different playing them,” Snow said. “It’s different because of the closeness that’s there.

“We go back a long ways, and there are some very close ties. It means a lot.”

Yes, across the board.

“It is special because it’s unusual,” Titan Coach Augie Garrido said. “What’s unusual about it is that there is such a personal side to it. There are relationships that go so far back on both sides, it can’t help but be special.”

Garrido and Snow. These guys might as well be the poster boys for the Titan-49er rivalry, as much for their immensely successful programs as their link to one another.

Snow assisted Garrido twice at Fullerton, from 1973 to 1977 and 1983 to 1984. During the latter stint, Snow shared a house in Placentia with his mentor.

Snow obviously learned well from Garrido, because through his success, he created a rivalry where there was none. The Titans regularly used to smack the 49ers around, holding a 54-11 series edge when Snow took over in 1989.

“We dominated them ridiculously for years,” said Mel Franks, longtime Fullerton sports information director. “There basically was no rivalry because we killed them.

“Then Snow shows up and the rivalry heats up.”

The series is tied, 11-11, since Snow’s first season.

Long Beach and Fullerton have each won four Big West championships during Snow’s 49er tenure. Since 1989, Fullerton has played in four College World Series. Long Beach is right behind with three.

Fullerton, the defending College World Series champion, is 38-6, 11-4 in the Big West and ranked first nationally by Baseball America. Long Beach (28-18, 11-4) is ranked 25th.

Brother acts have helped fuel the rivalry.

Former 49er player Chris Gill is among Snow’s assistant coaches. His sibling, former Titan Jason Gill, does the same for Garrido.

“There are a lot of bragging rights at stake in this one,” said Long Beach graduate and interim Athletic Director Bill Shumard, who was Fullerton’s athletic director for three years.

Baseball isn’t the only rivalry, though. Softball is closing quickly.

Titan Coach Judi Garman enjoyed playing the 49ers throughout the early and mid1980s, going 17-0 through the 1985 season. Then things changed.

“It really all started in 1986,” said 49er Coach Pete Manarino, a Fullerton graduate. “It was different from then on.”

Fullerton defeated Long Beach, 1-0, in a nine-inning game in the opening round of the College World Series at Omaha, Neb., that season. The Titans went on to win the title, but Manarino, for the first time, felt the 49ers were closing the gap. He was right.

During the 1990, ’91 and ’92 seasons, Long Beach won West Regional titles and qualified for the College World Series by defeating host Fullerton twice on the final days of the regionals. Long Beach’s dramatic victories launched this portion of the rivalry.

Garman appreciates intensity and excitement as much as the next successful coach, but those consecutive postseason showdowns with the 49ers understandably didn’t leave her as chipper as her counterpart.

“We’ve had a history of winning more of our games against them in conference, but they come back in the regionals and bite us,” said Garman, who is 31-24 against Long Beach. “I guess that’s what makes the rivalry good.”

Garman did earn a measure of revenge recently. Fullerton defeated Long Beach, 1-0, March 7 at Fullerton--giving Garman career victory No. 1,000.

In men’s basketball, Long Beach leads the series, 43-27. It’s been especially lopsided recently, as the 49ers have won the past seven meetings and 13 of the past 15.

“Obviously, it was a rivalry at one point, but it’s really not one now,” said Mike Atkinson, a former 49er standout. “We kept progressing, like with building the Pyramid, and they kind of got stuck in the mud.”

Recruits noticed too.

Brian Yankelevitz, a junior forward/center at Long Beach, was among the many players recruited by both schools. When Yankelevitz picked Long Beach, he broke some Titan hearts.

“[Former] Coach [Brad] Holland was [angry],” Yankelevitz said. “He said, ‘We recruited you for nine months and they only recruited you for two weeks.’ ”

The Titans and 49ers have played some memorable games in front of massive crowds, by their standards anyway. In the 1978-79 season, Fullerton, a season after nearly reaching the Final Four, defeated Long Beach, 81-77, in a Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. game at Long Beach Arena. The attendance was 10,737, the third-largest crowd in 49er history.

Most coaches and players thought the 1982-83 Leon Wood-led Titans would blow out the 49ers during the PCAA tournament at the Forum. The Titans entered the game 21-6 and were eyeing an NCAA tournament berth.

“A lot of Fullerton fans didn’t even go that night, they were just going to wait for the second game,” said Ratleff, now a Long Beach businessman and TV basketball commentator. “They just knew Fullerton was going to win.”

You guessed it: Long Beach 61, Fullerton 59.

“I liked that one a lot,” Ratleff said.

Said Franks: “That was a devastating loss.”

That’s a rivalry.

Circumstance, the financial kind, made the football bond less intense, said former Titan Coach Gene Murphy. But it also made for some great stories.

Both programs were financially strapped, and their survival was an iffy proposition, at best, throughout the 1980s. Long Beach pulled the plug in 1991, and Fullerton followed a year later.

In order to cut costs, the teams shared a chartered airliner three times during the 1983 season. One team in the front of the plane, the other in the back and the coaches in the middle as a buffer zone. Let’s see UCLA and USC try that one.

The winner of the annual game earned the “Victory Bell.” Long Beach won the final one with an emotional 37-36 victory in the program’s final game. It was Long Beach’s 12th victory in the 20-game series.

“I never really thought it was heated, maybe because of everything we both went through,” Murphy said. “It was friendly, and we all had fun.”