Many Among Shoup’s Flock Became Coaching Disciples

If imitation is the highest form of flattery, then Bob Shoup and the rest of the coaching staff of Cal Lutheran’s 1971 NAIA Division II championship team certainly can feel complimented.

Of the 52 members of the championship team, no fewer than a dozen became coaches themselves, and eight followed in the footsteps of their mentors by serving as assistants under Shoup at Cal Lutheran.

Many are still coaching locally at Valley and Ventura County high schools and colleges, and two of them--Mike Sheppard and Rod Marinelli--are assistants in the NFL.

“I think it’s a reflection of the people we had coaching us,” said Tom West, the former Royal High coach who now announces Cal Lutheran games for KNJO radio. “Also, I think if you can give back something that was important to you to another generation, then that’s a neat thing.”

That feeling is shared by all of the coaches who played for the Kingsmen in 1971.

Following is a look at a few of the players who made up the championship team and where they are now:

* ARNOLD ALLEN

Senior defensive back

He is a Compton resident and a lab technician for a dry-wall production company.

On the championship game: “I got beat deep and they scored to kind of put us in a hole,” Allen, a co-captain, recalled. “You have that happen in a championship game and you don’t forget it. I was glad we came back and won it. You look back and realize we had some great players.”

* JIM BAUER

Senior offensive guard

Has taught and coached football at Littlerock High for eight years.

He reluctantly moved from the defensive line to the offensive line because of an injury, but looking back wouldn’t change a thing. “For me, personally, there couldn’t have been a better ending,” Bauer said. “I got injured and I was lucky to be playing at all. That’s the thing you’ve got to remember.”

* SAM CVIJANOVICH

Senior middle linebacker

Twice was named NAIA District III player of the year and was one of seven who played four years together and posted a record of 33-3-3 from 1968-71.

Cvijanovich owns Sam’s Saloon, a sports bar in Oxnard, with his brother, Steve, the center on the 1971 team. He played football professionally for three teams in four years in the Canadian Football League.

“We had been knocking on the door during the two years before [1971],” Cvijanovich, a co-captain, said. “We knew we were close. We just needed to get everybody playing together on the same day, and we were successful in doing that.”

* DONI GREEN

Junior safety and punter

Had an interception and a fumble recovery in the title game.

Green is a physical education teacher for special-needs students in the Simi Valley Unified School District. He also is an assistant coach for the Moorpark College track team, after a successful stint as head track coach at Simi Valley High.

Cal Lutheran’s ability to come from behind saved the Kingsmen during the ’71 season and Green said, “That was a characteristic of Shoup’s teams. . . . We didn’t ever think we were going to lose.”

* ART GREEN

Freshman linebacker

Like brother Doni, Green is an adaptive physical education teacher, for the Conejo Valley Unified School District, and is an assistant track coach at Moorpark College.

His first college game was a wild 1971 battle against Augustana College of South Dakota, in which Cal Lutheran rallied to tie, 31-31. “They looked like the Green Bay Packers out there, and to be able to tie that team . . .” he said.

* TIM HENGST

Senior offensive tackle

Worked for nine years on the faculty at Johns-Hopkins University in Baltimore, teaching medical illustration. He since has returned to Thousand Oaks and is a free-lance medical illustrator for medical/surgical textbooks and journals used at schools around the country. He recently designed a new logo for the Cal Lutheran football team.

With its appearance in the title game, Cal Lutheran enjoyed its first taste of the big time. “We were going to be on TV and Ross Porter was announcing it,” Hengst said, “so it was our big debut.”

* BRIAN KELLEY

Junior linebacker

Lives in New Jersey and is self-employed, working as a marketing representative for professional athletes in addition to scheduling and staging charity golf tournaments throughout the Northeast. He played 11 seasons with the NFL’s New York Giants, one of three ’71 Kingsmen who played pro football.

* RICHARD KELLEY

Senior defensive end and kicker

Older brother of Brian Kelley. Has worked in sales since leaving Cal Lutheran and currently is a sales manager for a garage-door company in Texas.

“We’ve been back [to Cal Lutheran] and talked to people there many times, and we’ve been told there’s never been another group like us to come through there,” he said. “We were unique in many ways.”

* ROD MARINELLI

Junior offensive tackle

Came to Cal Lutheran after serving a two-year stint in the Vietnam War. He is in his first season as defensive line coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Previously coached at Utah State, California, Arizona State and USC.

‘The winning was great,” Marinelli said. “It was winning done right. There was no baby-sitting. Coach [Shoup] made it so everybody was responsible for themselves.”

* GARY McGINNIS

Senior defensive lineman and team co-captain.

He is a math teacher, freshman football coach and an assistant track coach at Westlake High.

“As a team and at that level, we were the best, and that was important to us,” McGinnis said.

* DON REYES

Senior utility player

Played fullback, defensive back and on special teams. He was one of several Vietnam War veterans on the 1971 team and, at 25, among the oldest players.

Reyes is an assistant coach to former teammate Gene Uebelhardt at Royal High. He spent several years as an assistant at Cal Lutheran.

* MIKE SHEPPARD

Junior wide receiver

Former standout at Burroughs High was the most valuable lineman of the championship game.

Sheppard is the receivers coach for the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens. He was the head coach of two college teams--for five years at New Mexico State and three at Long Beach State.

On his 14-yard touchdown run on a fake field goal that put the Kingsmen ahead to stay in the championship game: “A field goal would have given us the lead, so calling a fake took guts. Coach Shoup asked me about it on the sideline and I said, ‘Sure, let’s go for it.’ ”

* GENE UEBELHARDT

Sophomore fullback

Spent several years as an assistant football coach at Cal Lutheran and is now the coach at Royal High and teaches physical education.

Uebelhardt said the friendships he formed, particularly with former roommate Don Reyes, have been lasting. “Once I got there, Donny opened up a whole new world to me,” he said.

* TOM WEST

Junior cornerback

West is the Cal Lutheran play-by-play man for Thousand Oaks-based radio station KNJO. He primarily works Moorpark College home games and Cal Lutheran away games, as well as the Ventura County high school game of the week.

Cal Lutheran assistant coach Don Green, who died in 1994, left a lasting legacy. “He had a way of making you feel special and like your contribution mattered,” West said. “Even though we weren’t all special, he made us feel that way.”