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9:00am | They held another of those you-really-don’t-need-to-be-dressed rehearsals of the almost opened LBSU Wellness and Recreation palace Thursday.  I accepted a VIP invite from Dr. Doug Robinson, vice president of all things student-wise, to join a tour with Perry Moore, a former AD at LBSU (and before that at Colorado State) and the first great Niner All American, basketballer Ed Ratleff.

Gathered in the lobby, students did the hand print screen to enter (once the system recognized them) and we signed a waiver and went through the gates one at a time.  No tail-gaiting possible or you become sushi.

Perry, as you know, has been a most generous donor to the sporting side of the campus, including his name on the Pyramid scoreboard.  His athletic high points included doing well as a decathlete in the 1956 Olympic Trails but the better marks that year were by Milt Campbell and Rafer Johnson. The American men won 15 track and field titles in Melbourne, including three golds for sprinter Bobby Morrow and Al Oerter's first victory in the discus.  Harold Connolly of the U.S. won both the hammer throw and the heart of the women's discus champion, Olga Fikotová of Czechoslovakia who he later married.

Mr. Ratleff, who is a State Farm Olympian (like our pal swimmer Susie Atwood), came out west from a state championship team at Columbus East high school where he led the basketball team to the Ohio State Championship in 1968 and was joined by Dwight "Bo" Lamar (Southwestern Louisiana) to claim the 1969 title.  Playing a lot bigger than his listed 6'6” he starred for Jerry Tarkanian on teams that came a bad whistle away from breaking the streak of UCLA and John Wooden. In the 1972 summer Olympics his team was then victimized by a bad game clocker in a gold medal game loss to the Soviet Union.   Ratleff and his teammates earned silver medals, which they refused to accept... From 1973 to 1978, Ratleff played professional basketball in the NBA, averaging just under 10 points a game until an injury took him out of the game and into the insurance biz. Asked his greatest athletic achievement, his personal best memory, “My teammates at Long Beach, lifelong friends, like well this guy,” passing off to his pal Glenn McDonald.

McDonald has quite a roundball résumé himself.  He played in the Association for Boston and Milwaukee in  146 NBA games with a high moment in 1976 scoring eight points in the third overtime period as the Celtics won 128-126 before eventually winning the championship in six games.  That gets you the ring with the big diamonds.  He later played and coached in the Philippines and mentored the women at LBSU and the L.A. Sparks.  Glenn has an office now in the new center and that seems to be a perfect connection between his job as intramural boss and as a staffer in Club Sports and Recreation.

So off we went past busy basketball and volleyball courts, the insider soccer set up with goal nests cut into the wall, upstairs to rooms full of various torture devices - big round balls, bikes and weights (yes, lots of mirrors for the narcissist) and flat screens to rest your eyes between reps on those push and pull deals.  Outside more normal folks worked on their tan and played some sand volleyball while the campus cops wandered in for snacks.  Public safety protection is just a five iron away from the front door, okay a nine iron if you are Tiger Woods.

On the tour our entourage bumped into a basketball-carrying Greg Plater, the senior sharpshooter out of Oregon, a spot starter who played in all 33 games last season, and averaged 9.4 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.3 assists with 66-of-183 shots from 3-point range and 75.6 percent of free throws… so he sees Ratleff and Dr. Robinson says “This is Ed Ratleff,” and Greg says, “Hi I’m Greg Plater,” perhaps wondering if any of these grey-haired guys would ask for his autograph.  Ah, so many years ago.

Another Thursday tourist was softball coach Kim Sowder with a pitching recruit and her mom in tow and everyone was wide-eyed and smiling.  For the non-scholarship crowd Robinson said that they have messaged all incoming freshmen and their fee-paying parents, to hold off on signing up with local gyms until they see the new palace of Pilates, pool, push and pull machines.

If this works out as some of the campus brass hope, the original project managers deserve a huge attaboy.  Seems that the building actually came in around $8 million under the original estimate which, according to insiders, suggests that if the demand calls for it, the expansion bucks are already in place.

Naturally as a student of healthy eating I checked out the snack bar and the outside concessionaire has decent prices for not only those swirly looking coffees and smoothies, but sandwiches, about $3.50, salads a little less and bars and bags of stuff to add years to your life as well as life to your years.  Looks like you can lunch without membership but the alumni can buy their way in whence the brass decide on the fee, maybe as low as $35 a month, maybe more.

In the outside swimming and soaking area there are lots of Vegas style pool chairs and lounges but no swim-up Blackjack game.  Now I am sure that Uncle Guido would take on that concession assignment and guarantee a nice profit, but by the next term a lot of students might be short on tuition and fees.

We will check back in a week or so and see if the health and hook-up goals of students are being met (they assessed themselves $116 a semester) and how that weekdays 6:00am-midnight schedule works in the new big box nestled, as it is, between the tennis courts, soccer field and my house in the plush La Marina Estates!

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