Q: Let’s discuss the genesis of your Sports Stories
A: I like where we started from and where we’re going to. That’s what’s happened with everything I’ve done. When we were 17, 18 years old we played a lot of beach volleyball but then we’d come home and play in my backyard. At one point we ran a tournament – being Lennon’s we made a big deal about everything! We promoted and it grew into five backyards and three front yards where thousands of people would come to watch. There were homes with crocodiles, Dobermans and all sorts of obstacles that made it so brilliant, travelling from yard to yard. After about a year other families were throwing parties on their porches while the tournament was going on. It was big and unique to Southern California and that’s what made me bring in local media to cover it. I came up with the tagline The Largest Backyard Volleyball Tournament in the World. That got reprinted and pushed into the media. Out of the backyards I got identified as someone who could go in front of the microphone and also some of the women volleyball players from that told me they were breaking away from the men’s tour because they were tired of being a side show. I became their announcer for WPVA and that lasted for 6-7 years.
My uncle, Jimmy Lennon Sr., was who I most related to and admired. My parents would call me in to watch the Lennon Sisters on TV, but it wasn’t as important to me as playing with my friends outside. But my Uncle Jim announcing the world heavy weight fights was great. He came to watch me announce a WPVA game and we got to talking and he read off a list of names I mispronounced, errors I’d made, told me that I needed to pay attention to each players’ style because all of that was important. And whatever I do, don’t embarrass the family. It was all meant in love and that’s how I coached my teams. It was a really big learning moment for me.
I couldn’t ignore my love of sports since I was young. I read the LA Times sports page at a young age, playing on the teams I did and eventually parlaying that into a life in sports. But toward the end of that, as an athletic director at an all-girls high school on the west side of Los Angeles, it had been enough. My children were off in the world and my wife Christine was agreeable that it was time to make this move. I’ve always wanted to be in sports broadcasting or sports journalism. I’ve always felt that I could be a voice of a franchise or perhaps a journalist like Bryant Gumbel – something to that effect -- and it was gnawing at me. My administrative assistant at Archer was Marley Rice who I’ve known since she was little. We decided it was time to go for it. A big part of that was my wife Christine who knows when I have this angst or impetus to do the next thing, so she was supportive of the idea. We found an opportunity to break from the school and we jumped on it.
The original game plan for Sports Stories played out as a podcast. For whatever events I might be promoting, or team I might be coaching, I’ve always felt the visual is really important. So I always incorporated local cable television to cover my high school team or beach volleyball or whatever I might be doing. I made a contract with Prime Network back when there was only Prime Network and ESPN, to do the backyard volleyball championships I was running. So I knew the visual was important but I was really into this podcast medium and I felt like it was the perfect opportunity to push your stuff out there and let the market find it as opposed to being the restricted with traditional TV and cable. So we just came right at it. Marley and I agreed to film it and present it like a mini documentary. It was always important to me to link myself to the guest, and that’s an easy link to my high school athletes or even a college athlete. As an athletic director I could see the pattern – you get identified in high school, club aspect is important, here’s how you get your scholarship. That’s easy. But linking myself to a high level athlete like a Bob Klein or Jerry West, my boyhood idols. So I’d say, “Growing up as a boy in the ‘70s in Los Angeles, meant this, that, and the other.” So then it was embracing who I was as a youngster getting to this point. This idea is my life in sports and how my lens sees the guest and their place within social and historical context. That has seemed to give it more focus to the project.
Q: You always saw a world of sports where women and men were starting to get on an equal playing field.
A: When I took over as the athletic director for a girls school [Archer] all levels and both genders were as important as the other. In my mind it leveled the field between the two. It made no difference to me and I coached the same way regardless of the gender. I noticed girls seemed more interested in how the team did while boys were really interested in who got the trophy at the end. Like John Wooden taught, everyone is valuable on a team and the girls embraced that more. I used to love the dads’ club that formed around their daughters’ teams. It was refreshing to not have football interrupt the process where everything fell in line behind football.
With Sports Stories I wanted the same connection I had with shows that I like, including some podcasts. Mark Maron has a great WTF podcast and you connect with him to the guest. My life in sports wasn’t about playing at professional level, it was more about what most Americans do. It was getting up early for the kids games, coaching a youth league, and being part of the kid’s lives and watching them move on to the next level. I was so fortunate that I was successful enough to take over some of these places and watch a young girl play on one of my C teams, she moves up through my program and eventually gets a college scholarship. I get the great fortune to go watch her play a college game. I realized how that connected with so many people along the way. I wanted to connect to whatever it is that brings us together in this community we call sports.
Q: You helped position and bring us organized youth volleyball very early in this ever-growing game.
A: I was super interested in what was going in professional sports but I always loved high school sports. In 1994 a friend of mine approached me about the backyard volleyball I started. He wanted me to help him start something for youth beach volleyball because it didn’t exist. They had to play with adults before that. There are now 200,000 kids playing beach volleyball across the country, and it all started that day. I learned some great lessons about what it took to drive an organization to a national sport. I also realized my ability to interview players. I was on the Sullivan Award committee but when COVID hit and we couldn’t meet in person I was asked to host the awards from a homey garage that looked like a good studio. We brought in Sabrina Ionescu and Trevor Lawrence, Spencer Lee. It was a great experience to be working with other experienced athletes on other shows that were more polished to these younger athletes who took on the challenge and learned what was required. I loved watching the progression.
The time has come for new partners to join us to move forward our vision of unique and uplifting sports stories. Consider Karch Kiraly, the greatest volleyball player in the world but what makes him interesting is that his father took up arms during the 1956 Hungarian uprising against the Russians. He had to be run out of the country only to find his way in a new country. To then raise this kid in Santa Barbara who became the best volleyball player who beach Russia for the gold medal. Those are the stories I want to tell.
Q: Tell me about Norm Bass who you lensed for an episode.
A: Norm Bass, that’s Dick Bass’ younger brother who was all pro for the Los Angeles Rams football team. Norm Bass had his career taken away from him at the age of 25, rheumatoid arthritis shot him down. He’d played football for Denver Broncos and baseball for the Kansas City Athletics. The first black American since WWII to play pro ball on two teams – football and baseball. He went into a deep funk but through his church and family he found table tennis. He is a designated para athlete because of his severe rheumatoid arthritis and he rises to the ranks of leading our Para Olympic team to the Sydney games and at the age of 60 wins a bronze medal. He’s a fascinating character.
Q: And there is hometown hero Bob Klein. Now very active in the community fundraising.
A: Bob Klein, a home grown kid from Pacific Palisades who meets his wife in 7th grade but he went from Corpus Christi to St Monica to USC and blocks for OJ Simpson who won the Heisman that year. He went to three Rose Bowls and got drafted by the Los Angeles Rams. That’s where I notice him. Then he goes to play for the San Diego Chargers and now is the President and CEO of the St John’s Health Center Foundation. Coincidentally, that’s where I was born.
Q: And you had an exclusive sit down interview with Jerry West?
A: Jerry West – He was my boyhood idol who I eventually got to sit down and interview. His story is so important outside of basketball. He grew up in West Virginia with an abusive father. His brother that he idolized died in the Korean War. Still he found a way out of the poorest part of WV through basketball. He won the state title, went to the 1960 Olympics, was the #2 draft and ends up with the Los Angeles Lakers. I got to tell that whole story and bring that story to the audience.
Q: In March 2021 you filmed an episode on Dana and David Pump, the twins who redefined summer basketball camps beginning when they were age 16 and establishing a new standard for “AAU” basketball.
A: Dana and David Pump have continued as true entrepreneurs, to reinvent and redefine their programs. From camps they established elite summer travel teams, hosted elite events, established a coach placement service and provided tickets and hospitality for major events, from the NCAA Final Four to All-Star Games and the Super Bowl. Along the way they established relationships with multiple corporate partners, including shoe companies. Maintaining relationships they launched the Harold and Carole Pump Foundation to fight cancer. This event has drawn celebrities like Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx and Morgan Freeman along with athletes like Muhammad Ali, Hank Aaron, Magic, Shaq and Kareem. They have donated millions and built wings at the Northridge Hospital. We just did a program on Ella Parker, a softball player for Notre Dame School in Sherman Oaks. She is a niece to Dave Roberts, the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Q: You recognized at the Archer school what athletics could do for women.
A: At Archer I wanted to show them what a powerful sports program could be. I was able to fine the great athletes in the rec leagues and non-privately coached teams. I looked for the girls that could play the game but also handle the workload and that’s not easy. I’ve always understood sports at its highest level but I learned a good lesson earlier. As soon as Catholics identify you’re good at one thing, suddenly you’re good at everything. I also taught history at St Mark’s so I would read the book they read but also look at it from the loser’s point of view. That would give me context to bring it all together for the students so they were interested and I didn’t lose them. I feel like that was good training for what we’ve doing now. I don’t hit anyone over the head with too much history or politics but enough to pique their interested and help the viewer make connections. I like to present to others what I find interesting to try to hold their interest. Whether that’s JuJu Watkins, Sabrina Ionescu or Jerry West, I find interest in all of them and like to connect them with people who may not be sports fanatics.
Q: One thing that really impresses me about Sports Stories, even though it is not paraded on the screen you are actively involved in many charities.
A: I wouldn’t say I’m a devout Catholic but I will recognize that growing up Catholic gave you a sense that there’s something more important than your own needs. And being the 7th kid in my family and being one of 64 first cousins on one side of the family, you get used to consideration of others. There was important lesson I learned early on from a cousin named Mark Lennon, who is no longer with us. We used to call him Pitt Bull, he was the best. He was a martial arts instructor but also a coach and when I first started coaching he was very forceful with me. He said, “You’ll be judged, I will judge you, the world will judge you by the least amongst your roster. What you do with the 12th player is what they’ll judge you by.” I took that to heart and started to read more about what John Wooden wrote and talked about. I found out there was this dynamic that was created on a team when you put as much effort into giving a role to the least of the team as you did to the top of the team. And everybody rose with that.
So, the same could be said about people I admired when it came to a philanthropic efforts, in particular my sister Jeanine. She’s my oldest sibling so with seven kids there are about 15 years separating us but growing up in a big Catholic family, the older kids usually play a role in raising the kids. She and my sister Debbie had more than their hands full with me as a youngster who didn’t want to do anything boy play sports. Jeanine always concerned herself with children with needs. She worked as a teacher with physically handicapped kids, then mentally challenged kids. Eventually she got her degree and launched a business called My Stuffed Bags which reaches out to kids in crisis. Very difficult foster kid situations and they are all alone in this place. Her bag comes with a blanket, toiletries and also a toy – things that lift them up in that time of need. And then she follows through with those kids and finds out where they went and if she can continue to help them. That just inspired me and I wanted from the start to shine a light on what she does as well as to something else that was particularly inspiring to me.
When we first started Sports Stories I was invited to a beach party at a house in Santa Monica right on the beach owned by my friend Mark Verge. He’s an entrepreneur and mentor to many. One of the groups he supported was called the Heroes Movement so he was hosting a black jack night or something like that. Here were about five veterans with their director on the beach with a beautiful sunset. I heard a woman veteran talk about what this group did for her when she came back from the war in the desert without half of her leg. This group of aligned athletic physical trainers made her feel whole again by putting together a perfect regimen together for her – to get her mental health back in while her physical health gained. That just struck something in me so I went right up to that guy and told him I didn’t know exactly when, but I wanted to support him by involving his group with Sports Stories. We shook hands that night and developed a relationship. His name is Mike McKay, he lives in Michigan. He was one of my first interviews and he told his story and through that we have continued to support the Heroes Movement.
At one point about 30-40 interviews in, we decided to sit down with people. I had put together a competition sort of like a March Madness from prior guests and raised money for charities. Still Point was one of those charities that we had on the show to talk about what they do.
Q: Your Sports Stories website features your own writing and blogging on a regular basis.
A: I’ve always enjoyed writing but it does take discipline to get it all down. It’s another way to create interest. I learned to read because I was so interested in the Los Angeles Times sports page and Jim Murray’s column. Jim Murray taught me that sports had a higher calling beyond the final score. The way he referenced things from popular culture or news and put it together. I learned math by figuring out baseball averages. I guess I wanted to mimic what got me interested in the first place. With the blog I like to remember some of the things that used to be to tie them in to what we have now.
I was born and raised in Venice, CA so third generation Venetian is a big part of my background. Now I live in the shadow of the Centinela Adobe near the airport. It’s a historical landmark that just happens to be on my street but it’s fun to reach back to when Westchester was being developed. That’s become part of the story I’m telling.
Q: Talk about the influence of Title IX on you and your constant involvement in its application.
A: Here’s the thing about Title IX. In 1972 and my Lakers with the NBA title, USC goes undefeated, and UCLA basketball also wins. But the most important thing that affected my life more than those was Title IX. It slowly worked its way into sports to the time I was a coach and administrator – and girls sports were given the same chance as boys sports. Title IX gave me the foundation to build those women’s teams and the opportunities they had to go on to college sports. What a great time for women to come of age and access the same things boys athletes could.
The time is now. Whether this is by fortune or plan, with sports coming back into our consciousness, I have a team ready to go. We have a couple of producers, creative director, a DP. So we have the technical base and the physical work power ready to go. My affiliations with the Amateur Athletic Union and beyond that leads toward Olympic involvement is going to be an important backbone of what we do. We direct the national sport of beach volleyball and that gives us direct access to some of the best players who will eventually go on to represent our country in the Olympics. We’re ready to cover that with long form interviews or live shows. We also have the ability to move some of the stories we have to documentaries to give an even more in depth picture. We reach a broad range of athletes and can work with the preps to the Olympians. At my heart what I do best as a coach is enjoying watching others do well, I enjoy seeing others around me to well. That’s what a good coach does. I also have some Lennon in me so I’m a ringmaster in the middle drawing attention to me and telling some jokes then sending it out to the people so they can shine in the light. The time and place have met here and it’s the right time for us to make the extra effort to attract the attention that we deserve
When I talk about UCLA basketball coach Wooden I often tell the story about when I wanted to start to coach. I wanted to win like John Wooden won at UCLA. After I read his books I realized he doesn’t even talk about winning. It’s about the process, about treating people the right way, and working together to achieve something beyond. Also his ability to put family front and center was impressive. I learned from him that it’s about character. He was able to coach teams in an ever changing era and got the best out of people through the 60s and 70s. Not all change is progress but progress requires change. That’s why I adopted this new medium. I grew up listening to Vin Scully on the radio and watching Dick Enberg call UCLA games on television. This new medium is completely foreign to what I grew up with but its progress and it’s given us the opportunity to share these stories from what would have been blocked from us before.
And I loved Tommy Lasorda’s pizazz. He could get a crowd all fired up like nobody else. I saw him steal the show at a motivational event at the Forum and 17,000 people went nuts. That showmanship combined with the kind of character development John Wooden taught – I think that can make for a winning team.
Nowadays we see so many more sports injuries because of the abundance of play ingle sports athletes get these days. This is one of the areas our team wants to stay on top of. We have consultants that come and give us orthopedic advice. Dr. Bert Mandelbaum was a guest on our show. He is council to the US Olympic Committee as well as to the World Cup.
I met him when he was a parent at the Archer school when I was there. We had about 13 ACL injuries and I attributed it to them playing more but he didn’t think so. He taught us so much about the physiological differences between men and women. We pulled in all our coaches and went through an extensive seminar with Dr. Mandelbaum to learn why this was happening and how it could be prevented through a series of drills and exercises that only takes about 15 minutes before practice. I instituted that with all my coaches as the Athletic Director and over the next two years we had only one ACL tear. It helped to highlight the importance of bringing in the mental and physical health of athletes, teaching them how important that is to their development.
Sports have been my life and that’s about teamwork. There’s always a core team but let’s be honest, everyone plays a role. Substitutes are a vital part of every team. People come in and give expertise on Sports Stories and provide important additions.
My wife was all in when I started talking about this. She knows what’s in my heart so Christine backed me 100 percent and that meant a lot. But she’s also so technical and talented – I joke that she’s the man around the house because she fixes everything. She did that with our livestreaming and audio. We couldn’t have pulled off the Sullivan Awards without her. Marlee fills in wherever she’s needed and makes the big plays. She’s a true team player and a valuable part of our team. Bob MacColl, our cinematographer, isn’t afraid of anything, he goes in and figures it out. He does the things that need to be done because he can, but also because he’s willing. He sees things and knows how to frame it. My daughter is a photographer and can always find the right picture, and I found the same with Bob. Finally, Chris M. Allport – that’s like getting the big free agent that comes over to your team. When I realized Chris was in and he wanted to do this, it didn’t matter that his background wasn’t in sports it didn’t matter because he knows how to tell the story.
It’s quite a team and it feels good to get closer to doing what we all do best. In sports everyone has to fill in and get done what needs to get done. But as the season goes on you can hone the team so everyone is in the best position to succeed, and that’s when you see the magic happen. And I think we’re getting close.
I once had someone tell me not to expect everyone to come to me but that I should meet them where they are. Go out to all the podcast forums and find a way to get out to people on the social media sites to reach another crowd. I took that further because I think old media has its place in time. That could be television, newspapers, books. Even though all of those may be on laptops or phones but there are still those people who want to read an actual book or newspaper – or enjoys the act of reading something in long form, in a more fleshed out idea. That’s really the idea behind the blog and on some level it relates to what we’re doing on Sports Stories. But it’s an adjunct, and in a way that feels comfortable to me.
