A veteran of a legendary profession in sports activities journalism that has spanned greater than 55 years, Santa Barbara Unbiased Sports activities Author John Zant is being inducted into the Santa Barbara Athletic Spherical Desk (SBART) Corridor of Fame on Monday, September 18. Zant has coated lots of the most acclaimed sporting occasions of the twentieth century, from the Rose Bowl to the Olympics, and was a pioneer in overlaying girls’s sports activities, amongst many different accomplishments.
To these of us who’re captivated by the excellence of human endeavors, Zant has lived a dream that may echo into the long run. He shares a few of his favourite moments, recollections, tales, and relationships from a lifetime in sports activities.
What’s your favourite occasion you ever attended as a reporter? Recreation one of many 1988 World Collection must be close to the highest. I nonetheless guess it’s primary within the L.A. Occasions ballot of what’s the signature occasion in L.A. sports activities historical past with Kirk Gibson’s dwelling run.
I used to be auxiliary press that day, so I used to be within the blue stage. I wasn’t within the press field. It’s on the high two rows behind dwelling plate. The seats in entrance of me have been public. There was some man there who was making an attempt to impress his girlfriend. The A’s have been up. José Canseco hit that grand slam to heart area that hit the digicam on the market — or it could nonetheless be going into the car parking zone. One of many hardest-hit balls I’ve ever seen. Then Mickey Hatcher hit a house run and sprinted across the bases. After the eighth inning, Dennis Eckersley is coming in to pitch, and this man in entrance of me together with his girlfriend says, “All proper, I’ve to beat the visitors,” and so they left, so I had a view of all of the tail lights within the car parking zone.
You might be at all times enthusiastic about what you’re going to write over the course of the sport. Gibson got here up, and I mentioned to myself, “Nicely, that is the story. It’s drama; he’ll in all probability strike out, however that’s drama too.” There was drama on each pitch. He hit a gradual curler up the road that he by no means would have beat out, and it went barely foul. Mike Davis went to second base with out a play, after which the house run.
I wrote my story, and it went on the entrance web page. It was a column, not a sport story. I in contrast it to The Pure when Robert Redford hit the house run. Apart from all of the followers leaving, a number of sports activities writers left earlier than the ninth inning to go right down to the interview room. I by no means depart a sport. As Yogi Berra mentioned, “It’s not over till it’s over,” so I used to be in a position to expertise being there.
What makes the Santa Barbara sports activities media panorama distinctive? Within the higher Santa Barbara space, [it’s the] 5 excessive faculties and the pure rivalries between them. Due to its proximity to Los Angeles, it additionally has a connection to the Dodgers and the Lakers. There’s at all times been a variety of curiosity in these groups, which justified us overlaying these groups.
The local weather and locality make Santa Barbara nice for every kind of sports activities. The oldest polo membership within the U.S. and I believe the pioneers of final frisbee started right here. You title it, and so they play it right here. Additionally, a lot of nice athletes have educated right here and nonetheless do. Carl Lewis educated right here earlier than the 1984 Olympics.
How did you get into sports activities journalism? What led to you making a profession out of sports activities writing? I used to be at UCSB and graduated in 1968, the 12 months of the Mexico Olympics, and began on the Santa Barbara Information-Press within the fall of 1968. It wasn’t simply overlaying video games; all of us needed to put collectively the paper and edit wire copy. There have been teletype machines on this glass-encased room. There was a UPI teletype; there was an AP teletype; there was the New York Occasions teletype and this particular factor known as the race wire that transmitted horse-racing outcomes.
I labored for the yearbook at UCSB. A buddy of mine was sports activities editor of the yearbook my sophomore 12 months, and I assumed I may do this. In highschool, I went to St. Francis of La Cañada Flintridge, the place all people performed sports activities and all people did extracurricular stuff. I labored on each the newspaper and the yearbook…. The paper solely got here out about twice that 12 months as a result of we have been so busy doing every little thing else. We received the CIF Division 3A soccer championship my senior 12 months. That was loopy for me to play within the L.A. Coliseum in entrance of 25,000 individuals after I had seen so many video games there myself.
Sports activities have been a big-time curiosity for me, however I didn’t put two and two collectively to change into a sports activities author. I graduated with a level in anthropology, and I didn’t actually have an thought the way to change into a sports activities author. The important thing was my friendship with Donn Bernstein, the legendary sports activities info director at UCSB.
I used to be prepared to go again to L.A., and Bernstein requested me what I used to be as much as. I mentioned, “Nicely, I’m taking a look at publications.” I truly utilized to Sundown journal. I preferred choosing photos. I didn’t do a variety of writing. I may need written just a few issues for the coed paper, however I don’t bear in mind. Bernstein mentioned to me “The Information-Press is on the lookout for somebody to cowl highschool sports activities.” I assumed I may definitely cowl highschool sports activities. He known as Phil Patton [the sports editor] that afternoon on Sunday and organized for me to come back up Tuesday for an interview, which I did and acquired the job.
What was your favourite a part of the glory days of the Santa Barbara Information-Press? We have been a significant establishment in the neighborhood. There was town authorities, after which there was the Information-Press overlaying issues and maintaining a tally of issues. My first 12 months, 1968-69, was the 12 months of the oil spill in January, 1969. The Information-Press was throughout it.
There was somewhat field on the entrance web page daily, as a result of there was nonetheless leakage on the market, that mentioned, “Oil Spill in its 368th” (or no matter) “day — when will it finish?” I don’t know the way lengthy that little field lasted, however like they are saying, the environmental motion began right here.
Despite the fact that sports activities are supposedly enjoyable and video games, whilst a sports activities author, I really feel that I’m part of one thing vital right here on this city and I’m contributing to it in a sure manner as a result of there may be curiosity in sports activities on this city and a few individuals learn the newspaper due to sports activities.
Who’s your favourite of all time and why? It’s onerous to go in opposition to my good buddy Sam Cunningham due to how nice he was as an athlete once I coated him, particularly once I coated him within the 1973 Rose Bowl, the place he was the star.
4 years earlier, I might have mentioned OJ Simpson was my favourite athlete, as a result of the very first Rose Bowl sport I coated — on January 1, 1969 — was USC in opposition to Ohio State. Simpson ran 80 yards for a landing and he had additionally run on the Easter Relays in Santa Barbara twice. He had all of the glamour and glitz that OJ Simpson turned recognized for. With what occurred in later years, you understand we don’t actually know these individuals.
However within the case of Sam Cunningham, I felt I did know him. He was only a nice, salt-of-the-earth man. He retired from the Patriots because the all-time main rusher, and he went into some type of picture-frame enterprise. He lived in Inglewood, having fun with an everyday middle-class life the remainder of his life. He by no means ran round telling all people how nice he was. He left it to me otherwise you to inform individuals how nice he was. I saved in contact with him, too. I didn’t communicate with OJ. I simply examine him.
A couple of weeks after that Rose Bowl I coated, Sundown journal known as. I flew as much as San Mateo, and so they provided me a job. However Sundown had no sports activities. I used to be eager about open air stuff, however I can’t say that I used to be eager about dwelling furnishings and cabinet-making. The journey side of Sundown me, however I had simply coated the Rose Bowl sport and I sat throughout from OJ Simpson like I’m sitting throughout from you. Phil Patton mentioned he thought they may be capable to maintain me on full-time, so I mentioned, “I’ll take that gamble to remain a sports activities author.”
You have been round in the course of the inception of Title IX and one of many pioneers nationally relating to girls’s sports activities protection. How has that advanced to the place it’s at this time? One of many proudest issues I’ve ever achieved in journalism was, in 1973, I wrote a four-part sequence in regards to the rise of ladies’s sports activities. There’s no point out of Title IX in that sequence; it had handed a 12 months earlier than, however nobody related the dots. However there was nonetheless a motion for extra participation.
Again then, a lot of the ladies’ athletics in highschool was intramural and run by previous fitness center lecturers. The women needed to put on skirts, and basketball was a half-court sport. I anticipated what was coming down. I believe I used to be somewhat forward of my time in writing that sequence.
Sports activities Illustrated got here up with their very own four-part sequence on girls’s sports activities just a few months after that. Not that they have been impressed by me, however somebody at Sports activities Illustrated was pondering the identical factor.
The primary half was an summary, and I wrote about Lyn Carman. She was possibly the second girl to run a marathon. Again then, the AAU [Amateur Athletic Union] had a restrict of half a mile for ladies to compete, which was two laps. At no monitor meet was there an occasion longer than half of 1 mile for ladies. Then there was the previous story in regards to the Boston Marathon and ladies getting pulled off the course once they tried to run. Santa Barbara had one of many early marathons again then, and ladies have been working it. I assumed, why can’t girls have extra alternatives to play sports activities?
The second half was in regards to the funding. The price range for males’s sports activities was like $100,000, and UCSB had 5 girls’s sports activities and the overall price range was $5,000. Partly three, I wrote about whether or not the reply was for ladies to have the ability to compete in opposition to males, however the normal consensus was that wasn’t the way in which to go.
The final half was simply in regards to the tradition of ladies’s sports activities and the way it wasn’t as “win in any respect value” as the boys’s. Initially the AIAW [Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women] didn’t enable scholarships. They wished to maintain it pure and newbie, however in fact that each one advanced, and now girls’s and males’s sports activities are on equal footing relating to successful in any respect prices. I believe that was a reasonably good mission that I did by myself accord.
I started overlaying the us girls’s basketball crew within the Nineteen Nineties, once they made 11 appearances within the NCAA event, together with 9 in a row from 1997-2005. UCSB budgeted $1,000 for ladies’s basketball once I wrote the articles in 1973. Twenty years later, I used to be overlaying the Gaucho girls as they flew to video games everywhere in the nation and made 11 appearances within the NCAA Event.
