Helix Charter High School refurbished its on-campus gymnasium a few years ago. Cherished memories from the past remain untouched.
It’s hard to erase what Bill Walton, in particular, accomplished there on the way to a storied career at UCLA (two NCAA championships and three national college player of the year awards) and in the NBA during a 14-year career (two league championships and two-time NBA all-star) .
In many ways, Walton’s name remains synonymous with the La Mesa school and at the top of San Diego Section basketball history.
His was a big life to celebrate — and embrace.
Walton graduated from the East County school in 1970 on his way to stardom in the college basketball ranks (1971-74), winning the 1972 and 1973 Final Four titles under iconic coach John Wooden with the Bruins.
A three-time consensus first-team All-American, Walton won the James E. Sullivan Award in 1973 as the nation’s most outstanding athlete at the collegiate of Olympic levels.
At 6-11, he towered over most of humanity. His greatness was felt on the court as well as through his philanthropy.
But he was also very human. He endured years of pain from foot and leg ailments and was unable to perform for multiple seasons.
He also overcame stuttering, a social stigma, which handicapped him during his youth.
His love was basketball. It was a way to escape into another universe. He made it his own world.
He followed his older brother Bruce onto the hardwood at Helix. Bruce and Bill share history as the only brothers to play in a Super Bowl (Bruce with the Dallas Cowboys in 1975) and NBA Finals.
Bill Walton led Helix to 49 consecutive victories during his two varsity seasons. The Scotties won CIF section titles in both 1969 and 1970. The Highlanders went 29-2 in 1968-69 and 33-0 in 1969-70.
He averaged 29 points and 25 rebounds as a senior and still holds the national shot percentage record art 78.3.
That was just the beginning for the red head as he helped engineer a marathon 88-game winning streak with the Bruins. He averaged 20.3 points, 15.7 rebounds and 5.5 assists during three seasons at UCLA en route to the NBA’s No. 1 draft pick with the Portland Trail Blazers in 1974.
His NBA career lasted from 1974-1988. He played for three teams: Portland Trail Blazers (1974-79), San Diego Los Angeles Clippers (1979-85) and Boston Celtics (1985-88). He won his first NBA title in 1977 with the Trail Blazers and his second in 1986 with the Celtics.
At times it was a struggle. But he managed to overcome adversity each time.
After four injury-plagued seasons with the Clippers, a rehabilitated Walton reinvented himself as a back-up center behind Boston’s Robert Parish, winning the league’s Sixth Man of the Year award in 1985-86.
Over the course of his NBA career, he scored 6,215 points (13.3 points per game), grabbed 4,923 rebounds (10.5 rpg) and dished out 1,590 assists (3.4 apg).
He was the NBA Finals MVP in 1977 and the NBA’s Most Valuable Player in 1978. He led the league in rebounds (1977) and blocks (1977).
His No. 32 has been retired by both the Trail Blazers and UCLA.
He is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (inducted in 1993) and National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame (inducted in 2006).
Other accolades include being inducted into the National High School Sports Hall of Fame in 1997, the California Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.
In 2009, he was named one of the top 50 sportscasters of all time by the American Sportscasters Association.
A bronze statue of Walton was unveiled at Ski Beach Park in Mission Bay in 2016.
He was inducted into the Boys and Girls Clubs of America Alumni Hall of Fame in 2017 and the gymnasium at the Boys and Girls Clubs of America in Santee was named in his honor in 2018. The Bill Walton Gymnasium is located inside the 26,000-square-foot Brady Family Clubhouse.
Close to home, Walton was honored in a ceremony at Helix on Jan. 3 as former teammates from the 1969 and 1970 CIF championship teams, along with coach Gordon Nash, gathered to remember him.
At nearly seven feet tall, he definitely had the penchant to stand out from the crowd.
The San Diego Gulls hosted Bill Walton Legacy Night last Friday at Pechanga Arena San Diego.
The Gulls made it a fun evening for everyone in attendance. Walton bobble-heads were the prize giveaway to the first 8,000 fans through the door. Gulls players wore specialty tie dye uniforms that were auctioned off to fans after the game through the San Diego Gulls Foundation. Fans could also buy replica jerseys and other Walton-themed items from merchandise booths.
The Electric Waste Band, a Grateful Dead tribute band, serenaded fans prior to the game and during in-game breaks. Walton was one of the biggest Deadheads, accompanying the band on its 1978 tour of Egypt when the band played in front of the Great Pyramids. A tie die aficionado, he reportedly attended more than 850 shows.
(He was the inaugural inductee in the Gratefull Dead Hall of Honor in 2001.)
Walton was an avid Gulls fans. He grew up, in fact, with the original Gulls of the Western Hockey League (1966-74) and also was a fan of the San Diego Rockets NBA expansion franchise (1967-71). As a teenager, he met and befriended such Rockets stars as Elvin Hayes and Calvin Murphy.
He obviously cheered for the Gulls’ greatest player, Willie O’Ree, who after retiring from hockey, made his home in La Mesa.
The Gulls feted O’Ree on his 89th birthday earlier this season with a private ceremony in the team’s locker room, presenting the San Diego hockey icon with a new fedora.
Trivia was aplenty on the arena scoreboard. Walton’s favorite drink was a date shake, he had a tee-pee in his San Diego backyard and wore size 17 Nike shoes (a gasp went up from the 11,559 in attendance).
One of Walton’s laments was not being able to play more games in his hometown and help the Clippers cement themselves in America’s Finest City. The Rockets have since won two NBA championships and four Western Conference titles since relocating to Houston.
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Walton’s super-sized legacy lives on in a second generation. Luke Walton, one of Bill’s four sons by his first wife Susie, won two NBA titles with the Los Angeles Lakers (2009 and 2010) and has since served as both a head coach and assistant coach in the league, winning a subsequent title as an assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors.
Luke and Bill Walton are the first father-son duo to win multiple NBA championships.
Luke Walton attended University of San Diego High School (forerunner of Cathedral Catholic High School) with his three brothers.
It was a family affair.
Add Gulls
Despite lodged in last place in the 10-team Pacific Division, the Gulls have consistently proven they can go toe-to-toe with the top teams in the division – and, in fact, the 32-team league.
The Gulls captured three of six possible points in a recent three-game series against the division-leading Calgary Wranglers and pulled up close with 5-3 and 3-1 home ice setbacks to the Toronto Marlies, the No. 4 team in the Eastern Conference.
The Gulls first tangled with the Wranglers, the AHL affiliate of the NHL Calgary Flames in a Jan. 18 game celebrating Lunar New Year. The Wranglers took a 2-0 lead in the divisional contest. The host Gulls rebounded to erased four separate Calgary leads in absorbing a 6-5 overtime defeat.
The hosts rallied to lead 5-4 late in the contest. The Wranglers weren’t finished, as it turned out, by tying the game, 5-5, on a goal with just 12 seconds remaining in regulation. The Canadian visitors then capped their electric comeback with a goal just 47 seconds into the five-minute overtime period.
The series moved to Canada for the second and third matchups. The hosts stymied a determined Gulls effort with a 7-5 comeback win on Jan. 25. The Gulls carved out a 3-0 lead in the game but found themselves skating in a 4-4 deadlock by the end of the second period. The Wranglers scored twice to start the third period with a power play goal and shorthanded goal to assume a 6-4 lead.
The Gulls weren’t quite finished, however, as team captain Ryan Carpenter scored with 41 seconds remaining in regulation to bring the visitors to within one goal on the scoreboard. Calgary finally grabbed the victory on the strength of an empty net goal with a scant three seconds left. If there was a consolation, the Gulls out-shot the Wranglers 35-27, including 18-7 in the third period.
The Gulls finally got a bead on the Wranglers, the top team in the AHL standings, with a 5-4 overtime win on Jan. 26. Calgary led early by scores of 1-0 and 2-1 before the Southern California visitors went ahead 3-2 through two periods. The Wranglers out-scored the Gulls 2-1 in the third period to force a 4-4 standoff on the scoreboard through regulation play.
The Gulls got a measure of revenge as Tristan Luneau scored a power play goal 1:31 into overtime to net the game-winner. The Gulls out-shot the Wranglers in all three consecutive encounters.
“We were ready for a response,” San Diego coach Matt McIlvane said. “We felt like each time we played Calgary in the past week we’ve had chances to close out games. We’ve come up short, and so there’s a desperation within our group to go out and earn the result. It was a back-and-forth hockey game, it felt competitive. Both teams capitalized on power plays, in the end we got the one extra ficve-on-four, which was the difference.”
The Gulls returned to San Diego to host the Marlies on Jan. 29 and Jan. 31. An empty net goal decided the first match-up while Toronto tacked on a late goal in the rematch to expand on a tight 2-1 advantage.
The Gulls closed out the first month of 2025 with the AHL Player of the Month for January — Sasha Pastujov. The 21-yerar-old right wing recorded six goals and 13 assists for 19 points in 22 games during the month. Included was an 11-game point streak, tied for the longest this season in the league. Pastujov has logged 29 points in 27 games for the Gulls to lead the team in scoring at the All-Star break.
Seeing red
The Lunar New Year started Jan. 29 and lasts until Feb. 12. Part of traditional ceremonies is the exchanging or red envelopes.
There was a lot of red on the ice in the Jan. 18 contest at Pechanga Arena San Diego as both teams wore red uniforms.
The Gulls were left seeing red when Martin Frk scored at the 15:53 mark to give the Canadian visitors a 1-0 lead. The play started off a face-off. The goal was Frk’s 12th of the season while Clark Bishop netted his 16th assist of the season. At the time of the goal, San Diego had out-shot Calgary 13-7 (9-4 early in the game).
The Gulls got a chance to tie things up when they were awarded a power play with 2:31 to play in the opening period. The hosts got off two shots but were called twice for icing as the first period ended with San Diego holding a 15-8 edge in shots.
Each team scored once in the second period. The Wranglers made it 2-0 at 8:30 on Jonathan Aspirot’s third goal of the season, assisted by Brett Davis and Parker Bell.
The teams exchanged some unpleasantries before the Gulls pulled back in the game on a power play goal by Pastujov at13:33, his 10th goal of the season, assisted by Luneau (his 12th) and Jan Mysak (his 10th).
The Gulls once again out-shot the Wranglers, 13-5, in the second period for a two period total of 28-13.
The hosts entered the third period on the tail end of a power play but went scoreless. They got another chance at 4:35 for high sticking and were again held without a goal.
But things changed in a dramatic way as the Wrangler got sloppy with the puck along the boards and Judd Caulfield scored on a short breakaway at 7:21 to knot the score at 2-2.
But turnabout proved fair play as Calgary scored an unassisted goal on a shot by Bell from inside the blue line at 8:02 to push the Wranglers ahead 3-2.
But the Calgary lead was very short-lived as the Gulls came back 25 seconds later to tie the game at 3-all. Luneau got the game-tying goal, assisted by Nathan Gaucher and Caulfield. The goal was Luneau’s third of the season while Caulfield picked up his 10th assist and Gaucher his fifth
But the visitors pounced right back to inch ahead, 4-3, on a goal by Sam Morton (his ninth) at 9:22. Assists went to Dryden Hunt (his 25th) and William Stromgren (his 19th).
That’s a whirlwind of four goals scored between the teams in 2:01 of play. The shot total at this point had the Gulls in front 33-21 on the division leaders.
The scoring by no means was over as the hosts came back once more to tie the game, this time, 4-4, on a storm of action in front of the Calgary net. Pavol Regenda got the latest equalizer, his fourth goal of the season, assisted by Ryan Carpenter and Coulson Pitre at 11:11.
It was the Wranglers’ turn to play with the man advantage with 5:40 to play in regulation as a Calgary player was sent crashing into the San Diego net. But it was the Gulls who benefited as Gaucher scored shorthanded just 25 seconds into the penalty.
5-4 Gulls.
The Wranglers pulled their starter with 1:30 to play in a bid to force overtime. The Gulls took one swipe at the empty net but missed and that proved pivotal as the Wranglers stormed back to tie the game, 5-5, with just 12 seconds to play. Hunter Brzustewicz scored the tying goal, assisted by Jeremie Poirier (his 17th) and Hunt (his 26th). The goal was the third of the season for Brzustewicz.
The regulation portion of the game ended with the Gulls holding a 38-27 edge in shots. Calgary caught up a bit with a 14-10 edge in the third period.
On to the five-minute, three-on-three overtime period that lasted 47 seconds as the Wranglers successfully executed a 2-on-1 break down the ice. Bishop scored the game-winner, assisted by Frk and Ila Solovyov. Bishop was the lead on the break, passing to Frk, who drew Gulls netminder Oscar Dansk to the near post before passing across the cage back to Bishop for the tap in at the far post.
Gulls Gallery
Photos by Paul Martinez
