This Time He Was the Big One That Got Away

Lifelong scuba driver Ray McAllister, 82, a retired oceanography professor, recently told the Miami Herald about some of his adventures over the years.

He said that in 1960, while diving in Bermuda, he jumped on a humpback whale. His left foot got stuck in the blowhole, and the whale started to dive. McAllister managed to escape, but he had sprained his ankle, so he went to a nearby hospital.

“Where it asked how the accident happened,� McAllister told the newspaper, “I wrote, ‘Jumped on the back of a humpback whale and got my foot caught in her blowhole.’ Where it asked what steps were being taken to prevent a recurrence of the accident, I wrote, ‘I won’t jump on any more whales.’ �

Epilogue: McAllister said he lost his boot when he pulled his foot out of the blowhole, and a couple of months later he read in a Norwegian newspaper about a female humpback whale that had been taken off Bermuda with a boot in her left blowhole.

McAllister’s story was once voted best fish story in a contest, but it was disqualified, he said, because “it was ruled a mammal story, not a fish story.�

Trivia time: What former Verdugo Hills High and Glendale College basketball star was a starting forward for the University of San Francisco team that won a second consecutive NCAA championship in 1956?

A college man after all: Sparky Anderson threw out the first pitch Saturday at an alumni game at the new baseball field named in his honor at Cal Lutheran. Among a crowd of about 500 was Hall of Fame broadcaster Ernie Harwell.

Anderson has lived in Thousand Oaks for more than 30 years, but he did not attend Cal Lutheran. In fact, Anderson, a Dorsey High graduate, has often said, “I only had a high school education and, believe me, I had to cheat to get that.�

Name game: With the Ducks dropping “Mighty� from their nickname next season, reader Bill Littlejohn wonders if they’ll be known as the “Los Angeles Ducks of Anaheim.�

Stunning news: Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle, on the firing of U.S. Olympic skeleton coach Tim Nardiello: “The skeleton team has a coach?�

Looking back: On this day in 1988, the Washington Redskins scored 35 points in the second quarter to overcome a 10-0 deficit and beat the Denver Broncos, 42-10, in Super Bowl XXII at San Diego. Doug Williams, named the game’s most valuable player, passed for four touchdowns and a Super Bowl-record 340 yards.

Trivia answer: Carl Boldt, who will be inducted into the USF Hall of Fame Friday night. By the end of the 1955-56 season, the Dons had won 55 games in a row. They extended that streak the next season to a then-record 60. Boldt was a starting forward.

And finally: Boldt was having breakfast recently with John Wooden and UCLA booster Jim Pagliuso when Pagliuso asked Wooden what he thought about Boldt’s finally making the USF Hall of Fame.

“It took some time to put a man on the moon too, you know,� Wooden said.

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Larry Stewart can be reached at [email protected].