Bruce Black, Millennium Hall of Fame

Richard Dunn

The rules were slightly different in water polo from 1965 to 1970,

when Back Bay high schools dominated the CIF Southern Section like no

other time in Newport-Mesa School District sports history.

Corona del Mar and Newport Harbor won CIF championships every autumn

in that six-year span, and some believe the absolute creme de la creme in

that era was the undefeated 1969 Sea King squad that finished 33-0 with

standout Bruce Black, who scored seven of his team’s nine goals in a 9-5

win over Newport Harbor in the CIF finals at Belmont Plaza.

Black was “thrown to the wolves” early in his career when he played on

CdM Coach Cliff Hooper’s CIF championship team as a 6-foot-2, 195-pound

freshman in 1966. Back then, height and weight were primary factors in a

points system that determined varsity players.

Most of CdM’s players that season returned from the previous year,

when the Sea Kings, coached by Ted Newland, won the ’65 CIF title.

“And bingo,” Black said, “I was thrown in the middle of those guys.”

Though Black would never grow taller, he would become one of the most

celebrated aquatics athletes in district annals, then the first four-time

NCAA All-American at UCI.

A longtime Newport Beach lifeguard and considered one of the best

water rescuers of all time, Black was the heart and soul of Hooper’s CIF

championship team in ‘69, earning CIF Player of the Year honors.

“We were never physically tired, Hooper made sure of that,” Black

said. “We were in shape. We could swim with anybody. We could beat JC

teams.”

Most of the seniors on that ’69 team started the next season at a

major college, while two were juniors and became standouts at UCLA: Kurt

Krumpholz and Garth Bergeson. Black, Scott Newcomb (USC), Brett Bernard

(UCI) and Brad Jackson (San Jose State) jumped into the collegiate

starter ranks as freshmen in 1970.

Black said the Sea Kings’ team-oriented style of play under Hooper

placed more emphasis on assists than goals.

“There was none of this one-on-one stuff,” Black said. “We played as a

team. We played defense as a team and we counterattacked as a team ...

even (Newport Harbor Coach) Bill Barnett said it was one of the best CIF

championship teams he had ever seen in water polo.”

Black, the Irvine League Player of the Year as a sophomore in ‘67, was

scoring at will and playing stifling defense at a time when the game was

played with no unlimited fouling, no kick-outs and no extra-man

situations. There was more man-to-man defense played and less zone, he

said.

“You had to be careful,” Black said. “If you fouled too much, you were

gone (after five).”

Similar to his freshman year at CdM, Black was part of a championship

squad his first year in college, when UCI’s Anteaters captured an NCAA

title, beating Santa Clara in sudden-death overtime. UCI finished as NCAA

runner-up in Black’s junior and senior years (1972 and ‘73).

Following his stellar collegiate career, Black played on the U.S.

national team for three years (1973-75), but dislocated his shoulder in

‘75 and never fully recovered to play competitively again.

“I never made an Olympic team, but I think I would’ve made it in 1976

and probably 1980,” said Black, who added his career “ended very

abruptly” at age 24.

Black was the third Corona del Mar water polo player to garner CIF

Player of the Year accolades, following Pat McClellan in 1966 and Jerry

Eubank in ‘68, in the school’s early years.

As a Newport Beach lifeguard from 1968 to ‘83, Black made his mark on

hundreds of occasions, saving people from drowning in the ocean and

inspiring many in the junior program along the way.

“Bruce was the icon we all wanted to be like,” said Dave Wenger, who

completed his 26th summer this year as a local lifeguard. “Bar none, he

was the best waterman Newport Beach has ever seen. The guy was

phenomenal.”

Black, who was a part-time (or seasonal) lifeguard, is the latest

honoree to be featured in the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame.

Black, who is single and lives in Costa Mesa, is pursuing a new career

as a registered nurse and currently is working at Fairview Developmental

Hospital. He spent 15 years as a real estate broker.