My sister called me at work. She was a tad angry.
“You talked to Dwight Clark and you didn’t tell me?” Mary practically yelled into the phone.
She had picked up that day’s edition of the Roseville Press-Tribune and came across a photo I had taken of Joe Montana and Clark holding an autographed 49er team football with Sierra College football coach Rex Chappell. It was for a benefit for the Sierra College Wolverines football team.
The day the photo was taken the 49ers had just completed a 101-degree mid-afternoon summer camp workout at the Sierra College campus in Rocklin.
There was a short story with it because Clark wanted people to know how important it was to support community college and high school football teams as he knew many friends who did not go on to play big time college football or make it to the pros who benefitted immensely from being part of a team.
Clark expressed it was an effective way to cement the value of working with others to achieve a common goal, underscore the concept of hard work and delayed gratification, as well as to learn how to bounce back from setbacks
I had a fair amount of encounters with Clark and the 49ers given their summer training camp was in Rocklin during the years I was sports editor in Roseville.
The year prior in 1981, I happened to be at Candlestick Park when Clark made “The Catch.”
I was there doing a game-day feature on Danny Bunz, a Roseville product who graduated from Oakmont High. He ended up wearing No. 57 and played linebacker for the 49ers.
Bunz was the key player in the two successful goal line stances against the Bengals that led to the team’s first Super Bowl victory.
At any rate, I was on the opposite side of the field waiting to go into the locker room for post-game interviews kitty corner from the western end zone where Clark made his leaping catch of a Montana pass.
As luck would have it, team owner Ernie DeBartolo Jr. was standing two people away.
What I remember most about that moment wasn’t “the Catch” per se but DeBartolo going bonkers jumping up and down and hugging everyone within a 20-foot radius including me.
Clark’s passing at age 61 seven years ago this month in 2018 as the result of ALS disease reminded me that most pro athletes aren’t jerks as they often come off today in the echo chamber of social media.
During my stint as sports editor at The Press-Tribune in the 1980s, I covered a Roseville go-cart sensation by the name of Scott Pruett who retired after a successful Indy Car racing career.
I also did endless stories on Roseville High graduate Robbie Bosco who ended up as a two-time Heisman Trophy candidate who finished third the year he quarterbacked the BYU Cougars to the national championship.
The coverage included spending the better part of a week in Provo where I also interviewed the likes of LaVell Edwards and Mike Holmgren, the BYU head coach and quarterback coach, respectively.
At the end of one practice I wanted to get some staged photos of Bosco passing behind him.
Edwards, upon hearing the request came out of his office with Steve Young — who has just signed a $37 million deal with the LA Express of the now defunct United States Football League — in tow. He asked Young to go with Bosco to catch some passes and throw the ball back while I got photos of Bosco.
To this day, I remember Young walking downfield 50 yards and having Bosco throw three dozen or so passes.
I was completely amazed by Young’s arm that I committed the ultimate hearsay at the time as far as 49er fans were concerned by penning a sports column several years later when Young was signed as a backup 49er quarterback to Montana by expressing the belief he was as good, if not better, than Montana.
My tenure as sports editor in Roseville back when it was a 15,000 daily was blessed to say the least.
The world’s fastest woman sprinter at the time, Evelyn Ashford, was a Roseville High graduate. The top money leader on the Professional Bowling Association circuit was Steve Cook, another Roseville High graduate.
The high schools in our coverage area produced a number of stellar collegiate athletes who were playing at the time as well as the USFL Oakland Invaders starting quarterback Fred Besana and Greco-Roman wrestler Mark Fuller who went on to become a three-time Olympians.
The high schools weren’t shabby either.
Oakmont High had a swimming sensation by the name of Summer Sanders that we were the first to cover.
And because we were an afternoon paper (the big Sacramento dailies at the time — The Bee and The Union were morning papers —and my sports features racked up a few writing awards with Associated Press), I was offered the AP sports stringer job for Sacramento when the Kings came to town.
I ended up covering the Kings for 5½ years missing only one game that conflicted with my annul trip to Death Valley.
The wire service seat was front and center next to the home team bench affording me a ringside seat to the play of NBA greats of the era such as Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, and Michael Jordan to name few.
Looking back, the best part about being sports editor was covering eight high schools and two community colleges.
Don’t get me wrong. The chance to cover people who were successful post high school was great.
But what Dwight Clark said that day is true: Providing programs so teens can learn how to win as a team and learn from setbacks is sports at its best.
— This column is the opinion of Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Courier or 209 Multimedia. He may be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
