I wish I’d gotten more out of my time at UCLA.
And since thousands of graduates have this very same revelation
every June, I know there are a lot of seniors who feel me on that
one right now.
For me, that means I wish I’d visited Chip Anderson during
his office hours one more time. Or just once cursed the Trojans at
the top of my lungs in a huge crowd at a Beat ‘SC Bonfire
Rally.
Or sat at Staples Center to watch Ray Young redeem an entire
basketball season ““ and arguably his own five-year career
““ with a game-tying three against Arizona that kept our title
hopes alive for one more day.
But somewhere along the road, I took the soon-to-be-proverbial
blue pill, and I found myself at Drake Stadium at six in the
morning on Monday of 10th week, living vicariously through a few
die-hard athletes who are taking advantage of UCLA while it’s
still here for them.
Ildred Natareno is, like me, a fourth-year transfer student;
unlike me, she’s going to stick around for a fifth.
Also unlike me, she was at the track to get some exercise.
“I’m an early bird,” she said. “If I
don’t go out running, my day’s not the same.”
It’s only her second year at UCLA, but she said
she’s already developed some lasting memories. Many were
formed at Drake Stadium two summers ago when she first set foot on
campus for the Transfer Summer Program.
“Even then I kinda dragged my roommate into doing this,
too.”
Minutes later, Erin Hong walks down to the track. She’s a
first-year undeclared student, but I’m guessing she’ll
end up on south campus.
“I took a Phy Sci 5 class, and I learned that if you (run)
early, you get to burn more fat,” she said before rattling
off some mumbo jumbo about carbohydrates and electrolytes that I
forgot around the time I declared my psych major.
Yong Oh made my day. He’s a visiting math professor from
the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who was at UCLA for an
upcoming math conference.
“No way, I was born in Madison!” I replied after he
introduced himself.
“Are you sure?” he asked me, keeping a straight
face.
Later, I headed down to the other end of the field, where a
familiar face was calmly instructing three students who were
scaling the stadium steps.
It was Josh Johnson, a UCLA alum, who, in the same year he
finished No. 2 in the country in the javelin (1998), earned an NCAA
postgraduate scholarship.
I first met Josh last year when he was training at Drake with
men’s track and field head coach Art Venegas, and I quickly
determined he’s the easiest athlete to interview, ever.
These days, he holds private personal training sessions at UCLA
four days a week in the early morning. Sometimes the group runs
Bruin Walk, sometimes it jogs around the track. Today the members
were doing the stairs.
For Johnson it’s not as fun as throwing a javelin, but it
pays the bills.
“You ever get anyone famous?” I asked.
He pointed to an older man in a beanie hustling down the
stairs.
“That’s my dad, Rafer Johnson,” he said.
Rafer Johnson, gold medalist in the decathlon at the 1960
Olympic games, is certainly among the best athletes in UCLA
history. But for the last two years, it’s been Josh who lays
down the workout routine, a fact that invoked a subtle grin on his
face. At 67, Rafer is probably in better shape than me.
You might even remember him from such films as “License to
Kill,” “The Last Grenade” and “Pirates of
Tortuga.”
But you probably don’t.
I, however, have come to appreciate UCLA history enough that I
can enjoy a trip out to the track on a dreadfully early misty
morning without even breaking a sweat.
I guess that counts for something, right?
Upon review of my birth certificate, I was, in fact, born in
Madison.