Pali High Alums to Be Inducted into City Hall of Fame

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

The Los Angeles City Section holds its 2017 Sports Hall of Fame Induction ceremony in April and Palisades High will be well represented. Current boys and girls tennis coach Bud Kling and four former Dolphin athletes are among the event’s 44 honorees.

Kling has piloted Palisades to 41 City crowns (24 boys, 17 girls) since taking over the program in 1979 and he became only the third prep tennis coach in California history to surpass the 1,000-win mark in 2014. He is the winningest coach in any sport in section history. Last spring, the Pali High boys won their record eighth straight title while the girls won their fourth in a row in the fall. Kling lives in the Palisades with his wife Cheryl.

Three of the four volleyball inductees are Dolphins: Chris Marlowe (Class of 1969), Tauna Vandeweghe (‘77) and Ricci Luyties (‘80).

Marlowe, the play-by-play announcer for the Denver Nuggets of the NBA, was a two-sport star at Palisades, leading the basketball team to the City title in 1969 under coach Jerry Marvin and was one of six All-Americans on the volleyball team under Howard Enstedt. He went on to play both sports at San Diego State. Marlowe was the starting setter on the Aztecs’ 1973 NCAA championship team, twice got voted USA Volleyball’s MVP and captured eight beach volleyball titles, including two Manhattan Beach Opens. He also captained the USA’s gold-medal men’s volleyball team at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Vandeweghe was a backstroker on the 1976 U.S. Olympic team and  went on to swim and play volleyball at UCLA. She was an alternate on the silver medal-winning U.S. Olympic volleyball squad in 1984. Her older brother Kiki was a basketball star at Pali High and   UCLA and played in the NBA from 1980-93. Her father, Dr. Ernie Vandeweghe, played in the NBA and was later team doctor for the Los Angeles Lakers, her mother Colleen Kay Hutchins was the 1952 Miss America and her daughter  Coco Vandeweghe is a professional tennis player and advanced to her first-ever Grand Slam semifinal Monday after upsetting world No. 1 Angelique Kerber in the fourth round of the Australian Open.

One of five basketball inductees is Steve Kerr, who grew up in the Palisades and played baseball and basketball at Pali High before continuing his basketball career under Lute Olson at the University of Arizona. He played 15 seasons in the NBA, winning three titles with the Chicago Bulls and two with the San Antonio Spurs, and retired in 2003 as the league’s all-time leader in three-point shooting percentage for a career (.454). He became an analyst for TNT and spent three years as general manager of the Phoenix Suns before returning to broadcasting. He coached the Golden State Warriors to their first title in 40 years in 2014-15 and led them to a record 73 wins last season.

Also in the City’s 2017 Hall of Fame class are broadcasting icon Al Michaels (Hamilton, ’62); three-time NFL Pro Bowler Keyshawn Johnson (Dorsey, ’92); and Boston Red Sox three-time All-Star Dwight Evans (Chatsworth, ’69).