Prep b BB: Walton's jersey retired

Gordon Ash (in Helix green jacket) at the Bill Walton

tribute. Ash, 90, was Walton's high school coach

in 1968-69 and 1969-70 when the Highlanders

won back-to-back San Diego CIF Section titles.

The others seated (L-R) include Steve Fonz, Felix

Rogers (next to  Ash), former Monte Vista coach,

and Emery Elles, 1963-64 CIF Player of the Year.

(Photo by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

Gordon Ash, 90 years young, was eating up the attention as he stood under the basket, supported by his walker.

Ash, Bill Walton's high school coach when Helix High won CIF San Diego Section titles back-to-back in 1968-69 and 1969-70, lingered for minutes as the tribute to Walton--and his belated number-32 jersey retirement--continued, with narration over the public address system as fans attending the Highlander-University City High boys basketball game took in the halftime event Friday evening, Jan. 3.

Gordon, with his wife Carolyn, spry as a bug, and eldest daughter (of three) Lisa on the sidelines, repeatedly tried to loft a basketball from his earthly perch near the basketball hoop. He tried overhand, then multiple times underhand. It wasn't to be, but video and still photographers beyond the baseline recorded every moment as Ash smiled, commented again and again.

Finally, he the gregarious nonogenarian struck up a conversation with his younger companion on the court, Pat Albanese, who played on Ash's teams with Walton.

The oft-repeated story was that Bill Walton himself was key in forming the squad that would eventually go on to win the two CIF championships: He had attended Catholic K-8 school growing up--St. Augustine High couldn't wait to get their chops into the budding basketball superstar--and went over to Mike Dupree's house to convince Dupree's parents that their son should enroll at Helix High and play basketball there.

"He saw what a good thing could happen here," said Dupree in a courtside interview before the Helix-UCHS game. Dupree, not a bad basketball player himself, had attended St. Martin's with Walton.

But the detour to Helix was a change from the normal, which would have plotted Walton and Dupree and their other Catholic school classmates continuing on to St. Augustine, an all-boy's school, which has a rich basketball tradition itself.

The rest is history, as the Highlanders under Coach Ash, a campus biology teacher, built dominant teams during the Walton years. Walton was CIF Player of the Year in 1970, his senior year. Dupree did fine in his own right, garnering First Team All-League honors.

Walton, who overcame a marked stutter in his younger years to become an NBA and college basketball analyst, had the persuasive words, convincing Mike's parents that it would be a good thing to put their son in the public school--a difficult choice for any parent who has sent their kids to private and/or parochial school.