June 1986 Volleyball Monthly

example, he won every Open
tournament from 1955 to 1961. He
rarely missed a final, if not a victory, at
every venue on the fledgling circuit —
Santa Barbara’s East Beach, San Diego’s
Old Mission, Sorrento in Santa Monica,
and at Gene’s newfound home of State
Beach. His dominance was built on two
complimentary' facts.
First, as an All-Army football player
who received several college scholarship
offers and as a quick, high-leaping
basketball center, his athletic ability was
unmatched at his new game — and he
knew it.
Second, following that State Beach
event in 1950, he came under the
tutelage of Holtzman, a master strategist
and patient teacher who was about the
best on the beach before Gene
happened along. Bernie filled in the
tactical gaps of Selznick’s repertoire, and
the combination of technical skill and
athletic arrogance proved to be
unbeatable.
Beach ball, however, was of secondary'
importance to Selznick, Holtzman and
most of their contcmparies of the 1950s.
lite beach was a way to stay in shape
for the indoor season, which culminated
at the USVBA National Championships
each spring. Selznick joined Holtzman’s
team for the 1951 season, and was a
USVBA All-American for most of the
next 1 5 years.
He was also captain of the USA’s Pan
American Games championship teams in
1955 and 1959, All-World at the 1956
World Championships, a successful
volleyball coach and subject of Sports
Illustrated stories in 1966 and 1967.
Still today, to an older generation of
casual fans before the American
volleyball successes of the 1980s,
Selznick was the best-known American
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player ever. And the most controversial,
always involved with the USVBA
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The beach promised peace, along with
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remembered that professional problems
would not begin until 1976, and that
money wasn’t an issue until then. Which
is not to say that pressure to win and
earn a spot of immortality on the wall of
the Sorrento Grill wasn’t intense. It
certainly was. But the 50s were also an
era when a player named John Miller
kept winning in perspective by trading a
first-place trophy for a pitcher of beer at
the Sorrento Grill. For Selznick, it had
become a comfortable kingdom to rule,
until a new generation of players
appeared to threaten his reign.
Three newcomers were athletes who
had excelled in other sports and came
to the beach for the change and the
challenge, finally confronting Selznick
with competitors who could match him
in natural ability.
The best of them was Mike O’Hara, a
basketball and intramural volleyball
player from UCIA. O’Hara was tall,
left-handed and a blaster who could also
swing with his right, and as a youngster
back in ’56 he and Ron I.ang, a
19-year-old USC student, had upset
Selznick-Holtzman at Santa Barbara.
Selznick met this challenge by replacing
the aging Holtzman with Lang in 1958.
O'Hara countered with Mike Bright, a
6-4 national paddleboard champion from
Manhattan Beach. The battle was truly
joined.
For the first time in his volleyball life,
Selznick found himself at a physical
disadvantage. Ling was a pudgy
six-footer — Gene called him “Fatty” —
so they were collectively smaller than
O’Hara-Bright. And Gene had come up
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during the no-bump era, and even
though he had converted to underhand
passing he had never really developed
an accurate bump. Bright and O’Hara,
seasoned international players as well as
beach stars, both passed well, and at
their height they didn’t need much of a
set. They also put up a wall at the net, a
relatively new tactic on the beach.
I^tng, the subject of next month’s
profile, was the perfect partner for
Selznick. In many ways he was a modern
version of Holtzman — mentally tough,
instinctively quick, technically flawless,
but more critically, considering his
partner’s most exploitable flaw, Lang
could get under an errant pass and
nurse it to the net.
Selznick-Utng stopped O’Hara-Bright
in the finals at Laguna in 1958 and again
in 1961. O’Hara-Bright were victorious
at the inaugural and instantly successful
Manhattan Beach Open in 1960, and
won the next three as well.
Selznick-Lang came back to win
Manhattan in 1965.
■
The first time I saw Gene Selznick
play was in 1965. I’ve been writing
about volleyball since 1966, and have
reconstructed the early history through
conversations with such longtime
observers as Ross Sims, Bobby Barber,
Steno Brunicardi, Jack Adriance and the
players themselves. In a 1966 interview,
Mike O'Hara told me that he was the
best player on the beach, that his record
versus Selznick proved it. And beach
records being what they are, the
contention is hard to dispute; informed
estimates have both players totalling
open wins somewhere in the 30s.
But by 1965 both Selznick and O’Hara
were in the twilight of their illustrious
playing careers. Selz was 35, his bowed
legs were springless, he moved over the
court in a crablike manner. O’Hara had
shoulder trouble. And both stars were
being strongly pushed by a vanguard of
exceptional athletes: Rand Carter, a
record-breaking quarterback for Santa
Monica College and San Jose State who
had grown up on the beaches of Santa
Monica; Keith Erickson, the UCLA
basketball All-American and future
professional star who was probably the
finest pure athlete ever to play
volleyball; UCLA footballer Bill Lecka;
the powerful Ernie Suwara, and the
player who would ultimately become
the best of them all, Ron Von Hagen, to
whom Ron Lang jumped to in 1966 .
Beach ball had attained a new level of
skill and competitiveness, the fast-paced
action and easy ambiance was attracting
crowds, who identified with and
cheered for the stars, and though
Selznick was fading. 1966 was a test he
passed like a champion...or a king.
To my young eye it was clear that he
Continued on Page 36
June l()86 VOLLEYBALL MONTHLY