I’ve been doing this job for 15 years and I’ve only ever done one sports interview in my life.
In 2013, before UC played UCLA at Haas, the Pac-12 contacted me and asked me to interview Bill Walton.
While I had pretty much mastered every other aspect of the sports media job, I never loved interviews – I had no training for them and had zero confidence in them at the time.
But he’s Bill, and in typical Bill fashion, he was willing to talk to anyone.
It wasn’t a historic interview. It was the last of about 10 interviews conducted that day. And, of course, the audio microphone broke and the video camera stopped recording midway through, so only a small portion of that interview will ever see the light of day (Scroll to the end to see the rest).
In the end, it became a conversation between a fan and a legend.
He recorded something that we all know about him, but in Bill’s many neural pathways it was its own unique and special experience.
He loved Berkeley. He loved the Pac-12. He loved the West Coast.
Bill’s parents attended UC Berkeley, so he made many trips to the base of the greatest university on earth as a child, and he waxed poetic about what it meant to be a part of that experience. His face lit up as he thought of all the names and faces who graduated from his alma mater, to be able to walk through the history of Telegraph Avenue, and how this place has changed so many lives.
Even though he attended other universities, Bill spoke fondly of UC, which shows how much he loved Berkeley – in many ways, it was his spiritual home.
He spoke of the legendary concerts at the Greek Theater, where he became a lifelong Deadhead. He fondly recalled the Free Speech Movement that began at UC Berkeley and eventually led to protests against the Vietnam War at UCLA. He was deeply involved in the Berkeley counterculture and knew that the students there kept their ears to the issues of the day and what was most important in the world.
It’s well-known that if the Bears had shown even the slightest interest in basketball after Pete Newell’s departure, Bill might have ended up at Cal State, and who knows how different our fortunes might have been had one of college basketball’s greatest giants led the Bears to a few top appearances in the NCAA Tournament.
Although Bill will always be defined by his time with the Bruins.Berkeley and the Bay Area had always felt like a place where he could be his true self. Every time Bill returned to Berkeley for a UC game, you could hear his voice lighten up and his spirits lift, especially when Haas was in high spirits. He was happy when UC was successful and loved to feel that energy every time he came into town.
I’m glad he was back just in time for Mark Madsen to be here, and after so many years of loneliness, his final memories of Berkeley will surely have been joyous ones.
Bill Walton’s career has been talked about and eloquently written about elsewhere – his UCLA legend, the NBA’s biggest “what if” story and his wild career as an announcer – but for us UC fans, and many here, it was his final run as a Pac-12 defender that really got us to know him.
You couldn’t ask for a better advocate for the Conference of Champions than Bill. As the leader of Pac-12 basketball, he became the conference’s supreme executive, proclaiming the conference’s greatness and superiority in his usual stream-of-consciousness manner. Beyond the play on the court, traveling to the forests of Oregon, the mountains of Washington, the music of the Bay Area, the art of Hollywood and bike trails of all places was part of Bill’s ethos. Part Ric Flair, part Rick Steves, Walton took us inside his mind and poured his passion and knowledge into a topic that mattered. And a lot of it was steeped in love with the West Coast.and Pac-12 programs.
But California is the place to be. The Pac-12 is the place to be. As I travel around this great conference and see the great people, I feel so blessed and honored and humbled to be a part of something so great. I don’t know about you, but no one is going to call me and let me know, “Oh, I’m so lucky, I’m moving to the Midwest!” or “Oh, I can’t wait, I’m moving to the South!” Nope!
For a conference that’s never really done much marketing-wise, the Pac-12’s most unqualified success has been Bill Walton’s nightly late-night evangelism. He spent most of his After Dark antics defending his beloved Conference of Champions, despite ESPN’s sudden move to end the Pac-12 as a relevant institution. The “No Truckstops” moniker became a battle cry for defenders of a Pac-12 that had slowly declined in importance and prominence over the past decade, and he defended it to the end.
It’s probably best that Bill Walton never has to see a world without his beloved Conference of Champions. With Berkeley’s athletic future in serious question and his alma mater facing road trips to Rutgers and Purdue, this was never going to be a peaceful sports world for Bill.
Bill Walton lived a full and fulfilling life, and now he gets to cycle for the rest of it. His spirit will live on in the Conference of Champions, his beloved West Coast trips in the Walton Bus, Jerry Garcia’s guitar solos, his place among basketball’s all-time greats, his bike rides, his dogs, and his family.
And a part of his spirit will always remain in Berkeley. His heart was set on the capital of action and change, and he represented that spirit for the rest of his life. He was a talker, a thinker, a passionate person. He wanted to share his feelings and his thoughts, and he did so every chance he got. Everyone who was open to it enjoyed the waves he brought.
Bill Walton lived a full life and was willing to share his time and space with anyone. May we all learn from his example, as many of us will, and carry it forward.
He was a great person and a great friend to Golden Bears around the world and will be missed.
