COLLEGE MEN
Rhapsody in Blue: The legacy of Al Scates
After 50 years of teaching volleyball and winning a lot more championships than everybody else, the legendary UCLA men’s coach will retire in May. But the innovations he brought to the game will be carried on in gyms across the country by the many coaches and players who count him as their greatest mentor.
By Alfred Agcaoili
F
or all the national championship ban- ners that adorn the rafters of vener- able Pauley Pavilion at UCLA, it can be said that one of the school’s noteworthy alums has made quite a contribution. UCLA has won 108 national championships. Nearly one-fi fth of them can be traced to one per- son: Al Scates.
Scates, 72, is in his 50th and fi nal season
as UCLA’s men’s volleyball coach. The win- ningest coach in college volleyball history – he has guided the Bruins to 19 NCAA champion- ships and more than 1,200 victories – an- nounced last May that he will retire following the completion of the 2012 men’s season. Enshrined in four different halls of fame, Scates has been the architect of a historic intercollegiate men’s volleyball program that set a high standard in American sports history. He has helped legitimize volleyball
as an NCAA sport, raising its national profi le through the success of his program, through his extensive volunteer efforts and advisory roles and through his camps, instructional books and videos. He has also coached and mentored a long line of players who have become successful coaches, including UC Irvine Men’s Coach John Speraw, UCLA Women’s Coach Mike Sealy and three-time Olympic gold medalist Karch Kiraly, who is now an assistant coach for the U.S. Women’s National Team. (See “Scates Protégés” on page 46) Along the way Scates says he has “enjoyed every minute of it.” A big grin crosses the coach’s face when he tells the story of his job interview in 1962. Scates informed then-athletic director Wilbur Johns that he couldn’t accept any money to coach the Bruins because he wanted to main- tain his amateur status and pursue his goal
42 | VOLLEYBALLUSA • Digital Issue at
usavolleyball.org/mag
of playing on the 1964 U.S. Men’s Olympic Volleyball Team. Johns responded: “Con- gratulations, son. You’re hired!” In the early years, his teams won championships wearing jerseys that were given to Scates’ program from legendary Bruin basketball coach John Wooden, who became both a mentor and a longtime friend to Scates in their many years together on campus. In 1983, Scates matched Wooden’s 10 national championships, and he went on to surpass the man known as the Wizard of Westwood the following year on the Bruins’ home court. That year, 1984, marked another volleyball milestone as the U.S. captured its fi rst-ever Olympic Games gold medal in vol- leyball. The squad featured several of Scates’ Bruins and was coached by current USA Volleyball CEO Doug Beal and two other widely respected coaches: Tony Crabb and
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