It was a day the Santa Barbara beach volleyball community paid tribute to one of the greatest players of all-time with a court in his name.
City officials, legends of the game, present standout players and East Beach regulars gathered on the hallowed sand for a ceremony to dedicate one of the “big courts” to the late Henry Bergmann, Santa Barbara’s first beach volleyball star.
Bergmann died last October at the age of 65. He won 15 of the 23 tournaments he entered from 1968 to 1973, including the Santa Barbara Open four times.
Money was raised by a group called the Friends of East Beach to buy new steel poles — one with a signpost that bears a picture of Bergmann spiking and the words Henry Bergmann Court — and a net bearing his name across the tape.
There were speeches by former pro volleyball player and coaching legend Jon Lee, Santa Barbara City Parks and Recreation Director Nancy Rapp, city councilman Grant House, city aquatics director Rich Hanna and Bergmann’s former partner Larry Rundle, and a ribbon cutting.
Among the legends in attendance was Gene Selznick, who started playing on the beach in 1950, won numerous tournaments — including a few opens at East Beach — and is considered one of the game’s greatest and most influential players.
“I think it’s great. I think it’s unique,” Selznick said about the Bergmann tribute. “Nobody has ever done this before for volleyball. Henry was a great guy. Henry deserves it.”
The day was capped by an exhibition game featuring the legendary team of Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos against former Santa Barbara High star and AVP standout John Hanley and rising beach volleyball star Dillan Bennett. With Mark “Cubby” Jacobs, the voice of local volleyball, calling the action on the PA system, the 18-year-old Bennett and Hanley gave Smith-Stoklos a good battle in the “old school” side-out scoring match before falling 15-12.
It was indeed a special day for the man who helped put East Beach on the beach volleyball map.
To read more on the exhibition game, see the blog entry by Dillan Bennett.
