by River_Dog » Tue May 28, 2024 5:47 pm
I remember Walton talking about the time when he was in college and got arrested for laying down in Wilshire Blvd in downtown LA as part of an anti-war protest, creating a huge traffic jam. His coach at UCLA, John Wooden, drove to the jailhouse and bailed him out. As he was driving Walton home, Wooden said to him "Bill, suppose that your mother had a heart attack, and the ambulance couldn't get to her to save her life because it got held up in traffic. How would that make you feel?" Walton said that he was stunned, speechless, that he had never thought of that kind of consequence.
I saw UCLA play in Pullman when Walton was a senior. During the pregame warm-ups, I walked down to the breezeway from the court to the visitor's locker room, and when UCLA trotted off the court and to the locker room, I leaned my shoulder out so I could bump Bill Walton. I had to equal my cousin's claim to fame when she kicked the tire of the car the Beetles were riding in.
Walton had become quite a character as a color man for CBK games. He will be missed.