October 26, 2007
Antioch opens door to its rich past
# The city honors its heroes with the Antioch Sports Legends Hall
By Joe Stiglich
STAFF WRITER
The athletes span the generations and the sports in which they excelled run the gamut.
On Saturday, the inaugural class of the Antioch Sports Legends Hall will gather for the grand opening of the facility.
It's debatable who will be wearing the bigger smiles -- the inductees or the many volunteers who put in nearly two years of work to make the Hall a reality.
"I think Antioch's really needed it for a long time as far as the sports history we have in town," said Gene "Butch" Rounsaville, who pitched for the Chicago White Sox in 1970 and was the first Antioch native to play in the major leagues. "I was thrilled and excited that they put me in."
Antioch has swelled in recent years to a city of more than 100,000, and it's doubtful many of those newly arrived are aware of its rich sports history.
Longtime residents will recall the close-knit mill town that Antioch was through most of the 20th century, churning out numerous standout athletes despite a smallish population.
The Hall, located on the bottom floor of the Antioch Historical Society building on Fourth Street, will serve as a proud testament to their accomplishments.
The first 14 inductees range from Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive end Gino Marchetti, to current Cal State Fullerton softball coach Michelle Gromacki, to longtime community leader Worth Shaw.
The Hall is the brainchild of five long-standing figures in Antioch's community sports scene -- Tom Menasco, Eddie Beaudin, Jim Boccio Sr., Leo Fontana and Dave Sanderson, who began formulating plans in early 2006.
"I hope when people walk out of here, they say, 'I've never seen a sports museum (presented) so well in Northern California,'" Menasco said.
Among the items on display will be memorabilia as diverse as the pair of spikes Aaron Miles wore while stealing a base in the 2006 World Series and the 1929 All-America certificate of St. Mary's College defensive lineman George Ackerman, signed by legendary Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne.
A selection committee had the monumental task of choosing from among approximately 200 athletes to name 50 semifinalists for the inaugural class.
The final group of 14 includes four football players: Marchetti, Ackerman, offensive lineman Duane Putnam and linebacker Ron Pritchard.
Rounsaville is going in with his brother Rally, a basketball player who set the career scoring record at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Ron Edwards, a member of Utah State's Hall of Fame, also will be inducted for basketball.
Gromacki, a 1982 Antioch High graduate who played and coached on several U.S. national softball teams, said she was thrilled to be the first female athlete chosen.
"It's a huge honor," Gromacki said. "I'm more excited that there's been a lot of volunteers just putting this thing together. It's exciting for the city."
Pritchard spent a nine-year career playing linebacker for the Houston Oilers and Cincinnati Bengals, but his emotional ties to his hometown never left him. He fondly recalls playing pickup football games at Antioch City Park.
In college, he and his Arizona State teammates traded stories about their hometowns, and Pritchard said his material usually captured the most attention.
"I never talked to anybody who had as many characters as we had in Antioch," he said.
Other inductees include Shaun Bogan, a record-setting swimmer in the mid-1970s; four-sport standout Jack Garrow, who starred in football at the U.S. Naval Academy; Ralph Holding, a member of Stanford's Baseball Hall of Fame; wrestler Steve Sanchez, who coached Antioch and Merced high schools to state titles; and former Antioch High football coach Jack Danilovich, who turned the Panthers into a powerhouse in the 1940s.
Ackerman and Danilovich are being inducted posthumously. Marchetti, who lives in Pennsylvania, is the only surviving inductee not expected to be in attendance Saturday.
Danilovich left a lasting impression on Putnam, a star on Antioch's 10-0 team in 1945 who became a five-time All-Pro offensive lineman for the Los Angeles Rams.
Danilovich was an outside-the-box thinker who required his players to take tumbling classes to become better football players.
The coach also suggested Putnam and several of his teammates enter the Army after high school and take advantage of the GI Bill, which would help pay for their college education.
Now living in Southern California, Putnam, 79, said he was the "luckiest guy in the world" when his father moved their family from Tracy to Antioch.
"The core, the foundation of my whole football life was Antioch and Jack," Putnam said. "It led me into the Army. It led me into college. It was the core, the foundation of everything."
As Antioch has grown, the sports landscape inevitably has changed. Loyalties were split somewhat after Deer Valley High opened in the mid-1990s. But Menasco said the Hall is geared toward representing the past and future of sports in the city. Both Antioch High and Deer Valley High memorabilia are on display.
Contact Joe Stiglich at jstiglic@bayareanewsgroup.com.
Opening Day
A public ribbon cutting ceremony will be held for the Antioch Sports Legends Hall on Saturday at 11 a.m., with an open house 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Most of the athletes being inducted are expected to attend for a meet-and-greet. The museum will remain open until 4 p.m. The Hall is located on the bottom floor of the Antioch Historical Society Museum at 1500 West Fourth St.