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≡ L.A. SPORTS AWARDS XX ≡
A full house of almost 400 gathered Wednesday at the Town & Gown ballroom at the University of Southern California to honor three of the university’s famed former students for the 20th Los Angeles Sports Awards.
Two were Olympic gold medalists, basketball icon Cheryl Miller from the 1984 women’s team and swim superstar John Naber, who stormed to four golds and a silver at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal.
Miller reflected on the advice of her father, who told her “that I can be anything I wanted to be, and all it would take was everything I had.”
She thanked her USC coach, Linda Sharp, “for allowing me to be me,” which was the most dominant player in collegiate basketball history during a three-year run as national player of the year from 1984-86. Miller also singled out her long-time friend and mentor Ann Meyers Drysdale, the four-time UCLA All-American from 1975-78 and 1976 Olympic silver medalist (and also in the house on Wednesday), of whom Miller said she learned, “what a leader looks like.”
The ebullient Naber, who always raises the energy in any room he’s in, remembers when he first encountered the Olympic Movement:
“At age 10, my family took us on a vacation – a Mediterranean cruise – that stopped neat the city of Olympia, Greece, the site of the ancient Olympic Games, and the tour guide explained to us that all the athletes in the ancient Games had to march through a tunnel before they got to the stadium where the competition would take place, and on either side of them were statutes that were carved in the likeness of any athlete who ever got caught cheating in the ancient Olympic Games.
“To show how important it was not to cheat, because they made the home town pay for the statue, and it was really a Hall of Shame. And I said to my mom, ‘this program, it’s not about honoring the athletes, it’s about honoring the gods, it’s about sportsmanship and fair play and teamwork.’ And I said, ‘Mom, I’m going to be an Olympian some day!’”
He didn’t start swimming for another three years. But he was ingrained from that early age, with the culture of Olympism, and offered the acknowledged definition of “a philosophy seeking to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of good examples and respect for universal, fundamental, ethical principles. Now if that’s not a reason to get involved in sport, I don’t know what is.”
He also got a huge laugh from the crowd, that after winning four Olympic golds in 1976, he was on top of the world. But, “that moment can’t last forever. You have to come down from that planet and find something else to do. And let’s be fair, and tell the truth, the ability of swim quickly on your back has limited value at society at large.”
But Naber adjusted, becoming a sought-after broadcast of more than two dozen sports and continuing to promote Olympian through his three books, through board positions on the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, the L.A. Sport Council’s “Ready, Set, Gold!” program that integrates athletes into schools, and a lot more.
Another former Trojan whose voice has become synonymous with football (soccer) in the U.S. was honored: long-time broadcaster Andres Cantor.
He brought the house down with an in-person rendition of his iconic “Goooooaaal” call and explained that he was happy to be back on campus. Cantor attended USC from 1981 to 1984, but didn’t graduate … because he finished his journalism curriculum and decided to go to work. He joked that because there was no top-tier professional league in the U.S. – the North American Soccer League was dying – for him to play in, he had to “do the next best thing, which is being a broadcaster and being around the game.”
He said he was initially a little worried about receiving a “lifetime” achievement award, “I thought, hmmm, that sounds like the two-minute warning,” which drew a big laugh. But he was told by a colleague, “yeah, but it’s the two-minute warning of the first half.”
Cantor’s comments also effectively introduced the night’s final Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Alan Rothenberg – who went to Michigan – whose role in the development of professional soccer has not been fully appreciated. He told the house that Rothenberg “is responsible for what soccer is today. … Mr. Alan Rothenberg is responsible for having brought the 1994 World Cup to the U.S.
“There is a before-and-after Alan Rothenberg in U.S. soccer history. I am deeply honored to be sharing this night with him, because if it were not for him, we wouldn’t have MLS – Major League Soccer – which is now a very healthy, 30-team league across the nation, so the soccer community owes you everything.”
Rothenberg accepted his award, noting he can’t shoot a basketball, he’s not a fast swimmer and he can’t even say, “gooooaal,” but he thanked the many people whom he has worked with in so many events, the volunteers who made the events work and the millions of fans who made the successes possible.
He noted that he has been especially “blessed to be in this great city. It’s truly one of the greatest cities in America, we have our problems, but we always come back from them. And it’s truly the sports capital of the world,” pointing to 12 professional teams, plus outstanding college teams, and a plethora of world-class venues.”
Rothenberg wrote about his unique role in creating the modern American soccer landscape in his forthcoming book, The Big Bounce: The Surge That Shaped the Future of U.S. Soccer, coming out on 12 February, but offered as a gift to attendees, along with Naber’s Olympic Trivia Challenge! from 2021.
The evening also included awards specific to Los Angeles sport in 2025, with Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani (JPN) recognized as the men’s sports person of the year and Angel City FC scoring sensation Riley Tiernan as the women’s athlete of the year. Naturally, the Dodgers’ second consecutive World Series victory was the top moment of the year.
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