At Walton’s House, There Were No Set Plays

Although Bill Walton now works in television, he says his family didn’t have a TV set when he was growing up in San Diego, even through he, his two brothers and his sister “bugged my parents relentlessly to get us one.”

Walton says in Eddie Einhorn’s book, “How March Became Madness,” that his parents couldn’t afford a TV.

Finally, his mom announced one night that they had saved enough money to buy one. But his mom, a librarian, said, “I’ve been doing a lot of research and I’ve decided there’s nothing worth watching, so we’re not going to get one.”

Trivia time: What do Walton and Bill Sharman have in common besides their first names and the fact that they are both Hall of Fame former Boston Celtic players?

Things change: Said Walton on Tuesday: “My mother, Gloria, is still living in the same house we all grew up in -- for 54 years now -- and is currently the biggest Laker fan in the entire world. She now has DirecTV, digital cable TV, high-speed Internet and a cellphone.”

Walton said his mother comes to the house where he and his wife, Lori, live on the north edge of Balboa Park for dinner every night that he is in town.

“These days, she asks us to please plan dinner around the Laker schedule and then kindly asks us to keep the chatter down so that she can listen to Joel [Meyers] and Stu [Lantz] -- who she loves dearly,” he said.

“When the game is over she generally starts the next conversation with, ‘So, Bill, did you ever get a job?’ ”

No letup: Walton also says in Einhorn’s book that when he was growing up his parents were very strict. So he was more than ready to leave home when he went to UCLA in 1970.

“It was the era of Vietnam, Watergate, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and I’m like, ‘Yeah! I’m going to UCLA! I’m free, free, free at last,’ ” Walton says. “Little did I realize that John Wooden was standing on the steps waiting for me.”

Tumultuous times: Of his time at UCLA, Walton says in the book, “I was John Wooden’s worst nightmare.”

Adds Walton, “When I got to UCLA, Coach Wooden was this young, spry guy with jet-black hair and a fine step wherever he walked. Within 18 months, he had a heart attack, his hair turned white and he was all bent over.”

Looking back: On this day in 1958, Silky Sullivan, ridden by Bill Shoemaker, won the Santa Anita Derby by three lengths after trailing by about 30 lengths early in the race.

Trivia answer: The name Walton. Sharman’s full name is Bill Walton Sharman.

And finally: During Walton’s senior year, Notre Dame stopped UCLA’s win streak at 88 games. Walton said an intense rivalry developed between UCLA and Notre Dame, and he loved “the animosity, the bitterness, the anger.”

Adds Walton: “Whenever my boys got mad at me when they were growing up, they’d say, ‘Dad, I hate you. I’m going to Notre Dame.’ ”

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Larry Stewart can be reached at [email protected].