Cal great Gene the Dream Ransom documentary

892 Views | 10 Replies | Last: 1 mo ago by Jeff82
concordtom
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Just stumbled upon this as posted on YT 2 weeks ago. Hadn't seen before, or seen a thread here yet.

90 minutes.
Enjoy!!




(Update: Ah, well, I see embedding is disallowed. But if you click you can watch in YT.)
LudwigsFountain
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Glad they included his stint as the coach of the Berkeley High freshman basketball team. LF jr was the starting center on that team and absolutely loved Gene, as did everyone. He was extremely invested in Berkeley High; I remember him breaking down and crying after they beat DeLaSalle. As the documentary states, that freshman team went undefeated and as Jason Maple's dad says, blew everyone out, even DLS. It's too bad that Gene got sideways with the varsity coach and left. Had he been the varsity coach I think they would have done even better than they did. As it was two years after the undefeated freshman year the team lost the Nor Cal finals to Oakland Tech (with Leon and Marshawn) by a whisker. LF jr's claim to fame is that he blocked one of Powe's shots.

Having watched Ransom at Cal, I always thought he was one of the most underrated players I ever saw.
Big C
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I will watch this when I get a chance. Gene Ransom was a phenomenal 3-sport star at Berkeley High. Just a great, great athlete. Super strong, springy and also fluid at 5' 9". If you are too young to remember his playing days, first of all good for you, second, think Jerome Randle, maybe 10 lbs heavier. (Had the opportunities existed back then, he could've played overseas, as JR did.)

Led a good life, but unfortunate in some respects, including his passing (shot driving on the freeway, from another car, in what appeared to be a case of road rage, only a few years ago).
oscarsBBurger
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We were watching this at work, and just by chance my dad randomly had this in his car!
Eastern Oregon Bear
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oscarsBBurger said:

We were watching this at work, and just by chance my dad randomly had this in his car!

I'm somewhere in the right third of that photograph if your Dad needs another autograph though it would likely ruin whatever collector value it might have.

I'll have to watch that documentary. Gene Ransom was 90% of the fun of watching Cal in those fairly dismal seasons. Well, maybe 70% for me as John Caselli lived in my dorm and it was fun watching him go from walk on to starter while Gene was at Cal.
Jeff82
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Eastern Oregon Bear said:

oscarsBBurger said:

We were watching this at work, and just by chance my dad randomly had this in his car!

I'm somewhere in the right third of that photograph if your Dad needs another autograph though it would likely ruin whatever collector value it might have.

I'll have to watch that documentary. Gene Ransom was 90% of the fun of watching Cal in those fairly dismal seasons. Well, maybe 70% for me as John Caselli lived in my dorm and it was fun watching him go from walk on to starter while Gene was at Cal.
Were you there the night Caselli's brother (owner of the Come Back Inn, over-consumer of his own product) came on the court after John was fouled? One of my all-time game memories.
sonofabear51
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When Harmon was rocking!!

Gene was amazing!
Start Slowly and taper off
Eastern Oregon Bear
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Jeff82 said:

Eastern Oregon Bear said:

oscarsBBurger said:

We were watching this at work, and just by chance my dad randomly had this in his car!

I'm somewhere in the right third of that photograph if your Dad needs another autograph though it would likely ruin whatever collector value it might have.

I'll have to watch that documentary. Gene Ransom was 90% of the fun of watching Cal in those fairly dismal seasons. Well, maybe 70% for me as John Caselli lived in my dorm and it was fun watching him go from walk on to starter while Gene was at Cal.
Were you there the night Caselli's brother (owner of the Come Back Inn, over-consumer of his own product) came on the court after John was fouled? One of my all-time game memories.
Probably. I vaguely recall something like that. I had the student pass and went to most games.
Cal8285
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The documentary is by filmmaker Doug Harris, Berkeley High Class of '78, who was center for the BHS 77-78 team that won the NCS and lost in the semis of the TOC.

Doug is the documentarian who, most relevant to this board, brought you "Basketball Guru: The Pete Newell Story." Relevant to this site, although not so much to the Haas Pavilion Board, Doug made the recent PBS documentary about a Cal football player, "All-American: The Walter Gordon Story" which debuted in January at the I-House with Chancellor Christ present. Gordon was the first Black football player at Cal, its first All-American, the first Black graduate of what the Berkeley Law fka Boalt, and the first Black police officer of the Berkeley Police Department. There's a Cal story for you. If nothing else you can find it at https://www.berkeleyside.org/2024/02/16/walter-gordon-pbs-documentary

Doug also made a good film on the TOC (called, yes, "Tournament of Champions") and film on another Berkeley High guy, "OUT: The Glenn Burke Story." All good stuff.
Jeff82
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His TOC film was great. Among the people mentioned in it is former Cal golf coach Steve Desimone, who scored the winning basket for Arroyo High of Hayward (NLE) in the TOC. He played basketball briefly for Cal as well.
Jeff82
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Watched both the Ransom and Newell films over the weekend. Both are good, but his film on the high school Tournament of Champions is still his best work.
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