Ron Lang

GODS to GHOSTS Volleyball

Ron Lang. First Interview. May 20th, 2018
Ron Lang Discusses:
- His start in the sport when he went to the beach in 1954 to surf as teenager and couldn't surf due to the jelly fish in the ocean, and saw Richie Cooper and Harry Cohen from the Hollywood Y volleyball team playing beach volleyball, and played with them, how they were hard on him while teaching him the nuances of the game (which drove him nuts, but served him well!), playing in his first tournament in '56 with Dick Davis and beating the legendary team of Gene Selznick & Bernie Holtzman in the first round and realizing he could be successful in the sport with the right partner, how magical the sport was during that era when players played for bragging rights, how he developed his mindset to not be friends with his opponents, but rather beat their brains in, how amazing it was to have played alongside Gene Selznick, and Ron Von Hagen as partners, and what made each SO SPECIAL in their own way, the BEST team he ever competed against over his career, his recollection of the legendary '68 Manhattan Beach Open when he and Von Hagen battled Larry Rundle & Henry Bergman for 7 plus hours between the winners finals, and the finals played in the dark, how he became a legendary digger by watching his opponents during warm ups, and then positioning himself during games where he knew they liked to hit, the rivalry between Gene Selznick and Mike O'Hara on the beach, a classic story later on with a young Kent Steffes over dinner, what he's up to now days, what he's most proud of from his career, his thoughts on the new game and rules, and his amazing mind and strategy when it came to playing the game.

Support the show