Santa Barbara City College honored its inaugural Athletic Hall of Fame Saturday evening. The class of 2019 featured four individual athletes, three coaches, and the 1977 women’s track & field team. The honorees were recognized during a banquet at the SBCC Campus Center.
Perhaps the most decorated group offered was the Vaqueros women’s track and field team of 1977, which captured City College’s first-ever state championship. Along with the squad of standout athletes, several other former SBCC stars and leaders received much-deserved recognition.
Bob Dinaberg came to City College as the head football coach in 1969, serving at that capacity until 1986 – making him the longest tenured head football coach in school history. He compiled a record of 119-62-3, leading the Vaqueros to eight conference championships. The 1982 team won the Mission Bowl, which remains the team’s only bowl game victory through the 2018 season. Dinaberg also served as the school’s Director of Athletics from 1978 to 2000.
Gary Woods was the first Vaquero to reach the major leagues, doing so on Sept. 14, 1976 with the Oakland Athletics. He went on to single in his first big league at-bat. Woods, a San Marcos High graduate, ended up sticking around the majors for nine seasons. He was selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1977 MLB Expansion Draft and when the Blue Jays played their first-game in franchise history, Woods started in centerfield and recorded the first stolen base in team history. He finished his career with a .243 batting average in 525 big league games. Woods passed away in 2015.
Albert “Bud” Revis is known as the “George Washington” of SBCC athletics. He began the athletics program at City College, and served as the founder and head coach of the college’s baseball, football, men’s and women’s basketball and golf teams. He also founded the school’s men’s tennis, men’s track & field and cross country teams during his tenure as Director of Athletics. Revis worked at SBCC from 1951 to 1976. He was also the Chairman of the Physical Education Department at SBCC, Chairman of the SBCC Athletics Committee, Commissioner of the South Central Conference, and was on the selection committee of the Junior Rose Bowl and the Potato Bowl. The SBCC Vaqueros trophy case is named in his honor.
Pat Moorhouse, who coached the SBCC tennis and volleyball teams, compiled a record of 378-44 across both sports. She was the Vaqueros’ volleyball coach for six seasons, five of which resulted in conference championships. She was the women’s tennis coach for 15 seasons and captured conference championships in 14 of those seasons at the helm. Moorhouse was the WSC Women’s Tennis Coach of the Year 10 times, the CCC Tennis Coaches Association State Coach of the Year in 1991 and a four-time WSC Women’s Volleyball Coach of the Year. The SBCC Hall of Fame is the sixth hall to enshrine Moorhouse.
Marina Gomez, a Bishop Diego graduate, is considered a pioneer of athletics at both Bishop and City. At Bishop she was a six-time All-CIF athlete while competing in basketball, volleyball and softball. Gomez was a member of the 1977 women’s track & field team and also excelled at basketball and volleyball for the Vaqueros. She was a two-time MVP for the basketball team in two seasons. In the Vaqueros fourth year of existence, she led the team to a 30-4 record and a third-place finish in the CCCAA state tournament.
Booker Brown, a graduate of Santa Barbara High, was the WSC Player of the Year for 1971. He went on to attend USC and led the Trojans to a 12-0 mark in 1972, culminated by a 42-17 win over Ohio State in the Rose Bowl to win the National title. Brown earned Consensus All-American honors the next year. In 1974, Brown was a sixth-round pick of the NFL’s Houston Oilers, but instead opted to play in the World Football League’s Southern California Sun. He joined the San Diego Chargers in 1975 where he would block for Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Fouts.
Debbie Ekola was a graduate of Carpinteria High where she earned eight varsity letters (four in tennis, three in track & field and one in gymnastics). She earned the WSC Player of the Year award in 1979 and 1980 for the Vaqueros, not losing a singles or doubles regular season match at SBCC. She went on to attend what was then Fresno State on a full tennis scholarship. She was also an accomplished body builder, winning the Ms. Los Angeles and Ms. California competitions in 1995. Ekola coached the SBCC women’s tennis team for four seasons, compiling a record of 36-19. She retired from coaching in 2012 but remains an instructor of Physical Education at SBCC.
