It’s the original Pauley Pavilion center circle, a 12-foot-diameter piece of wood painted light blue and emblazoned with two white stars and two gold UCLA signatures. Lew Alcindor, Bill Walton and eight of John Wooden’s 10 NCAA championship teams played on it. It was replaced in 1982 and retrieved from storage five years later by an alumna-employee who was somehow allowed to purchase it for a nominal amount. The owner made it available for a university ceremony in 1998 where it was autographed by Wooden, Walton, Kareem Abdul Jabbar (formerly Alcindor) and other Bruin greats. Now it’s for sale, part of Laguna Niguel based-SCP Auctions’ online sports memorabilia sale April 15 to 30. Bidding for the circle will start at $20,000. SCP’s David Kohler predicts the item will go for six figures. UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero, who says he tried repeatedly in recent years to broker a deal for the relic, is miffed. “The center circle belongs on display at new Pauley Pavilion. We are hopeful that we will be able to work out an arrangement with the new owner to bring this important piece of UCLA basketball history back to its home.” The Insider suspects well-heeled UCLA supporters will join the bidding. Alums include L.A. entertainment and sports executive Casey Wasserman and Irvine-based Broadcom’s sports-loving founders Henry Nicholas and Henry Samueli. Samueli is spending millions on a different basketball project, getting the Maloofs to move the Sacramento Kings to his Honda Center in Anaheim (see story, frontpage) …
The Insider was on the Kings story early: “Maloofs-to-Anaheim Rumors Hot.” Real early—the item ran Dec. 12, 2005 … A playful partisan poke from Wylie Aitken, who joined Doy Henley and Phil Case as non-faculty members on the search committee that picked Tom Campbell as new Chapman U law dean: “Now that he (Campbell) has finally proven to himself that he is too moderate to flourish in Republican politics, his talents can be applied to continue Chapman’s growth and lead an outstanding faculty with all his energy focused on legal education” …
Is there anything Aitken’s not involved in? He and wife Bette recently received Cal State Fullerton’s prestigious Titan Award …
UCI Prof Elizabeth Loftus, a “false memory” investigator and expert court witness, was in Washington, D.C., to receive the 2010 Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science …
UCI Medical Center ranked first among OC hospitals and fourth overall on U.S. News & World Report’s list of the L.A. region’s top hospitals. EE RR vouches for UCI after spending last week with a loved one at the center’s UC Irvine Douglas Hospital, where spine surgeon Nitin Bhatia worked his magic. St. Joseph was second among OC hospitals, Hoag third. Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center topped the overall list.
