Another Case of Select Company for Ueberroth

Thoughts turn to baseball when Peter Ueberroth’s name comes up—logical enough, since the fellow who now runs the Contrarian Group in Newport Center made a big mark as commissioner of the game. He ran the L.A. Olympics before MLB, of course, so he’s got ties to just about any sporting endeavor. Need more? He’s co-chair of Pebble Beach Company, so put a check mark next to golf. Hoops? This might be a stretch, but the Insider recently rambled down Cannery Row in Monterey, where the Pebble Beach retail store was stocked with some fashionable, basketball-style tops for women. All of that executive experience and market savvy could obscure the fact that Ueberroth’s first connection to sports came as an athlete. He got to San Jose State on a water polo scholarship and twice led the team in scoring on the way to a business degree. That started him down a road that will make its next stop later this month at the NCAA Convention in San Antonio, where Ueberroth will receive the Theodore Roosevelt Award. It’s the organization’s highest honor, named for the fellow “whose concern for the conduct of college athletics led to the formation of the NCAA in 1906,” and given annually “to an individual who exemplifies the ideals of college sports”… Ueberroth doesn’t seek the spotlight much, but the guess here is he’ll take a turn in the glare on behalf of a couple of teams: He’s the first water polo player to get the award—all recipients played some sport at the NCAA level—as well as the first San Jose State grad. … Ueberroth joins a distinguished list of prior winners—from the Wizard of Westwood to Whizzer White, with a few U.S. presidents in the mix. He’ll also join a couple of partners of sorts—Arnold Palmer, part of the Pebble Beach ownership; and the late L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley, who was in City Hall during the 1984 Olympics and called Ueberroth back into service to head Rebuild LA in the wake of the 1992 riots, an unsung success story that’s only recently begun to get its proper due … Our Fabulous Fifi Chao has Russ Bendel’s Vine Restaurant & Bar in San Clemente listed in a cavorting count of some of her local favorites that starts on page 14. Word has it that Bendel enters 2016 with plans for a second restaurant—something distinct from Vine’s Napa style … Kudos to: Assemblymember Travis Allen of the Huntington Beach-based 72nd District, who was named Legislator of the Year by the Apartment Association of OC. The group says he gets it when it comes to rental properties and “has proven to be an excellent strategist”—no small matter when working as a member of the minority in an 80-seat chamber … Double kudos to Buchanan Street Partners boss Robert Brunswick, who’s also an adjunct professor at UC Irvine, where he gives students of the Merage School of Business an Introduction to Commercial Real Estate. Brunswick keeps his syllabus peppered with guest lecturers as a way to give a varied perspective. The proof of his professorial pudding can be found in this semester’s lineup, which has Chris Tipre of Trammell Crow Co. lined up to lecture. Tipre was a grad student serving as Brunswick’s teaching assistant just a few years ago … Condolences: to Doug Cavanaugh on the loss last week of his mother, Ruby, namesake of the fun and flashy burger chain he founded. A service will be open to the public on Saturday, Jan. 9 at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Orange.