Bonnie MacEvoy

It makes me sad to see Rand finally added to the list of those we will remember.  It makes it so much more final.  Always such a happy and positive guy, and the years of impact he has had on students is not surprising.  Thankful for the time we had with him at Millikan, the time he had pursuing his passion in sports, and the uncountable students he mentored and influenced.  As we celebrate our 50th reunion, he will be with us in so many memories and with so much pride from us all.  

Steve Rosen

Martin Walsh

I remember coming back from Ireland and re entering Cubberley, this time in Randy Rasmussen's class, I remember we all went out to the bars and had a chin up contest, the smart money was on Randy, most kids did 4,5 chin ups, Randy did 7, I had a good day and was able to get 8 and won the competition. The thing I remember about Randy was he was always the first to give props to anyone who excelled, especially in sports.

We became great kickball partners, he, like me absolutely loved kickball, he was quicker on the base paths for sure, but we traded for distance, some days he got the bomb, some days I did. I saw the video on this post provided by Bonnie MacEvoy and for a second I thought I was looking at Millikans baseball coach Dan Peters (1970) grad. My son played for Peters (2003) grad, the thing I noticed is not only did they look like brothers but both these men had almost identical philosophies, both very fair and merit based. I see Rand went on to do great things in Utah, I just wanted to mention that this was always his way, even from his youngest days at Cubberley. 

RIP Rand 

Kristie Fawcett

Steve Light

A REMEMBRANCE OF RANDY RASMUSSEN
 
 
Randy’s life and my life intersected in significant ways from 5th to 9th grade and from 7th to 9th grade I could say that we were linked as a pair.  
 
I remember the first day of 5th grade at Cubberley—new city, new house, new school — quite vividly.
 
At the lunch recess I found that kickball was the primary game just as it had been at my previous school.  And I quickly heard the name Randy Rasmussen. He was deemed the athletic “it” boy among the fifth graders.  And I also quickly perceived that Alan Silver and Dave Spencer were very gifted athletes.
 
When the boys assembled for a game, two captains were chosen and they would pick the teams.  Randy was more often than not one of the captains. I cannot recall if I got into the game during my first week, but certainly by the second week I started to play regularly.
 
Invariably each of the guys would, when they were up at the plate, try to kick the ball as hard and as far as they could.  At those times when we could play on the diamond that was nearest the fence on the west end of the campus, guys would try to kick the ball over the fence. It did not happen often but it could be done.  
 
However, kicking the ball in this way meant that one would make an out more often than not.  I didn’t find the need to try and kick the ball over the fence, and in any case being the littlest kid in the game, I was perfectly satisfied to adopt the strategy of Wee Willie Keeler, one of the best hitters in baseball in the 1890s, whose motto was “hit it were they ain’t.” 
 
I would, therefore, simply kick the ball softly along the ground in between the shortstop and third baseman or I would feign kicking it either in that direction or towards the gap between the second baseman and the first baseman, thereby, forcing the pitcher to move to his left or right and then I would kick the ball back towards the other side, soccer style.
 
And because in kickball it was much harder for infielders to throw out a runner to first unless the ball was kicked directly towards them with velocity, I was getting on base literally every time and was in this way scoring more runs than anyone else.  I was perfectly happy with this strategy. 
 
And so it was that not long after I started playing, and on a day when Randy was picking teams, he chose me first.  Some of the guys looked puzzled by this because normally the guys who kicked the ball the hardest and farthest were picked first. Randy sensed their puzzlement. So he said: “Steve gets on base more than any of us and scores more runs than any of us. I always want him on my team."  I was quite happy to hear him say this and I was impressed and pleased that he noticed the significant effectiveness of my on-base percentage! By doing this Randy had definitively brought me into the fold. What is more, we find here a clear indication of his subsequent coaching acumen and significant coaching success.
 
I enjoyed the kickball games at Cubberley, but after several months I wished that we could play basketball instead.
 
I mentioned to Randy that it would be great if at lunch we could play basketball and he agreed.  So on some days we organized basketball games  and as habitual captains we competed against one another as we would the following two summers in Little League and after that in Pony League. Our linkage had begun to form. 
 
And then we were on our way to Demille.
 
As we all remember there were no sports teams for 7th graders in those years, but 7th graders could play on 8th grade teams if they were able to make the team.  Tryouts for the 8th grade football team came in the opening weeks of school.  In the tryouts both Randy and I participated in the quarterback section of the competition.  And when the final cut was made Randy and I were pleased to find ourselves on the team. 
 
Neither of us made the starting lineup, but we did get a share of playing time, Randy as one of the backup quarterbacks and me as a defensive back.  But we knew that the following year we would be the mainstays of the team. 

And so it turned out. Randy was the starting quarterback and co-captain of the offense (along with Dennis Pinheiro? John Worthington?) and I was a starting defensive back and co-captain along with Bill Allen of the defense.
 
I was also the backup quarterback to Randy and sometimes we were in the backfield together for double pass/run option plays.
 
Our biggest rival was Bancroft Junior High, perhaps because of Mike Rae, who like us was a three-sport athlete, and who played quarterback on the football team. Both Randy’s father and Mike’s father were “sports dads”, but Mike’s father was especially boastful about Mike, overly so Randy and I and others amongs us thought.
 
Mike was talented, to be sure, but neither Randy nor I felt he exceeded us, and certainly not in basketball and baseball, the former being my best sport, the latter being Randy’s best sport, and in any case, we thought the way Mike’s father boasted was not cool at all.
 
 Mike would go on to become the starting quarterback at Lakewood High and then at USC and finally with the Oakland Raiders for a couple of years.  Randy and I were eager to play Bancroft, but in 8th grade they defeated us and I felt personally responsible for the loss since late in the second half, when they were leading by only one touchdown, I made a misjudgment while guarding their primary receiver and I had no chance at deflecting Mike’s pass. The receiver was able to score an easy touchdown which turned out to be the margin of their victory.  
 
Given the personal rivalry that Randy and I felt with Mike, we were not pleased at all about the loss, but we vowed to turn the tables the next year and in fact that is what we did.  Randy threw for two touchdowns and ran for another and I intercepted two of Mike passes and ran the second one back for a touchdown which proved to be the margin of our victory. 
 
But if our exploits in football at Demille were special, in basketball they were even more so.
 
In 7th grade when tryouts commenced for the 8th grade team I had great confidence that Randy and I would make the team. And we did. But so did three other 7th graders, e.g. Bill Allen, Donnie Adams, and Larry O’Brien!  I doubt that had ever happened before and I doubt it ever happened in all the years following. Two years prior to us Doug Stodgel (who became a starter) and Jim Seida had been the two seventh graders on the 8th grade team—and that same year Ron Ayala (whose talent I greatly admired) was a seventh grade starting guard on Bancroft’s 8th grade basketball team.
 
The five of us decided to get together the following weekend. Randy invited us to come to his house on Saturday. Larry could not come, so that left the four of us. We had some snacks and drinks at Randy’s and then we went to Demille to play basketball. We went to the outdoor basketball courts.  Demille was a very large campus. There were many courts but they were all empty that day. We had the whole place to ourselves!  We played two-on-two game after game after game, switching up the teams from time to time. 
 
It was a joyous afternoon. We all felt the specialness of the group we constituted. 
 
And when the basketball season started I found myself, happily, as the starting playmaking guard.  Bobby Hunt, an 8th grader, was the other starting guard.
 
Randy and Bill Allen did get a good amount of playing time coming off the bench. Randy’s dad attended the games and sometimes my dad did too.  I remember very well  the two of them sitting together and watching our games.
 
In eigth grade Randy and I were the starting guards and Bill and Donnie the starting forwards. Bill Waggoner was our center. We were the class of the league. And in 9th grade too.
 
 As for Demille’s baseball team, both Randy and I looked forward to playing on the team, but in my case, my parents strongly urged me not to go out for the baseball team. They said sports was becoming too all-consuming for me and that since I still had a year left of Little League baseball and then two years upcoming of Pony League baseball, I should concentrate during the remaining portion of the second semester (and during the following two years) on my studies and also participate on the Math team. 
 
Reluctanly, I adhered to their urging.  But I have always felt regretful about this.  It would have been marvelous to play on Demille’s team.  With Randy at third base, myself at shortstop, Alan Silver at second base, and Larry O’Brien at first base I could have been part of a splendid infield. It would have been great to make up the left side of the infield with Randy (like Brooks Robinson and Luis Aparicio!) and to form the double-play combination with Alan!
 
At Demille at the end of the year a sports banquet took place. Awards were only given out to 9th graders. The two top awards were Athlete of the Year and Tiger of the Year. When Randy and I were in seventh grade, the ninth graders who won the awards were Jim Seida (Athlete of the Year) and Doug Stodgel (Tiger of the Year). Jim would go on to Millikan and play basketball and baseball (and then he played baseball at Long Beach State and after that in the minor leagues for several years) while Doug went to Lakewood and played basketball and baseball there.
 
When Randy and I were 9th graders it was a foregone conclusion that Randy and I would win the top two awards.  Randy’s father came to the banquet and so did my father and we sat together at a table, Randy across from me, Randy’s dad across from my dad.  And just as forecast, Randy won the Athlete of the Year award and I won the Tiger of the Year award.
 
When we arrived at Millikan, Randy planned to continue as a three-sport athlete. Perhaps, by his junior year and certainly by his senior year he intended on playing on the Varsity football, basketball, and baseball teams.  I decided to concentrate on basketball alone. Jim Seida had played on the C basketball team in 10th grade and then jumped to the Varsity team the following year, but not as a starter. He was the starting playmaking guard during his senior year.  I hoped to follow the path of Mack Calvin who four years prior at LB Poly had jumped from the C basketball team in 10th grade to the starting playmaking guard in his junior year (and then on to LBCC, USC, the ABA and the NBA).  Perhaps Randy and I would be teammates again in our junior year, but certainly by our senior year. I did play on the C basketball team during our sophomore year and Randy played on the Junior Varsity basketball team that year (and on the B football team  and the Junior Varsity baseball team).
 
A couple of weeks after the basketball season in 10th grade concluded, Howie Lyons, the Varsity basketball coach came up to me and told me that with Jim Seida graduating (Jim had been a first team All-CIF selection at the end of the season) he wanted me to take over as the starting playmaking guard who would run the Varsity team as the “quarterback” to use the term he employed.
 
I was very pleased to hear this and it meant that the itinerary I had set for myself would take place just as I had planned.
 
However, this did not happen. It is a long and intricate story, but I cannot give a narration here.
 
But from our Demille contingent Randy, Alan Silver, and Bill Waggoner all did play on the Varsity Basketball team during our senior year. Randy was one of the starting guards along with Rich Pierce and towards the end of the season with Alan Silver.  Randy was also the starting quarterback on the Varsity football team that year as well as being the starting third baseman on the Varsity baseball team.  His plan had, indeed, come to fruition! At the end of this year Randy won the Athlete of the Year award with Phil Omdahl—also from Demille and a preeminent star water poloist and swimmer (and scholarship bound to U.C. Berkeley’s water polo team)—a very close second.
 
Consequently, Randy’s path and my path rarely crossed at Millikan.
 
But had Randy and I run into one another—whether 3, 5, 10, 20, 40, 50 years after graduation—we would certainly have felt the camaraderie of our youth.  We would have spoken of so many things, of his coaching career, of our own sports paths and sports exploits since leaving high school, of life and times and places too, and above all we would have felt the good cheer that we experienced together so many times, as for example upon that ever glorious afternoon in the fall of 1963, when Randy, Bill, Donnie, and I celebrated together the gift of our friendship, the great fortune of our talent, and the effectuating joy we derived from playing a game we loved so much!
 
O, what a beautiful Saturday afternoon it was!
 
The farewell to his deceased brother enunciated by the Roman poet, Catullus, has never ceased to resound in the 2000 years hence.
 
Yes and alas, Randy, Ave Atque Vale, Hail and Farewell.

Steve Edwards

Im one of the many who only knew Rand as a fan cheering him on on the field or in the gym. I'll never forget the day when Rand came to school with a football taped to his hand. We all knew why. I was impressed how he handled the situation. RIP.

Brien Braun