"SANDS OF TIME" is a complete history of Men's and Women’s beach volleyball, including its roots that began with the indoor game.

When	What	Where
June 22nd	State Indoor Champ.	Hollywood Y
June 29th-30th	"A" Mixed Doubles	Sorrento
July 6th-7th	Men’s Open	Santa Barbara
July 13th-14th	"A" Men’s	Sorrento
July 27th-28th	"A" Mixed Doubles	State Beach
August 3rd-4th	"A" Men’s	State Beach
August 3rd-4th	Men’s Open	Laguna Beach
August 10-11th	Men’s Open	State Beach
August 17-18th	Open Mixed	State Beach
August 24-25th	6-Person M&W;	Manhattan
Sept. 1st-2nd	Men’s Open	Sorrento
September 8th	6-Person M&W;	Long Beach
Sept. 15th-16th	Men’s Open	San Diego

In 1957, Southern California and "Beach Volleyball," experienced the greatest outdoor volleyball season since the game first appeared on the beach nearly fifty years prior. Volleyball in the sand had long been regarded as an excuse for checking the current styles in women’s bathing suits, suddenly came of age!

After the National Championships, the game of volleyball was not forgotten in Southern California, during the remainder of the year. Immediately after each National Tournament, most players resort to the beaches for outdoor beach play. Numerous informal matches sprung-up along the Southern California coast-line from Santa Barbara to San Diego. Various City Recreation Departments scheduled weekend tournament play during the summer with the Annual Beach Championships being conducted at the Pacific Coast Club in Long Beach around Labor Day weekend.

Held on the ocean fronts in 1957 were sanctioned Men's Open tournaments, that featured the best quality players, at seven beaches in California. Three of the tournaments took place in Santa Monica at: the Santa Monica Pier, Sorrento Beach and State Beach. There were also tournaments played in Santa Barbara, Laguna Beach, Corona Del Mar, and San Diego's Mission Beach.

The initial event the 1957 season was the Semana Nautica at Santa Barbara; next the Laguna Beach event; the third was Santa Monica’s State Beach "Titanic" event; then there was the Sorrento Open, also staged in Santa Monica. The tour went south for the next two events, first to Corona Del Mar then to San Diego. The final Open tournament was on "Muscle Beach" at the Pier in Santa Monica.

There were many quality players that participated in these tournaments, the two things that stood out most were the smiling spectators and determined "Rookies," both were and are necessary for beach volleyball to succeed

The team of Gene Selznick and Bernie Holtzman, still outclassed all of the Open tournament competition, although they did not win every event that they entered they still won six of their seven tournaments together. Selznick and Holtzman won at East Beach in Santa Barbara. They won all three of the Santa Monica events, winning at Sorrento Beach and the "Muscle Beach" event at the Pier, then outlasting the talented new duo of Ron Lang and Lee Grosscup at the celebrated State Beach event. They also won tournament championships in Corona Del Mar and Laguna Beach. Ron Lang and Mike O’Hara were the only other team to gain an open tournament championship, in 1957, as they won the Mission Beach tournament in San Diego.

In the photo above, a young Ron Lang shows off one of the many championship trophies that he received during his successful beach volleyball career. He won this one with Suzie Hornibrook in 1957 when they won the State Beach Open Mixed Doubles event. Photo courtesy of Holyoke Volleyball Hall of Fame

The Pacific Coast, noted for developing top volleyball players, saw a lot of shining new faces in the summer of 1957. Susie Hornibrook was one of them. She and her "chubby" partner Ron Lang, swept the State Beach Mixed Open over a field of sixteen top teams, subduing veterans Mike O’Hara and Marion McMahon in the finals. Lang and Hornibrook, were the outstanding mixed-doubles players for 1957. The play of these "youngsters" was sensational as well as consistent, as they regularly defeated their more experience opponents. Another top star was Johni Heiser, who with the help of Phil Dye, annexed the State Beach mixed-doubles title in the "A" division.

At Santa Barbara the seeded teams were Mike O’Hara and Don McMahon, Gene Selznick and Bernie Holtzman, Ron Lang and Walt Schiller, Barry Brown and Dick Davis in that order. The results were Selznick and Holtzman, Brown and Davis, McMahon and O’Hara, along with Ken LaDuke and John Kalin, in that order.

The Laguna tournament uncovered a brilliant new combination in "The Kids" Ron Lang and Lee Grosscup. (At the time, Grosscup was also playing quarterback for the University of Utah football team) The youthful duo entered the tournament seeded in fourth behind Gene Selznick and Bernie Holtzman, Mike O’Hara and Don McMahon, Ken LaDuke and John Kalin, but surprised the "big-guns" by powering their way to the top of the winner’s bracket, only to be defeated by Selznick and Holtzman in a torrid double final.

The 1957 Manhattan Beach International 6-Man volleyball tournament pitted the top two arch rivals against each other in the "AA" division. In front of a very substantial crowd, the Hollywood Stars outlasted the Westside Jewish Community Center to win the National Beach Championship match. The women’s division was won by the Santa Monica Mariners with the Long Beach YMCA in second place.

It was readily agreed that this is one of the best run beach tournaments of all time. With $1,500.00 spent for the court layout the playing facilities were top-notch!

There were a total of 18 men’s teams and 7 women’s teams in this two day event.

The Long Beach Fellowship, oldest of all outdoor tournaments, offered the West Side a golden opportunity to even the score with the Hollywood Stars, but, as fate would have it, the "Y" team was on its game as they cruised to victory.

Dr. Leonard Stallcup, a Dentist that also enjoyed taking photographs of volleyball and beach happenings. He became interested in volleyball while a student at USC, where he played on his class and fraternity teams in intramural competition from 1929-1931. His college exposure was developing his later interest in promoting beach volleyball. Stallcup was not a top player, but in the words of Bernie Holtzman "he was the greatest promoter the beach doubles volleyball game has ever known!" He took a game in its infancy from complete disregard to curiosity and actual interest. He played and managed the Jonathan Club Beach teams in inter-club competition from 1935-1946.

As a photographer, in 1954, Dr. Stallcup was selected as the official photographer for the U.S.V.B.A. (United States Volleyball Association). On the beach, Dr. Stallcup made many of the beach doubles players look good. But his true strength was advertising a sport in a way that made people look. Stallcup was no amateur at producing a pageant, he conducted the "Miss California Beauty Pageant" each year, and supplied the pageant winner as "The State Beach Doubles Volleyball Queen." Her picture and the starting and closing time of the tournament was presented by Dr. Stallcup to many newspapers. All of a sudden people of all ages started embracing a Queen, or a sport (that had been alone for so long) by filling the sand with enthusiastic bodies.

JONATHAN CLUB AWARD CEREMONY: Dr. Leonard Stallcup invited Miss California to hand-out the trophies for this 1950’s challenge match that was staged at the Jonathon Club. Left to right: Ron Lang, Gene Selznick, Miss California, Mike Bright and Mike O’Hara. Photos courtesy of Holyoke Volleyball Hall of Fame

Dr. Stallcup was also able to arrange challenge matches, of the top players and staged them at Santa Monica's Jonathan Club. He had won an audience, where no one before him, had succeeded. Dr. Stallcup, not a player as mentioned before, loved volleyball and conveyed his love to the thousands that watch the beach game today. Every time there is a side-out or a point scored on the beach, or the click of a camera, Dr. Leonard Stallcup will be remembered. Dr. Stallcup was well-known for most of the beach volleyball photos taken during this era of the game. Sorrento Beach's famous Sorrento Bar and Grill's walls were covered with photos’ that he had taken at the local volleyball courts during both pick-up games and tournaments.

Take a look inside Volume #1:

• Chapter 2 #1
• Chapter 2 #2
• Chapter 2 #3
• Chapter 2 #4
• Chapter 2 #5
• Chapter 2 #6
• Chapter 2 #7
• Chapter 2 #8
• Chapter 3 #1
• Chapter 3 #2
• Chapter 3 #3
• Chapter 3 #4
• Chapter 3 #5
• Chapter 4 #1
• Chapter 4 #2
• Chapter 4 #3
• Chapter 4 #4
• Chapter 4 #5
• Chapter 4 #6
• Chapter 4 #7

Sneak Previews to Volume #2:

• Chapter 5 Preview #1
• Chapter 5 Preview #2
• Chapter 5 Preview #3

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