TunneySide of Sports

Peter Tunney

On the TunneySide of Sports September 27, 2021 #867 Up next… A Tribute to My Brother Peter Tunney

After further review… When I began writing these weekly columns for the Monterey Herald some 16 years ago, my intent was – and still is – writing about issues in sports that can be used or transformed into positive messages as examples to help others. I have been sending that blog worldwide. I promised myself to avoid personal examples. An exception takes place with today’s column/blog to pay tribute to my younger brother, Peter W.Tunney.

We both come from a sports family and I wanted to be the best athlete in our family. However, early in my life, I learned that my father, James J. Tunney (Jim Sr.) was a three-star athlete at Loyola High School (L.A.) and the same at Loyola College where he was a captain in three sports.  Upon college graduation, he played a year of professional baseball. Well … being second in our family wasn’t so bad.

In August 1938 our family moved to 439 No. Daroca in San Gabriel. I helped Dad load our rented trailer (several times) as we moved from East Los Angeles to San Gabriel on Aug. 5, 1938. My brother Pete was born on Aug. 6! Can you imagine the burden on my mom? I told you we were an athletic family and that includes my two sisters – Josie and Loretta. Love them all.

You could tell early on that Pete was going to be a good – no, great – athlete! When he was 3 or 4, I would have Pete race kids who were 5, 6, 7 from one lamppost to the other and he beat them all. Pete could “chin” himself more times than any of the others. In high school, Pete played football at Alhambra High. He was a captain on every team. As a senior playing tailback, he broke his leg and thus was out all season until the final game when Alhambra was the CIF champ! Pete also ran track at Alhambra, and boy did he!

It was Pete’s time in the 100-yard dash (9.7 seconds) that caught the eye of Payton Jordan, track coach at Occidental College. Jordan recruited Pete to Oxy in the summer of 1956. However, Jordan left to coach Stanford, but told me later that he “never could beat that Oxy team he had recruited.” Pete played frosh football and three years of varsity. It was sort of a single-wing formation with Pete carrying the ball almost every time. Pete was also Oxy’s star sprinter with that 9.7 100. Now I was third in my family!

In the spring of 1960, Pete was invited to lunch with a Detroit Lions scout who said the Lions were going to draft Pete as their first running back in the 1960 draft. Pete was ecstatic, then hustled back to Oxy. Later that same afternoon,  he was doing his on-campus job of dragging the track when the vehicle on which he was riding hit an unexpected bump and threw him off, running over his leg, tearing his femoral artery. He never ran again. Football affected his life with Lewy Body Dementia and Parkinson’s Syndrome, but he never gave up!

As a physical education major, he could only get a job in Corrective PE, which he did for four years. He then moved on to racing. He started by hot-walking horses; then worked his way up to be general manager of Golden Gate Fields for 30 years.

Pete died last week at 83. He’s home now!

Thank you for allowing me to say God Bless to my brother – a man I admired for more than eight decades.

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Jim’s books include many messages about rules and regulations (remember he was a referee). His bobblehead on your desk or shelf will be a treasure in your office or home. A special July 4th offer (I know it’s over) Bobblehead for $30. (tax and shipping included) and one book of your choice.

To contact Jim, go to www.jimtunney.com  or email jim@jimtunney.com.