Gym name honors many

Shortly after Sage Hill High School’s gymnasium got its name Tuesday, it got a nickname too — The U-B.

The school had a dedication ceremony for the naming of its gymnasium after Peter V. Ueberroth, one of the school’s founders who was named Time magazine’s “Man of the Year” in 1984 when he took a depleted Olympics and turned the Los Angeles games into the first privately financed and profitable venture in the history of the Olympics.

When Ueberroth took the stage Tuesday, he noted the difficulty behind saying his name and asked the stadium be named after him on one condition.

Instead of referring to it as the Peter V. Ueberroth gymnasium, he asked the more than 700 in attendance to accept the “U-B” nickname.

“As long as they call it the U-B, it will honor my daughter, and James Cailloutte and the people who founded the school,” Ueberroth said after the ceremony. “I feel good about that.”

Cailloutte was the school’s founding chairman. Among the speakers at the dedication was Vicki U. Booth, daughter of Ueberroth and founding trustee of Sage Hill, who spoke of her father’s character, citing not only his romantic endeavors with his wife of nearly 50 years, but his ability to overcome barriers.

“It is his conviction to do the right thing because it is the right thing to do,” she said during the dedication.

Shoshana Grammer, Sage Hill’s director of development, said the gymnasium’s dedication to Ueberroth was something school officials had wanted to do since its inception in 2000.

“He embodies so many of our values,” Grammer said. “He has made outstanding contributions to athletics and the community.”

It was fitting the gymnasium be named for Ueberroth, officials said. Despite his many successes as a business man, Ueberroth was a pioneer for the Olympic Games, was Major League Baseball’s sixth commissioner and received the Olympic Order in Gold, the International Olympic Committee’s highest honor.

“This was a chance for [the student body] to get familiar with their own history through the career Peter has had and the whole notion of sustaining a great institution,” said Sage Hill Chairman of the Board Douglas Neff.

Ueberroth closed the ceremony with some inspiring words for the students and faculty at the school, which is Orange County’s only independent, nonsectarian, secondary college-preparatory school.

“There are so many things you can do, so many mountains you can climb,” he said. “Never stop doing them.”

DANIEL TEDFORD may be reached at (714) 966-4632 or at [email protected].