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Simply put, Mort was the best.
The Amador Valley High School classes of 1979 and 1980 were delivered a huge shock on June 11 of this year with the accidental drowning of former teacher Steve Mortara at the age of 76.
Mort, as he was known to everyone, was like the big brother that you idolized and wanted to be like when you grew up. As a member of the class of 1979 at Amador, I was blessed to have played basketball and baseball for Mortara as a freshman, and then again baseball two years later, when several of us came out of retirement to play as juniors for Mort on the JV team.
To say Mort was athletic is to not do justice to his ability. Growing up in Vallejo, he played varsity baseball all four years but was arguably a better basketball player in high school at St. Vincent Ferrer.
He ended up with a basketball scholarship to San Jose State. In 1969 he helped lead the Spartans to a win over No. 2 Santa Clara, giving the school its biggest win.
Mort graduated with a double major, and a master’s in exercise physiology and credential teaching in California.
In 1971 Mort suffered a severe shoulder injury, keeping him from a tryout where he had a great chance of making the Dallas Cowboys.
The Cowboys’ loss was Amador’s gain.
Of the many times playing for Mort, the most memorable came in the final game of our freshman baseball season. It was a warm Friday, and we were playing at Foothill. You had to beat the Falcons to end the season.
As an incentive, Mort told us he would open the Amador pool when we got back to the school if we won.
Well, we won the game, but it took 18 innings, working its way into Friday evening. Mort had a date that night but true to his word, he canceled his date, opened the pool and let us swim to our hearts content.
Mort’s shoulder injury may have cost him a chance to be a professional athlete, but he went on to be a big-time amateur basketball player.
I remember one time he took a few of us up to Vallejo to watch the Martin Luther King tournament. We got to a packed gym where we were met by some of Mort’s people. One of them walked us to half-court, where the crowd parted to make sure we had amazing seats.
He was loved in Vallejo, much like he was in Pleasanton.
Many of us stayed in touch with Mort after high school. He left teaching in 1987 and got into the entertainment business, owning and operating well-known clubs in Northern California.
As one could imagine, once we all hit 21, we started hanging with Mort at his clubs such as WPLJ’s in Walnut Creek and D.B. Cooper’s in San Jose.
Around the same time, Mort was a rising star on the radio. He was as fanatical a Raiders fan as I have known and earned the name “Raider Mort” in NorCal sports talk. He was a regular on sports talk shows in the region.
If you listened to sports talk radio in the Bay Area in the last 30 years, you knew Raider Mort. He served as emcee for many Raiders events over the years.
He was eventually honored by the Pro Football Hall of Fame for his Raider fandom. He is also inducted in the Vallejo Sports Hall of Fame and the St.Patrick-St. Vincent High School Sports of Fame.
The last time I saw Mort was in 2021, when a few of us put together our own celebration of life for classmate Mike Chandler who had passed shortly beforehand.
We had the night at the Sunshine Saloon in Pleasanton and Mort made the drive up from Monte Sereno in the Santa Cruz Mountains between Los Gatos and Saratoga, where he lived.
A picture of that night runs with this story.
The stories flowed as did the laughter. Mort had aged, but he was still Mort and when he showed, everyone’s spirits soared. I mean it was Mort!
I don’t think any of us thought it would be the last time we saw him. I am so thankful we got one final night to spend with our big brother and then a good friend.
RIP Mort – your legacy will be carried on with each of us blessed to have spent time with you.
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for Embarcadero Media Foundation’s East Bay Division. To contact him about his Pleasanton Preps column, email acesmag@aol.com.
