Bill Walton, a basketball Hall of Famer beloved by many in Boulder for his Pac-12 commentary and love of The Grateful Dead, died Monday at 71 years old.
Following an excellent college and pro career, Walton found success and familiarity with a whole new generation as an off-beat sports commentator whose on-air antics included eating a candle while it was still lit, presenting odd gifts to his co-commentator and sporting tie dye shirts that didn’t always stay on throughout the game.
Walton often waxed poetic on air about Boulder and was a frequent visitor to the area, especially after the University of Colorado Boulder moved to his beloved Pac-12 “Conference of Champions” and began to host regular visits from his beloved Dead & Co.
Walton was known by local Deadheads to stop at Poster Scene on Pearl Street when Dead & Co. was in town to meet fans and sign posters. Jay Rizzi, who works at Poster Scene, said he unfortunately never got to catch him at a meet up but saw him at multiple concerts.
“Bill Walton loved, loved The Grateful Dead,” Rizzi said. “It’s only natural to talk about this band if we’re talking about Bill Walton.”
At a show in California, Rizzi said his friend brought him up to the VIP area at the front of the crowd.
“(My friend) goes, ‘don’t look fast but just slowly turn around,’ and I turned around and slowly I saw this shoe the size of a small boat,” Rizzi said. “I looked up and it was Bill.”
Rizzi is 6-foot-2 said usually he worries about blocking someone’s view when he’s at the front of the crowd. But not with Walton behind him.
“He’s towering over me and I thought, ‘I’m definitely not blocking Bill Walton,’” Rizzi said.
Rizzi described Walton as a “gentle giant” who always had a big, goofy smile on his face.
“Walton was a character, a rare character,” Rizzi said. “A sports Hall of Famer who had a love for counter culture and music but you wouldn’t know it. The band loved him, the audience and fans loved him. I think losing someone like that, it just really hurts.”
Walton’s jaunts around Boulder were usually a public spectacle. He was photographed on top of the Ralphie statue outside Folsom Field, played lacrosse with the CU women’s team and frequented many of the local eateries.
Mike Blodgett, who was working part-time at The Sink on University Hill in 2017, got called in for a shift one day not knowing he would be meeting one of his biggest inspirations.
“He came in and he ordered lunch and it was funny because, I don’t know if you’ve ever been to The Sink, but the ceilings in there are probably 6-and-a-half feet tall,” Blodgett said. “When he came in he had to lean over and walk with his waist bent so it was kind of funny.”
Blodgett said Walton promised to get a picture with him, but Blodgett initially didn’t catch Walton before he left. But Walton made sure to come back to the restaurant to fulfill his promise.
“He left and he came back and said, ‘Mike, c’mon let’s get a picture,’ and then he made me wait for them to go get a Sink shirt and he took his shirt off and he stood in the lobby of The Sink right there with his shirt off for probably three minutes,” Blodgett said.
Blodgett described Walton as a local celebrity who was, “super kind and gentle.” Blodgett said Walton’s story helped him in his adolescence and again while he was working at The Sink and going through a divorce.
“Early ’90s, I was really into basketball,” Blodgett said. “I was a rebellious kid and it was hard for me to ground myself in society. I come from a broken family and it was hard for me to fit in, but when I discovered Bill Walton’s story it made me feel kind of connected.”
Added Blodgett, “He was so humble. He didn’t really care what people thought, he always went for the greater good.”
While Walton certainly had fun on his Boulder visits, he also took the time to meet with advocacy groups he supported, one being the Native American Rights Fund.
Executive Director John Echohawk met with Walton and former University of Colorado Boulder Law School Dean Jim Anaya in 2017 after Echohawk’s friend in California, who runs the American-Indian Resources Institute, introduced the two.
“He was interested in Native American issues and we’re one of the leading national Native American organizations,” Echohawk said. “He was very interested and dedicated to everything. I remember at the time he came by there was a huge Native American issue in the news — the Dakota Access Pipeline demonstration up in South Dakota, the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.”
Echohawk said Walton spoke of the demonstration on his TV broadcast and wanted to know how the Native American Rights Fund was involved.
“He had a lot of interests and passions,” Echohawk said. “We were just really pleased he was interested in our issues and was very supportive.”
