Pacific Athletics will honor distinguished alumni Rob DeWitt (’70), Betsy Riemenschneider Sales (‘74) and Fred Tedeschi (’81) at the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award of Honor Luncheon on Saturday, April 25 at Grace Covell Hall on the University of the Pacific campus in Stockton. The award recognizes alumni who participated in athletics at Pacific and achieved distinction in their professional lives through the notable examples of integrity, dedication, idealism, and team spirit that Mr. Stagg personified and to which Pacific is dedicated. To RSVP for the event, please contact Pam Nogare at 209-946-3945 or [email protected].
Rob DeWitt ‘70
Rob DeWitt grew up in the lumber town of Susanville and attended Lassen High before coming to University of the Pacific to play basketball for then-head coach Dick Edwards in 1966. Rob was a three-year letterwinner for the Tigers and he says the highlight of his career came in his sophomore year in 1967. That year, Pacific qualified for the NCAA Regionals and beat Texas Western (now UTEP), the defending national champions, by a score of 72-63. The Tigers then advanced to play UCLA and star center Lew Alcindor in the Regional Final but lost 80-64 to the Bruins, who went on to win the first of seven consecutive NCAA titles under legendary coach John Wooden. DeWitt led Pacific with 13 rebounds and scored six points against UCLA.
DeWitt graduated from Pacific in 1970 with dual degrees in Chemistry and Education. He then earned his Master’s degree in Education from Pacific in 1971 before completing his teaching credential.
After college, DeWitt stayed in Stockton to teach math and coach basketball at Fremont Junior High School for the 1971-72 year. He later coached junior varsity basketball and taught at Stagg High School. In 1974-77, DeWitt was the head boys’ basketball coach at Tracy High School. By 1978 he accepted the position of head coach for men’s basketball at San Joaquin Delta College, where he led the Mustangs to the State title in 1984 and the semifinals in 1987. DeWitt stepped down as head coach in 1992 and began coaching men’s tennis.
In addition to his coaching, DeWitt developed a fitness certification program offered at Delta. "I teach fitness oriented classes and I really like doing that," Rob DeWitt said. "I don't think there's anything much more important than education." DeWitt himself has long been an avid cyclist with Delta Velo Cycling in Stockton and competes in numerous age-group cycling competitions throughout the region.
For his prowess on the court and his distinguished career in coaching, DeWitt was inducted into the Stockton Athletic Hall of Fame in 2005.
DeWitt’s family members are also educators. In addition to his wife teaching art at Tokay High School in Lodi, his son John and daughter Robin are both elementary school teachers in Stockton.
Betsy Riemenschneider Sales ‘74
Betsy Riemenschneider Sales played intercollegiate tennis for the Tigers under coach Doris Meyer. She grew up in Santa Barbara and was a History major at Pacific, graduating in 1974.
Betsy’s first job was in San Francisco where she worked alongside Louis Kelso, the grandfather of the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), where she helped to ensure passage of ESOP-friendly, ERISA legislation. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) is a Federal law that sets standards of protection for individuals in most voluntarily established, private-sector retirement plans.
She moved to Chicago in 1978 after being recruited by a real estate developer to help lead their efforts in the condominium conversion boom. After the real estate collapse in 1982, Betsy was hired by WGN Radio, which was the largest revenue producing radio station in the US. Betsy earned her reputation as a trailblazing promotional guru as marketing director for the Chicago Tribune’s flagship radio station. While there, she initiated, developed and executed WGN marketing ventures with the Chicago Cubs, Chicago Bears and DePaul University.
In 1991, Betsy teamed up with political campaign strategist Thom Serafin to form Serafin & Associates, which quickly became a highly successful and well-known Illinois public affairs firm. At Serafin, Betsy spearheaded some of the most ambitious, innovative and successful public affairs and community relations campaigns in Chicago history, which included successfully negotiating the way for Walmart to build and operate its first urban stores in underdeveloped markets in the US.
While in Chicago, she met and married Tom Sales who was the Director of Midwest Sales for GOLF Magazine. She worked diligently to make Chicago a better place for all and participated on numerous local charitable and business organization boards.
Both Betsy and Tom loved Chicago, but dreamed of leaving the winter weather behind and moving to California. Unfortunately Tom passed away suddenly in 2012 but Betsy has realized their dream and is now living and working remotely from Santa Barbara.
Fred Tedeschi ‘81
Fred Tedeschi played on the Pacific men’s golf team for longtime Tiger coach Glen Albaugh. He was twice selected as a Pacific Coast Athletic Association (PCAA) scholar athlete. He graduated from Pacific with two degrees in Physical Education, completing his Bachelor’s degree in 1981 and his Master’s degree in 1984.
Fred has long been recognized as one of the nation’s most accomplished athletic trainers. He has been the director of athletic training services at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, since July 2014 where he oversees the daily operation of OSU’s athletic training services.
Prior to joining OSU, Fred spent the previous 16 years as the head athletic trainer for the NBA’s Chicago Bulls, where he was twice selected as the Joe O’Toole NBA Athletic Trainers Association (NBATA) athletic trainer of the year. He had a six-year stint as a board member for the NBATA and was the organization’s chairman for the 2005-06 season.
Prior to his tenure with the Bulls, Fred served as the head athletic trainer at the University of California from 1994-98 and at Vanderbilt from 1991-94. He began his career as a training assistant with the San Francisco 49ers from 1983-84 and then was the head athletic trainer for the U.S. Men’s and Women’s volleyball teams in 1985. In May 1986, he rejoined the 49ers as an athletic trainer and during his seven years with the team, the 49ers won Super Bowl XIX (1985), Super Bowl XXIII (1989) and Super Bowl XXIV (1990).
Fred is a certified as a Performance Enhancement Specialist (PES) and a Corrective Exercise Specialist (CES) by the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM). He is a member of the National Athletic Trainers Association and has been a longtime member of the NBATA and the Illinois Athletic Trainers Association. He also has published several sports medicine studies and is a frequent speaker on sports medicine topics. He was an adjunct faculty member for the A.T. Still University College of Health Sciences from 2008-14. Fred and his wife, Toni, have two children, Kelly and Matt, and the couple resides in Corvallis.