Bruce Chapman, Millennium Hall of Fame

Once a power forward for the original Runnin’ Rebels, Bruce Chapman

is now a godfather in Las Vegas.

No, not the Hollywood type. Not like the ones portrayed on the silver

screen after Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel helped build the place.

Instead -- even though he’s not a religious man -- Chapman has been a

godfather with an enormous heart to children dying of cancer.

A self-proclaimed rebel rouser who survived a serious surfing accident

in Newport Beach when he was 18, Chapman has turned his attention to

drumming up support for Candlelighters for Childhood Cancer, a group that

provides comfort and resources to parents and children facing

life-threatening illnesses.

The grace and dignity of the children first humbled Chapman 13 years

ago, when a visit to the Pediatric Oncology Unit at Sunrise Hospital in

Las Vegas changed his life.

Chapman, who retired last year before his 50th birthday, is everywhere

in Vegas, from charity golf tournaments to social soirees. “He’s the

tallest grip-and-grin guy in town,” a Las Vegas Review Journal columnist

once described the 6-foot-8 Chapman, a former basketball star at Costa

Mesa High, Orange Coast College and the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

Chapman urges businessmen and philanthropists to contribute to

Candlelighters, often speaks to service groups and appears on local

television shows. The reason why is simple: He has had children die in

his arms and whisper the secrets of the heart and soul in their final

breaths.

“It’s not a job, it’s a passion for me,” said Chapman, who made money

in advertising, following a stellar hoops career that ended with knee

injuries, even though he was drafted by the NBA’s Detroit Pistons and

ABA’s Utah Stars in 1970.

Once, when a little girl named Katrina Sailey was fading before his

eyes, the parents of the child asked Chapman for more than a hug. They’d

called in a priest and Chapman, as usual, was at the scene. As

22-month-old Katrina was being baptized, the parents asked Chapman to be

her godfather. He was honored.

Two hours later, she died of cancer.

Chapman continues to bond with these children and recruit his golf

buddies into the Candlelighters, which sometimes even pays for funerals.

“I’ve buried over 125 kids,” Chapman said. “But this is not a job for

everybody. People ask me how I can do it. Well, I guess because I o7

canf7 do it. I have the passion and stomach for it.”

Had Chapman not discovered a passion for basketball, it is unlikely he

would’ve landed in Las Vegas to help the young cancer victims. Chapman

said he was “wild” growing up, “always fist fighting somebody.” Without

basketball, he “never would’ve got out of high school or college.”

Only 6-5 in high school, Chapman grew one inch at OCC, then two more

inches at UNLV. “I was a very late bloomer,” said Chapman, who played

under Coach Jules Gage at Costa Mesa in 1965 and ‘66, leading the

Mustangs to the CIF Southern Section playoffs his senior year against

top-seeded Long Beach Poly, which defeated Mesa, 109-81, and “could have

beat the Lakers that year.”

From there, Chapman and John Vallely led Orange Coast to back-to-back

Eastern Conference titles, as the Pirates compiled a two-year record of

47-20. In 1967-68, Vallely set a school record for points in a season

(904), while Chapman’s point total for one season is second (695) all

time.

Chapman, OCC’s No. 3 career scoring leader behind Vallely and Chris

Beasley, averaged 20 points per game in ‘68, when Vallely averaged 25.8

ppg under Coach Bob Wetzel.

Recruited by every four-year college on the West Coast except UCLA,

Chapman signed with UNLV and hasn’t left Vegas since.

In the old saucerlike Las Vegas Convention Center, before the Thomas &

Mack Center was built, Coach Roland Todd’s 1970 team was labeled the

Runnin’ Rebels. They’d frequently crack the 100-point barrier and run

opponents out of the gym like a pit boss in a bad mood.

“Las Vegas was extremely good to me,” said Chapman, who averaged 20

ppg as a junior in 1968-69, and 17 ppg as a senior, and is now a UNLV

booster.

Growing up, Chapman said longtime Harbor Area Boys Club Coach Rod

MacMillian was his “biggest inspiration.” Chapman, Bart Carrido, Craig

Falconer and the Mancebo brothers, Rick and Larry, formed a traveling

squad that rarely lost.

It was also Carrido who found Chapman in the ocean on a stormy day

after a surfing accident. “Bart saved my life,” said Chapman, who broke

his back, dislocated his neck and was unconscious when Carrido spotted

him in the waves.

For two days, Chapman was blind and paralyzed from the waist down,

then miraculously recovered.

“Maybe there is something more to the spiritual world that I don’t

know about,” Chapman once said in the Las Vegas Review Journal.

Chapman, a member of the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame, celebrating

the millennium, has a grown daughter, Kelly, and is married to Dr. Pamela

Moore.