At 80, Deppisch Still Wins 3 Games in Morning Hoops at Newport Beach Athletic Club

Ralph Deppisch has been playing basketball for seven decades and counting. He turned 80 on Oct. 17. Three days later, at 7 a.m., he won all three games of pickup basketball he played at the Newport Beach Athletic Club, each with a different lineup.

Deppisch drives from his home near Newport Harbor High to the athletic club on the other side of the bay on Tuesday and Friday mornings. He is one of the originators of the half-court three-on-three game there. It has been running for nearly 25 years.

Most of the other players are in their late 50s or early 60s. Deppisch is 6-foot-3, grew up in New England and attended Manhattan College. Robert Morris, a Corona del Mar High basketball alumnus who organized the program's alumni tournament for years, said Deppisch made 80% of his shots on a Friday, including a left-handed hook that a 6-10 player could not stop. "You can't believe he's 80, the things he does," Morris said.

Deppisch said he started playing Horse at the gym in the early 2000s with Mike Saunders, the UC Irvine men's tennis coach, whom he calls "Colonel Saunders." The Morris brothers, Steve and Darren, later joined for two-on-two games before the group expanded. "We would play for a $20 Peet's Coffee card," Deppisch said. Steve Morris, who is 6-foot-7 and played at Corona del Mar under the late coach Jack Errion, organizes the games by phone and text. "I think history shows that you guys were very competitive," Steve Morris said.

Saunders said of Deppisch: "He's an unbelievable basketball player. He's like Larry Bird with a little more finesse and grace, I would say." Deppisch counts Larry Bird as his favorite player.

Kelley Crosby, a member of the three-on-three group, calls Deppisch "The Godfather." He said Deppisch is semi-retired until a game needs an extra body. "Occasionally when somebody gets sick or rolls an ankle, they'll yell upstairs, 'Ralph, we need you,'" Crosby said. "He'll come down and throw in a little hook shot, bank it in on us, and everybody will be like, 'Wow, he still has it.'"

A birthday cake was brought into the gym on that Tuesday morning. It was 7 a.m., so the cake was mostly for Deppisch to take home. A box of doughnuts went to the players. Deppisch graded his own play: "My game now is acceptable. I can hold my own. I give myself a soft 'B.'"

The Newport Beach Athletic Club has been run by the Bazacas family for 55 years, first by John Bazacas and now his son, Tom. "It's great to have an environment for these guys to all be friends and work out," Tom Bazacas said.

Deppisch started playing basketball in the second grade. He calls what he is doing now his "8 to 80 run." Crosby said Deppisch has brought people together. "Everybody respects him," Crosby said. "He's just got a heart of gold."