Sports Walk in Echo Park
There’s a sports monument right outside of 826LA. In fact, it’s right on Sunset Boulevard. Echo Park’s Walk of Fame honors local sports figures, and the Good Times journalists took a stroll down the Walk and then found out more about the people being honored.
Roy Campanella by Alanis
Roy Campanella (a.k.a. “Campy”) was a human who was the catcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the ’40s and ’50s. He is on the Echo Park Walk of Fame because he was a good player and played in the Negro Leagues and the Mexican Leagues before playing in the Major Leagues with Jackie Robinson. He was also in the Major League Hall of Fame and won three MVPs. He only played for the Brooklyn Dodgers because he had an automobile accident before the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles. We walked to Sunset Blvd., and when I heard his name, I thought about the movie The Sandlot: Heading Home.
Echo Park Plaques by Josephine
We went outside. We had some paper and crayons, and we colored some plaques in front of 826LA. One of them was for a golfer (Ralph Guldahl), one was for a runner (Jesse Owens) and one was for a baseball player (Roy Campanella). I’d never heard of Ralph Guldahl before. He played golf. He lived in Los Angeles. He’s on the Echo Park Walk of Fame because he was really good at playing golf. He won in Santa Monica in 1931. He was born in Dallas, Texas.
The plaques are called Avenue of the Athletes. That should be the name of the street. L. Andrew Castle put the plaques on Avenue of the Athletes so people would come to the shops in Echo Park. He had a camera shop. Avenue of the Athletes is on Sunset between Elysian Park Blvd. and Alvarado St. The plaques were made in 1974. There are 32 plaques on Avenue of the Athletes.