ENCINITAS — San Dieguito Academy High School and Palomar College Hall of Fame member John Fairchild can still feel Bill Russell’s handprint on the side of his head when he starts reminiscing.
“I went in for a layup and Russell came over to block the shot,” Fairchild, 79, remembered with a chuckle. “I went under his arm, and he hit me in the side of the head with his hand. His palm was on one side of my head and the tips of his fingers touched my ear on the other side. I said to the ref, ‘Isn’t that a foul’? The ref said back, ‘Welcome to the NBA.’”
Fairchild, a native of Encinitas and San Dieguito alum (class of 1961), is credited with being the first person from San Diego County to sign an NBA contract. After a season at Palomar College and the following two at Brigham Young University, he was taken by the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round of the 1965 NBA draft.
He appeared in 30 games for the Lakers during the 1965-66 season — sharing the floor with basketball royalty Elgin Baylor and Jerry West.
“When you see Elgin Baylor and Jerry West you kind of go, ‘Holy smokes, I’m playing with these guys,’” Fairchild said.
The 6-foot-8 Fairchild was named an all-American his senior year at BYU after setting the school’s single-season record for rebounds per game — a record that still stands. He was described by Sports Illustrated as looking skinny, even when wearing an “undershirt and a battered sweat shirt under a tab-collar dress shirt.”
Once drafted, he found himself in tough competition to make the Lakers, having to beat out eight other players for a roster spot.
Playing time was scarce: a few minutes here, a few minutes there. But there are memories that have lasted a lifetime.
Like the time Baylor sent him to 6-10 center Darrall Imhoff — opposing center the night in 1962 when Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a game — for advice about defense.
“I was talking to Baylor, and he said, ‘Go talk to Darrall, he will tell you about defense,’” Fairchild remembered. “At the time, I didn’t realize he was the guy Chamberlain scored 100 points on. (Imhoff) told me to go back and tell Elgin (an expletive) — I’m not going to do that.”
Decades later, Fairchild still has a set of golf clubs Imhoff gifted him.
For the season, he was paid $10,500, with a $1,500 signing bonus.
“They told me not to bring a manager (agent), because if I did, they wouldn’t sign me,” Fairchild said.
The following season, Fairchild was picked up by the San Diego Rockets in the expansion draft. After meeting with a Rockets executive in a hotel room near the airport, Fairchild quickly realized the opportunity wasn’t right for him.
“When I met the general manager, he was about half-blasted,” Fairchild said. “I could smell the alcohol and cigarette smoke — I was distracted by that. He was stumbling over his speech. I told them I don’t want to play for $10,000. I’m from San Diego — I’ll sell tickets for you guys.”
With a $5,000 raise, Fairchild spent the next three seasons in the upstart, rebel league: the American Basketball Association, known for its flamboyant style of play, red, white and blue ball and three-point line.
“The ABA made the game exciting,” Fairchild said. “There were good teams, but we didn’t have anyone in the stands watching” in Anaheim.
After a season with the Anaheim Amigos — his best as a professional, averaging over 10 points and five rebounds per game — Fairchild bounced around, playing for the Denver Rockets, Indiana Pacers and Kentucky Colonels.
“The ABA was much different,” Fairchild said. “Guys were playing to try to play (in the NBA), so a lot of dirty things were going on. A couple of guys brought guns to the game. The NBA, you wanted to play hard, but you didn’t want to hurt anybody. The ABA was rougher game.”
With the Pacers, he teamed up with Mel Daniels and Roger Brown; the ABA’s answer to Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, making it all the way to the league championship in 1969, losing in five games to the Oakland Oaks.
Fairchild appeared in 10 total games for two teams during the 1969-70 season, and then, as unceremoniously as his basketball career began, it ended.
“It was mixed emotions,” Fairchild said. “I didn’t want to get out, but at the same time, I had saved some money.”
For Fairchild, life after professional basketball began with a job at Penn Mutual, selling life insurance. In 1979, he formed his own electrical business in Tempe, Arizona, working in that industry until he retired in November 2021. He now lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
In his early teens, Fairchild got his first job, washing dishes for $1 an hour at a Chinese restaurant in walking distance from his childhood home in Leucadia. He lasted all of one day.
In the totality of his life, he worked in the NBA only marginally longer. Still, the time spent in Laker-land burns bright.
“It’s part of my life that I really love,” Fairchild said. “I really enjoyed playing in the NBA and it was fun in the ABA, getting to show my skills as a forward. Would I have done some things different? Probably. I look at pictures I have and now, at my stage of my life, I still enjoy that time.”
