A celebration of life for John Rambo, one of the greatest athletes in Long Beach sports history who died earlier this month, is scheduled for Saturday afternoon, Jan. 29, at Poly High School, where he started his path to basketball championships and an Olympic bronze medal in the high jump.
“My dad loved Poly so much,” said Samantha Rambo Lonon, one of his daughters. “We felt it was a very appropriate place to celebrate his life.”
Rambo starred in basketball and track at Poly before setting basketball records at Long Beach City College and Long Beach State. He then went on to win a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. The celebration of life will start at 1 p.m. in the Poly quad, 1600 Atlantic Ave., Lonon said.
That will be followed by a repast at the home of Donyan Rambo Morgan, another of the Olympian’s daughters. Information: srambo96@aol.com.
Speakers, Lonon said, will include Mack Calvin, who starred in basketball at Poly, USC and the NBA; Kenny Booker, a star basketball player at Poly and UCLA; and Chuckie Miller, who starred in football at Poly and UCLA. Lonon also said her daughter, Brittany — who interviewed her grandfather with a tape recorder when she was 9 — will speak as well.
Lonon’s daughter, now 33 years old, made a DVD of that interview and still plays it.
The family has also set up a GoFundMe account to help defray funeral expenses and “to assist with giving him the homecoming he deserves,” his daughters said. The link is gofundme.com/f/john-rambos-funeral-expenses.
