Mike Bright

Mike Bright played volleyball and basketball at El Camino College, starring as a hoopster. He later made volleyball his main sport. Prior to college, he spent a year traveling the world and competing in paddleboard and surfing competitions and later worked for several years as a surfboard builder. In 1956 and 1957 he won international paddleboard competitions. In Malibu he was known for his scuba shop, the Malibu Diver’s Club, which he ran from 1969 until he sold the shop in 1979. Unfortunately Bright was paralyzed from the waist down in a diving accident at age 37 when he developed the bends while diving between Anacapa and Santa Cruz Islands in 1975. He continued t ride a hand bike and swim for exercise, despite the paralysis.

Bright competed for the US in volleyball at the 1964 and 1968 Olympics, and won a silver medal at the 1963 Pan American Games. From 1960-72 Bright led his Hollywood YMCA team to eight AAU titles and three runner-up finishes. He also competed on the beach, winning the Manhattan Beach Doubles Open five years in a row (1960-64) with Mike O’Hara. Bright married Patti Lucas, who also competed in volleyball at the 1964 and 1968 Olympics and 1963 Pan American Games.

In 1983 Mike Bright was named an All-Time Great Player by the US Volleyball Association. He is also a member of the El Camino College Basketball Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the International Volleyball Hall of Fame in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in 1993, the California Beach Volleyball Association Hall of Fame in 1995, and the Hermosa Beach Surfer’s Walk of Fame in 2006.