| Randy Stoklos | |
|---|---|
| Personal information | |
| Nationality | American |
| Born | December 13, 1960 (age 63) |
| Hometown | Pacific Palisades, California, U.S. |
| Height | 6 ft 4 in (193 cm) |
| College / University | University of California, Los Angeles |
Randy Stoklos (born December 13, 1960) is a retired American beach volleyball player.[1] He is the first player to earn $1 million playing competitive beach volleyball.[2] He is a five-time winner of the prestigious Manhattan Open.[3]
Stoklos played college volleyball at UCLA and left early to focus on beach volleyball.[1] He won his first Manhattan Open partnering with Jim Menges in 1981.[4] He then went on to dominate the sport with partner Sinjin Smith in the 1980s and early 1990s.[4]
Stoklos has 122 career wins, which ranks him third of all time.[1] He was selected as MVP of the AVP in 1988, 1989, and 1991.[1] He was selected as the Best Setter in 1989.[1] He retired in 1997, having amassed almost $2 million in prize money in his career.[1]
In 1992, Stoklos reflected on his father's unwillingness to allow him to play volleyball at the beach in his youth. His father, who survived a German work camp as a Pole, was an "old-country type" who was afraid his son would grow up to be lazy if he spent too much time at the beach.[5]
For his achievements and pioneering role in the sport, Stoklos was inducted into the California Beach Volleyball Hall of Fame in 1999.[4] In 2008, he was inducted into the International Volleyball Hall of Fame.[6] In 2015, he was inducted into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame.[2]
The pair of Stoklos and Smith was featured in the video game Kings of the Beach released by Electronic Arts for MS-DOS in 1988 and Commodore 64 in 1989, and in 1990 it was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System.[7] The pair also appeared in the 1990 film Side Out as Rollo Vincent (Stoklos) and Billy Cross (Smith).[8]