Oral history interview with Rick Darnold conducted by Claytee D. White October 21, 2024 for the Game On! The Oral History of Las Vegas Sports project. In this interview, Darnold recalls growing up in Las Vegas, Nevada, playing little league baseball, soccer, football, and running track and field in high school. Darnold recalls eventually finding accounting, and becoming a CPA and working for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), where he worked in money laundering crimes and other finance-related cases. He shares his various experiences working with the IRS, in a private firm, and then with Boyd Group in Las Vegas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Atlantic City, and other locations in the United States. Darnold shares his love of sports as a child growing into an all-over appreciation for sports in Las Vegas. Digital audio available; no transcript available.
Archival Collection
Game On! The Oral History of Las Vegas Sports Interviews
Oral history interview with Marc Ratner conducted by Claytee D. White and Stefani Evans on January 9, 2025 for the Game On! The Oral History of Sports in Las Vegas Project. In this interview, Ratner recalls arriving to Las Vegas, Nevada as a teenager with his parents and attending John C. Fremont Junior High School and Las Vegas High School. It was in high school that he formed a lifetime friendship with Sig Rogich, which later helped shape his career. Following high school, he graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno in 1966. In Reno, he joined the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and played baseball and ran track. Following his graduation from UNR, he returned to Las Vegas and in 1980, he joined Rogich at R&R Advertising until Rogich left in 1992 to become United States Ambassador to Iceland. In 1985, he joined the five-member Nevada Athletic Commission, becoming Executive Director in 1993. He recalls Lorenzo Fertitta approaching him in 2005 to join UFC; he resigned and eventually resigning from the Athletic Commission in 2006 to join UFC. Throughout the interview, he recounts presiding over iconic boxing matches over the years, tensions between owners of UFC and various unions, hall of fame inductions, and working as a shot clock operator for the UNLV Rebels. Digital audio available; no transcript available.
Archival Collection
Game On! The Oral History of Las Vegas Sports Interviews
The Sunridge development records (1986-2010) series consists of documents created by the Sunridge Development Company during the multi-decade process of building Sunridge at MacDonald Ranch. These materials detail the local improvement district (LID) acquisition and subsequent municipal infrastructure and public utility construction; park, fire station, and post office construction; correspondence and agreements with the City of Henderson; agreements and disputes with the Nevada Power Company; water allocation and use, including the design and construction of drainage channels, pump stations, sewers, and reservoirs; and public roadway extension projects. The series includes documents relating to project management; marketing, advertising, and signage design; various engineering, environmental, geotechnical, and landscaping reports; property title and purchase documents; and contractor bids and correspondence.