1964-65: Leave it to Some Grossmont Gym Rats

The best teams could be very disappointing, which is why a group of pickup-playing hoopsters almost stole the show.

Eight Grossmont High students, with blistered feet, sore arms and legs, and with a burning desire to  get home and sleep, claimed a record for the longest game, ever.

Basketball historians would argue the point, but not in San Diego County, where there is no recorded proof of anything matching the 15-hour effort of a pair of four-man teams.

The group started playing at 6 a.m. and staggered to a 9 p.m. conclusion with only a two-minute break each hour and 15 minutes for lunch.

A team led by Larry Schweer, the only player with varsity experience, defeated the squad led by game organizer Rich Marian, 1,962 to 1,652.

Schweer, joined by Rich Smith, Larry Strong, and John Sherman, led all scorers with 615 points.  Marian’s team included Steve Lee, Jeff Shaw, and Bob Fleming.

Barry Carr of the Grossmont faculty and several Grossmont coeds kept score.

CAVERS PREVAIL

San Diego High emerged as the AA division champion and the fourth Eastern League team in the San Diego Section’s five years, and favored Crawford vanished in the first round.

The Cavemen, as they still were often called, claimed their first section title since the 1935-36 team marched through the Southern California playoffs.

San Diego’s 24 victories were sullied by eight defeats, some not close.

There was a 60-43 loss to Burbank Burroughs, which featured future UCLA and L.A. Lakers star Lynn Schackelford during the Cavers’ and Hoover’s annual December jousts with schools from the Los Angeles-area Foothill League.

Hoover ousted the Cavers, 55-41, in the San Diego Kiwanis Tournament.

San Diego won a couple games in the San Bernardino Kiwanis event but they were sandwiched between emphatic knockouts of 77-55 to Compton Centennial and 65-48 to Victorville Victor Valley.

They lost twice to Eastern League champion Crawford, 66-54, and 64-62.

And there was a late-season, 47-44 stinker to Morse, which would finish 1-9 in the East and 4-16 overall.

THEY CATCH FIRE

San Diego tied Hoover (14-9) with a 7-3, second-place record and was forced into a league playoff which they survived, beating the Cardinals, 47-40.

The Cavers hit their stride in the postseason behind 6-foot, 6-inch super sophomore Oscar Foster, 6-7 Richard Mills, 6-2 Jerry Eucce, 6-2 Brent Strom, and 5-11 Clarence Calvin.

San Diego dumped Monte Vista (20-8), 59-44, Castle Park (23-7), 56-37, and Chula Vista (21-5), 62-40.

Spartans coach Larry Armbrust was taken aback by the Cavers’ length and size.

“I didn’t realize how big they were until our boys got out there beside them,” said Armbrust, who became the first to play and coach in a section championship game, having starred for the ‘51-‘52 Chula Vista team that won a Southern Section small schools title.

“Every time I looked up to shoot there was a hand in my face,” said Charlie Porter, probably that of Foster or Mills, who led San Diego with 24 points and 10 rebounds.

Mills scored 65 points in the three playoffs, three points less than the record set by Grossmont’s Dick Baker in 1962.

San Diego coach Bill Standly surprised the Spartans when the Cavers came out in a zone defense.  “We just went over it this morning and again before the game,” said Standly.  “We’d never used it.”

IT’S BASKETBALL NOW

Strom, who would form with Foster the nucleus of the 1965-66 squad, was  a future San Diego Section baseball player of the year, all-America at USC, and longtime major league pitcher and pitching coach.

But the stylish lefthander declared, “I won’t be able to think about baseball.  I can’t keep my mind of basketball.  This was the biggest thrill of my life.”

COLTS: WHA’ HAPPENED?

Crawford rolled to a 9-1 Eastern League championship (only loss, 54-52, to Hoover) by two games and took a 22-3 record into the playoffs as the preferred team.

The Colts were sent packing in the first round, 70-56, by 14-9 La Jolla, apparently so shocked by its victory that the Vikings forgot where they were, blown out, 74-59, in the semifinals by Chula Vista and 65-49 by Castle Park in the third place game.

The Colts’ only other local setback (they also lost to North Torrance, 59-54, in quarterfinals of the Covina Tournament) was an early-season, 63-56 decision to El Capitan that wasn’t was stunning as first appeared.  Long dormant El Cap finished 19-9, made the playoffs, and featured junior Gary Schneider, who averaged 20.2 points a game.

Crawford’s record for the last three seasons was 71-15.  Coach Jim Sams and his school had taken the mantel from Hoover as the city’s most successful team but it had been eliminated in the playoffs the last two years.

Von Jacobsen, a 6-4 junior and 6-3 senior Bob Boone kept Crawford in front most of the time and they waged a battle for the league scoring championship.

Jacobsen scored 198 points and Boone 197 in the 10-game league race.  Jacobsen was ninth in the County with 445 points and a 17.8 average in 25 games.  Boone scored 440 points in 26 games for a 16.9 average.

—Boone scored 33 points and Jacobsen 31 as Crawford outscored Mission Bay, 108-89, nullifying the 27 by the Bucs’ 6-foot, 10-inch Mike Kinkki and 24 by Larry Weddle.

—-Crawford and Mission Bay tied the record for most points by two teams. Monte Vista and Granite Hills combined for 197 points in the Monarchs’ 120-77 win over the Eagles in 1963-64.

KINKKI PULLS AWAY

Mission Bay’s Mike Kinkki averaged 24.3 points in his last 10 games and won the scoring title with 601 points and 21.5 average, narrowly edging Sweetwater’s Jim Finnerty, who averaged 21.3.

Kinkki began his run with a school-record 34 points in an 83-66 victory over Madison after averaging 19.9 points in the first 18 games.

A total of 34 players scored at least 300 points.  The  numbers in parenthesis in the table indicates the leaders in scoring average:

POINTS CONTINUE TO RISE

Sixty points in one game still was regarded as excellent offense as recently as 10 years before, but there were six teams this season that averaged that much.

Mission Bay was the leader at 64.8, followed by Crawford (63.9), Chula Vista (63.8), Ramona (63.2), Carlsbad (62.2), and St. Augustine (61.1).

Class AA champion San Diego was not in the top 10 in offense or defense, averaging 56.2 on offense and was 11^th in defense, averaging 48.7.

LEAGUE SCORING

The Eastern League scoring race between Crawford’s Von Jacobsen and Bob Boone was not unique.

Coronado’s Stan Stress outpointed Oceanside’s Bill Christopher, 171-170, in 10 Avocado League games.

The gag shot (below) of referee Mel Ellison “threatening” to put Grossmont coach Locke Olson in a seat belt was to illustrate a new rule.

The CIF legislated that coaches could receive a technical foul for leaving the bench to argue an official’s call.

Olson, one of the more voluble of his brethren, was a good candidate for The San Diego Union photo.

Olson had to sit back and watch as the Foothillers were trounced by Crawford, 64-37.

MILKE’S QUICK SUCCESS

George (Bud) Milke, who never had a starter taller than 6-4 in 10 mostly successful (148-118) seasons at Mar Vista, surprised Metropolitan League rivals by taking first-year Castle Park to the playoffs.

The Trojans tied Mar Vista (16-9) for second place, each with an 8-4 league record, and earned the postseason bid with a 39-37 victory over the Mariners.

Bud retired from the high school ranks but coached nine more years at Southwestern College in Chula Vista.

JUMP SHOTS

San Dieguito (19-9) claimed the Class A title, 61-53 over Carlsbad (17-4), which lost for the second season in a row…Helix’ 18-game winning streak extending back to 1963-64 was snapped by La Jolla, 65-52…Helix had ended La Jolla’s 30-game run in the 1963-64 finals…La Jolla had won 35 of 36 before bowing to San Diego, 43-42, on Jerry Eucce’s layup with :18 left…the Vikings suffered their first Western League loss in 13 games since February, 1963, when Mission Bay, behind Mike Kinkki’s 22 points and 23 rebounds won, 60-55…small schools game of the year?  Try Julian’s 66-60, overtime victory against San Miguel after a 56-56 deadlock in regulation…Carl Conte’s 33 points for the Knights (5-12) couldn’t overcome the 24 by Rich Linton and 22 by Kevin Teter for the Eagles (8-5)…The Southern League’s La Jolla Country Day (1-11) and San Diego Military (13-4) had a nonleague encounter…the Military Falcons won, 57-28, behind Rubin Valenzuela’s 29 points…19 area teams competed in six post-Christmas tournaments…Mission Bay emerged as the only champion, 58-51 over Playa del Rey St. Bernard in the San Dieguito Mustang Optimist event….