Late November in San Diego County produced rain, muddy fields, and fog.
Such expressions by Mother Nature carried the promise of critical fumbles and controversial calls, but not a field goal that no spectator saw, accompanied by not one but two shots from the timer’s pistol.
A 29-yard placement by University’s Steve Johnson gave the Dons a 10-7 halftime lead they improved to a final score of 19-7 against El Capitan in the County Conference semifinals in Aztec Bowl.
Although the fog prevented anyone but officials under the goal posts from witnessing Johnson’s field goal, most of those on hand enjoyed the faculty of perceiving sounds.
El Capitan principal Russell Savage was one whose organ of hearing was working.
Savage heard two starter pistol reports at the end of the first half and announced immediately following the game that the Vaqueros were going to protest the Dons’ three-point play.
Referee Clarence Burton ruled Johnson’s kick was launched before the half ended.
According to Burton, the unidentified timer, located high above the field in the press box, told the referee that the first shot sounded after the ball was snapped for the kick.
NO SEE, NO HEAR
The second shot, according to the timer, was to let the teams know that the half was over, because in the timer’s words, “The first shot was too faint to be heard throughout the stadium.”
Bill Center of The San Diego Union wrote that no one in the stadium was in position to see the scoreboard clock in the bowl’s South end zone or the kick at the north end.
In fact, Center added, few of the 6,500 on hand could have witnessed either.
An unidentified panel of three principals ruled against El Capitan the following Monday.
After more than an hour of deliberation, the principals issued a statement: “Due to inconclusive evidence as to whether or not any time remained, the protest is disallowed.”
RAW DEAL?
The El Capitan principal asked CIF commissioner Don Clarkson that the game be replayed from just before the field goal attempt. Russell Savage noted the timer could neither see the field or the clock.
Savage also cited the fact that one official had told him that only 15 seconds remained two plays before the kick and that University had only one time out.
Savage also protested that no provision had been made for keeping time on the field, although “everyone knew it was going to be foggy.”
Game clock timing from the field had been done many times before.
For an example, search “1939: Pointer Coach Has Scary Exit From Europe” and scroll to the segment tilted “Ghosts in the Mist.”
The principal’s final shot, no pun intended, was that the semifinals contest was “handled with complete incompetence.”
CO-CHAMPIONSHIP STINKS
Bill Center reported that coaches and administrators were preparing to take several grievances to the CIF, most notably the idea of two winners at season’s end.
The second year in which a Metropolitan titlist and a County winner would be declared co-champions was roundly criticized.
So were dates of games (the Metropolitan playoff was on the same night as the San Diego State-Utah State game) and methods of picking playoff teams (at-large squads were being given preference over teams that had finished tied for first in their leagues).
Morse defeated University, 26-21, and Castle Park edged Escondido, 21-14, in the two title games.
Chuck Coover of Morse weighed in on the two-championship controversy. “We want it and I know Gil (Castle Park coach Warren) wants it. I don’t know of a coach who doesn’t want one title and one game.”
Castle Park and Morse would meet…in the season-opening game of 1969.
FIZZLED KOMETS
Birt Slater’s Kearny Komets had to gag on another bitter pill after being knocked out of the playoffs for the second successive year.
In 1967 they were on Lincoln’s one-foot line when time ran out in a 7-6 loss.
Kearny led Morse, 19-13, with at least two downs to run out the final 61 seconds in the City Conference final.
On second down from the Komets’ 27-yard line, quarterback Gene Watkins was sacked by Avery Clark, Morse’s 6-foot-3, 215-pound all-San Diego Section tackle, as Watkins attempted to hand off on a risky end-around play.
Clark hit with enough force that Watkins fumbled the ball into the air and Clark intercepted and rumbled to the 10-yard line.
Rick Halsey’s 10-yard pass to Mike Hawks on the next play etched a 19-19 tie. Hawks then soccer-styled the winning point after through the heavy fog of Aztec Bowl with seconds remaining.
Until Clark’s game-breaking play, the game was a Watkins-Ed Evilsizor show.
The quarterback and his split end collaborated on touchdown pass plays of 43, 20, and 46 yards for a 19-13 lead. Evilsizor had set up Kearny’s first score when he ran 18 yards on fourth and eight out of punt formation.
SIGNS OF THE TIME
San Diego County population was 1,320,000, increasing by 97 persons a day.
Caltrans district supervisor Jacob Dekema said the freeways weren’t keeping up with the population as he announced groundbreaking for an extension of the I-8 freeway from east of the bridge crossing the San Diego River west to Nimitz and Sunset Cliffs boulevards.
Dekema, also said that traffic analyses would be impossible in the metropolitan area “without use of computers”.
Computers?
SIGNS, CON’T
The Adams Avenue Bridge over the man-made I-805 canyon between Iowa and Boundary Streets was being replaced. The old structure, with its wooden trestles, conveyed the historic Adams Avenue trolley.
MORE DISSATISFACTION
Small schools bosses Tom Gillaspie of Julian and Louis Bitterlin of San Diego Military Academy wanted no part of a releaguing proposal that pitted their teams against Army-Navy and Ramona, schools with much larger enrollments.
The two principals suggested a two-division Southern League. This would include a Mountain Division of Borrego Springs, Mountain Empire, Julian, and Rancho del Campo and a Coastal Division of Francis Parker, La Jolla Country Day, Christian, and San Diego Military.
Army-Navy and Ramona would become independents under the Gillaspie-Bitterlin plan.
The CIF disagreed. Releaguing in 1969 would put Ramona in a Southern Mountain Division and Army-Navy in a Coastal Division.
Ramona and Army-Navy were going to move, because the Palomar League would go on hiatus in 1969, with San Marcos headed for the Avocado and Marian for the Metropolitan.
OOPS
Orange Glen coach Dick Disney spoke too soon. “Potentially, this team is every bit as good as last year’s. I’d have to rate our chances as good for a repeat.”
Disney must have overlooked the fact that the Patriots lost 31 of their first 38 players from the 1967 club that was 11-0 and won the County Conference title.
Orange Glen flatted out to a 3-5 record.
DREADED ADMINISTRATIVE GLITCHES
Point Loma won its first game of the season…twice.
The Pointers, forced to forfeit three victories, bounced back to defeat Crawford, 21-9, for their official first win.
Point Loma, Mission Bay, and La Jolla all were penalized for using residentially ineligible players.
Games between the three Western League schools were declared “no contest.” The schools also were forced to vacate any nonleague wins from start of the season.
La Jolla saved one victory because it did not use its ineligible player in a 21-6 victory over Point Loma.
STOP THE CLOCK
La Jolla coach Gene Edwards stormed away after the Vikings’ frantic signal for a time out either was not seen, heard, or was too late in an 18-14 loss to University.
La Jolla and Uni had combined for 213 yards in a wild last seven minutes on the Vikings’ rain-soaked, muddy field. La Jolla was parked on the Dons’ 10-yard line at the final gun and screamed that its time-out shouts weren’t recognized.
RISING GIANT
Patrick Henry, 1,732 students strong in two grades, opened its doors and 170 boys turned out for football, eventually pared to 66 for varsity and junior varsity.
Head coach Russ Leslie, an assistant to Roy Engle at Hoover since 1960, had coached at least one all-Eastern League lineman since 1962.
The Patriots played three varsity games, going 1-1-1 and overall were 3-1 with a statistics freak’s dream, 5 ties, against mostly junior varsity competition.
NEXT YEAR IS GOAL
“We’re not deep, but we’ve got some real good football players,” said Leslie. “If we can play with these small schools now, we should be able to play with anyone next year.”
The coach was prescient. Henry tied Lincoln and St. Augustine at 5-1 for the Eastern League championship in 1969 and was 6-3 overall.
POPULATION BOMB
Crawford was the largest school in the city with 2,932 students in three grades. Madison was next at 2,700, followed by Kearny at 2,640.
The fourth largest was Horace Mann Junior High, one block from Crawford, where 2,469 students were enrolled.
County schools Mount Miguel (2,571), Helix (2,510), and Oceanside (2,485) had more students than Mann but all had freshmen classes.
THIGH BONE IS CONNECTED…
…to the knee bone.
Morse’s Joe Kneebone teamed with quarterback Rick Halsey and scored on 60 and 41-yard pass plays in a 41-7 victory over Clairemont
ALMOST GOALLINE STAND
Hoover stopped Lincoln on six plays inside its four-yard line, but Lincoln scored on the seventh.
You can’t blame the Cardinals’ defense if it focused a collective stink eye on the offense.
After recovering a Lincoln fumble on the three-yard line, the Cardinals fumbled on the next play and Lincoln recovered.
Fullback Larry Williams finally scored from the one-yard line and that was all the Hornets got, or needed, in a 6-0 triumph.
QUICK KICKS
Bill Walton was about to become a nationally known basketball player at Helix and his older brother, Bruce, 6 foot 5, 270 pounds, was the anchor lineman at Helix…Bruce went on to UCLA and was a fifth-round draft choice of the Dallas Cowboys in 1973…Mount Miguel, scoreless in its first three games, outscored, 92-6, in its first four, made a startling recovery, outscoring its last 4 opponents, 135-22, to finish 4-4…Lincoln returned 9 of 11 defensive starters and moved end Melvin Chapman to quarterback, but Jerry Powell had graduated and the Hornets fell to 6-3 after winning the City Conference title in 1967…the Grossmont League’s eighth annual carnival drew an overflow crowd of 12,000 to Aztec Bowl as El Capitan, Santana, Grossmont, and Granite Hills led the East to a 27-0 victory over the West, made up of Helix, Monte Vista, Mount Miguel, and El Cajon Valley…when in doubt give the ball to Jeff Phair, who got the call on 11 successive plays and scored from 9 yards for Hilltop’s first score in a 14-6 win over Clairemont…Lincoln and Los Angeles Locke were “rained out”…Hornets coach Shan Deniston and his team were en route to their final game when Deniston was informed by Locke officials that the field at Gardena High was a quagmire and that the game should be called…the Hornets collected a forfeit victory, turned around on Interstate 5 and headed home…Coronado would like to forget its 1968 homecoming game…final score, Sweetwater 58, Islanders 0…stone tossing, harassment, and rowdyism at night games had city officials thinking hard again about going to an all-daytime schedule…some games were switched but game lights prevailed….
I remember Avery very well. He was a class act and a great all around athlete. I had to guard him in basketball twice in 68/69 season, including CIF semi at the sports arena, where we (Madison) squeaked by with a 1 point win in OT! My reward was getting Bill and Bruce Walton in the final in front in sold out arena. I hope Avery is well (we just lost Bruce W,). I’m sorry I didn’t find this site sooner. – Dennis Dascenzo
Dennis, thanks for writing. I havent’t heardcanything about Avery Clark, but we were all saddened by Bruce’s passing. He was a terrific guy.
I remember Dennis Dascenzo well. I played for Mt. Miguel (albeit not memorably at all!) and recall that Dennis was a really big and mobile guy. About 6-4 or 6-5 in the range of 210 – 215. He had really good agility and eye/hand coordination. Also possessed a good shooting touch good endurance and was really tough under the boards. Guys like Dennis, Avery Clark, and Bill Ferguson (Grossmont) – all big, mobile and aggressive – would really make your day miserable when you had to play them. ☹️ 🙂
P S – Monroe Nash and Avery Clark were an incredible 1, 2 punch for Morse in those days.
Avery Clark, that is my dad. I heard about all the stories from relatives, or random people walking up to him when I was kid. I even had a security guard that worked at my High School that was ecstatic border line giddy, when he found out he was my dad. My dad was modest, and rarely talked about his glory days.I can only imagine what he would have accomplished, if he didn’t tear his ACL in college.
ACL’s in those days usually meant a recovery time of at least a year or longer and many times never got the player back to pre-injury form. Your dad was helluva player, as was your uncle, Ron Clark. Avery almnost singlehandedly knocked Kearnby out of the playoffs. Thanks for writing, Jason.
No problem, I heard my uncle Ronnie was pretty good as well. I thought it was great to find this article that had him in it. So far this is the only one I have seen, hopefully I will find more articles and pictures.
Coach Slater had only himself to blame for the loss to Morse. The fumble happened on a reverse play, which is a high risk handoff. A couple of QB sneaks would have ended the game with Kearny ahead. Years later I talked to one of the Kearny players and we both shook our heads over the call.
Birt’s orifice always was tight during a game. I wasn’t at there. By that time i was off the preps, covering San Diego State. A reverse at that point? Very risky, even if Evilsizor or whomever took it to the house. Thanks for writing, Ted.