San Diego High bounced back with a 7-0 dual-meet record after a mediocre season in 1953 and finished fourth in the CIF Southern Section championships.
It was a fitting farewell for coach Bill Patten, whose teams annually were among the best in Southern California since he became head coach in 1944.
Patten’s teams posted a 61-6-1 record in dual meets and from 1946, when postwar competition lengthened the season, through 1954 the Hillers finished at least in the top five in team scores at the Southern Section championships every year but 1953.
San Diego was second three times, third twice, and fourth once. They won the team championship in 1948 and thought they were first in 1951 until a film review changed the final score.
FASTER, FURTHER
Times and distances were improving each year.
Herman Thompson of San Diego ran the first :09.7 100-yard dash and the first :19.2 180-yard low hurdles, although by all accounts Thompson received too much aid from a tailing wind.
Grossmont’s Dick Bronson set a record and ranked high nationally with a 60-foot, 4 1/2-inch shot put. Jim Giyer of Grossmont was the first to shade 1:58 in the 880-yard run and Giyer and Jim Weir of Kearny ran the first sub-4:30 miles since 1939.
3/3/54
Darrell Sager of Sweetwater began what would become a frequent assault on the school record in the 880-yard run when he logged 2:07 in a 74 ½-29 ½ dual meet win over Escondido.
Grossmont coach Jack Mashin talked shotputting with Dick Bronson, Mel Kemp, and Richard Loftus (from left).
3/5/54
San Diego’s Herman Thompson won the individual 100 in :10.1 and Ron Wade of Grossmont took the 120-yard high hurdles in :16.0 in the City Prep League Relays. Other races and field events were scored by the teams’ three-man, combined efforts.
Thompson, Ardell Finley, and Bill Walters averaged 20 feet 8 inches, and won the broad jump. Three Grossmont shot putters, Dick Bronson, Richard Loftus, and Mel Kemp, averaged 53 feet, 8 inches.
Grossmont won the team championship with 65 points to San Diego’s 45. Hoover had 32 points, Kearny 27, Point Loma 20, and Helix 9. La Jolla and Lincoln were shut out.
3/9/54
Grossmont made its CPL intentions even more clear when it topped defending dual-meet champion Hoover 67 ½-36 ½, and middle distance runners Jim Giyer and Rene Rogers pushed weightmen Dick Bronson, Mel Kemp, and Richard Loftus off center stage.
Giyer set a school record of 1:58.4 in the 880 and Rogers set a school mile record of 4:33.5. Bronson won the shot at 55-1 ½.
La Jolla’s Billy (Cookie) Taylor set a school record of 6 feet, 4 inches, in the high jump, competing with the Class B squad, as La Jolla nipped Helix, 56-48.
Darrell Smith won the 800 in 2:00.5 and Vista beat San Dieguito, 61-43, in Metropolitan League dual competition. Mark Shearer won the 100 (:10.5), 220 (:23.8), and anchored the Panthers to a 1:36.4 win in the 880 relay.
3/12/54
Darrell Sager’s Sweetwater school record in the 880 was lowered a third time from 2:05 to 2:04.8 and the Red Devils edged Coronado, 53-51.
3/14/54
Twenty-seven large schools, including San Diego, Hoover, and Grossmont, entered the 28th annual Southern Counties’ Invitational at Huntington Beach High.
Twenty-seven small schools, including Kearny, Vista, San Dieguito, Army-Navy, Fallbrook, La Jolla, and Coronado also were scheduled to compete.
Grossmont led a group of almost 100 entries from San Diego with 27. Two-time small schools defending champion Kearny had 19.
3/15/54
Bolstered by Jim Giyer’s 4:29.9 mile, fastest of the season in Southern California, coach Jack Mashin’s Grossmont Foothillers were third.
The Foothillers scored 26 2/13 points, trailing Riverside Poly, which had 35, and Santa Ana, 27 2/13.
Grossmont’s power in the weigh event was prevalent as Dick Bronson won the shot put at 57-6 ¼, followed by Richard Loftus, third at 52-11 ½, and Mel Kemp, fourth at 52-6 ¾.
Rene Rogers was third to Giyer with a 4:31 mile and Parker Damon was second in the pole vault at 12-9.
Herman Thompson of San Diego finished second behind the :09.6 100-yard dash of Santa Ana’s Bill Swisshelm and Leonard Kary was second in the 120-yard high hurdles.
KEARNY FIRST, AGAIN
Kearny won the team title for the third consecutive year with 24 2/3 points to Hawthorne’s 19.
Charlie Cota won the pole vault at 12 feet, and Jim Weir took the mile in 4:34. Paul Rushing was fourth in the 100 and Lee Buchanan third in the 440.
3/19/54
Grossmont took a rare trip to Long Beach Wilson for a triangular meet with the host Bruins and Santa Barbara.
Rene Rogers set a school record of 4:30.4 in the mile and Jim Giyer ran the 880 in 1:58.7 as the Foothillers won with 64 ¼ points to Wilson’s 55 ¾, and Santa Barbara’s 9 ½.
3/21/54
Don Wells set a school record of 50-1 in the shot put and miler Jim Weir showed what he could do at a shorter distance, running the 880 in 2:03.3 in Kearny’s 80-23 win over Lincoln.
4/2/54
It wasn’t raining but the wind blew and Herman Thompson flew at Point Loma, where San Diego was more hard-pressed than expected in a 60 ½-43 ½ dual meet victory.
Thompson set San Diego school records of :09.7 in the 100-yard dash and :19.2 in the 180-yard low hurdles.
Thompson also won the broad jump at 21 feet, 2 1/2 inches, and anchored the Hillers to victory in 1:33.5 in the 880-yard relay.
That Thompson was so significant did not go unnoticed by Point Loma officials, who were unhappy and had suspected San Diego High influence when Thompson transferred to the Hillers before his senior year.
Point Loma’s Tom Gueston set a school record of 6 feet, ¾ inches in the high jump and Ray Blasingame was second to Thompson’s windy low hurdles in :19.5.
Grossmont’s Jim Giyer ran the Southern California season’s fastest 880, logging a school record 1:58 in a 73-31 win over La Jolla.
George Paddick of Grossmont took the County lead with a 21-9 ½ broad jump. Rene Rogers added a 4:32.5 mile and Dick Bronson a 56-9 ½ shot put.
Lincoln, which in years to come would be a power throughout the state, was feeling the struggle of growing pains.
Hoover came up one point short of a century in a 99-4 carnage.
There was no third-place scorer in the pole vault, denying the Cardinals, who had two entered in the event and Lincoln none, a 100th point…and saved the Hornets from a historic embarrassment.
4/6/54
Herman Thompson won three events and was part of a fourth as San Diego defeated Grossmont, 66 1/2-37 1/2.
Thompson ran the 100 in :10, 220 in :21.9, broad Jumped 21-6, and ran the anchor leg of a winning relay team (1:32.5).
La Jolla’s Cookie Taylor high jumped 6-4 in an 83 1/2-20 1/2 win over Lincoln. Kearny’s Jim Weir logged a school-record, 4:29 mile and Don Wells joined Weir with a 51-9 1/2 shot put in a 60-44 win over Hoover. Ed Perkins’ :10.1 100 tied Helix, school reord but Point Loma won the dual, 66-38, as Ray Blasingame cleared the 120 high hurdles in :14.8.
4/23/54
Grossmont coach Jack Mashin assayed the end of the shot put competition, in which Dick Bronson, a mid-40-feet tosser as a sophomore two years before, became the fifth U.S. prep to reach 60 feet, according event guru and historian Mashin.
The national record was set by Ontario Chaffey’s Don Vick at 62-5 ¼ in 1953.
Bronson’s throw, during Grossmont’s 73-31 win over Point Loma, was accompanied by George Paddick’s County-leading, 21-11 ¼ broad jump.
La Jolla’s Cookie Taylor won a duel with Kearny’s T.C. Johnson by clearing 6-3 in the high jump, but the Vikings lost, 63 2/3-40 1/3.
C.R. Roberts won his usual, unique triple in Oceanside’s 67-37 loss to Sweetwater. Roberts clocked :10.8 in the 100, broad jumped 20-1 ¼ and claimed a personal best of 45 feet in the shot put.
4/26/54
Chula Vista earned its third consecutive Metropolitan League championship, 67 2/3-36 1/3, over visiting Vista.
The Spartans saved the best for last as a team of Benny Martin, Bill Lancaster, Don Moore and Wayne Eisenman set a school record of 1:33 in the relay.
Spartans coach Tom Rice said the relay win was “by one deep breath,” as Vista’s Mark Shearer almost caught Eisenman, who was staked to an eight-yard lead, according to Rice, when teams passed the baton for the final time.
Shearer set a Vista record of :10.2 in the 100 and won the 220 in :23.
4/30/54
Grossmont edged Kearny, 56 ½-47 ½, for second place and a 6-1 record in the CPL standings, but the Komets’ Jim Weir routed the Foothillers’ Jim Giyer and Rene Rogers, who had been unbeaten in the mile.
Weir’s time was 4:31.9 and his rapid pace took the finishing kick of Giyer’s, who was second about 15 yards behind.
San Diego whipped Helix, 76-28, to clinch the dual-meet championship with a 7-0 record. It was the last dual that retiring Bill Patten would coach.
Herman Thompson sat out the 100, won by Ardell Finley in :10.1, but won the 180 low hurdles in :19.5 and minutes later turned in the season’s fastest 220, :21.8, on the Helix straightaway.
5/8/54
CITY PREP LEAGUE, @BALBOA STADIUM
Herman Thompson was party to three of eight records starting with his :09.9 100 that bettered Thompson’s :10.0 in the CPL trials earlier in the week.
Thompson set a record of :19.5 in the 180 low hurdles in the trials and returned to negotiate the stadium curve and break the record again with :19.3.
Lee Buchanan of Kearny ran :50.7 in the 440, bettering a record of :51.5 by Buchanan and Point Loma’s Jesse Denny in the trials.
Jim Giyer of Grossmont ran the 880 in 1:58.9, better than his 1:59.9 in the trials. Giyer’s mile record of 4:32.4 in 1953 was broken by Kearny’s Jim Weir, 4:31.8.
Dick Bronson heaved the shot 59-8 ¼, better than Clyde Wetter’s 57-3 in 1951, and teammate Parker Damon cleared 12 feet ¾ inch to top the pole vault record of 11-10.
Thompson anchored a team that also included Ardell Finley, Lloyd McKinney, and Atron Gentry and set a third standard with a 1:30.6 win in the 880 relay.
San Diego won the team championship with 51 points. Grossmont had 36, Point Loma 30 ½, Hoover 29, Kearny 22, Helix 16, and La Jolla 7. Lincoln did not have a participant.
SOUTHERN PREP, @FALLBROOK
Army-Navy scored 72 ½ points, host Fallbrook 63 ½.
Darrough of Ramona ran 4:51.7 in the mile, better than the 4:56.2 by Wilson of Vista in 1951.
METROPOLITAN LEAGUE, @ESCONDIDO
Sweetwater’s Darrell Sager ran the 880 in 2:00.3, bettering the oldest meet record, 2:02.4 by La Jolla’s Earl Russell in 1934.
Mark Shearer of Vista was the meet’s only double winner, in the 100 (:10.3) and 220 (:22.7) and anchored the winning relay (1:35.8).
Chula Vista ran away with the team title with 53 points, to Vista’s 37, followed by San Dieguito, 23, Sweetwater, 21, Coronado, 18, Oceanside, 17, and Mar Vista, 9. Escondido did not score.
5/15/54
San Diego led all Class A qualifiers with 12 at the Southern Section Divisional quarterfinals meet on a day marked by rain, cold, and blustery wind at San Diego State.
Santa Ana had 11 qualifiers, Point Loma, 9, and Grossmont 7 in a competition featuring advancers from the San Diego City Prep League, Imperial Valley, Sunset, and Orange league championships.
San Diego’s Herman Thompson won a 100-yard dash heat in :10.4. CIF favorite Bill Swisshelm of Santa Ana won his in :10.
Lee Buchanan of Kearny and Charlie Love of Coronado were heat leaders in the 400 in :51.7 and :52.9, respectively.
Darrell Sager of Sweetwater (2:06.4) and Jim Giyer of Grossmont (2:01) set the pace in 880 trials.
Thompson qualified second in the 180-yard low hurdles in his best event, won by Jim Trainor of Laguna Beach in :20.2.
Mark Shearer of Vista won one of the 220s in :22.7 and Jim Weir of Kearny was first in a mile test in 4:30. Dick Bronson of Grossmont, followed by teammates Mel Kemp and Richard Loftus, led shotputters at 59 feet, 9 ½ inches.
5/18/54
Competition moved to the Division semifinals at El Rancho High in Pico (eventually renamed Pico-Rivera) and at Carpinteria.
Pole vaulter Leon Doxey discovered that he left his implement at home when he arrived.
The San Diego High athlete borrowed a pole and cleared 12 feet, 4 inches, a lifetime best, and was one of five Hillers to qualify for the CIF finals a week later at Excelsior High in Norwalk.
Doxey’s teammate, Herman Thompson, advanced in the 100 and 180-yard low hurdles, second in the former and leader at :19.5 in the latter.
5/22/54
San Diego was a surprising fourth in the Southern Section finals with 10 ½ points. Grossmont’s double first places put the Foothillers fifth with 10.
Thompson was second to Laguna’s Jim Trainor’s :19.7 in the 180 lows, an event that could have been disastrous.
Trainor was a clear winner. Going over the last barrier Thompson, Whittier’s Mickey Machamer, and Compton Centennial’s Paul Lowe were “dead even,” according to John De La Vega of the Los Angeles Times.
Trainor’s three pursuers “bumped, all were thrown off stride and it’s a miracle nobody fell,” De La Vega wrote.
Thompson was awarded the runner-up spot after a review and Lowe was third.
FOOTHILLERS FIRST
Grossmont’s Jim Giyer won the 880 in 1:59.1 and Dick Bronson took the shot put at 59-5 1/8.
San Diego also got points from high jumper Don Strickland, tied for third at 6-1 ¾, and broad jumper Alex Hudson, fifth at 21 feet, 7 inches.
Kearny’s Jim Weir was second to the 4:25.8 mile of Bellflower’s Ty Hadley. Cookie Taylor of La Jolla won the Class B high jump at 6 feet, 1 3/4 inches, and Helix’ Bob Withem won the 10-pound Class B shot with a put of 52-6,
5/29/54
Dick Bronson of Grossmont won a tight competition with Dan Everage of Los Angeles Jordan in the state meet at Berkeley. Bronson’s winning toss was 59-7 1/8 to Everage’s 59-5 7/8.
San Diego’s Herman Thompson was fourth in a morning 100 trial, won by Delano’s Leamon King in :09.9, and unplaced in the final.
Thompson was second to Kingsburg’s Rafer Johnson, who ran :19 in Thompson’s heat. Thompson was fourth in :19.5 in the final, won by Piedmont’s Monte Upshaw in :19 after Upshaw set a national record of 25-4 1/4 in the broad jump.
Grossmont’s Jim Giyer ran a career best 1:57.6 in the 880 but finished sixth.
