A couple newcomers led the shouting in a last hurrah for San Diego.
Area schools were preparing to leave the Southern Section after 47 years and embark on their own, 31 institutions forming the San Diego Section in the next school year.
Clairemont and El Capitan, numbers 30 and 31, ignored usually unsuccessful results for start-up programs.
Clairemont’s Chieftains, in their second year and without a senior class, with students and transfers from Kearny’s and Mission Bay’s enrollment districts, won the Western League track championship and bulldozed through four games in the baseball AA playoffs to another title.
El Capitan’s Vaqueros in Lakeside, sharing with another new school, Granite Hills, students from El Cajon Valley, won the Grossmont League baseball championship, finishing ahead of redoubtable Helix.
CAVERS MISS
San Diego High gained the Southern Section AAA finals in baseball, in which it had been dominant from the beginning of the CIF, but lost in its bid for a record 17th championship when Whittier scored an 11-1 victory at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles.
Track http://1952-by-any-name-cavemen-cavers-hillers-broke-all-records/and field competition was as steady as usual, although the area was blanked in the state meet in Palo Alto.
Some 1960 highlights, baseball in regular typeface, track in italics:
2/20/60
Righthander John Lippert opened the season by pitching a no-hitter in Helix’ 1-0 victory over visiting Point Loma.
Ray Koenig’s seventh-inning home run provided the victory over the Pointers’ Ronnie Holmes, who allowed only two hits.
2/24/60
Fred Shuey hit a bases-loaded triple and Myron Morper drove in the winning run with a single in the bottom of the seventh inning as San Diego topped Point Loma, 5-4.
3/3/60
Lefthander Ronnie Holmes pitched a no-hitter and Point Loma gave the lefthander more offense than he needed in an 11-0 win over Coronado.
St. Augustine’s Dennis Shields pitched four innings of a 7-1 win over La Jolla and helped himself with three hits, two home runs and four runs batted in.
3/5/60
Darryl Nelson won three events, 120-yard high hurdles (:15.8), high jump (6-1 ½), and broad jump (20-11 ½) and would become a double or triple winner almost every week but Kearny dropped a 72-32 dual meet decision to Lincoln.
Dick Armstrong allowed three hits and drove in four runs as Hoover defeated visiting Alhambra Mark Keppel, 9-2.
Harold Peterson and Steve Simon hit home runs and San Diego erupted for six runs in the sixth inning to defeat guest San Gabriel, 14-9.
3/7/60
Dick Waisman of Mount Miguel and Dave Rebello of University pitched no-hitters and 10 losing teams in the County scored a total of 11 runs.
Waisman punched out Clairemont, 7-0. Mountain Empire scored a run on a walk, two stolen bases, and an error but was beaten, 9-1.
3/14/60
Crawford’s Norm Marr tripled in a run in the sixth inning and drove in the winning run with a single in a 10-inning, 2-1 victory over Point Loma.
3/18/60
Point Loma’s Ron Steele was second in :49.5 in one of two, 440-yard dash heats in the 37th Southern Counties’ Invitational at Huntington Beach.
Steele’s time in the one-turn race, behind the :49.1 of Long Beach Poly’s Willie Martin, tied for the second fastest ever by an area runner. San Diego’s Norman Stocks ran :49.3 in 1946 and Coronado’s John Fawcett :49.5 in 1937.
Lincoln’s Lafayette (Mackie) McIntosh was second in 1:58.3 in a large schools 880-yard run. Point Loma’s Robert Nelson was third in the broad jump at 22-8 ¾.
Kearny’s Darryl Nelson tied for first in the small schools’ high jump at 6 feet, 3 ¼ inches and was second in the broad jump, won by Oceanside’s Rich Lazaro at 21-10 3/4.
3/25/60
A three-way tie in the pole vault was enough for Lincoln to score an upset, 53 2/3-50 1/3 victory over San Diego in the decisive Eastern League dual meet.
Lincoln trailed, 47 1/3-42 2/3, going into the final running event, the 880-yard relay. Ed Goodman held off the Cavers’ Benny Lewis on the anchor lap for a 1:31.3 victory, but the pole vault had not been completed.
Jim Cransey and Adam Cato of Lincoln and San Diego’s Otis Doxey finally tied for first, each with the same number of misses, and the Hornets claimed 6 of the event’s nine points
Dave Morehead, who would pitch a no-hitter for the Boston Red Sox in 1965, was chased in a five-run San Diego first inning.
The Cavers went on to score two runs in the top of the seventh inning and defeat Hoover, 10-9, in a big Eastern League contest.
3/28/60
Gary (Slats) Maloy allowed five hits and went the distance in Crawford’s 7-6 victory over San Diego, which committed seven errors and fell into a first-place tie with Crawford, each at 3-1 in the East.
The loss was San Diego’s first in 10 games.
El Capitan improved to 9-0 by scoring a run in the bottom of the seventh inning to edge El Cajon Valley, 12-11.
The first-year Vaqueros were led by Danny Kern, who tripled and came home on an error for the winning run. Kern added a single and double in four times at bat.
NO-HITTER BY CADETS
Jack Vincent and Ed Standon combined to no-hit San Miguel School in Army-Navy’s 14-0 win.
A 55-49 dual meet loss to Helix was San Diego’s third of the season, the most since the 1943 squad posted a 2-3 dual-meet record.
Helix’ Larry Aiken won both hurdles events and tied the 1957 school record of :20.0 by Gale Barsotti in the 180 lows.
4/2/60
San Diego outscored Grossmont, 50-44, with El Cajon Valley third at 38 points to win the large-school division of the sixth annual South Bay relays at Sweetwater.
Lincoln’s 53 points were enough to win the medium schools over Helix (51 1/3) and Point Loma (31 2/3).
Mission Bay (61), Mar Vista (51), and Kearny (36) were the leading small schools.
Grossmont’s Don Clarke cleared 13-2 ½ in the pole vault, bettering by almost nine inches the record of 12-5 /12 by Escondido’s Bing Howe in 1959.
A San Diego team of Charles Dimry, Thomas Phillips, Emile Wright, and William Dentham raced the 440-yard relay in :42.7.
The Cavers’ time in the infrequently run event was the fastest in County history but was erased, along with other marks, after a survey of the Sweetwater track years later showed the oval was less than 440 yards.
4/8/60
Bill Jones cleared 6-3 ½ in the high jump to break Joe Page’s school record of 6-3, set in 1947, and Grossmont won the big meet in the foothills, 57 ½-46 ½ over Helix.
Don Hamlin :10.3, :22.2 in the 100 and 220-yard dashes, and Dennis Cradit, :51.6, 21-4 ½ in the 440 and broad jump, were double winners for the Foothillers.
Hamlin, Steve Adams, Dick Pray, and Cradit combined to run 1:32.1 to win the 880-yard relay.
Grossmont improved to 6-0 and Helix slipped to 5-1.
4/11/60
Don Dart of Grossmont pitched a no-hitter in setting down Lincoln, 3-0, on the first day of the 10th annual Lions’ Tournament at Navy Field.
Hoover topped Escondido, 1-0, in eight innings and was the only city school of six to win an Unlimited Division game.
Kearny won its Limited Division opener, 8-3 over Coronado.
4/12/60
Tournament teams played doubleheaders on the second day of the three-day event.
Defending Unlimited Division champion San Diego shut out by El Cajon Valley, 2-0, on opening day, was bounced from the consolation bracket by St. Augustine, 3-2.
4/13/60
Sophomore George Sherrod cuffed Hoover on two hits and Helix won the Lions’ Unlimited Division title, 5-0.
El Centro Central beat Kearny, 7-2, for the Limited championship, while St. Augustine, 2-1 in eight innings over Escondido, and San Dieguito, 7-4 over Coronado, won the respective division consolation titles.
4/15/60
Competitors from San Diego to Yuma, Arizona, converged on Balboa Stadium for the first annual Easter Relays.
Mike Graves of El Cajon Valley cleared 13 feet, 6 ¼ inches in the pole vault for the day’s outstanding mark.
Graves’ performance allowed the Braves to tie Grossmont at the three-man cumulative height of 37 feet and earn the schools the Dean C.E. Peterson perpetual trophy in honor of the late San Diego State coach.
4/20/60
Bill Froehling hurled a no-hitter as Army-Navy shut down visiting Mountain Empire, 9-0.
4/22/60
San Diego outlasted visiting Hoover, 13-12. The Cardinals’ Dave Morehead pitched in the first inning, was removed and went to first base and then returned to pitch in the fourth inning.
4/26/60
Jim Thompson’s two-run home run was important in San Diego’s 8-7 win over Crawford, and moved the Cavers closer to the Eastern League title, its 7-1 record three games better than runner-up Hoover (4-4).
4/29/60
Favored Point Loma was shocked by first-year Clairemont, which won the 880-yard relay, the meet’s deciding event, and claimed the Western League dual meet championship, 53-51.
Lanky Jim Godfrey got up for second in the 100-yard dash, won the 220-yard dash in a County-leading :21.7, and anchored the Chiefs to a 1:31.2 victory in the battle of baton exchanges.
Clairemont’s surprising win was especially satisfying for coach Bob Kirchhoff, who had been out of the loop since being let go at Hoover after a stunning football loss to San Diego in 1954.
A City Schools administrator and parent of a Clairemont thinclad had asked the reluctant Kirchhoff to take the coaching reins as a personal favor.
Helix (9-3) walloped El Capitan (10-0), 14-6, in a Metropolitan League battle as Randy Schwartz and Ray Koenig hit home runs.
5/6/60
League finals were held at Camp Pendleton (Southern), El Cajon Valley (Metropolitan), La Jolla (Western), and Balboa Stadium (Eastern).
San Diego, despite losing leading 220-440-and-relay anchorman Benny Lewis to scholastic woes, dominated with 79 1/3 points to runner-up Lincoln’s 51. A Cavers foursome of Thomas Phillips, Emile Wright, Eddie Frost, and Bill Dentham timed 1:29.5 in the 880 relay.
Darryl Nelson set a Western League meet record of 6-3 ½ in the high jump but Clairemont won the team title with 54 5/6 points to Mission Bay’s 43 1/3.
Point Loma’s Ray Alexander ran faster than any city-wide Class C sprint ever with winning times of :10 in the 100 and :18.3 in the 180.
Grossmont, 8-0 in the dual meet season, with wins over Compton Centennial, Helix, and San Diego, outscored Helix, 41-38 for the varsity championship.
El Capitan improved to 12-2 in the Metro League with a 12-3 win over Escondido that included John Udall’s eighth home run of the year and Al Hinkle’s 5-for-5, three doubles, a triple and single.
Point Loma clinched a tie for first for the Western League crown behind Jerry Jeli’s two-hit pitching and 6-0 win over La Jolla.
5/14/60
Athletes from the Eastern, Western, Metropolitan, Avocado, and Southern leagues met those from the Orange County Sunset, Freeway, and Orange leagues in a Southern California divisional meet in Balboa Stadium.
El Cajon Valley’s Mike Graves, the Southern California pole vault leader at 13-8 ½, dropped down to Class B and cleared the same height, breaking the record of 13-6 ¼ by a Glendale vaulter in 1957.
San Diego led with 7 varsity qualifiers. Fullerton and Tustin had five each.
5/17/60
Clairemont, runner-up to Point Loma in the Western loop, topped Vista, 6-0, in a first-round, Southern Section AA playoff as Ron Power tripled and hit a two-run homer.
5/20/60
Dave Morehead shut out El Capitan, 9-0, in a surprising Southern Section AAA playoff result. The Cardinals, in and out all season, rolled with Morehead’s three-hit pitching and stunned the first-year Vaqueros, who were 14-2 in the Metropolitan League.
San Diego outlasted Helix, 10-8, as Steve Simon was 3 for 4 and pitcher Larry Murillo 2 for 3.
Clairemont advanced with an 18-5 win over Torrance Bishop Montgomery in Class AA.
Riverside Ramona ousted the Southern League’s Ramona, 11-8, in Class A.
5/21/60
San Diego qualified five entries in the semifinal divisional meet at Chaffey high in Ontario, led by its relay team, which clocked a season-best 1:28.9.
Kearny’s Darryl Nelson led all high jumpers at 6-4 and San Diego’s Thomas Phillips won a 100-yard dah heat in :10 and was second in his 220 heat.
5/24/60
Clairemont earned a trip to the Southern Section AA finals with a 6-3 victory over Santa Ana Mater Dei at Anaheim.
Bill Black’s three-run homer in the fourth inning broke a 2-2 tie in the Chieftains victory.
San Diego advanced to the AAA quarterfinals with a 6-1 win at Compton as lefthander Larry Murillo and last-inning reliefer Frank Lopez set down the Tarbabes on 3 hits.
About 30 professional scouts descended on San Diego State to watch future major league pitchers Dave Morehead of Hoover and Tommy Sisk of Long Beach Poly.
Sisk and the Jackrabbits turned back the Cardinals, 3-1, on Brian McCall’s two-run home run in the fifth inning.
5/27/60
Clairemont, coached by Ernie Beck, struck with five runs in the first inning as Mike Smith and Jay Critchley hit back-to-back home runs and lefthander Jerry Haight limited Rosemead Bosco Tech to four hits for six innings in a 9-2 win and surprising Southern Section championship.
San Diego High advanced again behind the two-hit pitching of Larry Murillo and surprised the favored and host Fullerton Indians, 11-2, in the semifinals round.
Murillo allowed two hits and first baseman Jim Thompson drove in four runs with a single, double, and triple.
5/28/60
Thomas Phillips of San Diego ran the 100 in :09.9 for third and Darryl Nelson of Kearny was third with a 6-4 1/2 high jump in the Southern Section finals at Long Beach Veterans’ Stadium.
Phillips and Nelson each qualified for the state meet at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto.
El Capitan’s Les Cites was fourth in the shot put at 58-2 ¼.
More impressive were some lower division competitors.
Vernie King of San Diego set a Class B broad jump record of 23-10 ¾ and won the 120-yard low hurdles in :12.8. El Cajon Valley’s Mike Graves cleared 14 feet in the pole vault, bettering his record of 13-8 ½, set two weeks before.
Lincoln’s Class B 660-yard relay team of James (Preacher) Johnson, Walter Scott, Ed Goodman and Vernus Ragsdale, won in 1:07.9, off their best of 1:06.3 but also qualifying the group to run in an exhibition 660 at Palo Alto.
Ray DeBolt represented a third new County high school, Granite Hills, located about a mile east of El Cajon Valley, and won the B 660-yard run in 1:23.6.
6/4/60
Lincoln’s B 660-yard speedsters bettered the national high school record of 1:05.9, running 1:05.7 but Los Angeles Freemont won the exhibition race in 1:04.9.
Thomas Phillips of San Diego and Darryl Nelson of Kearny did not place in the 100 or high jump.
Larry Murillo’s bid for a fourth straight playoff pitching victory and San Diego High’s attempt to win its 17th championship since 1917 came up short.
Whittier took a 5-0 lead after two innings and cruised to an 11-1 triumph at Los Angeles’ Wrigley Field.
The Cavers, under first-year coach Jerry Dahms, posted an overall record of 23-4 and came much further than expected to this, the last competition of San Diego County teams in the Southern Section.
Rick, to the best of your knowledge, was the 1960 California State Meet still a one-day affair? I presume it was, but I suppose I shouldn’t presume to presume anything that I wasn’t alive to see for myself. ;-)
– Matt
Matt, the state meet was a one-day event at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto in 1960. The meet in those days usually was morning-afternoon or afternoon-evening. The CIF went to two-day meet, beginning in 1963. It was a very popular move. I think every meet since was two days.
Do you have anything on Dave Blunt of Escondido. I think he won the 100 in ’60 at Kearney. He later went on the do well at Oregon.
Go to the home page and search 1960. There’s a photo of Dave and Bobby Blunt. I haven’t written about the 1961 track season.
Larry, Dave won the 100 and 220 at Kearny in 1961.
Thanks, Rick. Interesting history of San Diego prep track and baseball. Some great athletes paved the way for those of us who came along in the 70’s. It’s great to see some old schools like San Diego, Kearny, Hoover, Clairemont and Point Loma still standing!
So much has changed, especially demographics. Private schools and charters have moved in on the publics. Nothing stays the same. Point Loma and Clairemont had to give up football this year. We’re still grinding on this pandemic. I hope all is pretty much back to normal by summer. Thanks for writing. Mark, and for your support.