Bob Hose gave us a glimpse as a sophomore at Clairemont in the San Diego Section finals in 1962, when Hose finished fifth in the 880 in 1:58.
It was a promising if overlooked run by Hose, as attention was focused on Hoover’s John Garrison, who would finish second in the state meet and tie the County record of 1:52.7 by Jim Cerveny of Mission Bay in 1957.
Hose was not at Clairemont the following school year, having transferred to Madison, which opened its doors for the first time in Northeast Clairemont.
Coaches Gordon Carter and George Hoagland, with a typically undeveloped first-year group, worked Hose in a variety of events, including the long jump and hurdles, but eventually Hose settled on the 880.
Sparks began to fly.
An out-of-nowhere, second-place finish in the state meet (1963: Sensational Finishes by Cavers’ Relay, Madison’s Hose), in which Hose lowered his time by six seconds from the league finals three weeks before, was followed by more sensational runs this year.
3/6/64
Richard Grise won the shot put at 54 feet, 1 inch, and the discus at 169-6 in Grossmont’s 83-39 rout of El Capitan.
—Eddy Hanks high jumped 6-5 ¼ in an 87-16 win over Clairemont, while Morse’s Arnie Robinson cleared 6-5 in a triangular meet that Oceanside won, 49 to Madison’s 42, and Morse’s 38.
3/10/64
Coronado’s Carl Giesser, whose pole broke a couple days before, recovered with a new implement in a meet with Crawford and Oceanside, clearing 12-6 in the vault and breaking the school record of 12 feet, set in 1946.
—St. Augustine’s John Wayne Wheeler also set a pole vault standard, 12-3 ¾, as the Saints beat their so-called little brothers from University, 67-37.
3/12/64
Coronado’s Carl Giesser went over the bar at 13 feet in the pole vault but Vista won the Avocado League dual, 58-46.
—Jack Evans set a Castle Park record of :19.4 in the 180-yard low hurdles, but Morse, winning its first meet ever, captured the triangular, 55 points to 47 for Castle Park, and 26 for University.
3/14/64
Grossmont (large), Hilltop (medium), and Lincoln (small) won their respective divisions in the 10th annual South Bay Relays at Sweetwater.
Records went to Lincoln’s Jimmy Fox, timed in :14.6 in the 120-yard high hurdles, and pole vaulter Vic Montano, 13-5 7/8 in the vault.
La Jolla’s Bob Millar, aided by a wind estimated at six to 10 miles an hour, over the allowable 4.473, beat favored Bill Massey of Chula Vista in a :09.6 100.
Millar ran :10.1 and :22 in the sprints and 1:23.8 in the 660 as a Class B performer in 1963.
3/30/64
The San Diego Relays in Balboa Stadium were highlighted by a long jump aggregate, high hurdles, four-mile relay, and shot put.
Lincoln’s Art Cooper (23-¾), Greg Stewart (22-9 ¾), and Barry Brinson (21-4 1/2) set a record of 67 feet, 3 inches, to win the Dean C.E. Peterson award for the outstanding team performance.
Helix’ Doug Nelson was chosen the day’s outstanding individual with a shot put of 58 feet, ¾ inch.
Grossmont’s Jim Kerr cleared the 120 high hurdles in :14.5 and Hilltop’s four-man, four-mile relay team ran 18:33.7 for other records.
4/4/64
Eddy Hanks of Hoover high jumped 6 feet, 8 inches, and had a good try at 6-10 in Hoover’s 62-42 win against Point Loma.
“It’s fantastic that he can jump almost one foot above his height,” said Cardinals coach Jack Murphy of the 5-10 Hanks.
—Bill Massey set Chula Vista records of :09.7 in the 100 and :21.4 in the 220 and anchored an 880-yard, 1:30.7 relay effort that won the meet, 53-51, over Hilltop.
4/7/64
El Capitan’s Tad Hendrickson ran the 880 in 1:55.9, best time in the County so far.
—Mission Bay’s Bob Hallmark took a 440 duel from Lincoln’s Harold Moore in :50.1 and the Lincoln relay team, with Moore holding off Stan Morgan, ran a season-best 1:29.8.
4/9/64
Chula Vista won a 53-51 dual meet for the second week in a row, edging Sweetwater as Bill Massey brought the Spartans home again in a 1:30.3 relay, which followed Massey’s wins of :09.7 and :22.1 in the 100 and 220.
—Mission Bay clocked a school-record 1:30 in the relay and Bob Hallmark chased the 440 to a :49.7 finish. Sweetwater’s David Barajas ran :49.6 and San Diego’s Howard Butler long jumped 23-2 ½.
4/10/64
Bob Hose, scholastically ineligible since the semester break, prepared for his first race by running a 1:54.9 880 in a solo, 6:30 a.m. time trial before school.
Grossmont beat Helix, 67-55, dealing the Highlanders their first league dual meet loss since 1960.
Rocky Collins (22-7 ¼) and Jim Hammer (22-7 ¼), who tied for first, and Jim Newman (22-6) all bettered the 17-year-old school record of 22-4 ¼ in the long jump.
4/17/64
Bob Hose left his competition after 220 yards, clocked a :53 first quarter, and breezed to a 1:53.5 880 in his first competitive race since the 1963 state meet.
Mission Bay won the Western League dual, 71-33, but all eyes were on Hose, who said, “I was a little disappointed. I was aiming for a 1:52, but I didn’t have a good finish.”
Mission Bay’s Stan Morgan ran :09.9 in the 100 and :21.2 in the 220 and Bob Hallmark’s :49.4 in the 440 broke the school record of 49.6 by Jim Cerveny in 1957.
—Vista’s Dave Funderburk took the County lead with a 4:23.6 mile in a 73-31 win over University.
4/24/64
Lincoln and Hoover battled to a 54-50 Lincoln win in a rousing Eastern League showdown.
The Hornets’ Harold Moore held off Hoover’s Pierre Frazier as Lincoln won the relay in a season-best 1:29.1 to Hoover’s 1:30.1.
Frazier, unheralded and figuratively coming out of the weeds, stunned the Lincoln sprinters with a :09.7 100, won the 180 lows in :20.1, and was second in the long jump at 22-11 ¾. Lincoln’s Greg Stewart went 23-1.
But as the afternoon waned all attention switched to the high jump, where Eddy Hanks cleared a measured 6-9 7/8, better than the accepted national record of 6-9 ¾ by Walt Mangham of New Castle, Pa.
National records are not recognized in dual meets and heights and distances are automatically reduced from eighths to fourths. Still, Hanks went as high as any high school jumper before him.
Lincoln’s Art Cooper and Hoover’s Lyle Hull stayed with Hanks jump for jump but each went out at 6-6 after clearing 6-4.
“My 6-8 jump was probably the best of the day,” Hanks told Joe Hughes of the Evening Tribune. “It felt like I cleared the bar by three inches.”
4/30/64
Lincoln (Eastern), Mission Bay (Western), Grossmont (Grossmont), Escondido (Metropolitan), and Vista and San Dieguito (Avocado) clinched dual meet championships
After Lincoln’s dramatic victory over Hoover, the annual Eastern League showdown with San Diego, in comparison or expectation, was small potatoes.
The host Hornets scored a 64-40 victory, the most decisive loss for the Cavemen since they dropped a 69-35 decision to Point Loma in 1953.
San Diego’s Ronald Ivory took the County lead with a long jump of 23-3 ¾ and Lincoln’s Harold Moore doubled, :22.5 in the 220 and school-record :49.7 in the 440.
Moore, trailing San Diego’s Rex Williams on the anchor leg of the 880-yard relay, pulled up midway and the Cavers won in 1:29.2.
5/1/64
Bob Hose of Madison ran the 880 in 1:54.6, but Point Loma won the dual meet, 68 ½-35 ½, and John Bishop set a Pointers school record of 56 feet, 8 inches, in the shot put.
—John Link established a Hilltop record of 1:55.7 in the 880 but Escondido won the dual meet, 64-40, as Dan Starr doubled with a :10 100 and :21.8 220.
—Richard Pegler won the 100 in :09.9 and broke Lee Buchanan’s 10-year-old school 440 record (:50.7) with a :50.3 as Kearny swamped Clairemont, 79-25.
—Hoover high jumpers Eddy Hanks and Lyle Hull cleared 6-6 and 6-4, respectively, as the Cardinals took St. Augustine, 76-28.
5/2/64
Russ DuPont long jumped 22-2 1/8 for La Jolla Country Day in the school’s invitational, marking the first time since 1961 that a Southern Prep League trackster had made the Evening Tribune’s Best Marks list.
5/8/64
Bill Massey ran the season’s fastest 220, :21.1 and added a :09.8 100 in Metropolitan League trials at Chula Vista that saw Massey’s Spartans and Hilltop each qualify 10.
—Mission Bay’s Bob Hallmark, recovered from measles, ran the 440 in :50.4 as his team qualified 17 in Western League trials at Madison.
—“I didn’t think I’d be running today,” said Grossmont’s Gary Guglielmetti at the Grossmont League trials on his home track.
“At least I’ll be running with a hole in my foot instead of a wart,” said Guglielmetti after a :10.1, 100 qualifier, two days after surgery to remove a growth.
The Foothillers led by Donn Renwick’s :49.6 440, set the pace with 25 qualifiers.
5/12/64
Hoover, Lincoln, and San Diego each qualified 20 entries in Eastern League trials at Crawford.
Crawford’s Bob (Snortin’) Fortin surprised Lincoln’s Jimmy Fox with a :14.7 in the 120-yard high hurdles, better than Fortin’s career best of :15.1.
Hoover’s Richard Gauthier set a meet record of 54 feet, ½ inch, bettering the mark of 53-1 by Lincoln’s Richard (Stein) Howell in 1960.
Future Olympian and Morse sophomore Arnie Robinson won the Class B long jump at 22-5 5/8 and set a league record of 6-2 3/4 in the high jump.
5/15/64
WESTERN LEAGUE FINALS, @Madison
Bob Hose, running almost alone, blazed a 1:52.1 880, fastest in the state this season.
Hose’s performance also moved him past Compton’s Devone Smith, who had led the state with a 1:53.1.
Richard Pegler won the 100 (:10.1) and 220 (:22) and anchored a Kearny foursome that also included Bobby Johnson, Robert Odom, and Carl Wright to a 1:28.7 relay victory, fastest in the area this year and fastest ever by a team not from San Diego or Lincoln.
GROSSMONT LEAGUE, @El Cajon Valley
Donn Renwick’s :48.9 440 and Grossmont’s 1:29.3 relay victory highlighted the Foothillers’ 63-point team championship total.
Helix’ Byron Olander won the 100 in :10 and 220 in :21.6 and Doug Nelson took the shot put at 55-7. Richard Grise of Grossmont, who had a best of 55-10 ½ earlier against Helix, won the discus at 160-8.
EASTERN LEAGUE, @Balboa Stadium
Jimmy Fox led a Lincoln sweep in the high hurdles, set a meet record of :14.3 and returned to take the low hurdles in :19.6. Pole vaulter Vic Montano cleared a record 14 feet, 3 ¾ inches.
Harold Moore of Lincoln won the 440 in :49.9 and John Colson of Hoover the 880 in 1:56.6. Richard Cota of St. Augustine set a meet record of 4:26.8 in the mile.
The 9-0 score in the highs and 8-1 in the lows pushed Lincoln to 58 points and the team title. San Diego followed with 47 and Hoover with 42.
METROPOLITAN LEAGUE, @Chula Vista
The host Spartans, riding Bill Massey’s :09.8 100 and :21.5 220, clinched the team championship when Massey anchored a meet and school-record, 1:30.1 victory in the relay.
The Spartans had 34 points to 32 for Hilltop and 31 for Escondido.
Coronado’s Bill Corlett ran a :50.1 440 and Hilltop’s John Link, one of the leaders in the 880, moved to the mile and won in 4:24.5.
Four meet records were set in the Avocado League as San Dieguito outscored University, 44 ½-36, for the team title. Carlsbad scored 70 points to Poway’s 44 in the Palomar League meet.
DISCUS FINALS
5/20/64
Competition in the discus, 3 pounds, 9 ounces, had been resurrected in San Diego in 1962, but only by the Grossmont League.
The event, won by San Diego’s Eddie Moeller at the state meet in 1925 and ’26, was dropped by the CIF in 1931 and not included in the state meet again until 1949.
Point Loma’s John Bishop was a rare contestant outside the Grossmont loop.
Pointers coach Ed Thomas would review discus performances in the newspaper on Saturday and Bishop would compete against those marks on Monday.
“It’s the only way he can get any competition if you can call it that,” said Thomas.
Bishop, who would reach a career-best 56-10 in the shot put the next day in the finals, was second at 158-8 1/2 to Grossmont’s Richard Grise, the winner in competition at San Diego State, with a toss of 170 feet, 5 inches.
5/21/64
Doug Nelson of Helix set a San Diego Section meet record of 60 feet, 6 inches in the shot put, but the trials were mostly about the relay.
A Kearny team of Bobby Johnson, Mike Scanlan, Jim Hayes, and Richard Pegler ran 1:28 flat. Grossmont and Chula Vista each logged 1:28.4. San Diego clocked 1:29.1.
Kearny’s time was fifth fastest in County history. Grossmont’s and Chula Vista’s were sixth and seventh.
5/28/64
Kearny won the 880 relay, edging Chula Vista and surprising Lincoln in 1:28.2 in the San Diego Section finals at Balboa Stadium
Lincoln’s time in third was 1:28.5 and the Hornets won the team title with 36 points, followed by Kearny with 22, and Grossmont, 18 ½.
The Friday evening at Balboa Stadium included four meet records.
Bob Hose continued his half-mile rampage, blistering the 880 in 1:51.1, better than Hose’s 1:53.4 a week before.
Doug Nelson upped the shot put record to 60 feet, 9 inches.
Vista’s Dave Funderburk lowered the mile record to 4:14.4, a whopping 6.4 seconds better than the 4:20.8 by Funderburk the previous week.
Eddy Hanks of Hoover cleared 6-8 in the high jump, bettering the 6-5 record in 1963 that was shared by Hanks, San Diego’s Tom Maloy, and Grossmont’s Phil Napierski.
6/5/65
Twenty-six qualifiers, two per event, comprised the San Diego Section contingent in trials at the 46th state track meet at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
A crowd of more than 14,000 persons witnessed as 16 of the 26 moved on to the next day’s finals.
Bob Hose won his heat in the 880 in 1:53, third fastest of the day behind the 1:52.1 of Bakersfield’s Clark Mitchell and 1:52.7 of Compton’s Devone Smith.
Eddy Hanks tied with 11 other qualifiers at 6 feet 3 ¾ inches in the high jump. Kearny’s Bobby Johnson, Mike Scanlan, Jim Hayes, and Richard Pegler qualified third in their heat in 1:27.7, fourth fastest in area history.
Vista’s Dave Funderburk, one of the expected leaders with a best of 4:14.4 in the mile, was outrun in the stretch and finished a non-qualifying fourth in 4:18. Mike Schwaebe of Granite Hills also did not make the cut but ran his fastest ever, 4:19.3. El Capitan’s Tad Hendrickson ran 1:55.9 in the 880 but did not qualify.
Neighbors Larry Turner (El Cajon Valley) and Glen Richardson (Granite Hills) were among the survivors in the long jump. Turner went 23-9 ¾ and Richardson 23-5 ¼.
6/6/64
Bob Hose, lagging in sixth place and in traffic for much of the race, made a stunning move heading into the final curve.
Hose suddenly swung wide of the pack and bolted down the stretch to win going away in 1:51.7. Clark Mitchell of Bakersfield was second in 1:52.8.
Eddy Hanks tied with three others in the high jump at 6-7 3/4 but was second on misses He had two at 6-5 3/4 and winner Greg Heet of La Habra Lowell did not miss until 6-8.
Kearny ran fourth in 1:27.5 in the 880-yard relay but was disqualified because of a lane violation. El Cajon Valley’s Larry Turner was fifth in the long jump at 23-9 3/4 (jumps in the trials were forwarded). Grossmont’s Richard Grise was third in the discus at 174-6, and Vic Montano of Lincoln was fifth in the pole vault at 14-1.
6/13/64
Hose was entered in the 880 in the first San Diego Pre-Olympic Invitational, an event in Balboa Stadium involving world-class competitors and a prelude to the 1965 National AAU championships.
Also entered was Kansas high schooler Jim Ryun, who had become an overnight sensation the previous week as the first prep to run a sub-4:00 mile in the Compton Invitational.
Bob Timmons, Ryun’s coach, disappointed meet officials when Timmons slotted Ryun into the 880.
The Wichita East runner finished fifth in 1:50.3, but Hose was fourth and his blazing 1:49.2 tied the fastest ever run by a prep.
Fifty years later promoter Al Franken invited Ryun to to the new Balboa Stadium at the anniversary of Ryun’s 1965 mile victory in the National AAU championships.
I asked Ryun, who had upset New Zealand’s Peter Snell in ’65 and set the American record of 3:55.3, if he would re-visit his first race here in 1964 and that 880.
Ryun, reserved and diffident as a teenager in 1964, was friendly and jovial (as a now retired Kansas Congressman) but Ryun said he didn’t remember much about the race or the meet, other than “there was a guy named Bob Hose“ in the field.
Jim Eddington on May 26th 2022
I was on the Clairemont High School track team before Madison High opened and have vivid memories of Bob Hose. 60 years ago we were both part of spring tryouts and along with some of my classmates witnessed something amazing and unforgettable. I didn’t know Bob yet, but was tipped off by someone that this skinny kid wearing white deck shoes was a pretty good runner as they had observed in regular P.E. Class. Anyway, when it came time for the 440 time trials that’s when we witnessed greatness. What made it the most interesting was that coach Kirchhoff thought it would be a good idea to allow one of the states best quartermilers and Clairemont track star (Larry Godfrey) to run along for the fun of it. None of us realized that in less than a minute a true track star would be born. “On your mark…get set…and go!” By the first turn more than half the dozen or so runners were falling back, down the back stretch Godfrey’s amazing stride was evident along side of a skinny kid in deck shoes. Certainly by the time they approach the turn the “BEAR” will most likely jump on Bob’s back a little…didn’t happen. Surely Larry would employ a champions kick down stretch, which he did…where was Bob by now? Answer, stride for stride two feet behind! WOW! That’s how they finished, as I recall the time was around 51 seconds. I get chills just thinking about what I witnessed way back then.
I was fortunate to watch him compete and was a teammate of his at Mesa College under Coach Dick Coxe. Bob’s accomplishments are well documented and yes he was a San Diego Policeman for a while. I think Bob was a very private person and I do not know anymore about his life after track…I do know what a world class athlete is made of, and Bob had “IT”.
Terrific recall of that event, Jim. I had never heard it, although I recall Kirchhoff’s saying how disappointed he was when Hose moved to Madison. Good reason. I wonder how Larry Godfrey would remember Bob. I also was at Edwards Field in Berkeley when Larry won the NCAA 440 Intermedia Hurdles championship. Thanks for writing and for your memory, down to those white deck shoes.
This one really brings back memories. I was a junior at Point Loma that year and attended most of the dual track meets as well as the CIF finals. I remember Bob Hose as an amazing runner. I wondered what became of him and thanks to the Internet found an LA Times story about his interesting post track life. I don’t know if you permit URLs in the comments but here it is: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-05-15-sp-4503-story.html He had one season at Mesa College and then left running forever.
I also remember Pierre Frazier of Hoover. In those days most of the high school tracks were dirt and they were slow. It was a dual meet at Point Loma where he exploded out of the blocks in what appeared to be a false start. I think he ran under 10 seconds which was an amazing time for that track.
The Times has a pay wall, so I couldn’t open the link. I, too, have wonderrted about Bob Hose. He ran for coach Dick Coxe at Mesa College after high school. I had heard through the rumor mill that Bob eventually joined the Marine Corps and also that he had become a policeman.