1921: Army-Navy’s Left Out of Loop’s Loop
Army-Navy Academy in Pacific Beach couldn’t rely on a six-game County League schedule to complement a full slate of games.
As reported in The San Diego Union,”…through an error at the beginning of the County League the eleven was omitted.”
If that report is to be believed, the person who drew up the County League schedule “forgot” that the Cadets were in the league.
Coaches and school bosses at loop members Grossmont, Escondido, and Sweetwater also must have whiffed.
Army-Navy played four games, two against teams from Los Angeles and two against San Diego Junior College, then was stung by an residential eligibility beef with the CIF (see below).
SWEETWATER FIT TO BE TIED
Football was constantly evolving, but officiating did not seem to be keeping pace.
Sweetwater’s successful onside kick late in the game resulted in the winning touchdown and a tie for first place in the County League after a 20-14 battle with Coronado.
The Islanders complained that the Red Devils players were not correctly situated behind the player who kicked off. The Islanders said there should have been a penalty and Sweetwater’s being forced to repeat the kick.
The game referee who sided with Sweetwater was Lee Waymire.
The same Lee Waymire, who was Coronado’s coach in 1920. After a couple days, Waymire reversed his decision, declaring a 14-14 tie and leaving Coronado in first place in league standings.
The San Diego Union reported the following Friday:
“The play was a very peculiar one and Waymire, unquestionably one of the best officials in the section, after making his decision delved into the record (sic) book and consulted football officials, discovering that he was wrong.”
Call it delayed instant replay.
COUNTY PLAYOFF?
Coronado (4-1-1) won the league championship for the fourth time in five years, but loop bosses ordered the Islanders to play Grossmont (4-2) in a postseason winner-take-all.
The decision to play the game came after Grossmont upset the Islanders, 16-13, in the final round of play.
The rematch apparently did not take place.
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE LATELY?
John Perry, in his second year as coach at San Diego High, was thought to have a Southern California contending team and one worthy of the 1916 Southern California title team that was declared the national high school champion.
The Hilltoppers defeated Sweetwater, 40-0, in the season opener and then avenged a 1920 playoff loss with a 6-0 victory over Los Angeles Poly on a muddy layout in City Stadium.
A 14-0 loss to powerful Santa Ana was not received well by representatives of the local media, which offered several opinions in stories that did not include bylines.
“Perry Plans Changes in Hilltop Eleven; Desires More Fight” was one headline in The San Diego Union following the loss.
“Coach John Perry of the locals plans a complete reorganization of the team,” wrote the author of a piece the following Tuesday morning. “He expects more fighting spirit. New tactics, fast training, and snappy playing will be the main points to be harped upon.”
“The feeling seems to be at the Hilltop that the team has the goods for a banner year and what is needed is the jazz, support, and coaching,” was the focal point of another story.
RIPS CONTINUE
Perry must have taken umbrage at the criticism following a 48-0 rout of Orange:
“While the game appears a slaughter,” wrote one writer,” San Diego should have compiled a higher result on their opponents, close observers of the game remark. It is also thought that some of the players are not attending to strict training regulations and stage spasms of over-confidence.”
Writers for the city’s three daily newspapers, Union, Evening Tribune, and Sun, sometimes were paid stringers who were students at the high school and who also wrote for the San Diego High Russ.
One of the writers was Allen McGrew, whose nettlesome presence would be felt by Perry when McGrew continued to correspond for the Union even after he graduated from the Hilltop.
CIF DROPS HAMMER
Rules of the Southern California governing body were proving onerous for Army-Navy, abiding by CIF statutes for the first time since the academy went into business in 1910.
Ineligibility would be problematical for the Cadets for years.
Four players were declared ineligible before a game at Hollywood because they had not attended the academy for 10 weeks before the close of school the previous June.
A total of 7 players had been forced to sit this season and Academy boss Capt. Thomas Davis threw in the towel, shutting the program after the 28-6 loss to the Hollywood High Sheiks.
The players’ parents had not changed their residences to San Diego addresses when the school year began in September. The residential rule would be a benchmark with the CIF for generations.
Davis was upset because the rules made no distinction between boarding schools and day schools. Many of the Academy students come from other states and countries.
SCHEDULE SCRAMBLE
San Diego was forced to look for another opponent after Army-Navy bailed. The Cavemen scheduled a game against the Alumni (3-0 loss) and another against the USS Charleston (25-7 victory).
The contests were described as “midseason exhibitions” by one publication, but they were played under game rules with full officiating crews and scoring.
Don King’s “Caver Conquest” listed the Hilltoppers’ record at the end of the season as 7-2.
I counted the two midseason games as official, giving Perry’s team an 8-3 record. That reasoning is based on San Diego’s and other local squads’ often competing against alumni and military teams for years in recognized games.
HILLERS LOOK TOUGH, UNTIL
The Hilltoppers entered the playoffs as one of the favorites in the eight-team postseason.
A 70-0 victory over Montebello was followed with a 20-point fourth quarter in a 48-14 conquest of Los Angeles Manual Arts that forged a rematch with Santa Ana.
The game at Bovard Field on the University of Southern California campus marked San Diego’s first appearance in the championship game since 1916.
The Hilltoppers took an early, 3-0 lead on Lawrence Hall’s 30-yard field goal before being crushed by the Saints, 34-3.
TOILERS GOT EXTRA YEAR
San Diego received a tremendous boost from the CIF when rulings were handed down against Manual Arts.
Five Toilers players, including all-Southern California halfback and captain Bill Blewett, had played in the flu-shortened season of 1918. The Los Angeles City League gave those players another year of eligibility.
The ruling by the Los Angeles circuit did not pass the smell test with the CIF and the five were not allowed to play against San Diego. .
SIGNS OF TIME
Residents of La Jolla appealed to the city council to ask the railroad commission to investigate high telephone toll rates charged by the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company.
La Jollans objected to a 10-cent, long-distance toll for calls to San Diego. Charges escalated based on length of conversations.
National City and Chula Vista, which were paying 5 cents for similar service, also complained.
SOUR VINTAGE
John Cantonagonla was cleared of malicious mischief by a local magistrate after Cantonagonla drained 75 gallons of wine onto a street in Little Italy.
The wine belonged to Serafino Romani, the defendant’s brother-in-law.
Justice L.D. Jennings ruled that, because wine is not legally rightful property (this was during prohibition), it is not legally subject to mischief.
It was said there was ongoing friction between the Romani and Cantonagonla families.
HANGING JUDGE
Walter Coleman, ticketed for driving his motorcycle 43 miles an hour on a city street, pleaded guilty, and served a 60-hour sentence as part of a police crackdown on speeding.
UNOFFICIAL
Scoring totals in the newspapers usually were incomplete or nonexistent. Kenny Zweiner led San Diego with 51 points, followed by Coney Galindo, who missed the last 4 games with an ankle injury, with 40.
Hobbs Adams scored 35 points, Norton Langford and Justin (Pug) Bennett, 30 each, and Gordon Thompson, 22. Eight other Hilltoppers got on the scoreboard.
TRUE GRID
John Perry moved his team out of the City Stadium after the playoff win over Montebello and practiced several days over the next two weeks on the Coronado Polo Grounds…Perry decided the turf layout at the trans-bay facility would serve the Cavers well in playoff games at USC’s Bovard Field against Manual Arts and, if they advanced, against Santa Ana…”Machines” driven by students and other boosters motored through city streets advertising the Montebello game…Hilltoppers officials weren’t happy that the CIF charged 50-cent admission to the contest with the Oilers, double what San Diego principal Thomas Russell and the school executive council wanted…to boost the gate for a game with Santa Monica each student was given one ticket for personal use and one for sale to another person…the Alumni team that defeated San Diego was organized in two days and included a few members of the 1916 squad…Perry, principal Russell, and several players went North to watch the Manual Arts-L.A. High game for the Los Angeles city title…the Hilltoppers put numbers on their jerseys for the games in Los Angeles…half of game proceeds for the championship went to disabled war veterans…Red Cross women were selling tickets to the Santa Ana game on city streets…about 10,000 attended Santa Ana’s victory…San Diego halfback Hobbs Adams made the all-Southern California first team…tackles Larry Hall and guard Gordon Thompson were on the second team….
