Bill Sandback had just coached Crawford to its second San Diego Section baseball championship in three seasons and he was hesitant when Harlon Bartlett of the Evening Tribune asked for a comparison of the team and the winning 1962 club.

“This year’s team had a better attitude,” Sandback finally allowed after the taut, eight-inning victory over Point Loma.  “These kids hustled from start to finish. They never gave up all year.”

Sandback pointed to the team’s battery, a core strength of leadership and experience.

Starting pitcher, Bob Boone, went on to play 19 seasons as a catcher and several more as a manager in the major leagues. Usual catcher and sometime pitcher Eddie Hermann played nine seasons behind the plate in the majors.

Catcher whisperer perhaps was Sandback.  Five of his eventually would make the big leagues.

2/28/64

Sophomore Bob Forrester of Monte Vista and Crawford’s Eddie Herrmann hurled no-hitters on the first full day of action.

Forrester struck out eight and blanked Morse, 7-0.

Herrmann collected three hits including a home run and drove in four runs in the 10-0 win over visiting Alhambra Mark Keppel.

3/4/64

Tom Lean of Helix came within one out of a no-hitter.  An infield roller and single to right field after two were out in the seventh inning were the only hits off Lean in the Scots’ 5-0, Grossmont League-opening win over Escondido.

Ray Homesley hit a two-run home run and pitched El Capitan to a 7-4 win over the San Diego State freshmen.

3/5/64

–Larry Bradford accounted for 6 runs with two homers and a single in Kearny’s 16-3, Western League-opening victory over La Jolla.

Charles Wilker and pitcher John Fletcher each added three-run homers for the Komets.

–“Thirteen of the last 18 runs scored against us have been unearned,” Madison coach Bob Bacon complained about his defense after a 5-4 loss to Mission Bay.

“I don’t understand it,” Bacon told Joe Hughes of the Evening Tribune.  “With the same kids last year we had no trouble in the field.”

Two errors led to two unearned runs and made future major leaguer Al Fitzmorris a losing pitcher, 5-4.

3/10/64

Jake Lovejoy and Bob Heathman combined to pitch a no-hitter in Clairemont’s 2-1 victory over Vista.

–Seven errors behind him didn’t stop Escondido’s Jerry Montiel, who struck out 11 and stopped Point Loma on four hits, 3-2.

3/13/64

“We won the game on luck,” El Capitan coach Art Preston told the Evening Tribune’s Joe Hughes. “We didn’t deserve to win because of our defense, but Homesley, luckily, got hold of a good pitch.”

Ray Homesley’s seventh-inning, two-run, 314-foot home run, an inch or two beyond John Quiggle’s outstretched glove gave the Vaqueros a 4-3 win over Helix.

Errors had led to Helix’ taking a 3-1 lead on winning pitcher Dave Duncan, who beat out an infield roller that preceded Homesley’s home run.

—Second baseman Jerry Watson tripled, doubled, and added two singles as San Diego defeated Hoover, 11-4. Jim Perkins and Loren Dantzler also homered for the Cavers.

The win left the Bernie Flaherty-coached Cavers 2-0 in the Eastern League and 5-2 overall.  Hoover fell to 1-1 and 1-2-1.

–Darkness called a halt to Oceanside and University, which battled through 11 scoreless innings.  The Pirates’ Mark Oddy held the Dons to two hits.  Uni’s Dave Timms gave up seven.

3/17/64

Escondido’s Jerry Montiel struck out 10 and permitted two balls hit to the outfield, but the second was a single in the bottom of the eighth inning by Gene Guerra that scored pinch runner Greg Burton and gave Chula Vista a 1-0 victory.

—El Cajon Valley’s Dwight Stanley singled home two runs in the last of the seventh inning to beat Granite Hills, 3-1, and move the Braves a half game in front of El Capitan in the Grossmont League.

—Crawford took first place in the Eastern League, 4-2 over San Diego, which couldn’t capitalize on 11 hits and Doug Hunt’s home run.

—Lloyd Hutchinson tripled with the bases loaded and Pat Harrison homered in Hoover’s 6-1 win over Morse.

3/20/64

“Let’s face it, our pitching isn’t that good,” said Hoover’s Jerry Bartow.  “Buddy (Schraeder) is an outfielder, but I’ve got to pitch him.  We’ll probably end up playing .500 ball.”

Despite the coach’s protestations, Hoover gained a share of first place in the Eastern League after a 6-3 win over Crawford.

“We gave it to them,” said Colts boss Bill Sandback.  “I counted seven errors.”

Hoover finished 10-5 and third in the league and 11-7 overall.

3/23-25/64

Fierce Winter storms that led to rain and wet grounds postponed the first day of the 14th annual Lions Tournament.  The delay because of weather was the first since 1958.

The postponement was repeated the next day and the event finally was canceled the third  day.

It wasn’t practical, said tournament boss Carroll Wilson, citing “the weather forecast for the rest of the week isn’t very good and we would be tying up players, coaches, and umpires, and the coaches didn’t want to play (as late into the week) on Saturday.”

3/31/64

Hilltop romped to a 12-0, first-inning lead, got a break when rain did not wash out the game, and beat Chula Vista, 18-7.

Bob Childers hit a grand slam home run, followed by Rudy Castro’s three-run shot, and a two-run home run by Bob Litchfield off Chula Vista starter Bart Miller.

Hilltop even scored two runs in the second inning on three punch singles after coach Vic Long issued a mandate to make outs and get on with the game because of the weather.

—Six of 17 games in the County were rained out or called before the required five innings.

4/3/64

Mike Adamson, backed by a 6-1 lead and contributing a home run, held on and Point Loma defeated Kearny, 7-5.

Singles by Pat Harrison and Buddy Schraeder, two errors, and Lance Richard Shaw’s sacrifice fly paved the way for Hoover’s 5-0, 10-inning win over St. Augustine

Al Layton, one of the few seniors for Granite Hills, struck out 14 and gave up only a fourth-inning single to Gary Mattinson as the Eagles downed Grossmont, 2-0.

Al Salmon’s single in the 10^th inning gave Helix a 1-0 win over Hilltop.

4/7/64

Sweetwater, 0-10, won its first game, 8-0, over Castle Park on a two-hitter by Ted Williams.  No, not that Ted Williams.

4/10/64

With Al Layton running with the pitch, Jim McKenna ripped a pitch  to right field at Granite Hills, where there is no wall, according to Harlon Bartlett of the Evening Tribune.

The ball rolled toward downtown El Cajon and McKenna won the race after the outfielder’s recovery and throw to home for an apparent home run, but…

…El Capitan first baseman Mike Arnke alertly told pitcher Dave Duncan that McKenna had not touched second base.

Duncan stepped on the pitching rubber, stepped off again, and threw to second base for an out, then struck out the next batter.

Ball game. The Vaqueros won, 3-2, for their fifth victory in a row.

–University defeated San Dieguito, 1-0, on a forfeit in the 14^th inning, when Mustangs coach Larry Hampshire argued that it was too dark for his team to hit in the bottom of the inning.

Dave Timms went all the way for Uni, striking out 19.

—Eddie Herrmann hit 2 home runs, including a grand slam, and Crawford beat Lincoln, 7-5.

4/17/64

“This is the greatest comeback we’ve had here in six years,” said El Cajon Valley sixth-year coach Harry Elliott after the Braves overcame a 1-0 deficit in the sixth inning and won with two runs in the last of the eighth against Helix.

Al Hamilton’s home run tied the game in the sixth inning and run-scoring singles by Tom Thompson and Ralph Hays were the difference.

The 3-2 victory improved Elliott’s club to 6-1 in the Grossmont League.

Elliott played the 1955 season with the St. Louis Cardinals after leading the Pacific Coast League with 224 hits and a .350 average as the San Diego Padres won the pennant in 1954.

–Charlie Duke’s home run with two on in the seventh inning meant a 3-0 victory for University and the reported end of a string of 43 1/3 scoreless innings by Vista pitcher Matt Taylor.

4/21/64

Dennis Webb’s one-hit pitching stopped San Diego, 3-1, dropping the Cavers (7-3) two games behind Eastern League-leading Crawford (9-1), which rode catcher-sometimes-pitcher Eddie Herrmann’s three-hit pitching for a 2-0 win over Morse.

—Kenny Henderson doubled home two runs, tripled, and stole home for another in Clairemont’s 4-2 win over Madison.

4/25/64

Bob Boone pitched a two-hitter and Greg Werdick hit a third-inning home run for a 1-0 Crawford victory over St. Augustine.

–Sophomore Jake Molina led off the last of the first inning with a home run and Clairemont proceeded to a 6-1 win over Point Loma.

–Hilltop clinched its first Metropolitan League championship in the school’s five years, on the road, at Chula Vista, 3-2, behind Dirk Van Dyke’s two-hitter.

4/28/64

Hilltop (9-0) stayed unbeaten in the Metropolitan League with a disputed, 3-2 win over Castle Park.

Disputed play: The plate umpire ruled foul.  The base umpire said fair.

After several minutes of shouts and arm-waving by representatives of both teams, the arbiters came to agreement that Frank Fernandez was safe with a single. Fernandez eventually scored the decisive run.

—Ray Homesley retired 16 of the last 17 batters including the final 12 in a row and El Capitan won at El Cajon Valley, 4-2, and led the Grossmont League with a 7-2 record. El Cajon Valley and Helix were next at 7-3 each.

5/1/64

Dave Duncan pitched a no-hitter and his two-run home run in the first inning was enough as El Capitan turned back Mount Miguel, 4-0.

Duncan struck out 14 and walked four and got an assist from Ray Homesley, who homered with one on.

—San Dieguito’s Tom Fleming gave up one hit and the Mustangs stifled Oceanside, 2-0.

–Mike Hill of El Cajon Valley, Jerry Montiel of Escondido, and Al Layton of Granite Hills each pitched two-hit shutouts.

—Dirk Van Dyke and Tom Segren combined for a one-hitter as Hilltop topped Helix, 8-0.

—Kearny erred six times behind pitcher John Fletcher, but fueled by Steve Jones’ three-run home run and Larry Bradford’s two run triple in the first inning, beat Clairemont, 7-5.

—Three walks forced in the tying and winning runs and San Diego came away with a 5-4, Eastern League victory over Crawford.

Dennis Maley, Doug Hunt, and Michael Marrs each had two hits for the Cavers.  Ron Layton tripled in two runs for Crawford.

—Tom Fleming allowed one hit and San Dieguito blanked Oceanside, 2-0.

5/5/64

Kearny won the Western League and Marian won the Southern Prep.

The Komets backed in after a 11-5 loss to Mission Bay was mitigated by Point Loma’s 9-1 loss to Madison.

Marian won its 31^st consecutive league game, compliments of a Julian forfeit which gave the Crusaders, who lost their first four games, a 12-4 overall record and 7-0 league standing.

—Ray Homesley’s one-hitter stopped Granite Hills, 4-1, and kept the Vaqueros a half game ahead of El Cajon Valley with one to play in the Grossmont circuit.

–Dave Braswell and Carl Ramsey homered and Hilltop won its 11^th in a row in the Metropolitan League, 6-2 over Coronado.  Carlsbad’s 9-0 win over Army-Navy was its ninth in a row in the Palomar League.

A two-hit shutout by Tony Pisciotta and 6-0 win over Lincoln (7-13 overall) allowed San Diego to catch Crawford and tie for the Eastern League championship.

The Cavers and Colts, each 12-3, would meet at Beeson Field at the Marine Corps Depot to determine playoff seeding.

Point Loma and Madison will play for the Western League’s No. 2 seed at Mission Bay and Escondido and Sweetwater will meet at Morse with the Metro’s No. 2 at stake.

5/12/64

Field for the San Diego Section AA playoffs was complete.

Crawford topped San Diego, 5-2. Point Loma beat Clairemont (10-9), 2-1, and Sweetwater edged Escondido (12-6), 5-4.

—Walks scored two runs and Bob Boone’s two-run single gave Crawford four runs in the fourth inning.

—Mike Adamson outdueled Jake Lovejoy in Point Loma’s victory, clinched on a triple by Glenn Holmes and a sacrifice fly.

5/15/64

Almost the entire Marian (13-6) student body was in the crowd of about 400, but visiting Carlsbad, behind the one-hit pitching of Arne Larsen scored a 4-2, eight-inning victory in a Class A playoff.

—“You can’t say we wasted our hits,” said San Diego coach Bernie Flaherty.

The Cavers got to Hilltop pitcher Dirk Van Dyke for only three safeties but one was a three-run triple by Tony Pisciotta, enough for a 4-1, Class AA playoff victory.

Hilltop finished with a 16-5 record, best in the school’s five-year history.

—Point Loma scored three runs in the seventh inning to eliminate El Capitan (15-4), 3-2.

The Vaqueros’ Ray Homesley was working on a one-hitter with a 1-0 lead when John Gelb led off the inning with a home run.

Homesley was relieved later in the seventh by Dave Duncan, who wild-pitched in one run and balked in another.

—Bob Boone allowed one hit, a three-run home run by Kile Morgan, but Crawford topped Sweetwater (9-12), 12-3, as Dennis Isom, Greg Werdick, and Eddie Herrmann homered.

–Charles Wilker’s three-run triple and two-run double were  essential for Kearny in its 8-5 win over El Cajon Valley (14-7).

5/19/64

Paul Ehrich, with relief in the seventh inning from Mike Adamson and aided by five San Diego (16-7) errors, pitched Point Loma to a 3-2, semifinals victory.

—Crawford advanced to a championship game against Point Loma with a 9-4 win over Kearny (15-7).  Wayne Morgan improved his record to 5-0 and drove in three runs with a triple and single.

5/22/64

There were seventeen strikeouts and 17 bases on balls, plus seven errors by both teams. And not a one of the 600 or so fans, often on the edge of their seats, left early according to Harlon Bartlett of the Evening Tribune.

Crawford persevered to win the CIF championship, 4-3, over Point Loma in eight innings at Beeson Field on the Marine Corps Recruit Depot base.

Trailing, 2-1, in the top of the seventh, the Colts took a 3-2 lead on Charlie Tate’s sacrifice fly and single by Ken Henderson.

John Gelb tied the score with a 330-foot home run over the leftfield wall in the bottom of the seventh but the Colts’ Greg Werdick, playing with a broken nose sustained in the semifinals, walked, stole second and scored on an error.

Crawford’s Bob Boone (7-1) had no-hitter through six innings but trailed, 2-1.  The Colts’ managed only three hits off Mike Adamson (9-5), singles by Eddie Hermann, Dennis Isom, and Ken Henderson.

Crawford, winning its second title in three years, concluded the season with an 18-4 record.  Point Loma was 13-10.

5/25/64

San Dieguito (14-4) made best use of two hits with walks, bunts and Carlsbad (17-4) errors to win the CIF Class A championship, 3-1, at Palomar College.

The Mustangs also received run-producing hits from Tom Hernandez and Jim Bryant.

Bob Hose gave 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.

—Hoover’s 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.

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 tracker 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 1/4 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 in the 46^th 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.

 

Scripps Ranch joined Gardena Serra, Bellflower St. John Bosco, and West Hills Chaminade as teams that have won state championships in football and basketball in the same school year since the state CIF reinstated the football championship in 2006.

The Falcons, behind gridiron stars Jax Leatherwood, Dean Paley, and Lamont Wilkerson, who scored 19 points, defeated Napa Justin-Sienna, 46-37.

Leatherwood,  who threw the winning touchdown pass to Paley in the Falcons’ 31-28 state D-IIA championship over Santa Clara Wilcox, scored seven points, had six rebounds, and blocked eight shots.

There were no state titles to be had in the 1953-54 school year, but Chula Vista won Southern California small school championships in football, basketball and  baseball.

Ross Branson won the state girls D-IV title by defeating Imperial, 46-23.

GIRLS

DIVISION	TEAM	OPPONENT	SCORE
IV	Imperial (28-7)	Ross Branson (North Coast, 23-9)	Branson, 46-23

BOYS

IV

Scripps Ranch (26-11)

Napa Justin-Sienna (Sac-Joaquin, 21-12)

Scripps Ranch, 46-37

RATINGS GAME

The San Diego Union-Tribune final 2021-22 poll.
First-place points in parenthesis.  Points on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. Records do not include Southern California playoffs.

(The final Cal-Hi Sports rankings, which were published after the state playoffs:  St. Augustine No. 20, San Ysidro, 35, Torrey Pines, 39, and La Costa Canyon, 40).

RANK	TEAM	RECORD	POINTS	PREVIOUS
1.	St. Augustine (16)	23-7	160	1
2.	San Ysidro	23-8	141	4
3.	Torrey Pines	23-6	122	2
4.	La Costa Canyon	20-7	112	6
5.	San Marcos	22-6	78	5
6.	Mission Hills	22-6	76	3
7.	Carlsbad	21-11	63	10
8.	Cathedral	19-10	51	7
9	Mt. Carmel	23-9	25	NR
10.	La Jolla Country Day	19-10	20	NR

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES
Francis Parker (18-10, 13 points), Mission Bay (21-9, 12), Montgomery (24-7, 3), San Dieguito (20-7, 2), Santa Fe Christian (20-10, 1).

The Imperial Girls, who have become road favorites of Triple-A, having amassed about 670 miles of travel in their last three playoff games, and the long-range shooters from Scripps Ranch will be in Sacramento on Saturday, each with a chance to come home with a state championship.

Max Preps, the computer outlet which coordinated the CIF state playoff pairings, does not favor the San Diego Section entries.

The Tigers from the Imperial Valley  face another long ride, 590 miles to the Golden Center in Sacramento, from which their opponent from the community of Ross is about 70 miles away.

The big computer ranks The Branson Bulls from the North Coast Section 100th in the state in girls’ Division-IV and Imperial 152nd.

Imperial, however, has won 21 of its last 22 games and took advantage of its tournament  selection as a No. 6 seed despite losing, 29-23, to Fallbrook in the San Diego Section finals.

NICOLAS CAGE SIGHTING?

It’s possible, I guess, if the renowed movie actor  happens to be in Sacramento and wants to check out his alma-mater, Napa Justin-Sienna, against Scripps Ranch.

The Braves, located about 60 miles from Sacramento, also are favored by Max Preps, which gave them a state rating of 191 this week to the 219 received by the Falcons.

GIRLS

DIVISION	TEAM	OPPONENT	SCORE
IV	Imperial (28-6)	Ross Branson (North Coast, 23-8)

BOYS

IV

Scripps Ranch (25-11)

Napa Justin-Sienna (Sac-Joaquin, 21-11)

GIRLS

DIVISION	TEAM	OPPONENT	SCORE
IV	6 Imperial (28-6)	@1 Yucca Valley (21-8)	Travel-weary Tigers pull off another surprise, 52-46.
V	2 Victory Christian (20-12)	4 L.A. Shalhavet (23-6)	Knights fall in championship game second year in row, 62-52.

BOYS

IV

2 Scripps Ranch (25-11)

16 Valley Village Valley Torah (30-4)

Falcons put away scrappy visitors, 68-54