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Eldridge Cooks, the starting fullback on the 1955 San Diego High team that won the Southern California championship and was acclaimed the national high school champion for that season, was at a UCLA basketball game when he passed recently. The 165-pound blocker and runner was a two-year varsity letterman for the Hillers, whose combined record in 1954 ...

Foothills Christian, a weekly, unanimous No. 1 in the San Diego Union-Tribune  poll, went “national” this week when it landed as No. 17 in the USA Today rankings. The thrill-a-minute Knights achieved the honor with another roller-coaster performance against Connecticut’s Waterbury Sacred Heart, which was 17th in USA Today the previous week. The Knights defeated the Hearts, 82-80, in ...

Foothills Christian lost its rematch with Chino Hills but continued as a team of statewide import, still not yet gone “national,” in the eyes of major U.S. ratings entities. The Adidas-influenced Knights will travel again this week, to Springfield, Massachusetts, for the Hoophall Classic and take on Connecticut’s No. 1, 8-0 Waterbury Sacred Heart, averaging 89 ...

John Saleamua took the handoff, cleared the first line of defense, and cut to the outside. The Sweetwater running back was running free along the Montgomery sideline when he suddenly went down. Jack Jackson, a Montgomery player, had left his bench area, came onto the field, and tackled Saleamua, short-circuiting a 79-yard touchdown run. “I couldn’t believe it,” ...

Foothills Christian, blown off the court, 40-13, in the first quarter and a 106-86 loser to Chino Hills a  couple weeks ago, will have another try at the USA Today No. 1 Huskies in the Sierra Canyon Super Showcase in Chatsworth Saturday. The pressing piranhas of 13-0 Chino Hills, averaging  93 points a game, were champions of the recent City of ...

The messages were not the garden variety “good luck this week,” or “see you at the game.” “I got several phone calls threatening my life,” Marcus Allen told writer Steve Brand.  “The callers said I better not be at the game.  They didn’t say what they’d do.  They just said not to be there.  It was ...

Balboa Stadium’s days were numbered. When construction was completed in 1915, the concrete horseshoe seating more than 23,000 was the largest municipally-owned stadium in the world, according to Don King, author of “Caver Conquest.” The 1933 magnitude 6.3 earthquake that destroyed 230 school buildings in Southern California, including many at Long Beach Poly, resulted in the Field ...

Rob Gilster of Valley Center moved from 11th to 9th place among all-time winning coaches in San Diego County in 2015  and needs three victories next year to gain admittance to the 200 Club. The Jaguars’ 8-4 season  gave Gilster a 27-season record of 197-121-5 for a .618 winning percentage.  He was head coach at Orange Glen for nine seasons ...

It’s essentially not who you beat, but who you played and how who you played did. St. Augustine lost three games but was 20th in the state and No. 1 in Division II in Cal-Hi Sports‘ final 2015 rankings. Cathedral lost five but its schedule was so difficult that the Dons earned a Cal-Hi ranking of sixth in Division ...

New Year’s and league play await, but  holiday action continues, most notably with the Under-Armour event hosted by coach John Olive and the Torrey Pines Falcons. Play begins Saturday with seven of the Union-Tribune Top 10 clubs competing.  Foothills Christian, St. Augustine, and Army-Navy are in the elite National Division. Foothills, No. 1 in the latest Union-Tribune poll,  plays Oakland Bishop O’Dowd, and ...

No. 1 Foothills Christian is scheduled to play  Cypress Lakes of Katy, Texas, in the Phoenix suburb of Goodyear, Arizona, Friday. The game is to be televised on ESPN 2 at 3:30 p.m., according to Max Preps. Other teams in the upper half of the Union-Tribune Top 10 will be in tournament play beginning Thursday. No. 2 ...

San Diego Section teams posted a 4-2 record in the Southern California playoffs (a.k.a. State  Bowl Championship Series) last week, the games hewing to a historic trend of strength in the lower divisions. Local teams will be favored in at least three of the state championship games this week, with all kickoffs Saturday night at 6. DIVISION ...

Like ships passing in the night, Birt Slater and Herb Meyer were headed in the opposite direction, but their coaching paths were virtually identical. Slater confirmed his retirement as head coach at Kearny following the Komets’ 39-28 loss in the San Diego Section championship game to Meyer’s first year, front-loaded El Camino squad at San Diego Stadium. Each ...

After losing their first game, 23-19, to Scottsdale Chaparral, the Helix Highlanders fell from their first-place position in the Union-Tribune‘s  opening football poll but unanimously regained the top spot in the final week of the poll following their 44-30 win against St. Augustine in the San Diego Section Open Division championship game. The Saints  finished second and Mission Hills, the ...

Foothills Christian, No. 1 in the first Union-Tribune basketball poll, was 4-0 before being savaged by a piranha-like attack from the Chino Hills Huskies in finals of the Battle Zone Tournament at Corona Centennial Saturday night. Final score, 106-86. Foothills’ T.J. Leaf scored 44 points and was 21 for 27 from the field, but the Knights were swamped at ...

Helix defeated St. Augustine, 44-30,  in a terrific Open Division championship game before a standing-room  crowd of at least 10,000 persons at Southwestern College and six San Diego teams qualified for Southern California championship play. It’s a brave new world in the state CIF. Teams will compete in 13 divisions Dec. 11-12  and 50 teams will be playing ...

Joe Schloss, who  operated a North Park sporting goods business for 69 years and coached the same Little League team for 59 seasons, passed away  at age 88. Schloss, a 1944 graduate of San Diego High, coached a legion of youngsters for the North Park Little League and both of his sons spent many years in sports. “Joe instilled ...

St. Augustine’s rout of Mission Hills in the San Diego Section semifinals created a seismic response in the state top 25 rankings as selected by Cal-Hi Sports. The Saints jumped from On-The-Bubble status to 21st in this week’s poll and Helix, their Open Division championship-game opponent Saturday at 7 p.m.  at Southwestern College, vaulted from No. 11 to ...

Thanks to the numerous opportunities for playoff participation, Coronado, a third-place finisher in the Central League,  is celebrating its third San Diego Section championship today. The Islanders topped Crawford of the Manzanita League, 21-7, at Southwestern College last night for the Division V title, their first since coach Dave Tupec’s team won back-to-back championships as members of ...

You could hear the gasps of shock from the North County denizens who worship at the shrine of the Mission Hills Grizzlies. St. Augustine ran away from coach Tim Hauser’s team, 48-14,  as Elijah Preston rushed for 236 yards and three touchdowns before a crowd of about 6,000 at Mesa College in the San Diego Section ...