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The rivalry between San Diego High and St. Augustine, only a year old in football, had heated up. At least six graduates of the high school continued to play on the prep level, for St. Augustine. This was not uncommon throughout the CIF in the 1920s, but it was one explanation for the 30-year struggle the Saints ...

The Roaring Twenties were coming to a disastrous conclusion. A new school would rise in East San Diego honoring future president Herbert Hoover, who promised a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage, and San Diego High football was on a bumpy ride  that began with John Perry’s departure as coach after the ...

A 27-0 loss to the Muir Technical Mustangs of Pasadena in the first round of the Southern California playoffs did not dim the luster of one of the greatest seasons in the history of Hoover High football. John Perry, who guided the Cardinals’ program from its beginning in 1930, directed the Eastside club to its first victory over ...

That refrain was heard early and often in the CIF Southern Section.  It is heard today, a century later. Coaches, players, administrators, fans, even the media, want to see their teams positioned to win or at least able to compete evenly. That’s the way it was when the interscholastic federation was formed in 1913, as about 30 ...

Track standout Bob Fortin, 68, and Vista and Chula Vista head coach Morris Shepherd, 95, passed. Fortin was one of top hurdlers in the San Diego Section and had a best time of :14.7 in the 120-yard high hurdles as a senior at Crawford in 1964. “Snortin” Fortin, as he was affectionately known because of the guttural sounds Fortin made exerting ...

Escondido was penalized 15 yards before it participated in the kickoff or took a snap at the beginning of the second half of a Metropolitan League game at Grossmont. Referee Charlie Smith, also the San Diego State baseball coach, penalized the Cougars for not being on the field and ready for kickoff after the 15-minute halftime. Escondido ...

Teams with losing records didn’t make the playoffs.  Neither did some with winning records, or even the undefeated. Only league champions were invited. Four large school and two small school squads would make up the 1965 San Diego Section postseason. Bennie Edens wasn’t playing “one game at a time.”  He was looking a few weeks down the road ...

Bill Van Leeuwen, a standout defensive lineman during some of the most successful years of the coach Don Coryell era at San Diego State, passed away June 10 in Wickenburg, Arizona.   Van Leeuwen, 66, was an undersized, cat-quick tackle in a 4-3 defensive alignment on the 1968 and ’69 Aztec teams that posted a combined record ...

Five bests in the state meet, nine in the season’s final two weeks and some competitive  efforts in the finals at Clovis Buchanan High allowed area tracksters to finish on a strong note. Weak in the flat races as compared to the rest of the state and with only one sprinter in the state’s Top 10, San  Diego Section athletes still earned ...

CLOVIS–Dani Johnson of Cathedral set two San Diego Section records and was part of another as area athletes qualified in 20 boys and girls events last night in trials of the 100th anniversary state track meet at Buchanan High. Including double advancers Jordan Miller, Charles Lemford, and Suzie Acolatse, the section totaled 22 qualifiers for tonight’s finals. Johnson, ...

Lance Morton, Rich Gehring, and Sam Edwards are among former San Diego prep athletes who  recently passed away. Morton, 81,  a founder of the Brigantine Restaurant chain, was a second team all-City Prep League  end on the 1951 Point Loma squad that finished with a 6-2 record, losing only to San Diego, 15-6, and La Jolla, 21-14, ...

The stars shone in the afternoon yesterday as two meet records fell and seasonal bests were set or tied in 19 boys and girls events in the 55th San Diego Section track and field championships. Perfect weather at the pristine Mt. Carmel facility made it a great day for the athletes and the aficionado. It’s on to the state meet Friday ...

Their story could have been inspiration for “The Grapes of Wrath,” because Bill Nettles and younger twin Wayne lived the life of John Steinbeck’s poor and displaced. Teenagers, age 16,  caught in the poverty of Oklahoma’s depression-era Dust Bowl, sought a way out. With the spirit and optimism of youth, the youngsters decided to make their way West. The twins ...

If the state track meet were  tomorrow, instead of in two weeks, San Diego Section girls would have a chance to win possibly three events.  The boys, none. In one of the most disappointing seasons in several years, San Diego girls are represented in seven of the 16 events in the state’s top 10 and the boys ...

John Carroll’s retirement from Oceanside earlier this year has been followed by the departure of two other, successful, veteran San Diego Section coaches. John Morrison, who took his 18 Francis Parker teams to 18 playoff berths, and Bill Dobson, whose 2011 team tied a Mountain Empire record for most wins in a season, also are leaving. Other ...

Retired after an honored career in the Marine Corps, Robert E. (Bull) Trometter took a high school job. Trometter could employ a figurative steel fist while upholding the meaning of semper fidelis (always faithful, always loyal) as head coach at the San Diego Marine Corps Recruit Depot in 1947-48, at Camp Pendleton in 1949, and at ...

John J. Montgomery High’s football history does not require an encyclopedic tome. A few pages would be more than enough. Most of those pages would be devoted to the 1982 season.  Coach John DeVore’s Aztecs posted a 9-2 record, the best in their history and one of the few winning seasons since the  Otay Mesa school opened ...

Coach Hobbs Adams was in his office a couple years before, finishing some paper work during the quiet of the Christmas vacation break. A strapping youngster walked into the school’s recently constructed gymnasium and found Adams at his desk. The visitor told Adams he was from Texas and wanted to play football at San Diego High. Adams was curious. The coach ...

Wait till next year seems appropriate in San Diego Section basketball, according to the Cal-Hi Sports newsletter. The Stockton-based publication is suggesting that St. Augustine could be a Top 20 team in the 2015-16 season. That would be an accomplishment, since no San Diego squad finished in Cal-Hi Sports’ Top 20 this season. St. Augustine was 23rd, Torrey ...

Oakland Raiders managing general partner Al Davis spoke in 2006 about Art Powell, whom Davis signed out of the Canadian Football League years before. “I wish I could take you back to 1963,” said Davis, “because I had one of the greatest receivers who have ever played this game.  His first year for me, he carried ...