The narrative originally was posted Dec. 7, 2013.

This team may have been the best of all coached by Duane Maley at San Diego High, but the Cavemen lost two of their best players and five reserves as practice started and their best player at the most important time of the season.

They came up short in the Southern California playoffs.

Starting halfback Darnes Johnson and tackle Ed Wallace were gone before the first scrimmage.

Johnson was the team’s leading ball carrier and a :09.8 100-yard sprinter who anchored the Hillers’ rapid 880-yard relay team in the spring. Wallace was an experienced lineman who saw  playing time in 1949.

UNCLE SAM BECKONS

Halfbacks Richard Real, Paul Brooks and Mickey Hall, end Howard Simpson, and guard Calvin Rayford joined Johnson and Wallace, also literally hauled out of school and ordered to report to National Guard units at Fort Rosecrans on the Point Loma peninsula.

The Korean War erupted on June 25, 1950, when the North Korean army invaded South Korea. American ground troops aided the South Korean cause.

The seven National Guard Cavers were called to duty to help take the place of those deployed.

Maley soon learned there would be no “education deferments.” The only  games the players would be playing were war games.

The players had joined the National Guard in high school partly because each earned as much as $10 for every meeting attended, a handy sum for teenagers of the era.

Active duty was expected to be in the future, after graduation.

Deep and fast, San Diego overcame the personnel losses and stormed through the new City Prep League to finish the regular season with an 8-0 record.

But disaster struck in game 7.

End Charlie Powell, who would be named Southern California player of the year, sustained a bruised kidney after taking a knee in his back during a 58-12 romp over Kearny, the poorest team on the schedule.

Of all the games to lose the star player in Southern California and arguably the best in the country! San Diego went into the Kearny game with an overall 29-pound average weight advantage, 184-155.

The Cavers led, 27-0, after one quarter and 58-0 after three.

Powell did not play the following week against La Jolla, the original  thinking that he would be available for the opening round of the playoffs.

Medical reports soon indicated a more serious injury.

The 6-foot, 3-inch, 230-pounder, a marvelous player who excelled in 4 sports (the only athlete in school history to earn 12 varsity letters in three years) , including track and field (he held the school shot put record of 57 feet, 9 1/4 inches, for 31 years) and baseball in the spring, was declared out several days before the first-round game at Fullerton.

No mystery. No intrigue. No wait for a game-time decision.

Powell not only missed the game but also part  of the basketball season.

TOPPED POWELL’S FLAG TEAM

Without Powell San Diego still was favored by a touchdown over the 7-1-1 Fullerton Indians.

Without “Ness” Johnson the Cavemen still had explosion.

Frank Johnson and Harold Espy combined for 20 touchdowns. Chuck McDairmant was completing 57 per cent of his passes and had thrown for more than 800 yards.

McDairmant’s play at quarterback was a final, important ingredient. Completing his second season as starter, McDairmant’s eight-game total was 47 completions in 83 attempts for 810 yards and 12 touchdowns.

At one point during the season McDairmant was averaging 10.27 yards per pass. Evening Tribune  writer Jerry Brucker was moved to compare the Hillers’ signal caller to the Los Angeles’ Rams’ Norm Van Brocklin, the NFL leader at 9.28 yards per pass.

McDairmant had been a relatively anonymous end on the Hillers’ 1948 sophomore team, but Maley moved him to quarterback the following spring and the junior-to-be won the job.

McDairmant also had some “cred”, although that term did not become a part of the social lexicon until years later.

The Horace Mann Junior High team of McDairmant, Terry Heselius and Bruce Dietrick had won the three-man City touch football championship by defeating the Memorial triumvirate of Powell, Espy, and Darnes Johnson.

NATIONAL ANTHEM, THEN NO GAME

The loss of Powell was just one of Maley’s concerns. The coach was uneasy before the 8 p.m. Friday kickoff at Fullerton High. A dense fog was rolling in, blanketing much of Orange County.

Players on both teams were ghost-like figures in a surreal pregame warmup, rhythmically appearing and disappearing.

“I couldn’t see the holder or the kicker I was snapping the ball to,” remembered center Fred Thompson, looking back  years later on one of his most disappointing experiences.

To Maley’s almost disbelief, the stadium public address announcer declared a weather postponement, the first in CIF Southern Section playoff history, after the national anthem.

The Cavers were forced to spend the night in Fullerton.

“It was crazy, the way the coaches worked it out,” said Thompson.

“There must have been forty-five or fifty players who made the trip.  They had us spread out all over Fullerton. I spent the night with 5 or 6 other players in the fire station. I slept on a cot. We were awakened every time there was any activity by the firemen.”

THE LONG WAIT 

A long morning wait on Saturday preceded the 2 p.m. kickoff. Forces seem to be working against the Cavemen.

And why, with an 8-0 record, was Maley’s  squad the visiting team? Against an opponent that had a loss (19-0 to South Pasadena) and a tie (0-0 with Whittier) before winning six in a row?

With an oddly timed coin toss nine days before the game to determine where the teams would meet, especially since Fullerton still had a regular season game on its schedule?

Conspiracy theorists cited another example of perceived CIF Southern Section bias. The Southern Section numbered more than 200 schools, the great percentage of which were at least 100 miles north of San Diego, the so-called “Border Town”.

Fullerton proved a tough, worthy opponent.

Expected to grind it out and try to maintain ball-control, the Indians struck twice with touchdown passes in the third quarter after a 6-6 deadlock in the first half. San Diego answered with touchdowns each time but a missed extra point in the fourth quarter left the Cavers short.

Final score, 20-19.

WHAT ELSE?

Had the Hillers made the conversion and the game ended 20-20, San Diego would have advanced to the semifinals of the 10-team bracket, having more first downs than Fullerton. That CIF rule would come into play again in 1955, when the Cavers met Anaheim in an epic semifinal playoff.

The last indignity came late in the game. An apparent 15-yard touchdown run by Frank Johnson that would have put the San Diego in front, 25-20, was erased because of a rarely called rule infraction.

A San Diego lineman was penalized because his foot was lined up inside the foot of the lineman next to him.

“We had scored and I had my hand up to signal for the huddle (for the extra point),” Thompson recalled. “Then I heard the referee scream, ‘Illegal formation!’ I had no idea what was going on. I saw the referee go over to the sideline to explain the penalty. Maley was beside himself.”

A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN

Hoover principal Floyd Johnson, the San Diego representative on the CIF Southern Section executive committee, was in Los Angeles in February, 1950, for a weekend meeting at which the new San Diego City Prep League was formed and the Metropolitan League was realigned.

The City League would consist of San Diego, Hoover, and Grossmont, holdovers from the Coast League; and La Jolla, Point Loma, and Kearny, former Metropolitan League entries.

Metro membership went to Sweetwater, Chula Vista, Coronado, Oceanside, Escondido and Mar Vista, which became the 22^nd County school, opening its doors with a temporary campus near the Brown Field air station.

The Southern Prep presented the same lineup as in 1949. Mountain Empire, in distant Campo, was given a “passive” membership. Its representatives would attend league meetings and the Redskins would abide by SPL rules, but they played a limited league schedule.

Brown Military also remained in the SPL but would not play San Dieguito.

St. Augustine, as usual, was not a factor, wearily traipsing to and from schools in the far-flung, Los Angeles-dominated Southland Catholic League.

The Saints would mount a strong campaign for admittance to a San Diego league later in decade.

And what a decade it would be! From 1950-59 San Diego High was 85-15, the best record of any school in California. More significant, 10 new schools were welcomed as San Diego County nudged toward a divorce from the Southern Section.

BALLOT SUCCESSFUL

One of the new schools would be Helix, which was scheduled to open in September, 1951, with split sessions at Grossmont while the Highlanders’ facility was constructed.

East County voters in November, 1950, overwhelmingly passed a bond issue for $1.9 million that financed what was then known as the “University Avenue High school.”

The Helix address became 7323 University Avenue in La Mesa.

MUSTANGS ROAM WITH REID

San Dieguito was more fortunate than the San Diego Cavemen in the Minor Division playoffs.

Riding the heavyweight thrusts of Bud Reid, who finished the season with 16 touchdowns, the Mustangs defeated Metropolitan League co-champ Escondido, 13-0, then followed with wins at Brawley, 33-20, and over Palm Springs, 12-0.

Mustangs supporters were only slightly assuaged. They continued to be miffed at what they saw as disrespect for the school’s athletic program and lack of consideration when the re-leaguing of the 21 San Diego County schools took place earlier in the year.

San Dieguito wanted to sit at the big table, in the Metropolitan League, but was consigned to the weaker Southern Prep League.

Mar Vista, located in the supposedly more geographically suited South Bay and opening in September, 1950, would give the Metropolitan League its desired six teams, although Mariners games wouldn’t count in the league standings the first year.

San Dieguito, in the north San Diego County Encinitas community, claimed its second straight SPL title with a 4-0 record and outscored league rivals Army-Navy, Ramona, Fallbrook, and Vista, 142-19.

The Mustangs would join the Metro League in 1951.

HOW GOOD WERE POWELL AND CAVERS?

It’s no surprise Charlie Powell was the Southern California player of the year despite playing only 6 1/2 games and,  with Powell healthy, the Cavers arguably were one of the top teams in the state.

Powell played running back, pass-catching end, and defensive end and could turn a game either way.

The tall, graceful Powell astounded the crowd of more than 8,000 in Bakersfield by running down and making an open field tackle on halfback Hal Morgan, a 49-seconds quarter-miler and one of the fastest athletes in the San Joaquin Valley.

Morgan, who gained 40 yards on the play and reached the Cavers’ 10-yard line,  was injured on the tackle and did not return. Powell also ran for a first down with a bad snap from punt formation.

The Cavers had brought the game to the 6-0 Bakersfield Drillers, scourges of the CIF Central Section, after a five-hour bus ride.

Hal Espy scored on the first play of the game with a 72-yard dash.  San Diego held  Bill Fanning, the Drillers’ leading rusher, to 19 yards and the Cavers eased to a 19-7 victory over coach Homer Beatty’s club, which was averaging 32.3 points and wreaking havoc from Fresno to the Grapevine on U.S. 99.

As Bakersfield Californian writer Eddie Lopez noted, “Never before in all six of their previous games have the Drillers faced such dazzling speed, beefy forwards, and devil-may-care gambling  as illustrated by the visiting Cavers.”

PRINCIPALS, BUTT OUT!

Local observers generally were pleased with the alignment of the new San Diego leagues, with some reservations. Evening Tribune sports editor George T. Herrick did not like the idea that league games were scheduled by draw, coordinated by school principals.

Herrick suggested coaches would have done a better job. The schedule “pitted traditional teams against each other too early in the year,” said Herrick, who pointed out that every city school except La Jolla claimed its lowest attendance in several years at home games.

Particularly galling, said Herrick, was the scheduling of San Diego and Hoover in the league opener at Aztec Bowl as a Hoover home game.  The game drew 10,000 in the 11,500-seat stadium at San Diego State, not far from the Hoover campus. Attendance was half that of the 1949 game at Balboa.

City League officials, when announcing the schedule, indicated they wanted to minimize traditional rivalries. Point Loma and La Jolla, old antagonists from the Metro League, also were paired in a City League opener.

Evening Tribune  writer Jerry Brucker reported that CPL bosses felt the San Diego-Hoover game had gotten “too big” and needed to be deemphasized.

Tradition also took a back seat when San Diego High’s acclaimed Sergeanettes did not perform. A new rule prohibited the band and drill teams of visiting schools from participating in pregame or halftime ceremonies.

WEST WINS 12TH CARNIVAL

The pageantry and precision of ancillary groups was appreciated by the official crowd of 20,526 persons which turned out for the 12^th annual City Schools football carnival.

The West of San Diego, Point Loma, and La Jolla, defeated the East of Kearny, Hoover, and Grossmont, 18-8 in a perfect, East-West geographical alignment of three, 15-minute quarters.

Point Loma’s Marshall (Scooter) Malcolm returned a kickoff 89 yards for a touchdown against Grossmont and La Jolla’s Oscar Ruiz scored two touchdowns against Kearny. San Diego and Hoover were scoreless.

HONORS

Powell was joined in the all-Southern California lineup by halfback Frank Johnson and tackle Terry Heselius, teammates who made the third team; Coronado halfback Harry Sykes, who earned second team honors, and Point Loma halfback Marshall (Scooter) Malcolm, a third team choice.

Future San Diego State  and Chargers assistant coach and St. Louis Cardinals head coach Jim Hanifan of Covina was Powell’s accompanying first-team end.  Guard Jack Menotti of Santa Monica, later the head coach at Madison and Ramona, earned second-team honors.

LIGHTS, FINALLY

Hoover at last introduced its new lighting system as 4,500 showed to watch the Cardinals tie San Bernardino, 14-14.

New lights had been purchased in time for the 1949 campaign but were late arriving and the Cardinals played the ’49 schedule on the road.

La Jolla installed new lights at Scripps Field on campus. Point Loma erected concrete bleachers, and Kearny acquired land to enlarge its athletic plant.

COACHES DISSED

The Breitbard Athletic Foundation announced that a “San Diego Board of Football” had been formed. Writers Gene Earl and John McDonald of The Union;  Jerry Brucker and Tom Stansberry of the Tribune, and F.W. (Bill) Whitney of the Breitbard Foundation would select the all-City and all-Metropolitan League teams.

Coaches would be asked only to fill out ratings cards on opponent players the Monday following games.  The writers would analyze and make choices, supposedly removing selection politics and coaching agendas.

WELCOME TO COACHING, COACH

Head coach Gerry Spitler summed up the first season at Mar Vista:

“A few weeks ago we were greeted by thirty-five boys, five of whom lettered in junior varsity football at Chula Vista; a practice field full of rocks, and a coaching staff (Bob Ganger, baseball, and Don Smith, basketball) new to the game.”

Players walked the field before the first practice, picking up rocks and using their helmets as buckets. A student contest resulted in the naming of the school and its teams (Mariners) and colors (green and gold).

Mar Vista students attended classes at the abandoned Naval Air Base at Brown Field near the U.S-Mexico border while the new school was being constructed.

Sweating through an opening-game, 26-0 loss at Corona,  Spitler declared, “The first quarter was the longest in my life!” Mariners players committed numerous penalties resulting in a 49-minute opening period.

WITHER BREITBARD GAME?

The summer’s second annual College Prep game, matching all-Los Angeles against all-Southern California, was won by the L.A. City team, 27-7, before an estimated 15,000 in Balboa Stadium.

Several days later game founder Bob Breitbard told the Evening Tribune‘s George T. Herrick  that there would not be a third game between recent high school graduates.   The popular contest had been a financial loser, said Breitbard.

Foundation executive director Leo Callan went before the city council in January, 1951,  revealing that the 1950 game lost $1,100.

Callan, advancing Breitbard’s wish that the game be saved, sought a break in the rental fee for Balboa Stadium and also announced that a group in  Los Angeles wanted the game if Breitbard bailed.

La Jolla’s Sid Davis scored the losers’ only touchdown with an 88-yard kickoff return in the last minute.

TRUE GRID

Compton, trailing, 14-6, in the third quarter, defeated Fullerton 26-14 for the Southern Section championship… San Diego won its opening game 14-2 over Long Beach Poly before 9,000 at Long Beach Veterans’ Memorial Stadium in  a renewal of a  preeminent Southern California rivalry…the Cavers and Jackrabbits met 30 times between 1910 and ’41 but they had not played since 1944…La Jolla, under new coach Walt Harvey, and Point Loma, led by the veteran Don Giddings, proved to be able replacements for teams from the Coast League…Point Loma beat Hoover and hung in against San Diego… Hoover played Glendale, Arizona, and San Diego played Glendale, California… the Cavers averaged almost 11 yards a carry and hammered Glendale with 323 yards on the ground… Frank Johnson had 151 yards in 9 carries, Eddie Duncan 79 in 8, and Hal Espy 88 in 6…Powell ran 63 yards on an end-around for a touchdown and scored on pass plays of 27 and 69 yards in the 33-21 victory over Point Loma…the Kearny Komets scored only 21 points and were 0-5 in the City League, prompting criticism of their inclusion in the new lineup…head coach Hal Smith was a one-man staff…he did not have an assistant coach…Hoover had two players named Bill Reed, one a guard, the other a fullback, no relation…with two touchdown passes to Hal Espy against Fullerton, San Diego’s Chuck McDairmant finished with 14 in nine games…St. Anthony forfeited to St. Augustine after discovery that the Long Beach school had scheduled Newport Harbor on the same night… fiery Hoover coach Bob Kirchhoff promoted several sophomores to the varsity and slashed the number of players dressing for home games after successive losses to San Diego and Grossmont… part of the Cardinals’ problem was a season-ending shoulder injury to halfback Don Bonatus, one of the area’s best… led by fullback Jim Frankson, Sweetwater outgained Escondido 390 yards to 90 and lost, 12-6…Lee Bogle’s team at Grossmont was known as Bogle’s Boogiemen…Harry Sykes of Coronado scored a touchdown in the final game against Montebello and finished with 100 points, seventh highest total in County history…champion San Dieguito gridders, their dads, and sundry Encinitas businessmen consumed more than 100 pounds of turkey at the Del Mar Jockey Club…players received gold footballs and heard from former Navy all-America Slade Cutter….  

San Diego County competitors had been stalwarts in track and field since the California Interscholastic Federation was formed 67 years before.

But equipment, training, evolution, and population growth also had taken place in other parts of the state and competition had correspondingly stiffened.

El Cajon Valley’s Chris Mose was the only  individual champion when she won the state long jump at 18-10 ½, an improvement of two feet over her junior year and a foot over her trials qualifying mark of 17-9. She had a best of 16-10 1/2 in 1980.

Despite no gold medals there were all-time County efforts by other San Diego Section entries.

Betsy Chadwick of Mira Mesa was  fourth in the 3,200 meters in 10:31.07, but bettered the converted-to-meters 10:41.04 by Helix’ Carol Keller, who had run 10:44.06 in the two-mile in 1977.

The Crawford girls team of Shawn Lawson, Raenell Taylor, Leslie Johnson, and Tracy Scott finished sixth but set a mark in the 4×400 relay with a time of 3:49.27, topping the 3:50.8 by Crawford in 1978.

El Camino’s Bruce Mitchell, third in the 300 low hurdles in a County record :36.39 in the trials, was third in the final in :36.67. Wendy Edelen of Crawford’ was 13th in a trials heat but her :44.53 was a County record in the 300.

Poway’s Ken Brajevich would have been the first to shade 14 seconds in the 110 high hurdles but was disqualified for a lane violation in the trials. Brajevich covered the distance in :13.9 but was jostled by a runner next to him and pushed out of his lane.

5/1/81 

Kevin Shields of San Diego ran :09.81 and :22.40 in the 100 and 220 in the 10^th Orange Glen Invitational.

C.J. Roberson of Serra won the 440 in :49.19 and anchored the Conquistadores to a :42.78 victory in the 440 relay, edging Shields and San Diego, which ran :42.91.

Valhalla’s Rob Avant set a meet record of 14 feet, 6 inches, in the pole vault and Fallbrook’s Jack Eaton increased his County best in the discus to 164-11.

Other season bests were by Helix’ Stan Aguilar, 9:22.69 in the two mile, and Castle Park’s Matt Johnson, 1:57.99 in his first 880 race of the year.

5/7/81

Berrett Francis of Vista cleared 6-8 in the high jump in Vista’s 97-38 dual meet win over Torrey Pines. Francis’ jump was No. 11 all time in San Diego County.

–La Jolla’s Steve Csorba took the County lead with a 170-foot discus whirl against Lincoln.

5/12/81

PALOMAR LEAGUE TRIALS, @MT. CARMEL

Ken Brajevich of Poway set the pace with a :14.5 effort in the 110-meter high hurdles and :38.7 in the 300 lows.

Keith Kartz of San Dieguito hurled the shot 54-2, leading Jack Eaton of Fallbrook, who reached 54-0.

GROSSMONT LEAGUE TRIALS, @MONTE VISTA

Allan Durden of Helix doubled with a :15.8 clocking in the 120-yard high hurdles and :39.5 in the 300 lows.

EASTERN LEAGUE TRIALS, @SAN DIEGO STATE.

Patrick Henry’s Steve Brown won a 400-meter heat in :49.6.  Drake Jarrett of Kearny won a heat in :49.5. Tracy Scott of Crawford doubled in the girls 110 hurdles (:14.7) and 200 (:25.1).

WESTERN LEAGUE TRIALS, @MESA COLLEGE.

Serra’s C.J. Roberson had the day’s best mark, :49.4 in the 440.

AVOCADO LEAGUE TRIALS, @ESCONDIDO.

Nick Kuretich of San Pasqual raced to :10.1 and :22.2 victories in the 100 and 220-yard dashes.

METROPOLITAN LEAGUE TRIALS, @MAR VISTA.

Discus specialist Susan Compton of Marian won her 100-yard heat in :11.8.

5/15/81

EASTERN LEAGUE FINALS, @SAN DIEGO STATE.

Kearny’s Paul Day won the 100 meters in :10.7 and 200 in :21.9.

—Moore of Mira Mesa won a virtual dead heat 800 meters in 1:54.8 from David Thoman of Point Loma, who clocked 1:54.9.

—Tracy Scott of Crawford doubled with :14.7 in the 100 hurdles and :25.1 in the 200 and then shared her triple with teammates as she anchored the Colts to a :48.2 win in the 4×100 relay over Morse (:48.3).

Crawford also edged Morse in the 4×400 baton race, 3:51.1 to 3:55.3.

WESTERN LEAGUE FINALS, @MESA COLLEGE

Sal Moceri of University set a meet record with a 163-foot, 9-inch discus throw.

Kevin Shields of San Diego won the 100 in :10.8, 200 in :22.2, and ran a leg on San Diego’s :42.8 victory in the 4×100 relay.

METROPOLITAN LEAGUE FINALS, @MAR VISTA.

Cordova of Sweetwater set a meet record of 161-5 in the discus, bettering the 150-6 by LeSage of Chula Vista in 1977.

The 9:22.2 two-mile run by Andy Morabe of Bonita Vista topped the 9:36.8 by Doane of Bonita Vista in 1978.

Susan Compton of Marian was a double winner, 38-10 ¾ in the shot put and 133-4 in the discus.

GROSSMONT LEAGUE FINALS, @MONTE VISTA.

Antonio of Grossmont posted a double, :10.1 in the 100 and :22.1 in the 220.  Helix’ John Seeman also won a tough double, 1:56.3 in the 880 and 4:24.4 in the mile.

Helix Allan Durden won the 300 low hurdles in :38.9.

Mount Miguel’s Ellen Jones had a :11.1 and :25.4 double in the 100 and 220.

PALOMAR LEAGUE FINALS, @MT. CARMEL.

Ken Brajevich tripled, 110 high hurdles in :14.3, 300 lows in :38.4, and long jump at 22-9 1/2.

Vista’s Berrett Francis high jumped 6 feet, 8 inches.

Rhonda Whitlow of Vista was first in the girls 100 hurdles in :15 and 300 hurdles in :45.5.

AVOCADO LEAGUE FINALS, @ESCONDIDO.

Bruce Mitchell of El Camino ran a hand-timed :14.0 in the 120-yard high hurdles, which would be a County record but with no wind-gauge clarification.

A trio of Lincoln runners, David Edwards, Ted Scales, and Marian Franklin recorded :14.1 clocking years earlier.

Mitchell also doubled back with a :38.0 win in the 330-yard lows.

Liz Pew of San Marcos was a double winner in the girls’ hurdles, :14.5 in the 100 and :47.8 in the 300.

SOUTHERN LEAGUE FINALS.

Santa Fe Christian swept the team championships with 113 points in the boys and 55 in the girls

5/23/81

SAN DIEGO SECTION FINALS, @MT. CARMEL.

Terrie Brown, San Pasqual’s champion in the girls’ 3,200 meters, could attest to the old saw about truth being stranger than fiction.

Steve Brand of The San Diego Union captured the moment:

“Brown, the defending 3,200-meter champ, worked her way into contention with three laps remaining, raced past Monte Vista’s Sheli Lachel with two laps left and, much to the confusion of everyone, stopped with 400 meters to go.

“By the time Brown realized the race wasn’t over, Lachel had shot past …but Brown again took off in pursuit, caught Lachel with 100 meters remaining and then matched her stride for stride to win in a meet record 10:57.48.

“Lachel, competing for the first time in over a month with a heel stress fracture, was given a 10:58.17.”

Brown, excited and slightly embarrassed, declared, “I gotta go back to kindergarten and learn my numbers.”

Terrie’s “most popular victory” came on a day when two County records and 13 Section bests for 1981 were set.

Crawford, with a 3:55.68 win in the mile relay, won the Girls’ title, outpointing Morse, 51-49. Helix won the Boys’ championship with 53 points to Serra’s 40.

Three in each event qualified for the state meet the following week.

BOYS

EVENT	NAME	SCHOOL	MARK
100	Shields	San Diego	:10.57
	Day	Kearny	:10.85
	Davis	Mount Miguel	:11.03
200	Shields		:21.5w
	Day		:22.88
	Johnson	Sweetwater	:22.15
400	Roberson	Serra	:49.80
	Lane	Mt. Carmel	:49.87
	Phelps	Crawford	:50.25
800	Russell	San Pasqual	1:55.25
	Kindsfather	Grossmont	1:56.69
	Seeman	Helix	1:56.77
1600	Seeman		4:18.29
	Morabe	Bonita Vista	4:20.61
	Russell	San Pasqual	4:25.87
3200	Aguilar	Helix	9:25.87
	Vega	Chula Vista	9:26.75
	Brownsberger	Valhalla	9:30.87
110 High Hurdles	Mitchell	El Camino	:14.43
	Smith	Serra	:14.53
	Brajevich	Poway	:14.87
300 Low Hurdles	Mitchell	El Camino	:37.16
	Durden	Helix	:37.94
	—	San Marcos	:38.95
4×100 Relay	Shields, Pullens, Taylor, LeBlanc	San Diego	:42.52
		Mira Mesa	:42.88.
		Serra	:43.01
4×400 Relay	Payne, Robinson, Carter, Brown	Patrick Henry	3:25.21
		Serra	3:25.97
		Mt. Carmel	3:26.07
High Jump	Francis	Vista	6-8
	Martin	Serra	6-4
	Sams	Crawford	6-2
Long Jump	McClendon	University	23-7 1/2
	Lockett	Lincoln	22-11 1/2
	Scott	Clairemont	22-10
Triple Jump	Gather	Mount Miguel	47-10 3/4
	Osborne	El Cajon Valley	47-9
	McClendon		46-8 1/2
Shot Put	Mason	Castle Park	59-3 1/2
	Ervin	Fallbrook	56-1
	Kartz	San Dieguito	55-1
Discus	Moceri	Mission Bay	162-2
	Eaton	Fallbrook	160-8
	Kartz		157-2
Pole Vault	Nelson	Helix	14-0
	Avant	Valhalla	14-0
	Vavra	Valhalla	13-9

 GIRLS

EVENT	NAME	SCHOOL	MARK
100	Jones	Mount Miguel	:12.07
	Cooksey	Hoover	:12.28
	Jackson	Morse	:12.32
200	Jones		:24.64
	Jackson	Morse	:24.87
	Scott	Crawford	:24.98
400	Jones	Patrick Henry	:57.97
	Cottingham	Morse	:58.64
	Panno	San Pasqual	:59.00
800	Hawkes	San Dieguito	2:16.7
	Dibos	Helix	2:16.7
	Gartner	Fallbrook	2:16.8
1,600	Allen	Santana	5:05.55
	Chadwick	Mira Mesa	5:08.45
3,200	Brown	San Pasqual	10:57.48
	Lachel	Monte Vista	10:58.17
	Chadwick		11:12.03
100 Hurdles	King	La Jolla	:14.65w
	Pew	San Marcos	:14.67w
	Scott	Crawford	:14.77w
300 Low Hurdles	Edelen	Crawford	:44.77
	King		:44.91
	Pew		:45.29
4×100 Relay	Wade, Pippins, Cottingham, Jackson	Morse	:47.99
		Vista	:48.75
		Crawford	:49.01
Mile Relay	Lawson, Johnson, Taylor, Scott	Crawford	3:55.68
		Fallbrook	4:00.85
		Morse	4:01.79
High Jump	LeClair	Monte Vista	5-7
	Thomas	Mission Bay	5-5
	Irving	Crawford	5-3
Long Jump	Mose	El Cajon Valley	18-4 3/4
	Lawson	Crawford	18-4 3/4
	Dixon	Mira Mesa	18-2 3/4
Shot Put	Poulin	Vista	39-8 1/4
	Johnson	Valhalla	38-4 1/4
	Hiatt	Poway	38-4 1/4
Discus	Compton	Marian	137-9
	Laughlin	Torrey Pines	131-9
	Poulin		129-10

6/5/81

63^rd STATE BOYS TRACK TRIALS, @NORWALK CERRITOS COLLEGE

EVENT	NAME	SCHOOL	MARK	PLACE
100	Shields	San Diego	:10.57w	6th
	Davis	Mount Miguel	:10.58w	7T
	Day	Kearny	:10.64w	14th
200	Day		:21.43	4th
	Shields		:21.58w	8th
	Johnson	Sweetwater	:22.24	15th
400	Lane	Mt. Carmel	:49.38	—
	Roberson	Serra	:50.10	—
	Phelps	Crawford	:51.16
800	Thoman	Point Loma	1:55.89	—
	Kindsfather	Grossmont	1:58.76	—
	Sevier	Valhalla	1:59.50	—
1600	Seeman	Helix	4:10.09	2nd
	Morabe	Bonita Vista	4:16.25	14th
	Russell	San Pasqual	4:17.15	15th
110 Hurdles	Mitchell	El Camino	:14.55w	11th
	Smith	Serra	:14.58	13th
	Brajevich	Poway	DQ, lane violation	—
300 Hurdles	Mitchell		:36.39	3rd
	Brajevich	Poway	:37.09	8th
	Durden	Helix	:38.00	—
4×100 Relay	Shields, Taylor, Pullens, LeBlanc	San Diego	:42.38	10th
	M. Martin, J. Martin, Wells, Roberson	Serra	:42.99	—
	Jose, Howard, LePrath, McCraw	Mira Mesa	:43.26	—
4×400 Relay	Payne, Robinson, Carter, Brown	Patrick Henry	3:22.53	—
	Abutin, Elder, Bromma, Lane	Mt. Carmel	3:25.41	—
		Serra	—	—
High Jump	Francis	Vista	6-4	—
	Sams	Crawford	6-2	—
	J. Martin	Serra	—	—
Long Jump	Scott	Clairemont	24-0	4th
	McClendon	University	22-6 ¼	12th
	Lockett	Lincoln	22-5 ¼	13th
Triple Jump	McClendon		44-11	—
Shot Put	Mason	Castle Park	57-4 ¼	11th
	Kartz	San Dieguito	51-11 `1/2	—
	Erin	Fallbrook	51-4	—
Discus	Eaton	Fallbrook	157-8`	—
	Moceri	Mission Bay	155-5	—
	Kartz		150-7	—
Pole Vault	Nelson	Helix	14-4	1T
	Avant	Valhalla	14-0	12T
	Vavra	Valhalla	—	—

 EIGHTH GIRLS STATE TRACK TRIALS, @NORWALK CERRITOS COLLEGE

EVENT	NAME	SCHOOL	MARK	PLACE
100	Jones	Mount Miguel	:11.97	10th
	Cooksey	Hoover	:12.05	13th
	Jackson	Morse	:12.11	—
200	Jones		:24.90	10th
	Scott	Crawford	:25.16	15th
	Jackson		—	—
400	Jones	Patrick Henry	:56.58	6th
	Cottingham	Morse	:58.68	—
	Panno	San Pasqual	1:01.43	—
800	Hawks	San Dieguito	2:16.18	12th
	Gartner	Fallbrook	2:17.14	17T
	Dibos	Helix	—	—
1600	Allen	Santana	5:00.72	9th
	Rowlett	El Capitan	5:04.35	12th
	Blakesley	Vista	5:06.10	14th
100 Hurdles	Scott	Crawford	:14.44	11th
	Pew	San Marcos	:14.95w	—
	King	La Jolla	:16.03	—
300 Hurdles	Edelen	Crawford	:44.53	13th
	King		:45.52	—
	Pew		:45.88	—
4×100 Relay	Wade, Pippins, Cottingham, Jackson	Morse	:48.33	10th
	Johnson, Scott, Taylor, Edelen	Crawford	:48.70	12th
		Vista	DQ	—
4×400 Relay	Jackson, Pippins, Cottingham, Wade	Morse	3:50.81	6th
	Lawson, Taylor, Johnson, Scott	Crawford	3:52.22	8th
	Keegan, Gartner, Taylor, Reno	Fallbrook	3:57.01	12th
High Jump	Le Clair	Monte Vista	5-6	5T
	Thomas	Mission Bay
	Irving	Crawford	5-0	—
Long Jump	Mose	El Cajon Valley	17-9 ½	6th
	Lawson	Crawford	17-7 ¾	9th
	Dixon	Mira Mesa	17-6 ¾	10th
Shot Put	Johnson	Valhalla	36-7 ¾	—
	Poulin	Vista	35-10 ½	—
	Hiatt	Poway	34-6	—
Discus	Laughlin	Torrey Pines	146-8	4th
	Compton	Marian	143-8	7th
	Poulin	Vista	130-6	—

6/6/81

63^RD BOYS STATE FINALS, @NORWALK CERRITOS COLLEGE

EVENT	NAME	SCHOOL	MARK	PLACE
100	Shields	San Diego	:10.89	5th
	Davis	Mount Miguel	:11.07	7th
200	Shields		:21.58	5th
	Day		:22.08	9th
1600	Seaman	Helix	4:12.40	6th
3200	Aguilar	Helix	—	—
	Vega	Chula Vista	—	—
110 Hurdles	Mitchell	El Camino	:14.85	9th
300 Hurdles	Mitchell		:36.67	3rd
	Brajevich	Poway	:37.14	7th
Long Jump	Scott	Clairemont	22-8 ½	6th
Pole Vault	Nelson	Helix	14-2	7th

 EIGHTH GIRLS STATE FINALS, @NORWALK CERRITOS COLLEGE

EVENT	NAME	SCHOOL	MARK	PLACE
100	Jones	Mount Miguel	:12.43	8th
	Jones		:26.02	9th
400	Jones	Patrick Henry	:57.80	7th
Two Miles	Chadwick	Mira Mesa	10:31.07	4th
	Lachel	Monte Vista	10:41.65	7th
	Brown	San Pasqual	10:56.04	11th
100 Hurdles	Scott	Crawford	:14.60	8th
4×100 Relay	Wade, Pippins, Cottingham, Jackson	Morse	:48.84	7th
4×400 Relay	Lawson, Taylor, Johnson, Scott	Crawford	3:49.27	6th
	Keegan Turner, Gartner, Reno	Fallbrook	3:53.74	7th
High Jump	Le Clair	Monte Vista	5-6	4th
	Thomas	Mission Bay	5-6	7th
Long Jump	Mose	El Cajon Valley	18-10 1/4	1st
	Lawson	Crawford	15-1 ¾	9th
Discus	Laughlin	Torrey Pines	136-08	6th
	Compton	Marian	135-02	7th

 

The narrative originally was posted Dec. 30, 2013.

San Diego High had an unusual relationship with The San Diego Union.

Student Alan McGrew, who also served in a business position as the “Temporary Football Manager of San Diego High School,” was the de facto Hilltoppers beat writer for the newspaper.

McGrew filed daily reports on the Hilltoppers, the headline sports attraction in the city. He provided  inside information on coach John Perry’s team along with up-to-date messages on scheduling.

Who the Cavemen were playing and where often was the question of the day, as money guarantees were negotiated and games agreed to on virtually a moment’s notice.

McGrew’s access to the team was apparent on the pages of the Union:

—A player reported to be smoking on a downtown street and who admitted his “guilt” when quizzed before the entire team was suspended by coach John Perry for the opener with Sweetwater and lost half of his letter-earning, game quarters participation.

—Perry had established an 8 p.m., be-at-home curfew with retirement by not more than an hour later.  The only evening players would be allowed to stay out “late” was after a game, when curfew would be at 10 p.m.

According to McGrew the team voted unanimously to abide by the Perry Rules. The third-year head man was 24, not much older than his players.

UNBEARABLE VICTORY

McGrew’s San Diego High bias also was obvious. The intrepid high school correspondent was one unhappy camper after the Hilltoppers’ 6-3 victory over Sweetwater in the season’s opening game.

Expecting a rout, McGrew was forced to acknowledge a stunningly difficult outing.

“The local players were taken off their feet by the county gang,” wrote McGrew.  “They were dazed, it appeared.”

McGrew continued.  “Possibly some of the players were unstrung, the game being the first of the season, and when they discovered the Sweetwater team had all kinds of power (they) went to pieces.”

Sweetwater had been 0-3 against the San Diego varsity, losing, 54-6 in 1915, 65-7 in ’20, and 40-0 in ’21.

Fullback Charles Williams drop-kicked a 25-yard field goal to give coach Herb Hoskins’ Red Devils a 3-0 lead early in the first quarter.

Norton Langford scored to put the Hilltoppers ahead, 6-3, later in the quarter, after which San Diego was stymied by the determined National City squad.

The following week, under a story without byline, the writer hadn’t yet moved on, still unhappy and describing the Sweetwater game as a “catastrophe”.

RED DEVILS NO PUSHOVERS

Sweetwater opened as National City School 1907 and, according to available records, played football in 1910.

For the first 11 years, including the 1913 season when they didn’t field a team, the Red Devils were 10-24-3, according to infrequent newspaper reports.

Herb Hoskins took over as coach in 1919 and was 5-9-2 in his first three seasons, but the Red Devils won the four-team County League with a 5-0-1 record this season and manned up once more in the playoffs against San Diego.

The Cavemen this time prevailed by a 13-6 score, but Sweetwater had established itself as a credible program.

The Red Devils were 34-16-5 under Hoskins from 1922-27 and made three playoff appearances.

NO ROOM FOR HERB?

Writer Jess Puryear pointed out that Hoskins apparently had not been considered after the Sweetwater mentor showed interest in filling a position that opened on the San Diego coaching staff.

Hilltoppers basketball coach A.E. Shaver had left after the 1921-22 school year.

RESEMBLING EARLY MAN

San Diego High historian Don King corrected a story which promoted many different versions over the years.

How did the name Cavemen evolve?

In 1921 the football team dressed in dingy quarters beneath the 400 building on campus, King wrote in Caver Conquest, the 1993  history of San Diego High athletics.

There was only one entrance to the dressing room and that was through a long, dark tunnel that supposedly looked like that of a passageway to the caves used by our earliest ancestors, King noted.

Alden Ross, a reporter for the school newspaper (and a future member of the 1922 squad), was standing outside the players’ entrance when the  squad exited for a game and was struck by the similarity to cave dwellers of the past.

Ross referred to the “Cavemen” in the next issue of The Russ.

“Cavemen” caught on and was used thereafter along with “Hilltoppers”,  “Hillers”, and “Cavers.”

When girls began participating in the 1970s, the name was officially amended to “Cavers,” to correct gender inequity, said King.

PREGAME HYPE?

USC Freshmen coach H.W. Hess, responding when asked in a telephonic interview with  San Diego writers if there were “any stars who have been showing up” on the Trobabes’ squad:

“There are no stars, but eleven men on the team…and they’re all rotten,” declared the coach.

San Diego coach John Perry said he expected his squad “to be fighting all through the game (but) I do expect to be beaten by more than forty points.”

Interest in the USC team was such that the frosh’s pregame meal was assessed:  two poached eggs and a cup of tea.

The frosh, featuring many 1921 prep stars from throughout the state, prevailed, 21-0.

THE LONGEST TRIP

According to one writer, 19 players and two coaches traveled for a game to Bakersfield by automobile.

Certainly more than one automobile, although Alan McGrew wrote that the team was scheduled to leave  at 8 a.m. on a Friday morning for an 11-hour trip by “stage”.

Travel would include 48 miles on what was known as the Ridge Route, beginning at the Castaic Junction and featuring switchbacks and sudden  turns over the mountains north of Los Angeles.

Climax to this sometimes dangerous stretch was the Grapevine, a six-mile downgrade that took travelers from 4,233 feet to the floor of the San Joaquin Valley, passing native grapevines growing on the hills near Fort Tejon.

WHY?

In this still developing period of motorized conveyance (passenger railroad travel then or now was not available to or from Bakersfield), why schedule a game so distant and so difficult to reach?

Alan McGrew pointed out that “almost every school south of the Tehachapi pass had received letters seeking games from Hilltop management, but refused.”

San Diego High was feared in the North, particularly around Los Angeles, said McGrew. Scheduling the defending state champion Drillers would curtail some of the criticism about Perry’s perceived reluctance to schedule strong opponents.

There was some history with Bakersfield.  The Hilltoppers declined an invitation to play a state championship playoff with the Drillers after San Diego had posted 12-0 record and won the Southern Section championship in 1916.

Hilltop coach Clarence (Nibs) Price sensed his team was fatigued and was not interested in a New Year’s Day game in San Diego. The Drillers claimed the state championship and that San Diego had forfeited.

Price did schedule the Drillers in 1917, when the school known as Kern County Union High came south and was beaten by the Hilltoppers, 18-7.

This year’s result was different.  Dwight (Goldie) Griffith’s Drillers, who were rumored to play some adult roughnecks from the neighboring oil fields, scored a 32-0 victory.

Age limits were seemingly flexible and nonexistent.  San Diego’s outstanding lineman was Al Scheving, who would be 21 when he graduated in June, 1923.

“I was only eighteen months older than my team captain,” coach John Perry told writer Jim Trinkle in 1954.

TWO GAMES IN TWO DAYS

Without a league and of independent classification, San Diego was required to have five victories against high school competition for inclusion in the CIF Southern Section playoffs.

Scheduling was madcap.

With the SCIF postseason beginning in a week, the Cavemen were pressed to play two high school games in two days.

John Perry shrugged when it was suggested that no prep team in California had ever been asked to meet such a challenge.

The  Hilltoppers teed up at 9:15 a.m. Friday in City Stadium, where they defeated the 7-2 Whittier Cardinals, 26-0, then followed at 12:30 the next afternoon with a 41-0 victory over weak Anaheim, against which Perry employed only four varsity starters.

Students were all for the doubleheader.  They were dismissed from school Friday to watch the games.

The Hilltoppers were fortunate not to have to travel for the Anaheim contest, which originally was scheduled in the northern community but was moved to San Diego because of an Armistice Day parade in Anaheim.

HOW MANY GAMES?

HOW MANY GAMES?

Don King’s Caver Conquest listed 14 games on San Diego High’s schedule, as did the first Evening Tribune Prep Football Record Book, published in 1965.

According to The San Diego Union of November 30, 1922,  the Cavemen had played 17 games and, after meeting  Santa Ana, Gardena and Bakersfield, would finish the season with a stunning total of 20, their record being 14-5-1.

NFL teams don’t play that many, unless they’re a wildcard team that plays in the Super Bowl.

The line between scrimmages and games was blurred in The San Diego Union.  

A midseason exercise with Sweetwater was loosely described as a game but also as a “practice.” Nonleague, not yet a part of the lexicon, would have been a better description.

The Cavemen played five “games” with teams from military institutions and seven “games” in 13 days from late September to early October.

Games with military squads were common for San Diego-area teams.

COEDS SHUN HILLTOPPERS

San  Diego’s playoff with Santa Ana matched not-so-friendly rivals in a series that dated to 1905. The Cavemen claimed the Orange County school’s students and players were the poorest losers in the state.

“Besides ‘razzing’ the players on the street  and at the hotel where the team was lodged, the girls at a public dance in Santa Ana refused to dance with the San Diego boys,” reported Alan McGrew.

According to historian Don King, “Santa Ana fans threw soda pop bottles and ripe fruit as Kenny Zweiner ran 65 yards with an intercepted pass for a touchdown.”

Coney Galindo raced 35 yards for another score in a 12-0 victory. The winners rushed for 112 yards, Galindo leading with 50 yards rushing and completing a 17-yard pass.

The win over Santa Ana elevated San Diego into a Southern Section championship game against Gardena.

ROCKY TOP

Perry remembered years later what it was like to practice on the “Rock Pile,” and to play on a dirt surface in City Stadium.

“We weren’t allowed to practice in the stadium, but had to go across the highway by the horse barns,” said Perry.  “Before working out we’d try to get all the rocks we’d kicked up the previous day out of the way.”

The stadium layout would be sprinkled, then rolled before each game.  “There wasn’t any grass and it was as hard as concrete,” remembered the coach.

SCHOOL DAYS, SCHOOL DAYS!

San Diego High pupils paid student dues of .75, plus they were required to make a $4 deposit to assure return of textbooks at the end of the school year.

Students were required to purchase locker padlocks that were available from San Diego merchants.

Incoming freshmen received a 128-page “manual”, detailing all activities and regulations at the school.

National City School, renamed Sweetwater, moved to a new location on Highland Avenue at the South end of National City, serving approximately 325 students from Chula Vista and to as far south as San Ysidro.

Construction of Grossmont’s permanent campus on the hill overlooking El Cajon Valley was almost complete, with 350 students listed as having enrolled.

Two-pant tweed sports suits were available for $19.65, Shoes for $6.50, and caps for $2.50 at Lion Clothing Co., Fifth Avenue at E Street.

THERE WERE PERKS

Prospective San Diego High players were feted in a banquet at the San Diego Hotel the night before the first practice.

Team leader Norton Langford addressed the players on the “value of close association and the necessity for no petty jealousy” (apparently a problem the last couple seasons, along with questions of soft scheduling and Perry’s not coaching “fundamentals”).

Langford said he hoped to “see a game up North” at the end of the season “for the state championship and with San Diego returning victorious.”

CART BEFORE HORSE

San Diego players favored a rematch in the state playoffs with Bakersfield, rather than  participate in a so-called national championship game.

The Cavers received challenges from the Amarillo Golden Sandstorm of Texas, Twin Falls, Idaho, and a team in St. Louis.  Coach John Perry postponed any decision until after the Gardena contest.

LOVE THAT GRASS

Gardena, which won at Bishop, 31-0, the week before, was accorded an edge by the San Diego media because it had played on the Bovard Field turf gridiron at USC.

Whatever advantage Gardena possessed disappeared in the fourth quarter, when the Cavemen trailing, 14-12, scored 19 points to win, 31-14.  Coney Galindo ran for three touchdowns and scored another on an intercepted pass.

HERE COME THE DRILLERS

San Diego accepted a challenge to play 9-0-1 Bakersfield in a state playoff, but only if the game was played in the City Stadium.  In a telegram to Bakersfield officials, McGrew said the Cavemen were “not in condition for another trip.”

The Drillers agreed.

The journey south was easier on the visitors, who were reported to have “passed through Los Angeles” and were spending the night in Santa Ana after practicing at Whittier College.

Transported in two motor coaches, Bakersfield arrived in San Diego on the day of the game.

The Cavemen battled in vain before about 6,000 City Stadium fans who represented the largest turnout in school history, according to the Union, although the 1917 game drew a reported 10,000.

It was 17-0 before Ed Ruffa scored a touchdown in the final two minutes to send the Hilltoppers home 17-6 losers.

READ IT AND WEEP

That was the lede (first paragraph) on The San Diego Union account of the Cavemen’s 106-6 victory over Army-Navy.  The writer also suggested that flags would be at half mast at the Pacific Beach academy.

Nothing out of the ordinary about that, but in the second paragraph it was noted that the Cadets fully expected to win and to qualify for the Southern California playoffs!

Coach Paul Jones, who exuded such confidence before the game, was slightly off the mark.

Contributing to the carnage was a rule of the day:  Teams scoring touchdowns received the ensuing kickoff, i.e., Army-Navy kicked off after every San Diego touchdown.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Future World War II hero aviator Lt. James Doolittle left Jacksonville, Florida, at 7:30 p.m. Pacific  time and hoped to land at Rockwell Field, located on Coronado’s North Island, at about 4 p.m. the next afternoon.

The 18 1/2-hour flight included a fuel stop in San Antonio, Texas.

TRUE GRID

San Diego High dropped its ninth-grade, freshmen class when two junior highs, Roosevelt and Memorial, opened…the schools had grades of 7, 8, and 9…by contract with the CIF and Santa Ana, expenses were provided for 18 players when the Cavemen took the train north for the second of three semifinal playoff contests, but coach John Perry traveled a squad of 23… San Diego High was not the only team to play games on back-to-back days…Grossmont sustained a 40-7 loss to the Hilltoppers, then went out the next day and dropped a 7-6 decision to the sailors from the U.S.S. Rapahannock…when writers referred to a team concentrating on its ground game, it was described as “straight football”…passing, infrequently used,  was just that, “passing”…The San Diego Union published the roster of San Diego High and players’ numbers before the game with the USC Freshmen…24 players were numbered from 1 to 25, with only jersey No. 2 omitted… …Escondido was greeting “a whole set of husky Indians from the backcountry,” according to the Union… County League teams Escondido, Sweetwater, and Grossmont were considered “backcountry”…”The Winning Play,” an article that appeared in Redbook magazine, was read to the team by San Diego coach John Perry before it took the field against Gardena…Sweater and Letter Day at Sweetwater was attended by the entire student body, which honored the County League team as Herb Hoskins awarded monograms to 15 players….

The narrative originally was posted on Nov. 16, 2012.

Coach Les Cassie’s Hoover Cardinals were within nine outs of a berth in the Southern California finals.  San Diego High was San Diego High, reliably formidable.  But Don Clarkson’s Point Loma Pointers may have been the best team of all.

The Pointers won the prestigious Pomona 20-30 Rotary Club tournament, split two games with Hoover, and defeated San Diego in Pomona.  The Pointers ran the table in the Metropolitan League and would have been a prime candidate for the Southern California playoffs.

But the Metropolitan loop had a curious history regarding the playoffs.  It usually declined, including this year.

The Pointers had an explainable reason this year.  Its regular season ended on the same day Hoover was bowing in the semifinals to Long Beach Wilson.

In the future the Southern Section would open the door  to more teams by creating major and minor divisions and schedules would be more accommodating to the start of the playoffs.  Point Loma would win a small schools football championship in 1949.

2/28/47

Hoover Alumni, aided by seven errors by the Cardinals’ varsity, won the season’s opening game, 6-2.

3/2/47

Leonard Ross and Pete Corona teamed on a three-hitter and San Diego, scoring three runs in the eighth inning, defeated its alumni, 5-2.

–Hoover’s six runs in the first inning, highlighted by Gene Launders’ single and LeRoy Darnell’s double, was enough to win a seven-inning contest against visiting Point Loma, 11-7.

3/7/47

Max Minga’s two-run triple in a three-run seventh inning paved Grossmont’s 4-1 win over the Alumni.

—Hoover opened an odd intersectional trip with a 12-7 win at Long Beach Jordan.  Chuck Chagnard’s three-run double on his second at-bat in the first inning was the final shot in a seven-run first, in which Bulldogs pitchers issued seven walks.

—Cyril Guthridge’s grand slam home run was the difference in La Jolla’s 6-5 win over visiting Kearny.

3/8/47

Harvey Jones gave up five hits, struck out eight and hit a two-run home run and Hoover outlasted the host Colton Yellowjackets, 9-6.

3/10/47

Bob Miller singled three times in three at-bats to lead Hoover to an 11-6 win over guest Grossmont.

—Andy Stagnaro’s five-hit pitching was enough to lead the San Diego Junior Varsity to a win at Escondido over the Cougars’ varsity.

3/12/47

San Diego’s junior varsity withstood a seven-run inning and edged the Kearny varsity, 9-8.  Grossmont was outhit, 10-9, but outscored Sweetwater, 8-7, in a nonleague game between Metropolitan League teams.

3/15/47

Coach Mike Morrow’s club won a day-night doubleheader in Balboa Stadium from the Tucson Bears, 9-5, and 10-9, collecting 25 hits in the two games.

—Long Beach Poly collected only four hits off Ken Clary but scored a 6-5 victory over Hoover on the Marine Corps Recruit Depot diamond.

—Joe Medina and Paul Kaneyuki combined to pitch Point Loma to a 10-1 victory over St. Augustine on the Pointers field.  John Brown helped with two doubles.

—Bob Press was 2 for 2 and Kearny beat San Diego Vocational, 6-2, at Kearny.

3/16/47

San Diego struck for 19 hits and defeated the Tucson, 17-5, to sweep the three-game series in Balboa Stadium against the defending Arizona champion.

Every member of the Hilltoppers’ lineup collected at least one hit.  John Brown and Pete Corona had four hits each, Ray Mendoza three hits, and Bill Dugan, John Verdusco, Jerry Dahms, and Hank Duffie two each.

3/18/47

Hoover’s Larry Nenna homered with a man aboard in the first inning for the Cardinals’ only hit, but they won, 10-4, over St. Augustine, which committed only two errors but virtually walked the Horace Mann playground ball park.

—Art Preston’s two-run home run in the first inning was the difference as Grossmont defeated Kearny, 3-2, on the Komets’ diamond.

3/20/47

Hoover and San Diego opened the Coast League season with wins at home.

Ken Clary and Harvey Jones hit home runs and Clary, with additional hitting support from Bill McColl, Bill Casey, and Gene Launders, scattered seven hits as the Cardinals won, 15-0, over Pasadena.

San Diego shut out Pasadena Muir, 11-0, as Joe Catlin contributed three hits, including a double and triple, and John Brown and Bill Dugan added two hits apiece in support of Pete Corona’s three-hit pitching.

—San Diego’s Junior Varsity beat La Jolla’s varsity and ace Bud Relyea, 10-6, at La Jolla.  Relyea hit a home run.

3/21/47

Ed Gray and Hank Fitch each had two hits and Pat Kennedy hurled St. Augustine to a two-hit, 9-1 win over Escondido at Golden Hill Playground.

—Point Loma began a two-game swing through the North with a rain-shortened, five-inning, 4-2 victory at San Bernardino.  Joe Medina pitched the victory and added a two-run triple in the second inning.  Medina’s sixth-inning home run was washed out by a downpour.

3/22/47

Paul Kaneyuki allowed nine hits and went the distance as Point Loma completed a successful weekend foray into the Inland Empire with a 6-4 win at Colton.

—Len Ross’s five-hit pitching and Joe Catlin’s two-run triple in a three-run fifth inning was enough for San Diego, 7-0 overall and 2-0 in the Coast League, to beat Pasadena, 6-2, in Balboa Stadium.

—Merle Smith’s three-run triple in the fifth inning broke open a game with visiting Pasadena Muir and Hoover romped, 13-2.

3/25/47

San Diego won a nonleague game at Grossmont, 8-4, tagging the Foothillers’ Art Preston for 10 hits.  Pate Corona and Bill Dugan combined with seven-hit pitching for the Hilltoppers.

–Joe Medina pitched six hitless innings and third baseman Joe Correia doubled and tripled and the Pointers topped pitcher Don Larsen and an alumni squad, 6-2, at Golden Hill playground.

–Who’s on first? No, who scheduled the game?  The dreaded administrative glitch. Hoover’s nonleague contest against Escondido was canceled because of a reported “misunderstanding” as to the game site.

–Bud Relyea struck out 16 St. Augustine batters, contributed two hits, and allowed three hits in the La Jolla’s’ 5-1 win at home.

3/28/47

Hoover (8-2) scored seven runs in the first four innings and went on to a 10-6 win over San Diego (8-1) to take the lead in the Coast League with a 3-0 record. Ken Clary had four hits in five times at bat, including two home runs, and pitched the complete-game victory.

Bob Miller also homered and Harvey Jones singled, doubled, and tripled for the Cardinals.

—Grossmont scored at least one run in every inning from the fourth through the eighth inning and Art Preston kept El Centro Central at a distance as Grossmont won, 12-6, in an intersectional game on the Foothillers’ diamond.

—Paul Kaneyuki, Gene Roberts, and John Silveira combined to pitch a one-hitter and Point Loma submerged the Amphibious Base team, 12-0, at Navy Field.

—Eight errors contributed to Kearny’s 10-3 loss at Sweetwater.  La Jolla knocked off St. Augustine for the second time in the week, 10-3, in a seven-inning contest at Golden Hill.

3/29/47

San Diego bounced back from its loss to Hoover with an 8-1 victory over visiting Long Beach Wilson.  John Brown stopped the Bruins on six hits. Jerry Dahms singled, tripled, and homered and Hank Duffie doubled and hit three singles.

4/1/47

The 14^th Pomona 2030 Rotary Club tournament drew six San Diego-area teams and they played a combined total of 12 first-round, second-round, and consolation games, starting as early as 8 a.m. and concluding in late afternoon.

San Diego and Point Loma still were alive in the championship bracket, but Hoover and La Jolla fell into the consolation bracket after first-round losses.  Grossmont and Escondido won first-round games but lost and headed home after second-round defeats.

San Diego defeated Fullerton, 3-0, and Santa Monica, 8-2. Point Loma whipped Covina, 11-3 and Santa Barbara, 5-1.

Escondido beat Covina, 9-8, and fell to Whittier, 7-1.  Grossmont measured Huntington Beach, 6-2, and then bowed to Long Beach Poly, 6-4.

La Jolla lost to Whittier, 6-3,  but was in business in the consolation bracket after a 14-5 victory over Chino.  Hoover, one of the tournament favorites, was ousted in the first round, 9-1, by Ontario Chaffey but rallied for an 11-1 win over Santa Ana in the afternoon, second-chance game.

What it all meant was that San Diego was to play Point Loma in the championship quarterfinals and Hoover and La Jolla would meet in the consolation quarterfinals.

4/2/47

Not San Diego and not Hoover.  Point Loma was playing for the championship of the Pomona 20-30 Rotary Club tournament,

The Pointers of coach Don Clarkson emerged as potential champions, defeating San Diego, which was seeking its seventh tournament title, 3-1, in the morning quarterfinals and San Bernardino, 13-0, in the afternoon semifinals.

Defending champion Hoover, knocked out of the championship bracket on the first day, stayed in the hunt for the consolation trophy, beating La Jolla, 12-0, and Bonita, 8-0.

Paul Kaneyuki pitched a three-hitter against San Diego and had two hits.  Yoto Takeshita added a couple hits for the Pointers. Don Blackman was leading the Peninsula team with a .600 average, nine for 15. Joe Medina stuffed San Bernardino on four hits.

Hoover’s Bob Woods stopped La Jolla on two hits.  Harvey Jones allowed Bonita one hit.

4/3/47

Point Loma won a see-saw battle with Whittier, 8-7, for the Pomona 2030 Rotary Club championship.  Hoover took the consolation title, 10-5, over Fullerton.

Ralph Silva’s double with the bases loaded off Whittier pitcher Ed Hookstratten was the difference in the game.  Hookstratten gave up nine hits compared to the 14 allowed by Paul Kaneyuki, who continually worked out of jams.

Larry Nenna paced Hoover’s 11-hit attack with four hits in five times at bat.

4/8/47

Andy Stagnaro, up from the junior varsity, stopped Grossmont on three hits and Joe Catlin hit a three-run home run in an eight-run third inning as San Diego whipped Grossmont, 10-1, in Balboa Stadium.

—Harvey Jones and Larry Nenna each had three hits, with Nenna also adding a two-run homer, in Hoover’s 6-2 win over visiting St. Augustine.

—Joe Medina scattered 12 hits at Sweetwater and Point Loma continued to win, 6-4.

4/11/47

Hoover lost at Compton, 4-1, and San Diego won at Pasadena Muir, 8-2, in Coast League games.

—Grossmont pounded three Escondido hurlers for 16 hits and whipped the Cougars, 16-6, as Metropolitan League play began.

—Guest Oceanside had 13 hits, but Sweetwater made better use of its 15 hits in an 18-8 victory.

—La Jolla won at Kearny, 8-5, and Point Loma used its bye date to win, 8-5, at Naval Training Center.

4/13/47

Compton completed a sweep of visiting San Diego and Hoover and took command in the Coast League when the Tarbabes defeated the Hilltoppers, 6-1, after stopping Hoover, 4-1, the previous day.

—Hoover recovered to win, 8-3, at Pasadena Muir. Harvey Jones struck out 12 and Bill McColl drove in four runs with a double and two singles.

4/15/47

Rudy Ortiz, Frank Morey, John Verdusco, Pete Corona, and Bill Dugan hit home runs at Golden Hill Playground and San Diego used the circuit clouts and 10 other hits for a 23-0 rout of St. Augustine.

John Brown, Pete Corona, and Leonard Ross combined to hold the Saints to two hits.

—Merle Smith had three hits and Hoover beat Grossmont, 15-7, and the Hoover JV, behind Bill White’s no-hitter, beat the Grossmont JV, 6-1.

—The San Diego junior varsity (11-0) rapped 14 base hits and clobbered Escondido’s varsity, 17-9.

4/18/47

Bud Relyea struck out 17 batters, hit a home run, and pitched a no-hitter as La Jolla routed Escondido, 18-0.

—Paul Kaneyuki gave up one hit and Point Loma defeated host Oceanside, 7-1. Sweetwater lost at Grossmont, 8-6, and Kearny won a nonleague encounter from visiting St. Augustine, 8-4.

—Gene Launder’s two-run single in the top of the seventh inning tied the score, 6-6, and Launder’s sharp grounder, mishandled by Tommy Martinez, scored Bill McColl in the ninth inning and Hoover edged San Diego, 7-6, at Balboa Stadium.

4/22/47

Point Loma continued to meet and beat all area opposition, taking down Hoover, 6-0, behind Joe Medina’s two-hit pitching on the Convair field.

Medina led off the second inning with a home run and Don Blackman aided the cause with two singles and a double.  Hoover coach Les Cassie used 13 players and three pitchers.

—San Diego State’s junior varsity stook advantage of Kearny hospitality, 11-5, and Grossmont rudely welcomed traveler Calexico, 13-3.

—San Diego junior varsity’s streak of 13 consecutive wins was ended at Sweetwater, 10-2.

Nine St. Augustine errors contributed to San Diego’s 11-2 win in Balboa Stadium.

4/23/47

Jack Konte homered and Bud Relyea homered and pitched La Jolla to a 2-1 win at Kearny.

4/25/47

Hoover moved into a first place tie in the Coast League by winning a rematch with Compton at Hoover, 6-4. Ken Clary was touched for 10 hits but went the distance for the Cardinals.

—San Diego shut out Pasadena, 10-0, in a night game in Balboa Stadium.

—Paul Kaneyuki and Point Loma got the best of Grossmont and Art Preston, 6-5, on the Naval Training Center diamond.

—La Jolla and Bud Relyea gave up unbeaten Metropolitan League status in a 5-3 loss at Sweetwater and Kearny was a road winner at Escondido, 7-0.

4/26/47

San Diego clinched the Coast League championship for Hoover when it crushed Compton with an 18-hit attack, 17-4, ending a disastrous, 0-2  trip for the Tarbabes.

—Fred Weitzen hit two home runs and Ken Clary homered as Hoover beat Pasadena, 13-0, behind Harvey Jones’ six-hitter on the Horace Mann field in Hillcrest.

The Cardinals soon got word of Compton’s loss four miles away in Balboa Stadium and then awaited word on the Southern Section playoffs.

4/29/47

Grossmont beat La Jolla, 8-3, in the lone Metropolitan League game.  Escondido took out some frustration with a 20-5 nonleague win over Vista.  The Hoover JV blanked the Kearny varsity, 5-0, and Fallbrook topped Julian, 7-0, in a Southern Prep League game.

5/1/47

La Jolla’s Cyril Guthridge gave up three hits and defeated the Camp Elliott Marines, 4-2.

—Don Larsen, who graduated mid-term, doubled home the winning run as the Point Loma alumni beat the varsity, 4-3.

5/3/47

Art Preston hit for the cycle—single, double, triple, and home run—struck out 15 and gave up one hit in Grossmont’s immolation of Oceanside, 21-0.

–Paul Kaneyuki of Point Loma and Bud Relyea of La Jolla struck out 15 batters each but didn’t do as well with those who made contact.

La Jolla collected 10 hits but committed 10 errors and Point Loma, on the strength of nine safeties, won, 13-6.

–Kearny made six errors and Sweetwater five, but the Red Devils also had more hits, 10 to five, and whacked the Komets, 16-5.  St. Augustine won a nonleague contest with Escondido, 10-8, on Ivan Radovich’s two-out, two-run double in the ninth inning.

5/7/47

John Brown socked two home runs and Bill Dugan and Jerry Dahms one each and San Diego won, 18-8, at Long Beach Wilson.

–Point Loma drove Art Preston to cover in the first inning but relief pitcher Fred Weinbrandt kept Point Loma off the scoreboard and Grossmont took an 11-5 victory.

5/8/47

Shortstop Doug Harvey would be the leadoff man for visiting El Centro Central when the Spartans played Hoover in a first-round CIF Southern Section playoff. Harvey became a major-league umpire and is in the baseball Hall of Fame.  Harvey’s presence and command was such that Reggie Jackson once declared that Harvey “was the voice of God.”

5/9/47

Merle Smith hit a two-run home run in the first inning that propelled Hoover to a 13-3 victory over El Centro Central in an opening-round playoff game.

Bob Miller, Ken Clary, Harvey Jones, and Ralph Carpenter also drove in two runs apiece for the Cardinals.  Clary and Jones held the Spartans to one hit, a single by shortstop Doug Harvey.

—Art Preston struck out 18 batters as Grossmont defeated St. Augustine, 3-1.  La Jolla’s Bud Relyea struck out 19 Oceanside Pirates in La Jolla’s 5-0 win.

–Phil Adams was 3 for 3 as Point Loma punished Kearny, 15-1, and Sweetwater bombed Escondido, 12-3, as Ordean Olson had three hits and Al Hooper hit a two-run home run.  Fallbrook won a Southern Prep League game at Vista, 8-2.

5/9/47

San Diego dropped a 3-0 decision at Tucson in the first of its three, season-ending games against the Arizona squad. The Hillers were restricted to singles by Jerry Dahms and John Verdusco.

5/10/47

Ray Mendoza’s two hit pitching evened San Diego’s season-ending, three-game series at Tucson, 4-1, but the Bears prevailed, 2-1, in the nightcap of the doubleheader.

San Diego won the intersectional series, four games to two, and completed the season with a 19-6 record.

5/16/47

Hoover scored two runs in the first inning and two more in the third and single runs in the fourth and fifth to win at Inglewood, 6-2, in the quarterfinals of the Southern Section playoffs.

Harvey Jones scattered eight hits and Gene Launders and Merle Smith contributed two hits each.

–Point Loma clinched a tie for the Metropolitan League title, 11-2, at Escondido.  Paul Kaneyuki spaced 10 hits and the Pointers manufactured 14. Grossmont beat La Jolla, 10-4, and Oceanside took its first league win, 6-3 over Kearny.

5/20/47

Brown Military (4-1) stayed alive in its Southern Prep League pursuit of idle Fallbrook (4-0) as the Cadets smashed Julian, 16-2, at the Cadets’ Garnet Avenue ball bistro in Pacific Beach.  Ramona beat Army-Navy, 11-5, and Vista topped San Dieguito, 7-6.

–Grossmont finished 5-1 in Metro League play with a 9-7 win over Kearny and then began a waiting game, hoping for a Sweetwater win over Point Loma which would give the Foothillers a share of the championship.

5/23/47

Point Loma (6-0) claimed the Metropolitan League title, 5-2, over Sweetwater on the Convair diamond.  Paul Kaneyuki limited the Red Devils to five hits.  Fallbrook (5-0) clinched a share of the Southern Prep League title, 10-1, over Army-Navy as Ted Chamness limited the Warriors to one hit.

Host Long Beach Wilson trailed, 1-0, after six innings and then scored two runs each in the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings for a 7-2 CIF playoffs, semifinals victory over Hoover.

Wilson, an 18-8 loser to San Diego, won the Southern Section championship the following week, 9-4, over visiting Glendale.

San Diego Section teams in bold.  Columns 4, 5, and 6 are prep outlets’ ratings of opponents.

DIVISION	TEAM	OPPONENT	CAL-PREPS.COM	MAX PREPS	CAL-HI SPORTS
I-AA	Granite Hills (12-0)	@Mission Viejo (11-3)	65.9/69.7	7/5	6/12
I-A	St. Augustine (10-4)	Ventura St. Bonaventure (11-3)	46.4/51.4	39/31	43/29
III-AA	Del Norte (11-1)	Lake Balboa Birmingham (11-2)	32.2/33.0	99/94	On Bubble/Not ranked
III-A	Mount Miguel (12-1)	@Lakewood Mayfair (11-3)	21.8/27.1	161/131	NR/NR
V-A	La Jolla Country Day (11-3)	@Wilmington Banning (8-6)	15.8/7.8	213/286	NR/NR
VI-A	Sweetwater (7-6)	Santa Monica St. Monica (11-3)	-5.4/-8.9	471/507	NR/NR

The leagues and teams sometimes are different and some teams play football in one league and basketball in another.  Some teams don’t play football and some of these leagues don’t offer football.

MaxPreps ranks any team in California that provides information and Max’s information is not always complete.  Cal-Hi Sports rates from 1 to 25 and then cites many more considered to be on “On the Bubble.”

Max received information from 124 San Diego Section schools this season, compared to 84 football-playing schools in 2022.

Winning a league championship is the first step  to the playoffs for aspiring teams, although teams that did not win their league may be seeded higher in the postseason and may have better overall records.

But that doesn’t diminish the achievements of the champions of the 42 Boys’ and Girls’ circuits in the San Diego Section.  Ask any coach, the initial goal at the start of the season is to “win our league.”

The 22-23 league champions with state rankings by MaxPreps and Cal-Hi Sports:

BOYS

TEAM	LEAGUE	WON-LOSS	OVERALL	AVERAGE  SCORE	MAXPREPS	CAL-HI SPORTS
Del Norte	Avocado	10-0	18-7, .720	64.2-58.5	112	NR
High Tech San Diego	Central	8-0	19-8, .704	59.8-46.6		NR
Lincoln	City	8-0	25-2, .926	60.2-41.2	148	NR
La Jolla Country Day	Coastal	11-1	19-7, .731	65.1-49.6	120	NR
Santa Fe Christian		11-1	24-4, .857	70.9-53.3	70	NR
Imperial	Desert	8-1	16-8, .667	59.8-51.8		NR
Scripps Ranch	Eastern	7-1	15-11, .577	62.3-58		NR
Helix	Grossmont Hills	8-0	17-11, .607	66.3-57.3		NR
Steele Canyon	Grossmont Valley	7-1	16-12, .571	61.4-61		NR
El Centro Central	Imperial Valley	7-1	18-9, .667	61.9-56.3		NR
San Pasqual Academy	Manzanita	9-0	11-2, .846	51.8-31.8		NR
Montgomery	Metro Mesa	11-1	23-5, .821	73.4-51.7	53	NR
Ramona	North County Coastal	9-1	18-9, .667	64.6-55.1		NR
Rock	Ocean	11-1	20-6, .769	59.1-38.4		NR
Maranatha	Pacific	8-2	17-11, .607	53.4-52.4		NR
Carlsbad	Palomar	9-1	23-5, .821	78.4-61.8	35	Bubble
Gompers Prep	Patriot	11-1	16-5, .768	59.4-41.3		NR
High Tech Mesa	Pioneer	12-0	16-12, .571	48.9-40.9		NR
High Tech North County	Sierra	6-0	14-9, .609	45.7-43.7		NR
Victory Christian	South Bay	10-2	20-8, .714	79.6-57.1		NR
High Tech Chula Vista	Summit	6-0	14-10, .583	66.7-53.5		NR
Mission Vista	Valley	7-1	18-8, .692	60.5-55.7		NR
St. Augustine	Western	10-0	24-4, .857	75.5-56.9	9	6

GIRLS

TEAM	LEAGUE	WON-LOSS	OVERALL	AVERAGE  SCORE	MAXPREPS	CAL-HI SPORTS
Poway	Avocado	10-0	24-2, .923	56.0-40	39	NR
Crawford	Central	8-0	15-12, .556	40.5-41.3		NR
University City	City	9-1	16-10, .615	44.3-41.7		NR
La Jolla Country Day	Coastal	5-0	25-3, .880	66.7-46.1	3	2
Morse	Eastern	8-0	21-5, .808	58.3-33.8		NR
Mount Miguel	Grossmont Hills	8-0	22-6, .760	61.9-39.7	26	Bubble
Granite Hills	Grossmont Valley	10-0	23-5, .815	44.6-27.4		NR
Imperial	Imperial Valley	8-0	24-4, .852	52-29	104	NR
San Pasqual Academy	Manzanita	6-2	8-6, .571	23.4-23.4		NR
Warner Springs Warner		6-2	8-9, .471	23.8-31.1		NR
Bonita Vista	Metro	8-0	18-8, .692	66.4-47.2	32
Torrey Pines	North County Coastal	10-0	21-7, .750	50.9-43.8	156	NR
Escondido Adventist	Ocean	9-1	12-8, .600	29.9-28.6		NR
Rock		9-1	14-4, .778	34.9-23.3		NR
Classical	Pacific	8-0	15-4, .789	45.5-37.3		NR
Mission Hills	Palomar	10-0	19-9, .679	65-51.3	27	Bubble
Preuss UCSD	Patriot	6-0	13-11, .542	28.5-30.7		NR
High Tech Mesa	Pioneer	5-1	9-7, .563	35.6-32.3		NR
Gompers Prep	Sierra	5-1	9-13, .409	22.1-28.7		NR
High Tech North County		5-1	5-12, .294	23.1-36.2		NR
Montgomery	South Bay	6-0	20-6, .769	67.3-38.5		NR
Bayfront Charter	Summit	5-1	17-8, .680	40.1-33.9		NR
Liberty Charter		5-1	8-16, .333	40.1-47.1		NR
Sage Creek	Valley	8-0	19-8, .704	47.4-34		NR
Scripps Ranch	Western	8-0	20-5, .800	53.3-35.9	91	NR