A twist in the CIF Southern Section playoffs this year resulted in the Coronado principal twisting in the wind.

Escondido and Coronado had tied for second place in the Avocado League. making either school eligible for the league’s runner-up berth in the Southern Division (small schools) postseason.

So far, so good.

But Escondido coach Walt West was confused.

The Cougars were on the CIF’s playoff schedule as opposing Tustin, winner of the Orange League.

West thought the Cougars’ season was over and had asked for team uniforms to be turned in immediately following a final, regular-season game loss to league champ Oceanside.

“I had assumed that inasmuch as Coronado had beaten us (19-7) they would be in the playoff,” said West.

After speaking with Escondido principal Bill Radne, who also believed Coronado would represent the league, writer  Dave Gallup of The San Diego Union contacted Coronado principal Wilfrid Seaman for comment.

CORONADO WANTS OUT

Seaman told Gallup that he had “talked the matter over” with his coaches and they had agreed that further play was undesirable for Coronado.

“After all we’re in need of getting our basketball under way and we’re just not big enough to support both sports at once,” said Seaman.

Seaman apparently had notified the CIF but didn’t tell Escondido.

Seaman’s position changed, quickly, when the Islanders’ boss learned that he had been hung in effigy by a segment of the student body, backed by peevish citizens, according to Gallup.

The Islanders’ honcho asked for a league meeting, with Coronado now being considered a playoff participant.

All league members, except champion Oceanside, attended a session at Fallbrook, where a coin flip determined the Avocado’s second playoff representative.

Conveniently, Escondido won the toss, played, and lost to visiting Tustin, 26-20.

THE REAL REASON

Why were Seaman and his coaches so eager to dump on football and get on with basketball?

Three important players on coach John Kovac’s Islanders squad that had gone to the Southern Section small schools finals in 1954-55 were footballers Willie Dickey, Charlie Love, and Herman Wright.

The Coronado brass felt it was essential to get the trio off the gridiron (Coronado was 4-3 under first-year coach Roger Rigdon) and onto the court as soon as possible.

The Islanders would mount a run to the small school’s title this season, posting a 27-1 record, and scoring a 60-54 win over superstar Billy Kilmer and Azusa Citrus, the team that that beaten them in the finals the previous year.

WE WANT IN

The postseason was growing in popularity and so were the complaints.

For many years, the Southern Section selected 8-10 league champions to its Major Division postseason. The Section passed a bylaw in 1952 that led to increased participation.

An extra team was added in 1953 and 16 teams, guaranteeing a full, four-week tournament with no byes, were invited in 1954.

The larger grouping, which would become the model for decades, included inclusion of some second-place teams, from selected leagues.

In addition to 12 league champions in the Central Group (large schools), the CIF this year said bids would go to runners-up from the Citrus Belt, Coast, and Pacific Leagues, and independent Santa Monica.

CIF TO BORDER TEAMS:  DROP DEAD!

The two major San Diego leagues were eighty-sixed.

Their only chance of getting in was if a runner-up from one of the anointed leagues lost its final regular-season game, but there were no guarantees.

That the announcement was made before most circuits, including the San Diego City and Metropolitan, had completed their seasons was received with a surly lack of enthusiasm.

“I think my kids were fired up, looking forward to a possible playoff game.  Now the edge is off,” said Hoover coach Roy Engle.

“What was the hurry announcing the brackets?” Engle wondered. “The logical time would have been Sunday or Monday, after the season.”

CARDINALS STINK IT UP

Hoover mailed in a flat performance as Point Loma defeated the Cardinals, 26-0, and claimed second place in the CPL.

San Diego, which had lost coin flips for the CPL’s lone playoff berth in 1951 and ’52, was a shoo-in this year, but Chula Vista, favored to be the Metropolitan League entry, had not clinched its league title and was facing a showdown with Helix.

Chula Vista coach Chet DeVore was thinking what if.

“Should we get beat, losing the playoff berth, and the SCIF decides to pick a second team from the city (as it did with Hoover in 1954), then I’d be hot,” said the generally mild-mannered DeVore.

SAINTS NOT MARCHING IN

The 6-foot, 5-inch, 250-pound principal at St. Augustine weighed in.

“Early this season we got a letter from the SCIF commissioner’s office,” said Fr. John Aherne.  “It said St. Augustine would be eligible for the playoffs if we lost no more than two games.”

Aherne pointed out that the Saints lost to Metro powers Helix and Chula Vista and were tied by Lincoln.  “What I have to think of the selections is not very nice,” said the vicar, still trying to get his school membership in a league.

ANOTHER POSSIBLE ISSUE

Could a glee club instructor or a wood shop teacher decide when Chula Vista was to meet San Diego in the first round?

Left halfback Dave Morrison, the Spartans’ best runner’; right half Ross Provence, guard  Bill Stephens, and tackle Jeff Langston were listed as doubtful by coach Chet DeVore.

DeVore hoped the players could get as much recovery time as possible. He wanted to play on Friday.

But there would be a faculty vote, the coach cautioned.

“The Thanksgiving holiday starts Thursday and everyone may prefer to hold the game as soon as possible,” DeVore told Phil Collier of The Union.  “If they want us to play Thursday that’s what we’ll do.”

With a presumed friendly nudge from principal Joe Rindone, the faculty voted to play San Diego on Friday.

TRUE GRID

Oceanside teachers and administrators were able to get an early start on the Thanksgiving holiday…the Pirates dropped a 6-0 playoff decision to visiting Brea-Olinda on Wednesday…undefeated Ramona, exited after a 14-7 loss to Banning of Riverside County and San Diego eliminated Chula Vista, 26-0…end Art Lawrence of Oceanside and guard Bob Anderson of Escondido were on the all-Southern California lower division first team…back Otis Foster of Oceanside was on the second team, and back Charlie Love of Coronado and center Tom Pointdexter of Mar Vista earned third-team honors….

 

Chet DeVore was taken aback, if not incredulous.

“I’m a basketball coach,” he told his boss. “I don’t have enough experience to coach football.”

That was DeVore’s reaction in 1951 when Chula Vista High principal Joe Rindone, asked DeVore to head the Spartans’ football program.

Few administrators have been so prescient.

Forty-four wins, seven losses, and one tie later, DeVore, like many before and after him who trained to be educators, forsook the sideline and went into the halls of administration.

Few coaches have left such a legacy.

DeVore was 42-3 in his last four-plus seasons.

That the Spartan leader’s coaching career ended with a 26-0 loss to eventual Southern California and national champion San Diego did not dim the luster.

THIN MAN

DeVore played all of the sports at Chaffey High in Ontario but, as a skinny 120-pounder at graduation, he decided that football may not be his calling and concentrated on basketball in college.

DeVore was a member of the San Diego State team that won the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics championship in Kansas City in 1941.

A desire to move on and coach basketball was put on hold after graduation in 1942, when DeVore enlisted in the Marine Corps and fought in the Pacific theater in World War II.

BATTLEFIELD HONOR

DeVore was awarded the bronze star at Okinawa and Purple Heart at Bougainville.

According to the Bronze Star citation, in part, “Capt. DeVore, as intelligence officer for the (Sixth Infantry) battalion, displayed exceptional ability and courageous conduct during the entire Okinawa campaign.

“On 27 April 1945 he personally trailed a large number of enemy troops in the dense, weeded country north of Tiara so efficiently that on 28 April 1945 he was able to lead the battalion to their (enemy’s) position.

“(DeVore’s) initiative and brave actions in this instance were responsible for the successful attack on the enemy in which approximately one-hundred and fifty of them were killed and the battalion suffered only minor casualties.

“On Oroku Peninsula and again on the Southern end of Okinawa (DeVore) efficiently established forward observation posts from which much valuable information was obtained, although (DeVore and his men) often were under heavy enemy fire.”

Discharged from the Marine Corps in 1946, DeVore began teaching at Southwest Junior High in Nestor and a year later was appointed varsity basketball coach by Rindone at the new Chula Vista High.

The hoops mentor was 67-58 in six seasons, including two Metropolitan League championships, one tie for first, and a Southern California small schools title in 1950-51, the program’s third season.

SLOW START

Chula Vista was a combined 13-23-1 in its first four football seasons under Gordon Cox and Morris Shepard.  When Shepard left to pursue advanced education at San Diego State, Rindone turned to DeVore.

DeVore told Jim Trinkle of The San Diego Union that he wasn’t underestimating his qualifications for the job when Rindone called.

“We won four, lost four, and tied one that first year and that was the best showing a Chula Vista team had made since the school opened in 1947.

“I can see now though that we might have won the championship that year if I had known some of the things I learned later.”

DeVore pointed out that “Anybody can tell you it’s suicide to change formations after the start of the season, but we did it in ‘fifty-one.

“We started out with the double wing, lost our first two games and then switched to the T.  We finally got going late in the season and won our last three straight (Editor’s note: sandwiched around a 6-0 loss to 8-2 Coronado).”

PLAYOFFS THEN CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Spartans program was rolling.

Chula Vista won its first Metropolitan League title in 1952, dropped a first-round playoff to Laguna Beach, and then won consecutive Southern California Southern Division (of two CIF small schools groups) championships.

Graduations claimed most of DeVore’s 1954 squad but Chula Vista had gotten into the habit of reloading instead of rebuilding.

The Spartans also were moving up in class.

They outscored eight straight opponents, 247-34, and were aligned in the 16-team Central Group (large schools) playoffs.

San Diego High was too much for the Spartans, but DeVore’s .856 winning percentage set a record for San Diego County coaches (minimum of 50 games).

The record still was intact well into the 21^st century.

NOT A FAN OF SAN DIEGO HIGH

Floyd Johnson, principal at Hoover since it opened in 1930, was retiring at the end of the school year.

Johnson, whose animus toward San Diego High was increasingly evident over the years, many of which included lopsided football losses, apparently tried to torpedo the Hillers’ chances in the playoffs.

Midway through the season defensive halfback David Grayson and end Luther Hayes moved with their families from the San Diego enrollment area to Lincoln’s.

Johnson, long  a regarded figure among Southern Section administrators, complained that Grayson and Hayes should be immediately ineligible at San Diego, now that they lived near Lincoln. City Schools officials did not penalize the Cavers.  The players stayed eligible.

Hayes played football and basketball for Lincoln in the 1954-55 school year, transferred to San Diego for track in ’55, and was back on the basketball floor at Lincoln for the ’55-56 campaign.

The story of the Hoover principal’s dislike for the Hillers was related to me by the late Walt Harvey, who played football at Hoover.  Harvey also was Lincoln’s first coach.

RAMONA, THE BULLDOGS, NOT OPERA

Residents of the mountain community east of San Diego didn’t expect much when Glenn Forsythe arrived in 1954.

The Bulldogs, mired with a sluggish history that included an all-time, 42-60-7 record since 1938, were about to experience stunning success.

Before he left for a journalism teaching position at Reedley Junior College in Central California in 1959, Forsythe was able to get local boys to ditch, or at least postpone, their farming chores and turn Ramona into a “football school.”

Fifty-four of the 96 boys enrolled turned out for football.

The Bulldogs won their first 15 games under Forsythe, 7-0 in 1954, and 8-0 this season.  Their unbeaten run ended in a 14-7 loss to Banning in the Southern Section Southern Division playoffs.

Fullback Ernie Trumper was the Bulldogs’ main contributor with 15 touchdowns and 6 PAT.

Trumper was a small schools rarity, invited to play in the Breitbard College Prep All-Star game in 1956.

Forsythe’s Bulldogs became a juggernaut, posting an overall, 42-4 record through 1959.

The coach had previously served as an assistant coach for four seasons at Fallbrook and before that had a 44-10 record as  head coach at six schools in Iowa.

HORNETS FRUSTRATED

Lincoln, behind quarterback Bob Mendoza, backs Joe (Grinder) Vinson and Leonard Elston and budding stars Bob Moss, Brad Griffith, Marvin Hudkins, and Leonard Burnett, was touted as a challenger for the City Prep League championship in preseason accounts.

Reality was another factor.  The 49th Street team, in its second varsity season, finished 3-4-1.

San Diego reduced Lincoln’s rushing attack to minus 10 yards in a 19-0 victory and Hoover overcame the fog and a 20-14 halftime deficit to defeat the Hornets, 34-20.

Most galling defeat was at Point Loma.  Lincoln was struck with a 15-yard penalty that put the ball on its one-yard line in the final seconds.

Point Loma scored a tying touchdown on the next play as the game ended, and kicked the PAT for a 7-6 victory.

The Hornets earlier took a 6-0 lead  but were penalized when one of their linemen was flagged for moving before the PAT kick.

Lincoln’s vice principal, George Parry, hurdled a sideline fence when the game ended and charged referee Bill Raaka in the middle of the field.

No blows, but strong words were exchanged.

THE SEASONAL SHROUD

Fog made its annual late-November appearance and dominated Chula Vista’s 13-6, Metropolitan League title-clinching victory at Helix.

“We have learned that Chula Vista has scored but missed goal and now leads, 6-0,” was the announcement by Helix stadium public address Bob Divine, who doubled as the Highlanders’ basketball coach.

The Spartans had scored their touchdown several minutes before Divine’s pronouncement.

“I’ve never felt more helpless in my life,” said Chula Vista boss Chet DeVore.

”When the ball was on the Helix side of the field, I couldn’t tell you how many men we had out there, what down it was, or anything that was happening.”

DeVore was virtually clueless.

“In the first quarter, one of the kids I had taken out of the game told me we were down on the four-yard line.  That was the only way I had of knowing what was going on.”

SIGN OF THE TIMES

La Jolla and Kearny announced they would leave the City Prep League for at least two years in football, because of declining enrollment and (not said), one-sided losses.

The rise of Mission Bay robbed La Jolla of a strong talent base in Pacific Beach and Mission Beach that was instrumental in the Vikings’ reaching the Southern California finals in baseball in 1953 and the semifinals in football in 1952.

Kearny also felt a pinch from Mission Bay and Federal housing population in Linda Vista was in decline. The large, residential Serra Mesa community to the East was in its infancy.  Kearny had played for the City League football championship as recently as 1953.

SAINTS MAKE MOVE

With La Jolla and Kearny bailing, St. Augustine made a formal application for admittance into the City Prep League.

“We have seven hundred male students in the top three grades,” said Fr. John Aherne, school principal.  “I feel certain we can field a representative team.”

The Saints had tried to find league representation several times over the years and they were getting closer.  They would join the CPL in 1957.

St. Augustine’s last affiliation was with the Los Angeles-area Southland Catholic League from 1945-50.

THEY TRIED METRO

St. Augustine and La Jolla had made overtures to the Metropolitan League, but the Metro turned them down and announced that it would go to a round-robin league schedule in 1956 that promised to drastically curtail nonleague opposition.

Some teams would play six league games and others seven.  The winner would be determined by won-loss percentage.

The five-team Metro would grow to six with the addition of Mount Miguel in 1957.

SOUTHERN PREP SHAKEUP

Rancho del Campo and San Miguel School joined Julian, Ramona, Brown Military, and Mountain Empire.

Army-Navy left and would pursue independent status.

FARM HANDS

Of the 65  players who turned out for football there was not a single letterman on hand at El Cajon Valley, the third school to open in the East County, siphoning off more than 1,000 students from enrollment-bulging Grossmont.

There were a couple unique players, senior center Don McGoffin and his junior tackle brother Dick.

The Magoffins left school after practice each day and returned home 20 miles distant to milk cows, feed chickens, and perform other duties on the ranch they shared with their parents.

“They don’t mind,”said Braves coach Glenn Otterson. “I talked it over with their parents, who said it was okay for them to play football, as long they got their chores done.”

TRUE GRID

The all-Southern California squad defeated the Los Angeles City team, 23-0, before 6,500 in Balboa Stadium in the Breitbard College Prep game in August…Hoover’s John Adams was one of the winners’ most productive with 84 yards in 10 carries…Bellflower was coached by Walt Hackett, a San Diego Chargers assistant coach from 1962-66…Point Loma’s rookie head coach, Bennie Edens, had been on the coaching staff of Don Giddings’ since 1949 and was the  Pointers’ baseball coach from 1951-54…Tom Carter, new mentor at St. Augustine, played football at Los Angeles Cathedral, was a quarterback at Notre Dame, and coached at Cincinnati’s Bishop Elder and at Santa Ana Mater Dei…La Jolla coach Frank Smith said his squad had only six players who weighed at least 150 pounds…Evening Tribune writer Jerry Brucker noted that La Jolla had brothers Clyde and Doug Crockett, but probably also could use Davey…

 

 

 

La Jolla Country Day will set a San Diego Section record tomorrow evening when it plays visiting Oakland McClymonds in the State Division V-A finals at 6 p.m.

The championship will mark the 16^th game, the length of a regular NFL season, for the Torreys since the since the start of the season.

Madison and Santa Fe Christian were the first teams to play 15 games in 2013.

‘Day, unlike previous state finalists, did not have a bye in the first round of the San Diego Section playoffs, having to play 4 games instead of 3.

The Torreys (12-3) were seeded fifth in their division in San Diego after finishing third in the Coastal League and on the short end of decisive losses to The Bishop’s, 37-21, and Santa Fe Christian, 49-21.

Cal-Hi Sports, which uses the eye test to rate teams and make predictions, and CalPreps.com, which is computer generated, see strength in the San Diego Section’s four entries this weekend.

DIVISION I-AA

Cal-Hi Sports, which is located in Stockton, the same city as St. Mary’s High, goes with its local team over Cathedral.

Cal-Hi predicted a 35-28 victory for St. Mary’s.  CalPreps chose Cathedral by a score of 34-33.

Despite favoring the Dons, CalPreps’ computer gives St. Mary’s a 73.0 rating to Cathedral’s 68.2.

Cathedral’s rating is the highest of any local team in one of the upper divisions since San Diego Section teams began competing in 2007.

The Tyler Gaffney-led Cathedral team of 2008 defeated St. Mary’s, 37-34, in D-III and had a CalPreps rating of 55.2 to 43.2.

DIVISION II-AA

Both experts pick 12-2 Madison (57.2) over 13-1 San Jose Valley Christian of the Central Coast Section (55.4), 29-21 by Cal-Hi and 27-21 by CalPreps.

DIVISION III-A

Cal-Hi picks 13-2 Oakdale (44.9) of the Sac-Joaquin Section, 28-21, over 14-0 The Bishop’s (48.5).  CalPreps picks The Bishop’s, 28-27.  Oakdale, near Stockton, travels 430 miles to meet the Knights at La Jolla High.

DIVISION V-A

McClymonds, the school that turned out basketball icon Bill Russell and baseball Hall of Famer Frank Robinson, among many others, will bus 482 miles to meet La Jolla Country Day on the Torreys’ home field.

12-3 ‘Day (27.0) is picked to defeat 12-1 Mack (29.9) by a 55-48 score by Cal-Hi.  CalPreps selected the Warriors, 35-28.

Cathedral now is fifth in the state Top 25.  Madison finally got off the bubble and now is 23^rd after its 60-53, overtime win over Calabasas in the Southern California final last week. Rancho Bernardo (11-1) is on the bubble.

QUICK KICKS

There were no state playoffs from 1927-2007…San Diego High dropped a 17-6 decision to Bakersfield in Balboa Stadium in a state semifinal game in 1922…Oceanside’s 2007 state D-II champion had a 57.8 rating and 57.9 in D-I in 2009…Helix calculated at 64.8 when it topped Loomis del Oro, 35-24, in D-II in 2009…Oceanside had a 62.9 rating when it lost to Folsom, 68-7, in D-I in 2014…Madison’s D-III champion in  2013 had a grad of 43.7…the principal at Stlockton St. Mary’s is Pete Morelli, longtime NFL game referee….

An apparent CIF playoff loss by another San Diego-area team loomed when Sweetwater took possession after an Anaheim punt late in the third quarter, trailing in a first-round game, 7-0.

What followed was legend.

What Red Devils quarterback Wayne Sevier remembered, before he passed away in 1999, was “twenty-four plays, eighty-three yards, seven first downs, six measurements, and a flea flicker on fourth and twenty-four.”

What halfback Gilbert Warren remembered years later was the pregame warm-up: “We were on the field when they came out. Their line of players never stopped coming.  They must have dressed eighty guys.”

What Sweetwater coach Tom Parker told Phil Collier of The San Diego Union after the game: “Anaheim tried to wear us down by platooning. We only have 5 capable substitutes. The amazing thing about the touchdown drive is that the kids didn’t panic.”

What was obvious was the Red Devils were outnumbered and severely lacking in pedigree. Anaheim annually was one of the outstanding teams in Southern California.

The Colonists’ innovative coach, Clare Van Hoorbeke (190-49-10 from 1950-72), may indeed have dressed out players from his varsity and junior varsity.  And maybe the sophomores squad.

Perhaps Van Hoorbeke was hoping to invoke some intimidation before an expected victory by the Sunset League power which was 2-0-1 in the postseason against San Diego teams since 1953.

HISTORY NOT ON THEIR SIDE

Sweetwater had been to the playoffs multiple times in the medieval CIF period of 1922-’26, and then waited 31 years before the 1957 club qualified again and made a quick exit in a 31-7, first-round loss to San Diego.

Anaheim was making its sixth appearance in the eight years since Van Hoorbeke became coach.

But the Red Devils, with pluck and grit, advanced to the next round after a 7-7 tie.

Sweetwater won on a CIF rules tie breaker, having a 14-8 advantage in first downs, similar to 1955, when San Diego moved on after a 20-20 tie with Anaheim.

By Parker’s count, Sweetwater ran 69 plays to Anaheim’s 32, but it played from behind after Rick Sheffler roused the 8,000 La Palma Stadium patrons with a 78-yard touchdown run near the end of the first half.

FROM THE GAME REPORTS

A collection of sportswriters’ notes from The San Diego Union, Anaheim Bulletin, and San Diego Evening Tribune:

• The score remained 7-0 until Warren pierced Anaheim’s eight-man line for nine yards to Sweetwater’s 29 on the last play of the third quarter.
• As Phil Collier of the Union described, the Red Devils went back to their running game, moving to Anaheim’s 15, but a holding penalty pushed the visitors back to the 30.
• At this point, with about five minutes remaining, “The National City club unloaded their secret weapon,” reported the Anaheim Bulletin.
• On fourth down and 24 Sevier pitched a handoff to Mike Fogelsong and took off downfield.
• The 190-pound Fogelsong was known as the “’Frisco Freight”.  An administrative mixup forced Fogelsong to sit out the 1957 season after he transferred from a school in San Francisco.
• Fogelsong rolled to his right and then threw a pass across the field to Sevier, who made a leaping catch at the Colonists’ six-yard line.
• Game officials signaled for the down marker and chain. The Red Devils made a first down, by inches.
• Warren ran three yards to the three, but on the next play Sweetwater was penalized for off-side (false start) and sent back the 8.
• Sevier threw incomplete and on third down passed again to Leslie Pearson in the end zone.
• Another incompletion but Anaheim’s Glen Herbel was cited for pass interference.
• First down, Sweetwater.
• Jerry Hotham wedged into the end zone from the one on the next play for a touchdown with about two minutes remaining in the game. Warren held for the point after and Sevier booted the conversion for a tie at 7-7.
• Sweetwater held the ball for at least 10 minutes, negotiated at least 80 yards in an unheard of 24 plays, made at least six first downs, with officials’ measurements on almost every one.
• Wayne Sevier’s recollection wasn’t exact, but as Gil Warren said of his old friend, “Wayne’s memory was great. He even remembered a pass I dropped.”
• Sweetwater was not out of the woods.
• Anaheim threatened by advancing from its 34 to Sweetwater’s 28 but quarterback Dennis Vollom’s fourth down pass to the end zone was incomplete.
• Ball game.

CENTRAL COAST POWER

Sweetwater won a coin flip and was awarded a home game for the quarterfinals against the San Luis Obispo League champion Santa Maria Saints, 10-1, with only a 26-14 loss to Bakersfield in their opening game.

Sweetwater principal Allen Campbell correctly called tails in a three-way telephonic hookup with the principal from Santa Maria and CIF commissioner Ken Fagans, the hookup originating at Fagans’ office in Los Angeles.

Santa Maria, which had surprised Santa Barbara, 35-19, in the first round and which boasted 144-point scorer Manuel Jones, was a slight favorite and took a 7-0 lead in the second quarter.

The slow-starting Red Devils stormed back to win, 27-7, as Warren gained 71 yards in 11 carries, caught 4 passes for 51 yards, intercepted a pass, and punted three times for a 33-yard average.

VIKINGS SAIL TO WIN

Sweetwater was given another home game for the semifinals against 10-0-1 Santa Monica, a tradition-laden powerhouse that had been the home team for its first two postseason victories.

The Red Devils now were hailed as the Cinderella team of the playoffs, a surprising survivor to the Round of 4, especially in light of San Diego’s early departure in a 26-18 loss to Long Beach Poly.

Principal  Campbell ordered temporary bleachers at Hudgins Field and almost 7,000 persons jammed the National City campus.

Santa Monica quickly moved to put an end to Sweetwater’s fairy tale hopes.

The Vikings raced to a 28-7 halftime lead and were ahead, 34-7, in the third quarter as writer Phil Collier described a “grass-level fog” that enveloped the field.

The beach city squad kept the Red Devils at a distance, winning, 34-20, amid the echoes of the Vikings’ cheering squad.

“Push ‘em back!  Push ‘em back!  Push ‘em back to TJ, to TJ!” exhorted the Santa Monica yell leaders.

Tijuana, in Baja California, Mexico, was about 14 miles south of the Sweetwater campus.

ANOTHER BIG GAME

Sweetwater’s drive to the Metropolitan League championship went through Escondido, where the host Cougars had won 22 straight regular-season games and shown no falloff after exiting the weaker Avocado League.

Ralph Inzunza’s fourth-quarter pass interception and five-yard return at 7:15 and with his team trailing, 14-9, positioned Sweetwater for a six-play, 71-yard touchdown drive that overcame the Cougars, 16-14, before an overflow crowd of 5,500 persons.

Gilbert Warren led the Red Devils with 70 yards in 13 carries, caught 4 passes for 81 yards, punted four times for a 31.5 average, and returned an intercepted pass 51 yards with 3:04 left in the game to preserve the victory.

FUTURE COACHES

Wayne Sevier and Gil Warren and Red Devils teammate Joe Meeker played on coach Don Coryell’s first San Diego State teams in 1961-62 and each was bent on a coaching career.

Sevier was head coach at Sweetwater in 1965-66 and a special teams coach for the St. Louis Cardinals, Chargers, Redskins, and Los Angeles Rams in a 25-year NFL career.

Warren coached 28 seasons at high schools in the South Bay, winning championships in 1968, ’94, and ’96 at Castle Park.  Warren’s 216 career victories ranked fifth all-time in San Diego County.

TRUE GRID

Sweetwater had 14 first downs to Santa Monica’s 13 and outgained Vikings, 290-218, although the visitors had 206 yards rushing to the hosts’ 96…Mike Fogelsong gained 71 yards in 15 carries against Anaheim…the stats were as close as the score…the  Red Devils rushed for 162 yards and passed for 50…Anaheim had 186 yards rushing and 25 passing, Sweetwater holding a 212-211 advantage…Tom Parker was 38-24-4 as head coach from 1954-60…”Tommie” Parker was a halfback at Hoover in 1942, played at San Diego State, and also served as trainer for the annual summer College Prep All-Star game in San Diego…Sweetwater’s 21-7 victory was Claremont’s first regular-season loss in four years…the Red Devils voted to work out Thanksgiving Day instead of taking a holiday before the Anaheim game…Parker was almost prescient before the  contest with the Colonists:  “We have a chance against this club, a good chance, if we play to our maximum potential.  Anything less than that won’t be good enough”….Wayne Sevier, Mike Fogelsong, Gil Warren, Joe Meeker, Max Freetley, Leslie Pearson, Ron Grimes, David Hoffman, Larry LeGrand, Jim Arnout, Jerry Hotham, and Albert Belmontez  were Sweetwater’s regulars…the “capable” replacements  Art Graham, Richard Clifton, David Nenow, Ralph Inzunza, and Jim Feeler, rounded out the Red Devils’ essential 17-man playing roster…

San Diego High fell with a resounding thud in quarterfinals of the Southern Section playoffs.

A 26-18 loss to old nemesis Long Beach Poly in Balboa Stadium was surprising in its decisiveness, devastating in its finality.

Especially for coach Duane Maley, who announced his intention to retire from coaching and go into administration at the end of the school year. This team was supposed to be the best since Maley was named head coach after the 1947 season.

How could the Cavemen lose, having outscored their first 10 opponents by an average score of 44-3?   With a half-dozen runners who punctuated the trademark, long-distance San Diego running game? And led by perhaps the outstanding prep quarterback in the country?

BENNIE WAS RIGHT

An observation by Point Loma coach Bennie Edens would ring true down the road:

“San Diego has a more dangerous backfield than last year, but a weaker line, both offensively and defensively,” said Edens.

Edens spoke after his team had dropped a 40-0 decision to the Cavers in Week 3.

Hillers loyalists scoffed.  Sour grapes, they said.

After all, Edens had been outscored a combined 143-13  by Maley’s squads since Bennie became the Pointers’ mentor in 1955.

NO INTERSECTIONALS

It’s hard to be critical of a team that allows only 6 points during the regular season and wins its first playoff, 54-13 over an outclassed opponent from El Monte Arroyo.

But San Diego obviously had faced only inferior opponents from a weak and thin lineup during the season.

Stunned by Poly’s speed and power, San Diego’s shock could be attributed in part to a crowded City Prep League.

Formed in 1950 the CPL had grown to eight schools and this year played a schedule of seven league games.

A loaded CPL meant that, for the first time since 1949, Maley was unable to book early intersectional games against tough Northern teams.

Those games against Los Angeles or Orange County opponents allowed Maley to gauge the Cavers’ strength and prepare them for postseason challenges.

Finding competition from out of the area becomes more difficult as the season progresses. Those schools have their own league seasons under way.

San Diego opened with league games against Kearny (25-0) and La Jolla (59-0) and could fill its only open date in Week 5 against the winless Chula Vista Spartans.

ELUSIVE HARES

Despite losing CIF player of the year Dee Andrews to a shoulder injury early in the game, the Jackrabbits rushed for a whopping 397 yards as Lonzo Ervin, Willie Martin, and Willie Brown picked up for Andrews and ran over and around the  slower San Diego defenders.

Ervin had 150 yards in 16 carries, after getting only seven attempts in the previous two games.  Brown gained 140 yards in 18 carries.

The bigger, faster Poly linemen manhandled the Cavers and the Jackrabbits’ team speed easily was equal to San Diego’s.

San Diego quarterback Ezell Singleton threw for two touchdowns but completed only 10 of 21 passes for 184 yards.

POSSESSIVE HARES

The Cavers moved the ball but they didn’t have it very often, four possessions in the first half and six in the last 24 minutes.

Long Beach signaled its intentions at the outset, moving 60 yards in 11 plays for a touchdown as Andrews contributed 31 yards in three carries before he left the game.

San Diego immediately hit back as Singleton passed 38 yards to Robert Osborne for a touchdown, but Richard (Prime) McClendon was stuffed on the extra point try and the Cavers never got closer than 7-6.

Poly had leads of 19-6 and 26-12 before Singleton connected with Steve Andrews for a late touchdown and final score.

“Long Beach did nothing we did not expect, offensively or defensively, so we have no alibis,” said Maley, who added that he did not believe Poly was the equal of the 1956 or ’57 Downey teams that had beaten the Cavers in the playoffs.

Maley put his retirement on hold. Lots of good players were returning in 1959 and so would Duane, for a final season.

DIVORCE INEVITABLE

Dick Grihalva, a local car dealer, school board member, and sports fan, fired probably the first shot in the eventual separation of San Diego schools from the CIF Southern Section.

Grihalva, who had been complaining to anyone who would listen, was quoted in The San Diego Union on June 17 as being critical of the academic standards of the CIF Southern Section.

(Local schools and school districts set academic standards, not the CIF; the San Diego board invoked a C average but no F’s rule).

The salesman ramped up his rhetoric about academic standards at a board meeting on Oct. 22 and took a curious shot at J. Kenneth Fagans, the Southern Section commissioner.

Grihalva said Fagans “is building quite an empire within the school district (?) and is trying to get everything as far east as Phoenix, Arizona, to as far north as possible.”

That Phoenix and some Nevada schools had been at-large members of the CIF years before Fagans became commissioner in 1954 didn’t matter.

LET’S GO SMALL

Grihalva sought a San Diego Section of the nine city schools.  He perhaps was thinking of the similarly tiny Oakland and San Francisco sections, each bounded by their city limits.

Fagans thought a border city bolt from the 44-year-old Southern Section was premature but asked only that the San Diego contingent give two years’ notice if it planned to withdraw.

Those affected most, the coaches and athletes, student bodies, and fans were almost unanimously against a departure.

But Grihalva had the ear of supt. Ralph Dailard  and other school board members, people whose organs of hearing could have been made of tin.

Within one year, San Diego announced it was leaving the Southern Section and one year after that, in 1960, almost all schools in the County formed the San Diego Section.

Mountain Empire and Rancho Del Campo stayed with the older group.  Fallbrook played football in a Southern Section league in 1960 but joined the locals in all other sports.

RANCH HANDS

Rancho Del Campo, a school for wayward young men in the mountains east of San Diego, fielded a football team for the first time.

The Rangers, through help of a benefactor, were able to purchase uniforms and other equipment discarded by the Naval Training Center in San Diego.

Campo students learned gardening and general maintenance, helped raise fowl, beef, other farm animals, and vegetables, and worked in auto and other shops besides attending school classes.

An arm of the San Diego County Probation Department, the Rangers coached by Chester Yanke, posted a 4-1 record in their inaugural try, losing only to Ramona, 58-6.

The Rangers were members of the Southern Prep League in 1958 and ’59 but joined the Mountain-Desert League with neighbor Mountain Empire and played against mostly Imperial Valley clubs after the San Diego-Southern Section divorce.

Campo would shut its football program following the 1963 season.

ROWDYISM

Grihalva also weighed in on recent incidents at night games and suggested that day games would be easier to supervise.

The parents of a son who attended Hoover wrote Dailard a letter about an episode following Lincoln’s game with Hoover on Nov. 14:

“Without warning he and another Hoover student were hit from behind, knocked down, eyes blackened and slugged around the head by a group of unidentified hoodlums.”

LESS INCOME

Dailard noted that the attack also could have taken place in the afternoon and that pressure to play games at night came from citizens who could not otherwise attend.

Day games would interrupt school, and daytime box office receipts are less than night receipts, said Dailard, who approved moving the annual football carnival from the evening to afternoon in 1959.

Assault would be a better word than rowdyism and it had been a fact of life around area high school football and basketball games going back decades.

Night athletics periodically would be suspended but return after cooling off periods.

131-YARD DRIVE

It was a game so bad it was memorable.

Point Loma edged Hoover, 13-12, overcoming 14 penalties for 149 yards, including eight, 15-yard assessments.

Hoover was fined 8 times for 75 yards.

Point Loma moved 71 yards in 11 plays for a touchdown in the second quarter that gave the Pointers a 13-0 lead.

Point Loma’s success was achieved in defiance of an additional 60 yards in penalties during the drive.

That wasn’t all.  Hoover was hit for 15 yards during the Pointers’ march and there were four, 15-yard fouls in a span of five plays.

UNSEEN OBSTACLE

A full house of 5,000 persons at Chula Vista watched San Diego’s Ezell Singleton pass for 307 yards and 4 touchdowns and direct a ground attack that gained 219 yards in a 54-6 victory.

The host Spartans were feeling pretty good, however, after they closed to 14-6 with 1:17 remaining in the first half.  Chula Vista, in the season’s fifth game, was the first to score against San Diego.

What followed was a Cavers touchdown with 16 seconds left and a bizarre scene in which several Chula Vista players, charging off the field to their locker room for the halftime intermission, were seen stumbling and crashing to the ground.

An attached rope to restrain spectators had been left unattended.

No one was injured, just embarrassed.

FUEL IGNITION

Henry (Sparky) Bishop of Point Loma sustained two severely bruised or broken thumbs

early in the season, and played only 5 minutes versus Kearny, 2 versus Crawford, and not at all at Santa Barbara.

Healthy, Bishop was not all thumbs.

Bishop blocked and tackled from his offensive and defensive line positions in a 26-7 win over La Jolla, scored a touchdown, and also helped out at safety.

FOOTBALL REIGNS

Almost 32,000 fans attended the two area football carnivals.

There were an estimated 19,500 persons in Balboa Stadium for the City Schools’ event and they saw a West team of San Diego, La Jolla,  Point Loma, and Mission Bay, defeat the East of Lincoln, Hoover, Crawford, and Kearny, 14-6.

A overflow crowd of 12,200 was on hand in Aztec Bowl for the Metropolitan League carnival in which the East squad of Sweetwater, Chula Vista, Mar Vista (guest from Avocado League), and Mount Miguel edged the West’s Escondido, Grossmont, Helix, and El Cajon Valley, 12-6.

SIGN OF THE TIMES

Coach Dave Levy led a renaissance at Long Beach Poly, which made its first trip to the CIF playoffs since 1940.

After consecutive Southern Section championships in 1958-59, Levy coached for 16 years at USC and, when Chargers offensive line coach Jim Hanifan took the St. Louis Cardinals’ job in 1980, Levy answered a call from Chargers coach Don Coryell, with  whom Levy served on John McKay’s first USC staff in 1960.

Levy coached the Chargers’ offensive line from 1980-87.  After retiring from the NFL in 1994, Levy coached in Canada and then returned to his high school roots, continuing to mentor as an assistant at Harvard-Westlake in Studio City before finally hanging up his whistle in 2014.

SEXISM OR CHAUVANISM?

The Buccaneers eliminated girl cheerleaders, because “they can’t lead,” said head coach Harry Anderson.

Bill Swank, a member of Mission Bay’s class of 1958, described the “curious throwback to the 1930s” in his Mission Bay history chronicle Gold Leather Helmets Black High Top Shoes:

“Head cheerleader Charlie Ramos was assisted by the lovely Bill Gould and John Westwood.  They wore gold ivy league sweaters and black Bermuda shorts.”

All three also participated in sports at the school and Gould was one of the better hurdlers (:14.6 in the 120-yard highs) during the Southern California track season.

BOLD PREDICTION

Mission Bay coach Harry Anderson left school after the year for an assistant coach position at San Jose State, where Anderson eventually became head coach.

But Anderson set the tone for his last season  in an interview with Jerry Magee of The San Diego Union:

“We’re the team to beat,” said Anderson, who added, “We always feel that way.  We’re going to surprise some people.”

The Bucs were 0-5-3 in 1957.

Behind quarterback Bill Cravens, Mission Bay put together a 7-2 record, tempered only by 13-6 and 34-0 losses to St. Augustine and San Diego, respectively.

Mission Bay then embarked on a 18-65-1 stretch from 1959-68 that was interrupted by a 6-3 season under coach Bill Hall in 1969, followed by a 2-25 disaster with Al Lewis, who righted the ship with 7-3 and 7-2-1 finishes in 1973-74.

BUC STOPS WITH HIM

Quarterback Bill Cravens probably was the best, all-around athlete in Mission Bay history.  He was all-City in football and basketball and the team scoring leader in both sports.

Cravens also had baseball or track and field potential but eschewed spring sports in favor of surfing at one of the nearby beaches.

KNOCKS EVERYONE BUT BOSS

Mount Miguel coach Tom Welbaum, a Woody Hayes disciple from Ohio State, sounded off about conditions on the Matadors’ hard tack practice field.

“We have 236 boys out for football and have had five broken bones  in three weeks,” said Welbaum.

The coach was careful in his criticism and who he declared was at fault.

Covering himself, Welbaum said, “I don’t blame Lewis Smith, the district superintendent.”

Although Smith was the boss of bosses in the Grossmont district, Welbaum claimed that Smith’s “hands are apparently tied by a minority group within the district which refuses to spend money to get the field in proper condition.”

Welbaum’s son, Jim, a reserve quarterback, had been sidelined with a broken arm.

The team finally received permission to move its practices to Helix, beginning at 7 p.m.

HONORS

Ezell Singleton and center Roy Pharis of San Diego were all-CIF Southern Section first team.  Escondido end Toby Thurlow and Sweetwater guard Max Freetley made second team.  Sweetwater end Joe Meeker earned a third-team berth.

Ramona’s Gary Mayer, whose 193 points were more than anyone in the state, was a first-team, lower division choice.  Center Les Mathews of Mar Vista and teammate Jerry Overton, who would play in the NFL with the Dallas Cowboys, earned third-team selections.

TRUE GRID

Ezell’s Singleton’s 27 touchdown passes tied the number thrown by Santa Monica’s Ronnie Knox in 1952 but fell short of the Southern Section record of 32 by Hawthorne’s Jack Contestible in 1953…Mar Vista halfback  Jerry Overton was a 15^th round draft choice out of Utah in 1963 and played one season for the Dallas Cowboys…St. Augustine’s 7-2 record was its best since 6-1 in  1941…Santa Monica star end Kenny Graham was a San Diego Chargers safety in the 1960s and led the Vikings with 17 touchdowns and 36 points after for a total of 144…500 Grossmont students took several chartered buses to watch the Foothillers drop a 27-6 decision at Yuma, Arizona…Sweetwater and Mar Vista installed lights at their campus stadiums…after bowing to  Long Beach Poly, San  Diego coach Duane Maley was 0-2 the next week…Maley predicted a Colton victory over Poly (the Yellowjackets lost, 41-27) and a Santa Monica win over Sweetwater (the Vikings won, 34-20)…Claremont Webb lost two games in the last four seasons, 6-0 to Ramona in 1957, and 26-6 to the Bulldogs this year…San Diego ran its record to 20-6 against Hoover in the fading city series, topping the Cardinals, 40-0, and outgaining them, 383-78…2-0 Lincoln changed offenses, going from Wing-T to Split-T before a game with Kearny…the Hornets lost, 18-13…the week before in a 13-0 win over Point Loma, Lincoln ran 42 running plays and threw 1 pass…halfbacks Ralph Hensley of Mission Bay and Kenny Griffin of Kearny played in the same jazz band…San Dieguito’s 19-6 victory over Oceanside was the Mustangs’ first over the Pirates…Oceanside held a 9-0-2 advantage in the series, which began in 1936….