The CIF Southern Section was flourishing with competition.
Wartime travel restrictions were a thing of the past. There were games and more games, multiple tournaments, and big crowds.
Hoover, 13-6 in 19 games in the 1945-46 season, jumped to 34 games, with a 24-10 record. San Diego High, 19-5 in 24 contests, played 34 and was 28-6.
Teams in the new Basketball Association of America, which became the NBA, played 60 games.
Hoover and San Diego, meeting the shorter high school schedule, competed almost as often as the pros in December and January.
Hoover won the Coast League race, but San Diego won the Beverly Hills Invitational. Hoover claimed the Chino tournament title, San Diego the Consolation trophy.
Hoover suffered in the Western States Tournament. San Diego finished third.
San Diego beat Hoover in their first meeting, but Hoover won the last two, tied the Hillers with a 9-3 league record, and won the invitation to the Southern Section playoffs.
Don Larsen, with 94 points in five league games, won the Metropolitan League scoring title (Grossmont’s Ken Tennison was next with 86 in 7), despite graduating from school in January.
Larsen was center of attention at Point Loma.
MEANDERING SAINTS
St. Augustine traveled a weird path, on asphalt, and hardwood.
Without a gymnasium, the Saints practiced outside and played a few “home” games at Horace Mann Junior High, visited Metro League facilities, plus San Diego State, San Diego High, Kearny, and Hoover, and probably others not reported.
The Saints were a member of the Southland Catholic League in football, but played an independent schedule in basketball that included several Southland Catholic opponents.
Welcome guests in their own league, the Saints won one of three games in the Southland Catholic Invitational.
WESTERN STATES
The first major exercise of the season, on the court of Compton College, attracted 16 teams. At least one, Las Vegas, was from beyond the California border.
Bill Curtis’s 20th point was a free throw with five seconds remaining and pushed San Diego past Whittier, 37-36, after the Hillers trailed, 27-16, in the third quarter.
The Cavers ran into trouble the next day, ousted by Los Angeles Mt. Carmel, 46-31, but claimed third place, 36-29, over Beverly Hills.
Hoover topped Montebello, 32-25, but ran afoul of Long Beach Poly, 35-30. L.A. Loyola then sent the Cardinals home with a 35-33 victory in the consolation round.
CHINO
Hoover aggressively moved forward, defeating Azusa Citrus, 43-19, and Bonita, 44-16, to qualify for a semifinal game against top-seeded Burbank.
The Cardinals moved on with a 49-38 victory over the Bulldogs and then dismissed South Pasadena, 38-25, in the finals.
San Diego was chased by Riverside Poly, 41-24, but rebounded to run the Consolation table with victories of 56-32 over Fillmore, 61-30 over Pasadena, and 43-31 over Colton.
BEVERLY HILLS
Hoover was bounced early, losing to Santa Ana, 37-36.
San Diego, with Jerry Dahms replacing the graduated Bill Curtis at center, defeated Inglewood, 46-25.
San Diego moved into the semifinals with a 38-32 win over Grossmont, which had won its opening game, 31-28 over El Segundo.
The Hillers concluded their season with a 39-36, semifinal victory over Anaheim and a 26-19 championship win over Coast League rival Compton.
CIF PLAYOFFS
Only league champions were invited. San Diego was out.
Coast League titlist Hoover and Metropolitan champ Grossmont won first-round games at home, but quarterfinals play would be at Whittier College the next day.
The Cardinals quickly ushered out Southern League champ Army-Navy, 53-9, and Grossmont eliminated Imperial Valley titlist El Centro Central, 34-24, avenging a loss to the Spartans in the small schools football championship several weeks before.
The early Saturday morning trip to Whittier didn’t agree with the two San Diego teams. Whittier thumped Grossmont, 61-41, and Mt. Carmel beat Hoover, 41-29, despite 19 points by Bill McColl.
Mt. Carmel topped Whittier, 68-57, for the championship.
HONORS
Bill McColl, Hoover’s 6-foot, 3-inch junior center, was on the all-Southern California first team. San Diego’s Ben Cendali, Point Loma’s Don Larsen, and Grossmont’s Dick Baker earned third-team honors.
HONORS II
Pasadena’s Dick Williams, future manager of the San Diego Padres, was the only non-San Diego athlete on one all-Coast League team, which included Bill McColl and Don Caldwell of Hoover and Sandy Borofsky and Ben Cendali of San Diego.
San Diego newspaper’s choices.
COAST TRAVEL
The five-team Coast League of San Diego, Hoover, Compton, Pasadena and Pasadena Muir, played a 12-game schedule, meaning three games against each opponent.
The Cardinals, Hillers, Tarbabes, Bullpups, and Mustangs logged miles and miles on U.S. 101.
Most trips were of two days: travel Friday, play a game that night, bus to the next opponent city, find a place to sleep, play the next day, and then bus back home.
Compton came South for a Friday night game at Hoover and returned to a home contest the next evening against San Diego, which played on Friday at Muir. Hoover completed the circle by visiting Muir on Saturday.
SIGNS OF THE TIME
The task of moving 850,000 cubic feet of soil from the bottom of Mission Bay and piling it up at Santa Clara Point to form part of the $15 million Mission Bay Aquatic Park was completed.
CRIME DOESN’T PAY
Twenty persons were arrested in a raid on an alleged bookmaking operation at 200 Market Street, blocks from the West Market location of the Police Station. Bail was set at $250 for Claude Hodge of North 30th Street, who ran the establishment, and $10 for the 19 who were placing a bet.
SET SHOTS
Point Loma’s Don Larsen scored 28 points on 14 baskets in a 49-25 win over Kearny…Kearny had one of the highest point totals ever by a San Diego County team when it defeated Vista, 82-50…San Diego’s Ben Cendali scored 37 points, including 26 in the first half, as the Hillers routed Pasadena Muir, 62-22…Cendali fell short of Ivan Robinson’s school-record 38, set in the 1943-44 season…Don Larsen had 110 points in 8 games in January and was the Breitbard Athletic Foundation Star of the Month…McColl won the award for February, after leading the Coast League with 164 points (13.6 average) and finishing as the County’s leading scorer with 369 and a 10.8 average …it was a banner year for new coaches: Point Loma’s Don Giddings won the Metropolitan League football championship; Jim Ahler led Hoover to the Coast League basketball title, as did Grossmont’s second-year mentor Ralph Chaplin in the Metro…future coaches John (Duke) Early and Jesse Thompson were standouts for St. Augustine…Grossmont fell behind Escondido, 16-11, and then outscored the Cougars, 40-4, for a 51-20 victory…more than 1,500 were in attendance for the Metropolitan League showdown at Grossmont, which defeated Point Loma, 37-29, and closed out with a 7-0 loop record and 16-2 overall…visiting Hoover’s 43-32 win over San Diego in front of a full house was the difference in the Coast title race despite the teams’ finishing with the same record….
San Diego’s Sandy Borofsky hits the floor as ball is loose in Hoover-San Diego battle. Others are Cardinals’ Don Caldwell (54) and Bill McColl, and San Diego’s Bob Spaeth (foreground.) Hoover won, 43-32, clinched Coast League title.
2016-17 Week 7: Here Come the Power Ratings
The invitationals and shootouts are complete, league play is winding down, and the CIF Power Ratings are coming to the forefront.
As happened last season and will again, the eight leading teams in the power ratings in the San Diego Section will make for competitive Open Division playoffs.
The team that wins the Open Division here likely then will be pitted against superior Open Division teams from the Los Angeles area, the “NBA” high school teams of the state.
The San Diego Section Open Division participant figures to be eliminated in the Southern California regionals and miss the opportunity to compete for a state championship.
The San Diego team that loses in the Section Open finals probably will be slotted into a lower division bracket in the extended postseason and have a better chance for success.
That’s what the Power Ratings have wrought.
As of today’s power ratings, San Diego’s best team is St. Augustine, which trailed by 19 points last week in the Nike Extravaganza and was outrebounded, 46-31 in a 74-62 loss to Santa Ana Mater Dei.
Mater Dei has 7-foot, 1-inch Bol Bol, the son of former NBA player Manute Bol, plus assorted other standouts from farflung locations.
DESTINY LEADS U.S.
St. Augustine’s loss dropped the Saints from 10th to 12th in the weekly Cal-Hi Sports state top 20 ratings. Torrey Pines got off the bubble and is 20th. Foothills Christian and Vista are on the bubble.
Mission Hills (22-2) moved from fifth to fourth in the girls’ top 20. The Bishop’s (24-1) climbed to 18th.
The Knights’ Destiny Littleton flew past the 4,000-career-points mark and led the nation with a 48.1 average before last night’s game, a 92-60 win over Horizon in which Littleton blew up for 61 points.
Mikayla Boykin of Clinton, North Carolina, is second to Littleton with a 40.1 average.
Poll participants include John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune; Steve Brand (San Diego Hall of Champions), Terry Monahan, Union-Tribune correspondent), Bill Dickens, Adam Paul, EastCountySports.com; Rick Willis, KUSI-TV; Rick Smith, partletonsports.com; Bodie DeSilva, sandiegopreps.com; Chris Davis, freelance; Aaron Burgin, fulltimehoops.com.
2017: George Taylor, 80, Cavers’ Hoop Standout
No one scored more than 10 points in a game against George Taylor, whose defensive commitment and offensive playmaking earned the 6-foot San Diego High guard City Prep League player-of-the-year honors in the 1953-54 season.
Taylor taught many years at Los Angeles’ Locke High.
Taylor, who passed in San Diego on Jan. 27 at age 80, was the primary player on the 22-5 team that reached the quarterfinals of CIF Southern Section major playoffs.
Taylor scored 273 points in 27 games, leading the Cavers to a 12-2 league record and an upset, 68-56 victory over favored Alhambra in the playoffs’ first round.
Taylor went on to star in basketball and earn a degree at Pepperdine University in Los Angeles. He was an educator for many years in the Los Angeles area and later earned his PHD at Claremont College.
Taylor eventually returned to San Diego and became a board member at the William J. Oakes Boys’ Club in Logan Heights, where Taylor first took up basketball, under the guidance of legendary coach Augie Escamilla.
San Diego coach Merrill Douglas prepped for playoffs with Alfred Hudson and George Taylor (from left).
2016-17 Week 6: St. Augustine Alone at Top
The speed bump Foothills Christian hit against Orange Glen last week was followed by a chassis-rattling pothole in a 20-point blowout by Woodland Hills Taft.
The Knights (17-4) need a front-end alignment.
They vacated their status as the No. 2 team in the Union-Tribune weekly sportswriters- broadcasters poll after losses of 61-60 and 76-56 to the above-mentioned squads and now are looking up at St. Augustine and Torrey Pines.
A greater indignity for Brad Leaf’s team was banishment from the Cal-Hi Sports state top 20. Foothills fell from No. 7 to on-the-bubble status.
It doesn’t get easier.
The Knights face mighty Oak Hill Prep of Mouth of Wilson, Virginia, Friday night in the Nike Extravaganza at Santa Ana Mater Dei.
Promoters figure the Knights are a warmup for Oak Hill, which, with a victory, will ease into a Saturday night contest with U.S. No. 1 Chino Hills.
After sharing the top spot with Foothills Christian in the U.T. poll’s first four weeks, St. Augustine (19-3) sits in first place by its ownself.
But, following Western League games with Morse (80-48 victory last night) and likely pushover Mira Mesa Friday, the Saints then jump into hot water in the Nike Extravaganza Saturday evening.
St. Augustine gets a rematch against the host Monarchs, who defeated the Saints, 86-62, in December.
LITTLETON GOES FOR 4K
The Bishop’s Destiny Littleton figures to pass the 4,000-point career scoring mark pretty soon.
Littleton broke Charde Houston’s record of 3,837 a couple weeks ago and is scoring with the swiftness of a rocket eating up miles in the stratosphere.
Marlin Wells’ Knights are 22-1 and stayed 20th in the Cal-Hi girls’ state top 20 while 20-2 Mission Hills moved from fifth to fourth.
Poll participants include John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune; Steve Brand (San Diego Hall of Champions), Terry Monahan, Bill Dickens, Adam Paul, EastCountySports.com; Rick Willis, KUSI-TV; Rick Smith, partletonsports.com; Bodie DeSilva, sandiegopreps.com; Chris Davis, freelance; Aaron Burgin, fulltimehoops.com.
1949: Death on the Highway
La Jolla’s Jim Prather was a member of the Southern Section team in the first College Prep All-StarGame against the CIF Los Angeles City Section and set up set up a touchdown with a 46-yard punt return as Prather’s side scored a 27-7 victory.
It was to be the last game ever for Prather, who was driving to Tucson four days later with Ellis Craddock, a Grossmont High graduate and Prather’s sponsoring-Breitbard Athletic Foundation-game teammate.
Prather led La Jolla Vikings to 7-1 record in 1948.
‘SUICIDE DOORS’
Prather, asleep in the passenger seat, and Craddock were to enroll at the University of Arizona and turn out for football practice when they were involved in a two-car collision on U.S. 80 in Arizona between Gila Bend and Casa Grande.
Prather sustained serious injuries. Craddock and four persons in the other auto were killed.
Until they drove to St. Mary’s Hospital in Tucson from their home in Pacific Beach and saw Jim in the hospital, members of Prather’s family, who made the stressful, uncertain, eight-hour drive with members of Craddock’s family, knew only that one person in Jim’s car had survived.
Prather believed he was alive because the automobile in which he was riding was equipped with “suicide doors,” which are hinged toward the back of the vehicle.
Upon impact Prather was thrown from the car. He would have been trapped inside if the car had the more modern passenger doors, said Jim’s son, David.
Jim recovered but did not play collegiate football. U. of A. coach Bob Winslow announced that the school would honor Prather’s scholarship.
Back home, Jim found another sport to his liking.
Brother Phil, childhood friend Delmar Miller, and Jim formed one of the top Southern California beach over-the-line softball teams and were fixtures in the Old Mission Beach Athletic Club’s yearly tournament.
CARNIVAL FAVORS WEST
The all-star game was followed by the 11th annual football carnival, presented by the San Diego City Schools’ Association, and marking the usual opening of the season.
The circus-like event featured about 200 football players and pageantry that included 1,000 cheerleaders, band members, flag twirlers, drum majors and majorettes.
The West, comprised of Hoover, Chula Vista (added entry from the county), and La Jolla, defeated the East, made up of Kearny, San Diego, and Point Loma, 7-6, before an official crowd of 25,096 persons and a Channel 8 television audience.
Each team engaged in one of three, 15-minute quarters.
Craddock (33 in front row) rode with Prather (second row, directly behind 81 and 88).
San Diego and Hoover played to a scoreless tie in the final period. Compared to previous games the tie was a moral victory for the Cardinals.
It had been six years since Hoover had been competitive with San Diego, enduring blowout losses by scores of 72-0, 38-6, 48-7, 25-0, and 39-7.
Hoover would experience more success against the Cavemen later in the season as the course of San Diego football veered briefly from its normal direction but would take a radical turn in the coming decade.
The Cardinals claimed city bragging rights for the first time since 1943 with a 28-13 victory over San Diego and Point Loma won a Southern California playoff championship, the first for a local team since Grossmont in 1927.
The city was growing, as were the number of television sets and aluminum antennas above San Diego rooftops.
The coming San Diego 1950 census would declare a population of 334,000 residents, with another 123,000 in the surrounding area.
There were 20 high schools in the County, including Julian, which did not field a team, and its Laguna Mountains neighbor, tiny Mountain Empire in Campo.
The population growth was just one reason San Diego schools were taking the first step toward an eventual break from the CIF Southern Section.
ALL ROADS LEAD TO…
Another and perhaps more important factor was that for 30-plus years athletic rivals in and around Los Angeles and Orange counties had complained of scheduling problems and travel involving teams from the “Border Town.”
The modern automobile and U.S. highways 101 and 395, San Diego’s main south-north arteries, assured a faster trip to and from those distant locales but freeways still were years down the road.
Ed Perriera (arrow, top) gained nine yards on this play in Point Loma’s 27-14 victory over Bonita for Southern California minor division title.
A San Diego-to-Pasadena journey, through more than a dozen communities, stop signs and traffic signals, was minimally 3 hours. Included were the 17 miles from Oceanside to San Clemente that included dangerous stretches when the highway was three lanes and shrouded in fog.
San Diego High had been a member of the Coast League since 1923 with exception of the travel-restricted years of World War II. Coast League membership in 1949 also included Compton, Pasadena, Pasadena Muir, Grossmont and Hoover.
The 1949-50 school year beginning in September would mark a final act for the San Diego group, with a local City Prep League being created the following school year.
Included in the changing landscape was the first Breitbard game, which drew 12,000 fans to Balboa Stadium and was played in early September.
Jim Prather’s teammate, San Diego High’s Charlie Davis, was the game’s “Star of Stars,” scoring two touchdowns, and Cavers teammate Granville Walton caught a touchdown pass in the Southern Section victory.
The game, featuring recent high school graduates, was the brainchild of Hoover graduate Bob Breitbard, a San Diego sportsman and businessman for almost 70 years.
POINTERS DON’T FADE
San Diego’s power and dominance seemed intact when the Cavers’ Darnes Johnson returned the opening kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown the following week in a win against Point Loma.
But the Pointers spat back. They scored the only touchdown of the second half after falling behind, 28-6. A loss to Phoenix the next week had sportswriters saying the Cavemen could be had.
Hoover’s Joe Duke avoided San Diego’s Darnes Johnson (33), but Charlie Powell (right) came up to make tackle.
Hoover was waiting for the opportunity. Second-year coach Bob Kirchhoff greeted more returning lettermen and more returning starters than any Coast League squad.
The Cardinals lost one game, 26-7 to eventual Southern California champion Compton, but they slammed the Cavemen 28-13, rushing for 285 yards and never were threatened, leading 21-0 at the half, and winning the 17th annual battle for the first time since a 7-3 victory in 1943.
TUESDAY FOOTBALL WITH “MR. OUTSIDE”
Don Giddings, who was a tackle on Hobbs Adams’ 1929-31 San Diego High teams and who would move from head coach to principal at Point Loma and later to Patrick Henry, had positioned the Pointers for a championship run in the so-called CIF Lower Division.
Point Loma relied on backs Ed Perreira, Eddie Silva, and Marshall (Scooter) Malcolm (from left), who accepted handoff from Jim Dible.
The Pointers rolled through the Metropolitan League after their opening-game loss to San Diego, stalling only once in a 13-13 tie with La Jolla, then winning three playoff games by scores of 48-7, 42-12, and 27-14.
Point Loma and Bonita High met for the championship at Point Loma on a Tuesday afternoon. The schools had not been able to agree on where or when to play the game. Southern Section commissioner Seth Van Patten ruled that Point Loma could choose the site and Bonita could choose the date.
Among those in attendance was Glenn Davis, the legendary “Mr. Outside” of West Point fame and holder of the CIF record for most points in a season, having scored 242 points for Bonita in 1942.
Davis beat a hasty retreat to the stands when he was swarmed by a covey of coeds.
Coach Bob Kirchhoff greeted Hoover gridders Joe Duke, Eddie Johns, Bill Freeman, Phil Rutkowski, and Evan Wetherald (from left) at start of September practice.
LEAGUES PROPOSED
Three days before Point Loma’s season-ending victory, a December 11 meeting in Los Angeles threatened to derail plans for the re-leaguing of 19 San Diego schools (St. Augustine was a member of the Los Angeles-based Southland Catholic League and not in consideration for local membership).
Hoover principal Floyd Johnson, a member of the Southern Section executive committee, and leader of the San Diego group, proposed a six team City League of Hoover, San Diego, Kearny, La Jolla, Grossmont, and Point Loma; seven-team Metropolitan League of Chula Vista, Escondido, Sweetwater, Coronado, Vista, Oceanside, and San Dieguito, and a six-team Southern Prep League of Fallbrook, Army-Navy, Brown Military, Mountain Empire, and Julian.
Johnson’s plan already faced opposition.
Officials from Vista, Fallbrook, Escondido, Oceanside, and San Dieguito had met in Carlsbad three weeks earlier to discuss formation of a “Northern San Diego County League”. Those schools suggested that their problems involving transportation and minor sports competition would be answered.
The CIF Southern Section denied the San Diego delegation’s proposal because of “divided reports.” The Johnson-led faction was told to “get its house in order” and come back in February.
San Diego quarterback Chuck McDairmant (left) and Grossmont halfback Alan Archard exercised for cameraman before Coast League game.
Most of Johnson’s proposal eventually was approved by the Southern Section.
San Diego, Grossmont, and Hoover, as part of the new CPL, would say goodbye to the Coast League, which would reincarnate with Compton, Norwalk Excelsior, and the three Long Beach schools, Poly, Wilson, and Jordan.
Pasadena was expected to go into a league with Alhambra, El Monte, Alhambra Mark Keppel, Monrovia, and Whittier. Muir would align in a league with Bell Gardens, Rosemead, Covina, Downey, and Montebello.
Geography (i.e., travel) and school enrollment were principal factors in all potential realignment, which would be settled in February, 1950.
HONORS
San Diego tackle Frank San Fillipo was a first-team, all-Southern California choice. Fullback Eddie Silva of Point Loma and Grossmont’s Ellis Craddock were on the third team.
Ballet? Willie Thompson (left) and Buddy Lewis (16) of Point Loma go high to bat down end zone pass to La Jolla’s Ronnie Epps. Defensive play helped Pointers survive 13-13 tie with Vikings and clinch Metropolitan League title.
CARDINALS WITHOUT A NEST
Hoover’s 8-1 record was achieved under unusual conditions.
Fire destroyed the wooden bleachers on the East side of the campus stadium before the 1948 season. A new, steel-framed seating area was ready but stadium lights still were in production as the 1949 campaign got under way.
Hoover principal Floyd Johnson announced that the Cardinals’ Coast League opener with Muir would be moved to Pasadena and the Rose Bowl.
“If the lights aren’t ready for the October twenty-first game against Grossmont (next opponent) I don’t know what we’ll do,” said Johnson.
What Hoover did was play its entire regular-season schedule on the road, with “home” games at San Diego State’s Aztec Bowl.
Hoover participated in a postseason charity game to help pay for 14 blood transfusions and surgery that resulted in more than $3,000 in hospital bills for injured Grossmont player Bill Finneran, who sustained a near-fatal kidney injury in an early-season game with Sweetwater.
The game was scheduled for Aztec Bowl, then switched to Hoover, which still had no lights. Kickoff for the Finneran game was at 10 a.m and Hoover beat the Foothillers for the second time, 12-7.
WHO HAS THE BALL?
Yes, that is fog enveloping Point Loma’s Ross Field. Sweetwater tacklers were able to stop Pointers’ Willie Thompson, but Peninsula club clinched Metropolitan League championship on surreal afternoon, 33-12.
Fog was a ubiquitous and frustrating companion.
San Dieguito coach Curtis French blamed the shroud for a 20-13 loss to Escondido after the Cougars returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown. “We lost track of the ball and didn’t know who to tackle,” said French.
Writer Jerry Brucker said radar was needed to follow the action, the fog being so thick in the Hoover-Pasadena skirmish at Aztec Bowl.
KIRCHHOFF ANGRY WINNER
Hoover coach Bob Kirchhoff would not forget the season opener against the San Bernardino Cardinals at the Orange Show Bowl in ‘Berdoo.
Hoover won 13-7 but Kirchhoff was sizzling, describing the game officiating as the worst he’d ever seen.
“Hoover High played an aggressive game, perhaps a bit too much, as they were sent back 95 yards on 11 penalties, four of them being for 15 yards,” wrote Sid Olin of the San Bernardino Sun. “The Cardinals (San Bernardino) took but two penalties for off-sides.
The term for officiating at road games often has been “Home Cooking.” The Hoover mentor’s choice of words was much stronger.
Alan Archard, coach Lee Bogle, Martin Beck, Gilbert Bonilla, Jay Harris (obscured), Bill Long, and Ernie Magginni talked about the weather before first practice.
BETTER THAN JOHNNY O
St. Augustine coach Dave DeVarona, detoxing from an 0-5-2 season, singled out running back Claude Thomas, who, despite the winless campaign, earned first team, all-league honors in the Southland Catholic circuit.
DeVarona said that Thomas was the league’s hardest running back and a better, all-around player than St. Anthony’s Johnny Olszewski, who scored five touchdowns against the Saints in 1948 and took his team to the Southern California finals.
NEW SCHOOL AT 49TH AND IMPERIAL
Lincoln Junior High, numbering first-day enrollment of 502 students, opened with classes for seventh and eighth graders.
Lincoln gradually became a high school. A ninth grade was added in 1950-51. Tenth grade students were included in 1952-53, followed by an 11th grade class in ’53-54, and the first senior class in 1954-55.
Lincoln was a grade 7-12 school with split sessions in the 1954-55 school year, becoming an all-high school student body of three grades in 1955-56.
Did they wear wrong jerseys or wrong helmets? George Eggert (left) and brother Tom could have confused opponents or game officials with their selection of numbers.
QUICK KICKS
La Jolla had new lights installed at its Scripps Field…Chula Vista dedicated its new football stadium, named after principal Joe Rindone, with a 34-6 victory over Oceanside…Grossmont earned praise for publishing a preseason “press guide” that compared to those of Pacific Coast Conference universities… Brucker on San Diego junior Charlie Powell, who had been moved from end to fullback in spring drills and who gained 99 yards in 14 carries and went 65 yards on a pass play against Phoenix: “The big boy (225 pounds) was a solid, uranium sensation for the Hillers, a blocking, tackling, stiff-arming and side-stepping terror”… Powell had 87 yards in 11 carries and Frank Johnson 88 in 10 in a 34-13 win at Pasadena, highlighting a long day for the two Cavers and their teammates… the team boarded buses at San Diego High at 8 a.m. and didn’t return home until after 8 that night…the trip was typical for Coast League road teams…Compton was officially declared Coast League champion by a 4-3 vote… the Tarbabes finished with a 4-0 league record, Hoover 4-1…the Cardinals wanted Compton to reschedule a previously canceled game with Muir… the cancelation was fallout from Compton Junior College’s suspension of relations with Muir’s upper level institution, Muir Junior College, over recruitment of a player by Muir J.C. the previous year… unsaid was how a vote against Compton would have helped Hoover’s playoff hopes, the Cardinals having lost the head-and-head meeting with Compton… Manny Gomes, Point Loma’s first-team all-Metropolitan League end, converted 32 of 40 point-after-touchdown kicks… in the 13-13 tie with La Jolla one of Gomes’ attempts was blocked… Manny enjoyed a long career as a San Diego-area football and basketball game official and was a National Basketball Association referee….
2017: La Jolla Vikings Great Dan Berry
Dan Berry passed recently at age 72, leaving a historic legacy at La Jolla High and of significant achievements at San Diego City College and the University of California at Berkeley.
When La Jolla met San Diego High at Scripps Field in 1961, the Vikings had not beaten the Cavemen since 1951 and were reeling from 57-0 and 59-0 knockouts in the two most recent meetings.
Berry, an all-San Diego Section first-team selection, rushed for 153 yards in 20 carries, scored a touchdown and passed for two, and charged a three-touchdown, fourth-quarter rally as the Vikings, trailing, 19-7, defeated the Cavers, 27-19.
Lefty Berry ran, passed, and drove La Jolla to big win and niche among all-time Vikings.
The seaside team’s victory should have created some sports world buzz, but the game was played on Thursday night, a day earlier than usual.
Friday night was when the media spotlight was on the high schools.
The Evening Tribune did not send a reporter to the game and The San Diego Union‘s coverage of the contest was consigned to back pages of the sports section.
La Jollans were outraged.
Many of the beach community’s residents flooded the nearby office of publisher James Copley with telephone calls expressing anger that Copley’s newspapers had given their team short shrift.
Copley got the message.
An order soon came down from the fourth floor at the Union-Tribune building on Second Avenue in downtown San Diego.
Henceforth the Tribune would carry a full page of prep photo coverage plus a full page of stories and reports each Saturday on games throughout the County.
KNIGHTS THRIVE WITH DAN
Dan Berry and the Vikings had a lot to do with that emphasis on the exploits of the area’s prepsters.
Berry later led San Diego City College to a best-ever 9-1 record and come-from-behind, 28-24 victory over Orange Coast College in the 1964 San Bernardino Elks Bowl.
The 6-foot, 1-inch, 200-pounder was described by Orange Coast coach Dick Tucker as “the best junior college player in Southern California.”
MEMORIAL SCHEDULED
Berry went on to letter at quarterback and running back for two seasons at Berkeley, and was a fifth round draft selection of the NFL Philadelphia Eagles in 1967. His career was short-circuited by injuries.
Berry’s wife, Kathy, said that on Feb. 18 a celebration of Dan’s life will be held at the family residence.
