“Elevator! Elevator! We Got The Shaft!”  The shout is almost as old as the game.  Visiting teams’ supporters furious that the referees or the timekeeper were unjust, a polite term for being “homered”.

The Huntington Beach Oilers felt that way when the Oilers, 4-0 on the season and a reported 20-1 in 1944-45, were on the short end of a 38-37 score at San Diego in a game punctuated by a wild finish and “pandemonium, with fans spilling onto the floor,” according to The San Diego Union.

Huntington Beach had taken a 37-36 lead on a free throw after Hilltopper Ben Cendali drew a personal foul with two minutes remaining in the game.

Cendali got back into his team’s good graces when he converted a free throw to tie the score, and then, in the final seconds, scored on another trip to the foul line for a 38-37 Hilltoppers advantage.

As time was running out, or ran out, depending on whose side you were on, the Oilers’ Elmer Coombs launched a desperation shot from behind the half-court line that drained the basket, but was disallowed.

Neither the Union or Evening Tribune  game stories carried a byline, indicating that the sports desk probably received a telephone call from Cavers coach John Brose or from a student representative.

The Huntington Beach coach apparently claimed that there was no moment that declared the game was over, charging that the starter pistol used to signal the ends of periods of play was faulty and never went off.

And no one heard the timer blowing a whistle that the game was over, according to the newspaper reports.

It also was reported that the game timer was Amerigo Dini, a Cavers football letterman who had to be filling in for a faculty member or coach.

And that’s the way it was on the cool, overcast evening of Dec. 16, 1945, as the city, relieved that  war was over, prepared for the most joyous Christmas in years.

CAPS AND GOWNS BECKON

Midterm graduates, the bane of coaches, left school around the first of February since the early days of the CIF.

Southern Section historian John Dahlem pointed out that the practice of students accumulating credits and graduating early probably began to diminish in the 1950s.  Dahlem was part of one of the final midterm graduations in Southern California when he and others got their diplomas early in 1961 at Santa Monica High.

San Diego High had lost players for years, even during the 1935-36 Southern Section championship season but that team was talented enough to overcome.

Pre-war coach Merrill Douglas had returned from the Army but would not take over again until the 1946-47 school year, leaving the wartime mentor, John Brose, to cope with the departure of four starters.

That’s four, as in a starting lineup of five.   Wally Pietila, Norm Scudder, Bob Grant, and Lee Bowman all left early, along with Elfego Padilla and Joe Castagnola, six of the top seven.

Brose coached splendidly in Douglas’ absence, his teams posting a 48-12 record in Brose’s three seasons, including 19-5 this year, but the Hilltoppers flattened out with a 4-4 finish after a 15-1 start.

Grant, a three-year letterman at center, was the leading scorer in his Victory League games, averaging 15 points.

An assembly honoring the mid-term graduates saw the team’s most-valuable player trophy go to Grant and Pietila received the Parents Teachers’ Association award after earning 20 grades of A. Pietila was scheduled to enroll at the University of California at Berkeley.

The players’ last game was a 49-30 victory over Point Loma as Grant led the way with 18 points.

Brose pointed out that “Pietila, Castagnola, and Bowman actually were Bees, but their play elevated them.  It is unusual for a B exponent (height, weight, age) player starting on varsity.”

The 5-foot-5, 128-pound Pietila, one of the Hilltoppers’ starting forwards, just missed qualifying for Class C.

NEW LINEUP

Brose began his team’s second season by inserting reserves Bob McCommins, Jerry Dahms, John Holloway, Charlie Coffey, and Clyde Barnes into the rotation with junior Ben Cendali, who became the team’s leading scorer, averaging nine points in seven league games.

The Hilltoppers had no time to ease into the transition.  Their next opponent was Grossmont, like San Diego, with a 4-0 record.

San Diego led, 26-25, late in the game, but the Foothillers’  Ish Herrera made a 30-foot set shot and Ralph Lamp added a basket for a 29-26 victory.

A 48-36 loss to Hoover dropped San Diego into third place tie with Coronado at 5-2 in the final standings, while Grossmont and Hoover, each 6-1, tied for first.

BEVERLY OR PLAYOFFS?

San Diego, with an invitation from the Beverly Hills Tournament, had switched its final Victory League game with Hoover from Feb. 22 to Feb. 12.

The tournament invite  undoubtedly came before the midterm graduations, when the Cavers were undefeated in league play and with one of the best records in Southern California.

Hoover, as winner of the first Beverly event in the 1941-42 season and in the resumed event in 1944-45, also was part of the field.  Grossmont expected an at-large bid, but The San Diego Union cited a “misunderstanding” between Beverly Hills officials and the Southern Section. The Foothillers were out.

Hoover’s bid for a third consecutive Beverly Hills title stalled against Santa Barbara.  The Cardinals led, 19-8, at the half, and 26-19 after three quarters but fell to the eventual tournament champion, 33-32.  San Diego started fast, 43-13 over Lawndale Leuzinger, but went home after a 43-24 loss to Anaheim.

The Cavers finished the season with a 43-34 loss to the San Diego State B’s.

POSTSEASON

The Victory League campaign ended on Feb. 22.  The Southern Section playoffs would not begin until March 1.

Hoover and Grossmont first engaged in a playoff in the 1,800-seat capacity Men’s Gymnasium at San Diego State to determine the league champion and drew an estimated 2,200 persons who “occupied everything but the backboards,” according to The San Diego Union writer Mitch Angus.

A 49-29 victory sent the Cardinals into the first round of the Southern Section tournament and they responded with a 54-44 win over Brawley.  The season ended when South Pasadena, 27-2 coming into the game, defeated the Cardinals, 33-23, in the semifinals.

Hoover finished the season and Rickey Wilson’s tenure as coach with a 13-6 record, following seasons of 10-4, 16-5, 11-4, 14-5, and 16-1.

Wilson’s overall record of 80-25 and .762 winning percentage remained as the best in school history in a succession of mostly successful coaches through the turn of the century.

SAY, AREN’T YOU…

…Herb Hoskins?

The man coaching the Brawley Wildcats in their first-round playoff game against Hoover looked familiar.

Hoskins had been the Sweetwater football coach two decades before, posting a 40-29-3 record from 1919 to 1928.  He moved to the Imperial Valley after leaving the Red Devils and taught chemistry at Brawley, adding basketball to his resume before the 1943-44 campaign.

REDBIRDS’ RUN

Hoover won its 15^th consecutive Victory League game by defeating Kearny, 39-21.  The Cardinals had not lost in league play since 1943-44, but Kenny Tennison’s basket for Grossmont with five seconds remaining gave the Foothillers a 34-33 victory.

SET SHOTS

Play resumed in the Chino Invitational after the wartime hiatus following the 1941 tournament…defending champion Hoover dropped a 41-39 decision to Burbank in the semifinals…San Diego bowed, 32-24, to San Bernardino in the semifinals…lack of local competition annually forced Hoover and San Diego to the road…the Cardinals began their season with a U.S. 395 trip to San Bernardino (29-26 loss) and Ontario Chaffey (37-34 win)…Grossmont went East, through snow in the Laguna Mountains, and was beaten, 24-20, at El Centro Central…San Diego warmed for league games with 22-13 and 36-29 victories at Compton and Redondo Beach Redondo, respectively…the Cavers went North late in the season to defeat a group of prisoners at the Chino’s Men’s Institute, 37-34, and at Huntington Beach, 21-15…Coronado’s Dave Melton  was the leading Victory League scorer, averaging 12.1 points with 85 in seven games…Melton played 13 years in baseball, mostly in the high minors, and had cups of coffee with the Kansas City A’s in 1956 and ’58…Melton hit .299 with 116 runs batted in and 19 home runs for San Francisco in the PCL in 1955…St. Augustine defeated Santa Monica St. Monica’s, 24-13, in a Southland Catholic League contest on an outdoor court at Navy Field…Grossmont took season high point honors in a 63-10 rout of San Diego Vocational…Bob Grant scored 20 points in San Diego’s 60-22 win over Kearny….

Two young coaches destined to become legendary in San Diego basketball lore arrived as varsity mentors at the city’s two prep powerhouses.

Rickey Wilson, a former San Diego High player, succeeded Lawrence Carr at Hoover and Merrill Douglas, a transplanted Montanan, took over for Bill Schutte at San Diego High.

The schools  continued to be San Diego’s prime representatives, the Hilltoppers going 15-3 under Douglas and Hoover 10-4 under Wilson.

Teams in the Metropolitan and Southern Prep Leagues also commanded their shares of attention, but most headlines were about the war clouds looming in the West after a summer and early fall dominated by  the “The Battle of Britain”, fought between the British and Germans in the skies above the English Channel and London.

EARLY FINISH

San Diego and Hoover would join a 17-team super conference beginning in 1941-42 as the CIF attempted to separate large schools from small schools.  San Diego, Hoover, and Long Beach Poly, were the only members of the Coast League.

Down to three teams since Santa Ana bailed after the 1935-36 school year and Alhambra after 1938-39, the Coast basketball season was shortened.  The Hilltoppers and Hoover seasons ended  in late January.  The Metropolitan and Southern Prep were active through the end of February.

CIF commissioner Seth Van Patten often had to hustle to fill playoff brackets.  Some leagues, notably the Metro, at the geographical bottom of the Federation, just didn’t want to be bothered.  Records in the CIF archives showed only a four-team field this year.

Poly won the Coast, taking three out of four from San Diego and Hoover, but the Jackrabbits were beaten in the CIF finals by Glendale Hoover, 23-20.

BULLDOZING BULLDOGS

Ramona ran the table with a 12-0 record to win its sixth consecutive Southern Prep championship and then claimed a CIF Southern Section championship at Calexico, topping the Bulldogs, 29-23.

The victory, for the overall 13-0 Bulldogs of coach Charlie Snell, was for the San Diego-Imperial County area.

A spirited, six-game Metropolitan League race ended with Coronado, Escondido, and Grossmont, each 5-1, tying for first place.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

It took the San Diego news corps awhile to get it right with Ermer Robinson, the San Diego High star and future Harlem Globetrotter.  He was known as “Irma” Robinson for the first month of this, his junior season.

Martin Payne, the sports editor of The Russ, San Diego High’s weekly newspaper, covered several games for The San Diego Union and was the first to ensure that Robinson was correctly identified, when Payne covered the Hilltoppers’ 25-19 league victory over Long Beach Poly.

DECEMBER FANCY

–Known as the County Interscholastic Tournament, an eight-team event took place with games at San Diego High, Hoover, Municipal Gym, and San Diego State. Grossmont defeated Point Loma, 30-12, for the championship.

–San Diego and Hoover at the same time were in the Huntington Beach Tournament, which also included Coronado. The Islanders opened with a 46-7 victory over Laguna Beach as Bud Ingle scored 20 points.  They were eliminated the next day by Ontario Chaffey, 22-17.

San Diego defeated Hoover, 24-15, for the Huntington Beach title after advancing with wins of 28-20 over defending champ Chaffey and 29-23 over Long Beach Wilson.  Hoover was in the finals after defeating Whittier, 36-26, and Santa Barbara, 20-19.

San Diego was forced to give up the Huntington Beach trophy when Bob (Lefty) Felthaus was declared ineligible by the CIF a few days later for having signed a professional baseball contract in 1939, days before his 17^th birthday.

Brooklyn Dodgers scout Tom Downey, under heavy criticism from local prep officials, said that he signed Felthaus after the player stopped attending school, his having dropped out of Hoover.  Felthaus became a student again at San Diego and had turned out for basketball.

–“Irma” Robinson scored 10 points as San Diego, playing for the first time without Felthaus, opened the post-Christmas Chino Tournament with a 42-9 win over San Juan Capistrano.  The Hilltoppers buried Huntington Beach, 38-13, but lost to Burbank, 30-20, in the semifinals.  Poly won its second straight title, 34-24, over Burbank.

–St. Augustine lost to St. Mary’s of Phoenix, 36-27 in the Los Angeles Catholic League tournament.  Hoover defeated Grossmont, 11-7, and Point Loma topped Hoover, 26-8, in finals of the San Diego High invitational for Class C and D teams, respectively.

WE’LL PLAY ANYONE ANYTIME

Army-Navy’s 34-33 victory clinched a best, two-of-three series against the Oceanside chapter of the Knights of Pythias.  The cadets were not as fortunate against the so-named Vista Outlaws, who prevailed, 21-15.

OFFENSIVE OUTBURSTS

Ramona’s 59-17 victory over Fallbrook represented the single-game scoring high for the season. The Bulldogs also defeated Julian, 53-26.

Julian’s Bud Farmer had the top individual performance with 24 in a 38-31 victory over Army-Navy and added 22 in a 30-24 win over San Dieguito. Julian’s 51-6 rout of Fallbrook, with Farmer scoring one point, represented the third, 50-plus game in the county.

LATE ADDITION

San Diego’s season was over but Coach Merrill Douglas enticed Chino to come south a couple weeks later.  Douglas employed only players who would return for the 1941-42 season, opening with a starting lineup of Ermer Robinson, Jim Warner, Ron Maley, Denzil Walden, and Gerald Patrick.

The underclassmen delivered a 32-15 victory. Douglas would respond to a call from Uncle Sam after the next season and not return until the 1946-47 campaign.

ANYTHING FOR THE TEAM

Hoover’s Willie Steele set a record of 24 feet, ¾ inch, in the broad jump at the Southern Section track finals in Glendale in May, a few months after Steele served as student manager of the varsity basketball squad.  Steele was awarded a letter by coach Rickey Wilson, as was B squad manager Monroe (Bookie) Clark.

Steele, who played class B basketball the season before, went on to win the national collegiate broad jump championship at San Diego State and was the 1948 Olympic gold medalist in the event, with an all-time best of 26 feet, 6 ½ inches.

BE IT EVER SO HUMBLE

St. Augustine principal the Very Rev. W.B. Kirk announced that the Saints had found a home and would join the Southern Prep League in the next school year, after free-lancing and scuffling as an independent since the school opened in 1922.  The agreement was for one year, depending on the circuit’s ability to develop a schedule for eight teams.

Ramona, Julian, Fallbrook, Brown Military, Army-Navy, San Dieguito, and Vista were the other SPL members.  St. Augustine’s games would not count in the standings and the Saints eventually joined the Southland Catholic League of the Los Angeles area in 1945.

SIGNS OF THE TIME

The U.S. census for 1940 reported San Diego County’s population at 289,348, including 203,737 in the city.   Other “township” totals: Borrego, 90; El Cajon, 20,160; Encinitas, 4,473; Escondido, 9,487; Fallbrook, 2,308; Jacumba, 1,214; National City, 32,213; Oceanside, 8,191;  Ramona, 3,384, and Vista, 4,091.

San Diego State, which would win the 1941 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics championship, drew a record 19,256 persons to 17 home games in the 1,800-capacity Men’s Gym.  The largest turnout was 1,713 for Santa Barbara State, although the record was 1,907 for a 1939 game against the Broadway Clowns.

SET SHOTS

The San Diego High gym was packed to the rafters with an estimated 1,900 persons when Hoover upended the Hilltoppers, 32-17…seven days later San Diego won at Hoover, 32-17…Coronado’s Metro League co-championship was achieved despite Coach Hal Niedermeyer’s suspension of Bud Ingle, the Metro’s leading scorer in 1939-40; Bill Hakes, and Al Galpin, early in the season…the three-team Coast’s all-league squad featured San Diego’s Bob (Lefty) Felthaus, Bob Carson, and Jack Maupin…Felthaus’ selection apparently was made on his reputation; he didn’t participate in league play…Hoover’s Rupert Crosthwaite, later well-known in San Diego circles for his ownership of a local sporting goods store, made second team….

The dateline said San Diego, not somewhere in the High Sierra or North Dakota.

Snow had forced postponement of two games.

In the dead of winter a couple high school basketball contests in San Diego County were called off because of the flaky white stuff.

Southern Prep League games sending Brown Military to Mountain Empire in Campo and Vista to Julian could not be played “because of bad traveling conditions,” according to The San Diego Union on Jan. 14, 1949.

“Five feet of snow in the higher elevations silenced rural telephone circuits so completely that the Police Department rushed a mobile radio transmitter to Julian to establish an emergency communications center,” the newspaper reported.

Down below the 4,000-foot elevation the coastline was hit with storm waves that caused damage to small craft and wreaked havoc on the beaches along U.S. 101.

San Diego rainfall totals were almost two inches above normal.

A view of the San Diego River from the Junipero Serra museum in Presidio Park showed water runoff to the ocean for the first time in three years.

BIG BROTHERS TAKE BACK SEAT

City schools Hoover and San Diego usually wielded the sharp end of the stick, but smaller schools, for the second year in a row, stepped up.

Coronado, from the mostly suburban Metropolitan League, and Vista from the rural Southern Prep represented the area in Southern California playoffs.

There was no minor division or small school postseason alignment, in which the Islanders and Panthers, with relatively paltry enrollment numbers, probably would have been included.

You make the postseason, be prepared to play anyone, size of school no matter. One bracket of 16 teams met on successive weeks, two days each, almost all games at Redondo Beach Redondo Union.

A Small Schools division for the postseason would not be in place until the 1949-50 season, according to CIF historian John Dahlem.

(Coronado likely would have enjoyed similar success in a group with more even student body numbers, as did the mid-1950s Islanders, who advanced to the finals two years in a row).

Thus, when Coronado thumped Inglewood, 46-28, in the first round, John De La Vega’s account for the Los Angeles Times began: “Little Coronado high school, unbeaten champions of the Metropolitan league in San Diego county, furnished the big surprise yesterday….”

The Islanders, coached by Keith Broaders, hammered the Bay League champions but were beaten, 39-29, by Ventura in the second round, closing out a 21-2 season.  Loyola earlier eliminated Vista (14-8), 48-24.

The exiting teams had faced the Southern Section’s premiere squads.

Loyola reached the round of 4 and defeated Coast League champion Compton, 34-33, and Ventura socked Alhambra, 58-41, for the championship.

UNNECESSARY LOSS?

Coronado’s record was listed as 21-1 in Bill Finley’s Evening Tribune High School Record Book 1945-69.

The obvious loss was to Ventura, but research showed that Broaders also scheduled a game in which he reportedly utilized only substitutes and the Islanders were upset by Brown Military, 29-27, in overtime.

Finley’s excellent publication reflected the difficulty finding complete, individual scoring statistics or total won-loss records from newspapers’ coverage in the those years until well into the late 1950s.

COAST NOT CLEAR

The three local teams, Grossmont, San Diego, and Hoover, won six of seven games at home on the opening weekend of Coast League play. The only setback was Grossmont’s 36-35 loss in overtime to Compton.

Three days later Grossmont beat San Diego, 41-40, on Herbie Fennel’s free throw with three seconds remaining before a full house at Grossmont.

The Cardinals and Foothillers soon dropped from sight, however, and San Diego assumed the lead, taking an 8-1 record into its final game against 6-2 Compton.

The Hilltoppers had edged the Tarbabes, 34-27, early in league play but Compton prevailed in the rematch, 31-29 and then defeated Muir, 50-48, to forge a tie for the title.

WHICH IS WHICH?

One San Diego report declared that Compton and San Diego would flip a coin to determine the champion, but another said the winner of the teams’ first-round meeting in the Beverly Hills Tournament would determine the league’s sole playoff representative.

The Hillers came up flat, losing, 55-33, and closed out a 15-7 season.  Grossmont signed off at 10-8, Hoover at 9-11, and St. Augustine at 11-6.

DECEMBER MEDIOCRITY

Eight of the 11 San Diego-area teams in the 23-team, two-division, second annual Kiwanis Tournament were defeated in the first round of the three-day event at San Diego, Hoover, and San Diego State.

Hoover played twice on the first day, defeating Long Beach Poly, 34-31, and then lost to Beverly Hills, 22-18.

San Diego, ousted by Long Beach Wilson, 36-33, came back to win the Unlimited Division consolation title, 43-27 over La Jolla.  Chula Vista defeated Oceanside, 23-20, for the Limited Division conso’ crown.

Sweetwater won the Limited Division championship, 40-24, over Brawley.  El Monte trimmed Beverly Hills, 60-40, for the Unlimited title.

San Diego’s Bob McClurg and Eddie Simpson made the all-tournament team.  Simpson scored 42 points in the 4 games.  Jim Loews of El Monte was leading scorer with 56.

MORE EXITS

While the Metropolitan and Southern Prep leagues got ready for league openers, the three Coast League locals went north to Compton College for the annual Western States Tournament.

San Diego topped Alhambra Mark Keppel, 45-37, and then went into the consolation bracket after a 43-37 loss to Los Angeles Mt. Carmel.  Hoover topped Long Beach Poly, 43-41, but lost to Compton, 48-36.

Grossmont fell to Mt. Carmel, 47-37, in the opening round.

The threesome was quickly sent  home from the losers’ bracket.  Long Beach St. Anthony nudged San Diego, 39-38; Long Beach Wilson nipped Hoover, 56-55, and Santa Barbara beat Grossmont, 50-44.

HIGH SCORERS

Alan Logan of Ramona had the highest reported one-game scoring total with 30 points in a 40-25 win over Brown Military.  Bob (Bama) Shell scored 28 in St. Augustine’s 47-39 victory over Chula Vista.

Shell scored 23 points and Lou Kuslo 17 as the Saints defeated Los Angeles Cathedral in a Southland Catholic League event.

Shell was denied an opportunity to score more when Long Beach St. Anthony backed out of its own hoop carnival so team members and students could trek to the Los Angeles Coliseum to watch their football team play Santa Barbara for the Southern Section title.

NOTHING, ZIP, NIL, NADA

The timeworn maxim that “they couldn’t hit a bull in the — with a barn door” resonated with those watching a Grossmont junior high tournament middleweight division game.

Coronado shut out Ramona’s Mt. Woodson Mountain Lions, 37-0.

SIGN OF THE TIMES

Sixteen-year-old Casey Moffet of Shelby, N.C., drove to the basket, missed a layup, and crashed through a wooden wall in a game against Waco, N.C.

Moffet penetrated the ½-inch plywood “barrier” and fell 10 feet to the frozen clay surface outside the gym.  He sustained head, shoulder, and arm injuries.

SET SHOTS

Ivan Robinson scored the winning basket for the San Diego High alumni against the Hilltoppers’ varsity and played the next night for the Alumni against the San Diego Junior College Knights…Vista defeated San Dieguito, 40-30, to gain a tie for the SPL title and then won a playoff, 34-31 over San Dieguito to earn the league’s playoff berth…future Hall of Fame coach Jerry Tarkanian was a starting guard for the Pasadena Bullpups…after opening with a victorious Coast League weekend, San Diego stumbled against Point Loma, 30-14, and St. Augustine, 42-33…the Saints won the sixth annual Coronado C  & D tournament, 21-9 over Hoover in the Cees and 18-17 over Coronado in the Dees…

 

San Diego was leaving the Southern Section at the end of the school year but was going out with an unprecedented show of force.

Hoover was ranked No. 1 and Helix No. 2 in seeding for the 32-team major playoffs.  Glendale, beaten by both Hoover and San Diego, was seeded fourth.

Hoover’s undefeated regular season and the high scoring Highlanders had earned the respect of Southern Section commissioner Ken Fagans, who’d won championships as coach of the Compton Tarbabes in the early ‘fifties.

But the Cardinals and their neighbors eight miles to the East in La Mesa  were beaten by the two teams that would play for the title, third-seeded Anaheim (search 1959-60: Cardinals Come Up Short at Finish Line) and unseeded Long Beach Poly.

Helix was eliminated, 50-48, at Poly in the quarterfinals, bringing an end to a record-setting, 26-4 season and to the career of coach Bob Divine, who had announced in January that he was stepping down to go into administration.

Divine’s timing was curious, coming in the middle of the season (“This basketball can make an old man of you, the way I coach,” he explained). His team’s sometimes uneven play also was curious.

HIGHLAND FLING

–Helix set a County record by averaging 67.9 points a game, breaking the mark of 64.6 set by St. Augustine in 1957-58.

–They trailed host San Diego at the half, 36-13, and won, 52-50.

–They lost at Hoover, 61-36, the next evening.

–They switched gears after losing the pre-Kiwanis Tournament game to Hoover and poked along on offense so effectively that the score was 33-30 late in the fourth quarter before the Cardinals prevailed again, 39-30.

–They topped Santa Barbara, 65-62, to win the 11^th annual Fillmore Tournament in Ventura County after Christmas. Jim (Bones) Bowers scored 25 points and was player of the tournament. Teammates Bob Mackey, Wally Hartwell, and Larry Cook joined Bowers on the all-tournament team.

–They defeated 15-11 Chula Vista, 49-26, at home but had a 14-game winning streak snapped at Chula Vista, 55-46, depriving the Scots of what would have been a 16-0 run through the Metropolitan League.

Bowers, who led the area in scoring with a 22.9 average and 670 points in 30 games,  set a school record with 44 points in a 98-54 win over first-year El Capitan.

Helix had other games of 99 and 94 points and set a County record when it shot 64 per cent from the field in a 114-65 romp over the Vaqueros as Bowers (34) and Clayton Raaka (24) set the pace.

FRUSTRATING ENDING

Helix defeated 13-8 Lincoln, 59-46, in the postseason first round and 16-11 Ontario Chaffey, 67-49, in the second round, played at Mount Miguel High.  The crowd outside the gymnasium was almost as large as the standing-room gathering of 1,200 inside.

Helix took an 18-13 lead over Poly in the quarterfinals, but the resourceful Jackrabbits, a notoriously poor shooting team but quick and tough on defense, pulled ahead, 23-21, at the half.

After taking a 29-28 lead in the third quarter, the Highlanders “lost control of the boards and were shabby with their ball handling”, according to the Union correspondent at the game.

Bowers, who had scored 10 points in the first quarter, finished with 19.  Poly defenders double-teamed Bowers and Raaka, who scored nine points, well below his average, and ignored the other three Helix starters.

The strategy worked.

Helix trailed, 49-48, with 30 seconds remaining, but the Jackrabbits’ Tom Sisk made one of two free throws to close out the win.

SCOUT STIFFED

Forces seem to have worked  against Helix.  Coach Bob Divine thought about complaining to Southern Section commissioner Ken Fagans after a Helix scout was denied entrance to Poly’s previous playoff game, a 70-54 victory at El Monte.

“I don’t want to be a cry baby about this,” Divine told writer Jerry Magee before the game against the Jackrabbits, “but we didn’t have room in our gym and we let all the scouts in.”

CAVALRY ARRIVES

After losing to Glendale Hoover, 51-40, on Friday San Diego recovered to defeat Glendale and CIF player-of-the-year Tom Dose the next night, 57-49.

Willie Bolton, Ernest (Moe) Watson, and Lou Scott, who had played in the Cavers’ 53-0, football championship victory against Monrovia the night before, made the trip north the next day and saw action that evening.

San Diego’s 11-10 record was its poorest since a 6-8 record in 1934-35, but the Cavers not only trimmed high playoff seed Glendale on the road but were ahead of CIF champion Long Beach Poly before losing in the final seconds, 40-39.

MELEE AVOIDED

San Diego overcame favored Lincoln with a 14-4 spurt in three minutes of the fourth quarter and defeated the Hornets, 64-59, in what Jerry Magee of The San Diego Union described as a “pell-mell” game in front of a shrieking crowd on the Hornets’ floor.

Alfred Willis, the younger brother of Cavers guard Albert Willis, came out of the stands and launched a punch at Lincoln’s Al Catlin, who had been aggressively guarding the older Willis.

Lincoln coach Warren Barritt rushed off the bench and literally back-pedaled Catlin to the end of the gym as referees Doug Harvey and Nolan Harvey sought to maintain order.

San Diego’s victory was achieved despite coach Dick Otterstad’s suspending leading scorer Ben Pargo, who was not at the game.

Football star H.D. Murphy and Watson each scored 17 points as the normally offensively erratic Cavers controlled the backboards and shot 44 per cent on 26×58 shooting.  Lincoln was 23×44 for 52 per cent.

SCORING LEADERS

NAME	TEAM	GAMES	POINTS	AVERAGE
Jim (Bones) Bowers	Helix	30	688	22.9 (1)
Clayton Raaka	Helix	29	450	15.5
Larry Hancock	El Cajon Valley	22	421	19.1(2)
Robbie Hewitt	Hilltop	29	390	13.4
Steve Thurlow	Escondido	26	384	14.8
Charlie Schneider	Hilltop	29	374	12.9
Bob Hoss	El Cajon Valley	23	366	15.9 (5)
Jacob Crawford	St. Augustine	19	358	18.8 (3)
Walt Ramsey	Hoover	28	358	12.8
John Bocko	Hoover	28	356	12.7
Bill Wylie	Hoover	27	352	13.0
Gary Meggelin	Chula Vista	26	342	13.2
Larry Moore	Point Loma	25	326	13.0
Jim Johnson	Kearny	19	311	16.4 (4)
T.W. Bell	Lincoln	21	310	14.8
Tuttle	Clairemont	23	298	13.0
Brian Ross	El Capitan	21	290	13.8

Bob Wueste of Carlsbad was reported to score 404 points but Avocado League scoring was published only for the circuit’s 10  games, in which Wueste scored 231 points.  Southern Prep and Avocado nonleague statistics often were unreported.

POINTERS TAKE ADVANTAGE

Western League teams were slotted into small schools playoff participation in all sports except football.  Eastern League teams would compete with large schools for all postseason sports.

The positioning was result of the City Prep League’s dividing into two circuits after the 1958-59 school year.

Point Loma, with a 5-8 record at one point in the season and 12-10 after clinching the Western League championship, was the postseason beneficiary.

The Pointers rolled to five consecutive victories to claim the Class AA crown, along the way defeating Beaumont, 32-24, Yucaipa, 55-23, Rosemead Bosco Tech, 54-37, Lompoc, 54-40, and, finally, San Marino, 52-36.

As Jerry Magee wrote, paraphrasing Britain’s World War II leader Winston Churchill, “Winston (Winnie) Yetta enjoyed his finest hour, scoring 22 points…”

Point Loma players hoisted Yetta and coach Hilbert Crosthwaite and paraded them around the floor at the Los Angeles State venue.

Yetta’s 10 field goals were reflective of the Pointers’ effectiveness.  They converted 21 of 44 attempts for 48 per cent.

After two disappointing losses for San Diego teams in the semifinals, Crosthwaite admitted to feeling some pressure.

“We had everything to lose,” said the coach.  “We couldn’t have walked out of here if we hadn’t won.”

 FREE AGAIN

Helix’ Clayton Raaka was able to shed a cast on his broken left hand and burst out in a 68-38 win over Escondido.  Raaka scored 15 points in the second quarter, had 20 at the half, and finished with 28.

ANOTHER BREAK

Lincoln’s Al Catlin was discovered to have played the entire season with a broken wrist on his right, shooting hand  that he sustained during the football season.  Catlin then was ruled out of the Hornets’ 59-46 playoff loss to Helix.

SURPRISING

Hilltop, a first-year school, emerged  to post a 20-9 record and win the post-Christmas Chino Tournament and was runner-up to Helix in the Metropolitan League.

DREADED ADMINISTRATIVE GLITCH

San Dieguito, aided by some legislation, clinched the Avocado League championship with a 63-43 win over Carlsbad as John Fairchild, a 6-foot-7 sharpshooter up from the junior varsity, scored 15 points.

The Mustangs’ earlier, 64-54 loss to Oceanside had become a forfeit win after discovery of an ineligible Oceanside player and gave the Mustangs a one-game lead over Mar Vista.

MORE SMALL SCHOOLS PLAYOFFS

San Dieguito led until the final 56 seconds before bowing at Bing Crosby Hall in Del Mar to Orange, 46-45, in Class AA.

Orange was outscored, 24-18, in the fourth quarter but held on to defeat Kearny, 64-63, in a second-round game at Santa Ana.

Army-Navy’s Matt Burnett stole an inbound pass and scored with two seconds remaining to defeat Tustin, 42-40 in  Class A.  The Warriors then were eliminated, 60-38, by San Bernardino Aquinas.

Ramona was sidelined in Placentia by host Valencia, 62-39, the loss punctuated by a scoreless third quarter.

BOWERS HONORED, NO BONES ABOUT IT

Helix’ Jim (Bones) Bowers was an all-Southern Section, AAA first-team selection by the Helms Athletic Foundation.  Teammate Clayton Raaka and Hoover’s Bill Wylie were on the second team.

Kearny’s James Johnson and Point Loma’s Winston Yetta earned first-team honors in the AA division and Carlsbad’s Bob Wueste made second team.

JUMP SHOTS

The Kiwanis Tournament individual scoring record was broken twice on the first night…Carlsbad’s Bob Wueste scored 40 in a 61-53 win over La Jolla…St. Augustine’s Jacob Crawford knocked down 42 points an hour later in an 83-40 win over Sweetwater…finals in the Unlimited and Limited divisions were held at one venue for the first time …Hoover was host and topped Crawford, 54-34, for the Unlimited and Mar Vista edged Oceanside, 51-49, for the Limited…for the first time there were no visiting northern teams in the tournament, only El Centro Central from the Imperial Valley… Helix’ 114-point game bettered the  record set by St. Augustine in a 105-34 win over La Jolla in 1957-58…St. Augustine’s Jacob Crawford missed the team bus to Hoover, arrived late, and scored three points in the first half…the Saints, trailing, 35-12, at halftime made a game of it, outscoring Hoover in the second half, 39-38, and Crawford finished with 25 points in the 73-51 loss…Julian, scoreless until one minute remaining in the half, bowed to San Miguel School, 38-22…Fallbrook scored the first 22 points in a 51-18 win over University…Chula Vista received two technical fouls for not advancing the ball in the offensive court in its 49-26 loss to Helix…the Spartans trailed, 5-0, after one quarter and 16-1 at the half…the Spartans went into a freeze in their next game against Hilltop and got into a 15-2 hole…Hilltop won, 58-48…Mission Bay won a double-overtime, 57-55 game against La Jolla when a Vikings player was cited for goal-tending in the second, sudden-death period…Chula Vista moved out of the city’s Recreation Center into its own gym in midseason…Hilltop had a gymnasium when it opened its doors in September…Kearny coach Jim Poole, a 1950 Point Loma grad, was a national badminton champion and worked 20 years as an NFL game official…The Crawford-San Diego, Eastern League contest served as the preliminary to the San Diego Junior College-East Los Angeles Metropolitan Conference contest…the game at San Diego High featured ex-Cavers Arthur (Hambone) Williams and Edward Lee Johnson for the Knights….

Seldom was a defeat as disappointing as that which knocked out Hoover in the semifinals of San Diego’s swansong in the CIF Southern Section playoffs.

The Cardinals sustained a numbing, 39-34 loss to Anaheim in the round of  four in a season when they were unbeaten for 26* straight games.

Coach Charlie Hampton had returned several key players from the 20-7 club of 1958-59, including twin towers 6-foot, 7 ½ inch Walt Ramsey and 6-5 Bill Wylie.

Ramsey and Wylie were joined again by John Bocko a sharpshooting 6-foot forward, and 6-foot, 1-inch Johnny (Bo) Williams, the glue in Hoover’s backcourt.

Baseball ace Dave Morehead moved up from the junior varsity and became the only underclass starter.

The Cardinals’ almost perfect season:

1—HOOVER 46, ALUMNI 42.

Unlike usually pliant, slightly out-of-shape graduates, the former Cardinals were competitive, losing, 46-42. Ramsey led the varsity with 19 points.

Norris Greenwood, who set a school single-season scoring record of 446 points in 1957-58 and had moved on to Cal Western University, played for the alums along with former first stringers Tommy Dobyns, Art Samuel, Wayne Britt, Harry Stadnyk, and Bill Lee.

 

2—HOOVER 48, GROSSMONT 32.

The Foothillers couldn’t find the basket and trailed, 25-5. at halftime. Ramsey scored 25 points.

3—HOOVER 61, HELIX 36, @San Diego.

Surprising, actually shocking, was this win over a team considered by some to be the best in the area.  Helix had all of its weapons intact, including high scoring Jim (Bones) Bowers and Clayton Raaka.   Ramsey (20), Bocko (11), Norm Potter (10) led the way.

4—HOOVER 57, @GLENDALE 49.

The Cardinals and San Diego High made December trips north for several years.  The favored Glendale Dynamiters featured 6-5 Tom Dose, destined to be Southern Section player of the year, but Wylie (20), Ramsey (17), and Bocko (14) kept the hosts and Dose (15) at a distance.

5—HOOVER 64, @GLENDALE HOOVER 51.

The Cardinals pulled away the next night after leading 39-33 at halftime.   Bocko scored 23 and Williams 19.

KIWANIS TOURNAMENT

6—HOOVER 72, MOUNT MIGUEL 15.

Hampton emptied his bench as 12 players scored and 14 saw action in the opening round of the 12^th annual event.

7—HOOVER 62, KEARNY 38.

The Komets’ Jim Johnson led all scorers with 19 points but that was offset by Ramsey’s 17, Bocko’s 15, and 11 by  Morehead.

8—HOOVER 39, HELIX 30.

The Highlanders switched gears and played a slow-down game, this after Helix set an Unlimited Division record with 99 points the day before.

9—HOOVER 54, CRAWFORD 34.

Crawford, in its first year under coach Jim Sams, who would go on to compile one of the San Diego section’s all-time coaching records, took an 8-1 record into the contest.

The Cardinals’ stiff, man-to-man defense kept the Colts scoreless from the field for more than 10 minutes beginning with the start of the third quarter.

In winning its first Kiwanis Tournament since the inaugural event in 1948, the Cardinals’ average victories were by a score of 54-29.

10—HOOVER 49, @POINT LOMA 34.

The Cardinals stepped into the Western League for their last pre-Eastern League competition.

As it had been most of the season the refrain of Bocko and Ramsey, Ramsey and Bocko was heard as John scored 20 and Walt 13.

11—HOOVER 47, LINCOLN 45.

The Cardinals opened the Eastern campaign against the 4-3 Hornets, a talented team that hadn’t lived to its so-called potential under first-year coach Warren Barritt.

In a gritty struggle, Hoover finally put Lincoln away on Williams’ 30-foot jump shot with 3 seconds left.

Williams scored 24 points as Hoover survived.  Bill Wylie was out with a leg infection.  Hampton was “barely audible” from effects of the flu, and Ramsey, battling the flu, played only one quarter and scored one point.

Norm Potter, 6-2, and Dave Sickels, 6-5, replaced Ramsey and Wylie.  Lincoln’s Joe Cisterna sustained a possible shoulder separation and was hospitalized.

The Cardinals made only 18 of 50 shots from the field for 36 per cent.  Lincoln, behind T.W. (Tommy) Bell’s 24 points, shot 43 per cent, 19×43.

12—HOOVER 66, @CRAWFORD 36.

The recovered Wylie led with 15 points and 10 other Cardinals scored.

*(Did Hoover finish the regular season with 24 consecutive wins, as has always been accepted, or was their total actually 23?

(The number appears to be 23.

(Published reports were that the 11-0 Cardinals were scheduled to play only Crawford in the second week of league play.   There was no record of a second game that week or a 13^th win.

(The San Diego Union’s weekly, Monday morning rundown of standings, however, listed the Cardinals with a 13-0 record, although the Union’s weekly individual and team statistics were for 12 games).

13—HOOVER 63, SAN DIEGO 44.

Biggest crowd of year, probably 1,600 including standees, at Hoover.   Hampton’s team collected its first victory over San Diego since 1956-57.  Williams and Bocko scored 18 points each.

14—HOOVER 47, @MISSION BAY 36.

The newspaper reported this as the Cardinals’ 15^th win in a row. The Union would be one game ahead of Hoover for the rest of the season.

15—HOOVER 59, POINT LOMA 44.

Wylie was picking up steam, connecting on 12 of 17 shots for 25 points and the Cardinals converted 23 of 43 shots for 53 per cent.  Walt Ramsey scored one point and fouled out with 5:25 left in the game.

16—HOOVER 85, @ST. AUGUSTINE 52.

Ten players scored, with Wylie (26), Bocko (17), and Ramsey (13) leading the parade.

17—HOOVER 57, @CLAIREMONT 50.

The Cardinals apparently were not excited at the prospect of playing a second-year school with a 6-9 record, in its first game in a new gymnasium, and in the afternoon.

The seemingly disinterested East San Diegans were guided by John Bocko’s 20 points. Ramsey added 17 and Wylie 15.

18—HOOVER 66, @LINCOLN 52.

The  Redbirds began the second round of league play with a convincing win at usually troublesome Lincoln. The Cardinals had beaten the Hornets five times by three points or less in the last three seasons.

Hoover converted only 37 per cent of field-goal attempts to Lincoln’s 40 but it commanded the backboards with 61 shots to 52 and with a 30-20 advantage in rebounds.

“Our all-around best effort,” said Hampton, who cautioned that if Hoover (6-0 in the Eastern) fell to San Diego in a couple weeks, “The race could end in a tie.”

19—HOOVER 60, CRAWFORD 36.

They were scoreless for the first four minutes and then solved Crawford’s zone defense, with all five starters scoring at least 10 points.

20—HOOVER 66, EL CENTRO CENTRAL 32.

Hampton picked up a late-season, nonleague game with the visitors from Imperial Valley.  All 12 players on each team saw action.

21—HOOVER 59, @SAN DIEGO 43.

The floundering Cavemen were never really in it, trailing 52-28 after three quarters. Hoover’s Big Three scored 48 of the 59 points.

22—HOOVER 74, MISSION BAY 33.

Kenny Hale, whom Charlie Hampton had replaced at Hoover in 1952-53, had retired  after beginning the Mission Bay program, and the Buccaneers, contenders in the previous three seasons, were not competitive.

Bucs coach Paul  Beck inherited a team minus such recent standouts as Doug Crockett, Frank Schiefer, Tom Tenney, Jerry Dinsmore, and Bill Cravens.

23—HOOVER 73, ST. AUGUSTINE 51.

“Unbeaten, untied, unawed,” wrote Jerry Magee of The San Diego Union of the Cardinals, who concluded an 8-0 league season and 23-0 regular season.

Hoover led, 35-12, at the half after  stunning the Saints with a 21-4 second quarter.

SOUTHERN SECTION PLAYOFFS

24—HOOVER 76, HILLTOP 58.  The first-year Lancers, coached by the taciturn Paul Pruett, who had success at San Dieguito, posted a 20-win season and won the Chino tournament.

The Chula Vistans were game but not ready for prime time.

Hilltop still was in the contest when it trailed, 61-50, midway in the fourth quarter, but the Cardinals eased to the win behind Ramsey’s 25 points, and 18 each by Bocko and Williams.

Writer John MacDonald, who seldom covered the high schools for the Union, identified the Hoover back court as “Don” Williams and “John” Morehead.

25—HOOVER 60, COVINA 50,@Walnut.

Writer Jerry Magee said the Covina Colts resisted like a young bronc at neutral Mt. San Antonio Junior College in nearby Walnut.

Shorter Covina (23-7), with no starter taller than 6 feet, 3 inches, were coached by the legendary Windorf (Doc) Sooter, who won 647 games from 1947-72.

The Colts took an early, 11-5 lead and battled the Cardinals throughout, but Ramsey hitting jumpers and scoring under the hoop, logged 22 points and kept the Colts reined in.

Hoover, knocking down 50 per cent of its shots in the late regular season, may have felt playoff pressure in the unfamiliar environment, converting only 19 of 53 shots for 36 per cent to Covina’s 18×54 and 30 per cent.

Covina set screens for jump shooter Jerry Barron.  Wylie sat with 4 personals with 6:13 left in third.

The story was similar to a 68-57, 1956 playoff loss to Montebello, when the Cardinals got into foul trouble trying to check jump shooting Jerry Pimm.

Hampton had to shift to a zone defense early in the third period. It was the first time this season Hoover had to abandon its favorite, man-for-man barricade.

Sooter wouldn’t say Hoover was toughest team he faced, “but they were toughest on the backboards.  They were too big for us.”

Hampton declared the contest was his team’s poorest effort of the season.  “Mainly because this was the best defensive team we had played.

“Our boys may have been scared,” added the surprisingly candid Hampton.  “I told them how tough Covina was so often I may have scared them.”

26—HOOVER 41, MONROVIA 33.

Monrovia, routed 53-0 by San Diego in the football finals, brought a 20-4 record and a loss to Covina to Hoover.

Hoover led, 12-4, at the end of the first quarter and scored only 11 points in the second and third.

Monrovia played at an agonizingly slow pace and the Wildcats’ 6-7 Les Christensen scored 15 points, controlled most of the tips, and held Walt Ramsey to 6 points.

Ramsey ran into foul trouble again, acquiring his fourth with 2:13 left in the half.   With the visitors pressing at 22-20 in the third quarter, Hampton called on Ramsey, went into a zone defense, and pulled away.

27—ANAHEIM 39, HOOVER 34, @Los Angeles State.

“A basketball team which has won 27 (sic) straight games can’t possibly be in a slump…” wrote Jerry Magee, but Hampton was worried.

“We certainly haven’t played as well in the playoffs as during the season, but I think it has been more of a mental thing than a physical thing,” the coach told Magee.

Hampton went on to say, “We weren’t up for Hilltop.  In the next two games (Covina and Monrovia) we were a little tense, more nervous than we should have been.”

Hampton concluded with “we’ve had two of our better practices.  The boys have acted a lot better the last two days.”

Sunset League champion Anaheim won its 29^th game against one loss in a 38-36 quarterfinals game against Santa Barbara that was decided in the last two seconds.  That win followed  a double-overtime, 50-49 victory over Montebello and a 50-47  triumph against Long Beach Wilson.

The Colonists, as they did versus Santa Barbara,  continued to  travel slowly but in style.

Magee wrote that “Hoover manfully struggled back (from a 25-12 halftime deficit) even with its 6-7 center, Walt Ramsey, out early in the third period with five fouls.”

With Wylie and Bocko scoring, Hoover pulled into a tie at 34 with 5:08 remaining.

But Anaheim continued its strategic pattern.  The Cardinals scrambled for possession and fouled.

The Colonists scored the last five points on free throws, winning, 39-34, and advancing to the finals and losing to Long Beach Poly, 46-39.

28–VENTURA 53, HOOVER 50, @Los Angeles State.

Beaten by Poly in the other semifinal, 65-56, Ventura trailed Hoover, 50-45, with 4:11 to go in the third place game the next evening.

The Cardinals went scoreless the rest of the way and dropped a 53-50 decision.

BE LIKE NBA?

Jerry Magee indicated that Hampton, in the coach’s playoff postmortem, seemed to suggest that a rule similar to NBA’s 24-second shot clock should be passed down to the high schools.

“There should be something that should make a team shoot,” said the coach.  “I wanted to go into a zone against Anaheim to protect against fouling but if I had I think Anaheim would have been content to just stand there.”

“Every coach thinks this, but I still think we had the best team,” said Hampton.

 

Name Hoover’s starting five in 1959-60 and Johnny (Bo) Williams probably would be the fifth to come to mind.

But Williams, a 6-foot, 1-inch guard, was an effective offensive player (269 points in 27 games) and outstanding defender for arguably the finest San Diego-area team before Bill Walton and Helix arrived a decade later.

Williams, 75, passed away recently at his home in Modesto, California.

The ’59-60 Hoover Cardinals were 23-0, the first major area team with an undefeated regular season, and the No. 1 seed in the CIF Southern Section playoffs.

The Cardinals fell short, losing to Anaheim, 39-34, in a stunning upset in the semifinals round and to Ventura in the third-place game, 53-50.

The losses left Hoover with a final record of 26-2.

The Cardinals’ starting lineup also included 6-foot, 7-inch Walt Ramsey, 6-5 Bill Wylie, 6-0 John Bocko, and 6-1 Dave Morehead.

Morehead teamed with Williams in the backcourt, later signed a bonus baseball contract , and pitched a no-hitter for the Boston Red Sox in 1965.