They gave Tom Ault a tremendous sendoff recently at the Rancho Santa Fe First Presbyterian Church. More than 400 persons, including many San Diego State and sports luminaries from the ‘sixties and ‘seventies, were in attendance.

Ault, 72, who passed away recently, helped create a championship legacy at Crawford High.

Ault played basketball and baseball during a dawning era at the school on 55th Street in East San Diego.  He was a starting guard on the 1962-63 basketball squad that posted a 24-6-1 record, sneaked into the San Diego Section playoffs after a rigorous Eastern League campaign, and won the championship.

Larry Blum, who set a County scoring record with 737 points that year, was Ault’s partner in the Colts’ backcourt.

“Tommy played a key role,” said Blum.  “He was the peacemaker, mediator, and really the player/coach between Coach (Jim) Sams and the team.  He was the one who kept everyone else on an even keel with each other and Coach Sams.  He had the basketball IQ before anyone ever used the term.”

Blum was the team’s star player, Ault the glue.

The Colts overcame a midseason struggle and won a league vote for a playoff berth after tying for second place with Hoover.  They advanced through the playoffs and defeated St. Augustine, 64-44, for the championmship.

Among those paying their respects were former Chargers Gary Garrison, Doug Wilkerson, Jack Milks, and Mario Mendez, along with ex-Aztecs Leonard Di Santi, Jim White, and Eddie Mendez, Utah footballer Dan Spinazzola, and Ault’s athletic Crawford  classmates Tom Whelan, Mike Bladow, Dave Bruen, Bill Rainey, Ron Fox, Jim Rupe, and Fritz Ziegenduss, among others.

Blum said he and Ault forged a friendship in the seventh grade at Horace Mann Junior High after Blum’s family moved from Washington state to San Diego.

The pair were united in gym class, probably, said Blum, because their names were close alphabetically.

“Our friendship lasted over six decades and to the last day thrived,” said Blum, who went on to play at the University of San Francisco and became a successful Bay Area businessman who still finds time to play pickup basketball weekly at USF.

A palpable buzz was heard throughout San Diego gymnasiums this season, hummed to a pitch by a 5-foot, 8-inch sharpshooter with an unorthodox jump shot.

St. Augustine’s Tom Shaules set scoring records and drew huge crowds, but Shaules and his husky teammate, Sammy Owens, were a virtual two-man team and the Saints, while making the scoreboard blink, did not make the playoffs despite a 20-6 record and 11-5 City Prep League standing.

San Diego, Mission Bay, Hoover, and eventually Lincoln, were able to stop the Saints in the fratricidal circuit that embraced nine teams and 16 games.  The league season began before the annual, pre-Christmas Kiwanis Tournament and produced Tuesday afternoon and Friday night dramas seemingly every week in January and February.

Meanwhile, Chula Vista and Sweetwater, blood rivals only four miles apart, separated themselves in the Metropolitan League.  Escondido had to win a playoff with Oceanside to earn the Avocado League’s postseason bid, and Ramona went on a winning streak in the Southern Prep.

SAN DIEGO

Artist Gilbert and Edward Lee Johnson, the team’s leading scorers the year before, and Barry Landon and Eugene Sheridan formed a solid nucleus of veterans.   Football players Ezell Singleton and Bobby Anderson joined after the Southern California finals loss to Downey, and a spindly junior, Arthur (Hambone) Williams, who did not play basketball as a sophomore, became the team’s playmaker and would forge a legendary career that took Williams all the way to the Boston Celtics and an NBA championship.

The Cavers lost a fourth-quarter lead of 56-48 in the league opener at St. Augustine as Shaules scored 14 of his team’s final 18 and 35 overall in a 62-56 victory. Johnson fouled out with 3:05 left in the third quarter and Gilbert with 30 seconds remaining in the third. San Diego also was upset, 55-53, by Beverly Hills in the Kiwanis Tournament.

The Kiwanis loss was San Diego’s last in a 23-2 regular season that culminated with a 15-1 run through the City Prep League. The Hillers won the return match with the Saints, 65-57, swept Mission Bay, 47-45, in overtime and 62-50, routed Hoover, 68-42, and 54-46, and stopped Lincoln, 63-45, and 68-52.

(Shaules scored 27 in the second game against San Diego but 14 of those points came in the fourth quarter after the Cavers had taken a 50-38 lead.

(Allan Zukor, a two-year Cavers letterman in ’57-58 and ’58-59, remembered. Coach Dick Otterstad employed Zukor as “Shaules” in practice.  “It was so much fun, launching it from everywhere with that side step that Tom perfected,” said Zukor).

Dick Otterstad, a portly, foot-stomping coach, looked on in disbelief with others in a crowded San Diego gym as the Cavers stumbled in their first-round playoff against a Chula Vista squad they had beaten, 50-34, in December.  San Diego trailed, 48-47, and had a chance to win when Ezell Singleton was fouled as time ran out.  Singleton missed two free throws and one of the best teams in school history suddenly was out of business.

Gilbert was CPL player of the year with a high of 35 points and 24 rebounds in a 61-38, Kiwanis Tournament win over Sweetwater.  Johnson’s 37 points in an 85-38 romp against La Jolla came within one point of Ivan Robinson’s school record, set in 1944. Gilbert and Shaules each scored 98 points in the Kiwanis, one less than the 99 by Inglewood Morningside’s John Arrillaga in 1954.

MISSION BAY

Kenny Hale, a member of San Diego State’s 1940-41 small-college championship team, was coming to the end of a distinguished coaching career.  Hale was 76-45 from 1947-52 at Hoover and had nurtured the Buccaneers’ program from its beginning in 1954-55. They were 8-16 their first season and 10-15 the next but advanced to 17-7 in ’55-’56 and 18-7 this season.

As in other sports and other years, Mission Bay’s emergence robbed La Jolla of its favorite area of athletes, Pacific Beach and Mission Beach.  These Bucs were mostly home grown with Frank Schiefer, Jerry Dinsmore, Andy Saraspe, and Tom Tenney, but forward Doug Crockett, their leading scorer, had played his sophomore season at La Jolla, where Crockett’s older brother, Clyde, was the league scoring leader.

The Bucs dropped their first meeting with St. Augustine, 49-42, but stunned the Saints, 74-44, in the Kiwanis Tournament, exposing the first chink in the armor of the high scoring North Park team.  Mission Bay defeated Beverly Hills for its second straight Kiwanis championship, 43-33, and was 6-0 in the league when it went to San Diego in mid-January.

Hale’s club at one point trailed San Diego by 11, fought its way back to take a 39-38 lead but was forced into overtime and lost, 47-45.

The Bucs were 5-6 overall the rest of the way and they finished 11-5 in the league, same as St. Augustine and Hoover, but their 4-0 record against the Saints and Cardinals earned the Pacific Beach team the CPL’s second playoff berth, and it exited early, losing to Los Angeles Mt. Carmel, 68-45, at Loyola University.

ST. AUGUSTINE

Shaules set County records with 60 points in one game and 736 for the season and Owens added 422.  Together Shaules and the 6-foot, 185-pound Owens accounted for 69.5 per cent of their team’s 1,665 points.  The Saints were 16-1 at one point but their rivals, with second opportunities to execute more effective zone defenses and double teams, took advantage.

Mission Bay repeated its Kiwanis triumph with a 61-42 victory in Round 2 of the CPL.  Hoover swept the Saints, 55-48, and 71-57, and Lincoln, beaten, 74-50, in Round 1, stifled Shaules, holding him to a season-low 12 points with a “box and one” zone, the “one” being guard Pete Colonelli, won the rematch, 55-38.  Shaules fouled out with 32 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

A 102-38 win over first-year Crawford (search also ”1957-58 Shaules and Saints…”), in which Shaules set a record with 60 points, did not break the County standard, or even the  school record. The 1951-52 team topped San Diego Vocational, 104-19.  Coronado also was reported to have beaten Rancho del Campo, 103-31, in 1953-54.

The Saints cleared up the little matter about the single-game team scoring record with a 105-34 win over La Jolla a few days later.  Shaules scored 37 points and Owens  30. Coach Jerry Moriarty’s team averaged 88 points in the last four games of the first round. Shaules averaged 42 in that stretch and had a 30.7 average after his first 16 games.

Saints students and followers were so vocally abusive and disruptive in a 61-42 loss to Mission Bay that school principal John Aherne twice walked onto the basketball court and admonished the team’s followers.

Shaules scored 53, second highest total in County history, as the Saints went past 100 for the third time in a 104-43 repeat romp over La Jolla.  Tied with Mission Bay going into the final week, each with an 11-3 record, the Saints lost their last two, at Lincoln and at home versus Hoover.  Mission Bay also dropped a pair but advanced.

HOOVER

Forward Norris Greenwood, who would set a school record with 446 points and become the first African-American Senior Class president at the school, was coach Charlie Hampton’s only returning starter in what essentially was a rebuilding year after two straight league championships and deep runs in the Southern California playoffs.

The Cardinals managed to earn a three-way tie for second with Mission Bay and St. Augustine and they upset the Saints and dealt them their first CPL loss, 55-48. Hoover swept St. Augustine but lost a pair to Mission Bay, allowing the Bucs to win the league vote for the second playoff bid.

Hoover’s downfall in the 17-8 season was a 69-52 upset loss to Lincoln in Round 2. The Cardinals had beaten the Hornets in overtime in the first round.

LINCOLN

The Hornets were 6-1 down the stretch after a 5-8 start and they overcame Hoover and Mission Bay, teams that had meted out misery to the Hornets the last two seasons.  A 50-47 loss in 1956-57 was virtually repeated when Lincoln visited Hoover in the first round and led, 42-40.  “We finally beat Hoover!” shouted vice principal George Parry, as the game apparently ended.

Parry groaned, however, as a foul had been called on Hornets center Juarez Meals, who committed an offensive violation going to the basket as time ran out instead of passing the ball or doing nothing.  Hoover’s Wayne Britt drained two free throws with no time on the clock and the Cardinals went on to win in overtime, 48-47.

Lincoln dominated the Cardinals in the rematch and then got even with Mission Bay, which had punished the Southeast school, 50-33, 38-24, 55-33, and 67-39, in four recent meetings.  The Bucs led the Hornets, 48-41, with four minutes to go but Kern Carson’s eight points down the stretch pushed Lincoln to a 53-49 victory and their second big win in a week.  They stopped St. Augustine, 55-38, three days earlier and finished with a 10-6 league record, 11-9 overall.

SWEETWATER-CHULA VISTA

Sweetwater won its second straight Metropolitan League title with a 9-1 record, losing only in the final game to 8-2 Chula Vista, 44-32.  The Red Devils won an earlier match on Wayne Sevier’s late jump shot, 42-40, on the Sweetwater floor.

While vaunted City League teams went out in the first round of the playoffs, Sweetwater (13-5) and Chula Vista (16-9) won their openers.  Sweetwater outlasted the 23-6, visiting Anaheim Colonists, 41-37, and Chula Vista scored a stunning, 48-47 victory over the heavily favored San Diego Cavemen.

The Spartans were not awed by San Diego’s record or reputation.  They took a 14-10 first-quarter lead and increased it to 26-19 at halftime.  The Cavers seemed to be in command after knocking down all 10 of their field goal attempts and taking a 39-32 advantage at the end of three quarters.

But Coach Al Gilbert’s Spartans did not shrink. They pecked away at the Cavers’ lead and finally went ahead on Art Johnson’s looper from the baseline with 50 seconds left and then rode out what they thought was a one-point victory.

The Spartans began celebrating at the final gun but an official had called Dick Baumann for a foul on San Diego’s Ezell Singleton, who could not convert, and Chula Vista, behind Baumann’s 11 points, 10 each by Phil Lind and Bill Foley, and 9 and 8, respectively by Johnson and Dennis Mesker, moved on to a home game at the Chula Vista Recreation Center against the Colton Yellowjackets.

The formula that beat San Diego was missing as the Spartans, shooting poorly, lost a lead of 20-18 early in the second quarter and were eliminated by the visitors’ three-sport star Kenny Hubbs and his teammates, 45-37.

Sweetwater was knocked out by Compton Centennial, 53-45, in the dimly-lit Compton High gymnasium.  The taller Apaches held Sweetwater’s Bobby Jordan to four points at halftime and took a 24-14 lead which they extended to 37-25 after three quarters.

ESCONDIDO-RAMONA

The Cougars, behind brothers Toby and Steve Thurlow and coached by former Point Loma and San Diego State standout Don Hegerle, posted a 20-11 record and tied with Oceanside (17-7) for the Avocado League title.

Toby’s 18 points led the Cougars in a fourth-quarter run that resulted in a 55-49 playoff win for the big Avocado and a berth in the Small Schools playoff quarterfinals.

Escondido edged Santa Ana Mater Dei, 50-48, at Bing Crosby Hall in Del Mar, where it had beaten Oceanside.  The Cougars defeated Thermal Coachella Valley, 53-37, in the semifinals but were beaten, 49-40 in the finals by Orange at Fullerton High. The Panthers, who won 30 of 33 games, including 27 in a row, finally put away the Cougars with a 19-13 fourth quarter.

Fontana Newman topped visiting Ramona, 45-44, and ended Ramona’s 16-game winning streak on a last-second shot for the smallest schools title. Newman, which scored 124 points in a game earlier in the season, also had ousted Army-Navy, 59-38, in a first-round game.

Ramona, trailing, 41-36, at the end of three quarters, overcame a stall by Newman and took a 44-43 lead on Don Donahue’s basket with 14 seconds remaining. A basket as time ran out by Newman’s Gilbert Velasquez spelled defeat for the Bulldogs.

Donahue scored 14 points and Neal Walters 12 for Ramona, which finished with a 16-3 record.

BOMB?

The Chula Vista pep band and cheerleaders rallied the student body during the noon recess before the first Sweetwater game.  A false threat of an explosive forced an evacuation of everyone to the football stadium, where the cheerleaders rallied the students again.  Sweetwater won, 42-40.

Chula Vista took the rematch from its nearby rival before an overflow crowd of 1,800 at the Chula Vista Recreation Center.  A standing-room crowd of more than 1,300 filled Sweetwater’s 1,000-seat building for the teams’ first meeting.

GROWING PAINS

Crawford in the City Prep League and Mount Miguel in the Metropolitan circuit were newcomers and the results were as expected.  Crawford finished with a 2-19 record, Mount Miguel, 5-14.

Crawford’s first-ever game was a 42-35 loss to El Cajon Valley.  Mount Miguel, as part of the doubleheader, was beaten by St. Augustine, 55-37.  The Matadors topped Crawford the next night, 53-49, as Darrell Rathje scored 26 points.

Crawford, which played only 10^th and 11^th graders, got a reality check when its first league game ended in a 54-15 loss to San Diego.

The Colts did not look forward to their second-round game against St. Augustine, after surrendering 102 in the first.  The Saints won, 64-40, Tom Shaules played only in the third quarter and scored 14 points.

MAN WITHOUT A HOME

Having to practice on the school’s outdoor courts because there was no gymnasium didn’t stop Helix’ John Wible, the Metropolitan League’s leading scorer.

Wible scored 42 points, breaking Gail Barsotti’s school record of 32,  in a 57-54 loss to Lincoln and had 27 points as Helix won third place in the Fillmore Tournament with a 67-48 victory over Santa Barbara.

Wible averaged 20.4  with 388 points in 19 games.  Helix was 7-12 and had to play all home games at Grossmont High.

PETE WHO!                                                                 

Fallbrook’s Pete Sachse labored in virtual anonymity with a pedestrian Fallbrook team (11-11), but coach Jack Sandschulte said he wouldn’t trade the 6-1 sniper for anyone, including Tom Shaules.

Sachse set an Avocado League record with 33 points in a 72-54 loss to San Dieguito and broke the record again with 34 in a 63-48 win over Carlsbad. He averaged 21.2 points a game and scored 446 points,

JUMP SHOTS  

San Diegans Don Clarkson and Shan Deniston were given a plum assignment…they were the game officials for the Southern Section championship game…Compton defeated Compton Centennial, 57-55…Chula Vista claimed the consolation championship in the Chino tournament, 35-33, over Escondido…St. Augustine converted 28 of 35 free throws in its 74-50 victory over Lincoln…Escondido’s Toby Thurlow made 11 consecutive free throws in a 69-52 win over Vista…San Diego and Hoover won three of four on their annual Northern trip in December…the Cavers beat Glendale Hoover, 58-49, and Glendale, 68-53…Hoover lost to Glendale, 51-44, but defeated Glendale Hoover, 56-39…Mission Bay became the third team to win two Kiwanis Tournaments, succeeding El Monte (1948-49) and Beverly Hills (1953-54)…

Fast forward about month, to the round of 4 in the San Diego Section Open Division championships.

If the Max Preps’ power ratings hold and the first and second rounds play out as expected, Torrey Pines (20-2) would play Mission Bay (21-4) in one semifinal and Foothills Christian (19-5) would meet San Marcos (18-2) in the other.

Not bad.

The power ratings, as presented by Max Preps, generally are accepted by San Diego Section bosses and will continue to evolve until the playoff seeding meeting in late February.

Mission Bay closed in on its first league championship since the 1988-89 season with a 51-45, Western League victory last night over St. Augustine, No. 6 in Max Preps.

Foothills Christian still holds sway in the weekly Union-Tribune poll (I  have voted each week for Torrey Pines as No. 1). The Knights have five Coast League games left and Torrey Pines has six Avocado League encounters  plus a nonleague contest against Francis Parker.

There are a couple troublesome opponents on the horizon for each, but both figure to strongly close out the regular season.

AREA CRED

Foothills Christian rose from 13^th to 10^th in Cal-Hi Sports’ weekly ratings and Mission Bay went up one position to 13^th.  San Marcos and Torrey Pines remain on the bubble.

West Hills’ Cameron Barry (no relation to Rick, Drew, or Brent) has fallen off a little in the last two weeks but still ranks 12^th among U.S. scorers.

Barry is averaging 33 a game with 660 points in 20 games. The leader is Tommy Murr of Lindsey Lane Christian in Athens, Alabama, with 1,031 points in 26 games for a 39.7 average.

Barry is the state leader, ahead of Camarillo’s Jaime Jaquez, who is averaging 32.8 with 688 points in 21 games.

Jc Canahuate of Army-Navy is No. 2 in San Diego and 12^th in California at 27.9 with 585 points in 21 games.  Torrey Pines’ Bryce Pope (22×509, 23.1) is third in San Diego and 40^th in California.

Union-Tribune Boys’ poll through Monday, Jan. 29:

Rank	Team	Record	Points	Last Poll
1	Foothills Christian (7)	19-5	115	1
2	Torrey Pines (5)	20-2	112	2
3	Mission Bay	20-4	96	3
4	San Marcos	18-2	85	5
5	Vista	17-6	67	4
6	Mater Dei	17-6	63	6
7	St. Augustine	12-4	50	7
8	La Jolla Country Day	16-7	21	8
9	Montgomery	17-4	13	9
10	Canyon Crest	14-7	10	NR

Others receiving votes: Santa Fe Christian (12-9, 9 points),  Mount Miguel (19-4, 8), The Bishop’s (13-6, 4), El Camino (13-8, 3),Orange Glen  (14-7, 3 ).

Poll participants:  John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune; Terry Monahan, freelancer; Steve Brand, San Diego Hall of Champions;  Adam Paul,  Ramon Scott, EastCountySports.com; John Kentera, Prep Talent Evaluator; Rick Smith, partletonsports.com; Bodie DeSilva, sandiegopreps.com; Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country 107.9 FM; Christian Pedersen, S.D. Preps Insider; Aaron Burgin, Fulltime Hoops; Brad Enright, L.A. Court Report.

Unlikely season, unlikely conclusion.

—A rare playoff run by San Diego teams in the Southern California playoffs.

—San Diego High marched through four rounds to win its only CIF Southern Section championship, along the way setting a school single-game scoring record…maybe.

—Hoover blitzed Class B opponents in an attempted sequel to championships in 1931-32, 1933-34, and 1934-35,  but there was no championship hardware and no satisfaction.

FAST START

San Diego entered the season with four lettermen starters, Ernie Mallory, Melvin Hendry, Vance Randolph, and Lowell Lee, and picked up a fifth, Bill Patterson, who transferred in from Frankford, Indiana.

Alhambra and Long Beach Poly were favored to fight it out for Coast League laurels.  The Hilltoppers were 6-8 overall the previous year, 3-7 in league play, and 0-4 against the Moors and Jackrabbits.

San Diego showed early  that it was vastly improved, sweeping Class A (a more preferred nomenclature than “varsity”) competition on the Hilltoppers’ home floor in the 13th annual San Diego County Interscholastic Tournament that opened the season in December.

With Mallory leading, Coach Mike Morrow’s squad whipped through Grossmont, 48-13, Point Loma, 36-14, and Ramona, 54-15.

Alhambra was the visitor in the league opener and went home a stunned, 31-28 loser after trailing, 15-9, at halftime.  Mallory led the winners with 13 points.

The San Diego-Alhambra contest was played on a Friday afternoon at 3:30 instead of at the usual 7:30 p.m. because the Moors didn’t want to be headed home at night with the threat of fog on the Coast Highway .

Travel and its various inconveniences always were a nemesis for the far-flung Coast League squads.

 

 

COAST IS CLEAR

The visiting Hilltoppers led Long Beach Poly, 18-17, at the end of three quarters in their next game but couldn’t hold on and dropped a 21-19 decision.  It was the Jackrabbits’ 17^th victory in the 19 games between the teams since they first met in the 1920-21 season but also San Diego’s last loss in the 15-1 season.

A 40-18 victory at Santa Ana was followed by a 29-23 win at Alhambra, setting up another big game with Poly at San Diego.  The Hillers prevailed, 29-25, as Vance Randolph, who would be lost to the team at midterm graduation, scored 11 points.

Randolph and acting captain Eddie Preisler were scheduled to participate in cap and gown ceremonies but opted to stay with the team and make their final appearances at Santa Ana.  A 37-29 victory over the Saints clinched the Hilltoppers’ first outright league championship.  They had tied for first with Poly in 1932-33.

With time before the beginning of the playoffs, the Hillers took on the touring Knapps Grocery Stores squad from Oakland.  The 51-25 rout was part of a doubleheader in which Coach Ed Ruffa’s B team, playing an independent schedule, defeated the Markel-Johnson Poultry House, 31-28.

BEERKLE LOOKING FOR EDGE IN PLAYOFF?

Point Loma, 7-0 and Metropolitan League champion after a 24-16 victory over 6-1 Escondido, was the Hillers’ first playoff opponent.

The Pointers did not have a gymnasium (one newspaper reported the Pointers defeated their alumni, 38-28, “on an outdoor court made soggy by the rains”) and even used the Hillers’ gym in preparation for the game.

Pointers coach Joe Beerkle also bemoaned the fact that he had players who were “on call” to the tuna industry.

Beerkle said that if a fishing vessel came in, starters Gil Gonsalves and Joaquin Qualin would have to forego the playoff encounter and help off-load a boat.

There apparently were no arrivals at the Embarcadero, but the Pointers still were outmanned and lost, 32-18.  San Diego the next night took on barnstorming Phoenix Union and beat the Coyotes, 45-35.

WHAT’S THE SCORE?

Morrow’s club met visiting Huntington Beach in the quarterfinals and scored a 73-45 victory.  Or was it 82-45?

The San Diego Union noted the upcoming game early in the week but then ignored the usual day-of-game advance and did not report on the Saturday night contest.

The rival Evening Tribune printed a very short Monday afternoon story that San Diego had won, 73-45. That score also was corroborated by Don King’s Caver Conquest, with attribution to The Russ, San Diego High’s newspaper.

Ernie Mallory’s 18 points represented the only individual total in the Tribune.

The account seemed all well and good until the Los Angeles Times’ result showed a Huntington Beach dateline and a different score.

The Times’ story presented an editorial slant toward the losing team and essentially was a wrap on the Oilers’ Orange League championship season, but the text was accompanied by a comprehensive box score, which showed that San Diego exploded for 53 points in the second half and won, 82-45.

Mallory was credited with 18 points, followed by 15 each from Bill Patterson and Melvin Hendry, 2 by Lowell Lee, and 9 by the fifth starter Roy Cleator.  Substitutes included Billy Cesena (2), Herman Gatewood (6), Mike Shea (4),  and Bob Barth (2).

A player named “Peder” also was credited with 9 points. There was no record of such human, but there was a Homer “Peabody” on the squad.

CIF Southern Section playoff results for the season also honored the 82-45 score.

The Times’ box score still begged the question.  Why no definitive story and complete box score in the San Diego publications?

We’ll have to go with the locals’ 73-45 count until hearing otherwise and with their subsequent 34-32 win over Santa Barbara and 47-35 championship game victory over Bonita.  Semifinals and finals were played at La Verne College.

RARE OUTBURST

What makes the San Diego-Huntington Beach score enticing is that San Diego’s point total, 73 or 82, was 40 to 50 points above normal for the era. Basketball was a slow-moving, low-scoring, and slowly evolving game offensively, although San Diego somehow scored 76 points in the 1916-17 season against Escondido, which scored 23.

If 82 was correct in San Diego’s progression of high-point totals, the 80 against Grossmont in 1952-53 would be invalid.  The issue became moot in 1957-58, when San Diego outscored La Jolla, 86-40.

RIVALRY ON HIATUS

The lede (first paragraph) on an article in The San Diego Union on Jan. 15, 1936:

“Though coaches and principals of both schools are anxious for the series to continue, it now appears that students of San Diego and Hoover Highs will be without their annual Hilltop-Cardinal cage titanic, yearly the high spot of the basketball programs of the rival city schools.”

Hoover had become a member of the Bay League and played league games on Friday.  San Diego played Coast League games on Tuesdays and Fridays.  Coaches Mike Morrow of San Diego and Bruce Maxwell of Hoover looked for loopholes in their schedules.

The series could be played on Wednesday or Thursday, but this would have put Morrow’s players at the disadvantage of two league and one bragging rights game in one week.

The Cardinals and Hillers, who first played in 1933-34, would resume their rivalry in 1936-37 and played at least once a season until 1976-77.

SWARM OF BEES

Hoover’s powerful Class B team, won the County tournament by defeating Grossmont, 37-4, San Diego, 30-26, and Sweetwater, 37-7, and, led  by future San Diego State legend Milton (Milky) Phelps, left their new Bay League rivals reeling.

The Cardinals won league games by scores of 61-24, 49-7, 43-25, 59-27, and 51-14.  Santa Monica came closest but still was a well-beaten 35-19.  The Cardinals rolled in the playoffs, running Carpinteria off the court, 60-12, and swarming San Luis Obispo, 66-30.

The B playoff semifinals and final rounds were at El Monte High.

Hoover’s opponent in the finals was well regarded South Pasadena, a 32-31 winner over El Monte and the team the Cardinals defeated at San Diego State, 36-22, in the 1934-35 championship.

The venue essentially represented a home game for the Tigers. The distance of about 14 ½ miles from South Pas to El Monte was in contrast to the 120 miles that Hoover had traveled to get to the final four site.

OH, OH!

The dispatch from El Monte following the semifinals was curious:  “Some doubt remains as to where the final game will be played, although Coach Bruce Maxwell has been advised to report to the El Monte gym here tomorrow afternoon with his Hoover team for the finale.”

Maxwell and his team arrived on time and the team was on the court and waited more than an hour, but South Pasadena didn’t show, announcing that it would play only on its home court, apparently because the Tigers were the visiting team at Hoover in the 1934-35 title game.

No forfeit.

The CIF bulletin of April, 1936, announced that the executive committee unanimously voted that no champion be declared since “a disagreement had developed over the place of playing the final game in Class B basketball.”

The committee also passed a resolution ending existing playoff arrangements in Classes B, C, and D and allowing league champions to host at least one interleague championship game.

HILLTOP BEES ALSO STUNG

Competing as an independent team and holding wins over Long Beach Poly and Santa Ana, Coach Ed Ruffa’s San Diego High B team was rebuffed in its attempt to gain a playoff berth.

CIF boss Seth Van Patten suggested that the Hillers’ B squad take on Hoover’s super team in a best, two-of-three series, with the winners being admitted to the postseason.  Since Hoover already had won its league and was in the playoffs, the idea died a quiet death.

FAVORED FLOOR

The San Diego High gymnasium, when not used for practice by the Hilltoppers’ teams, was in play virtually every day of the week.

Point Loma and Sweetwater moved their Metropolitan League opener up one day in order to play on the San Diego court.  The teams didn’t want to use Sweetwater’s outdoor court.

San Diego’s playoff with Point Loma was rescheduled for the afternoon.  Hoover had requested the San Diego gym for that night.

Metropolitan League teams came from long distances to play games at San Diego High.  Army-Navy, Coronado, and Escondido were the only other schools to have gyms.  Oceanside’s building was almost complete.

SET SHOTS

Ernie Mallory, one  of the  top players of the first half-century in the County, and Vance Randolph of San Diego were on the all-Southern California first team…a second-team guard was Pasadena Muir Technical’s  Jackie Robinson…Point Loma coach Joe Beerkle, short of players, moved varsity standout Joaquin Qualin to Class B and Qualin scored 12 points in a 40-12 win over Army-Navy…Ramona won the Southern Prep League championship by defeating runner-up Julian, 43-8…Hoover fielded five teams, Varsity, Class B and C, junior varsity and junior varsity B…Hoover’s Class C squad nosed out Memorial Junior High,15-13…after players had dressed and departed for home it was discovered that Memorial had scored an additional two points…the teams agreed to play another game the next week…Dickie Tazlear scored 16 as Hoover prevailed, 30-24….

 

“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 remaining 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….