1943: V is Key
Looking Back: The article originally was published Nov. 5, 2012.
The most important letter in the alphabet was V.
World War II was nearing the halfway point. The dark days of early 1942 were receding and Victory, while not in sight, was coming.
V had become a symbol, visible everywhere throughout the country. There were hundreds of references, from military training programs (V-12), to graphics on sporting event tickets to the ultimate goal of V-E (Victory in Europe) and V-J (Victory in Japan).
School honchos in San Diego had created the Victory League and put the Metropolitan League on hiatus just weeks before the start of the 1942-43 basketball season.
The move was part of the wide-ranging war effort that would extend until Victory was achieved.
Football followed this season.
LONG TRIP
The Metropolitan League stretched more than 40 miles, from National City (Sweetwater) to Oceanside and Escondido.
The California Interscholastic Federation, which governed sports in Southern California, invoked a limit of 6 scheduled games and a travel distance of 15 miles.
The travel mileage restriction seemed to have some leeway, but there was no travel outside teams’ league reaches.
The Northern San Diego County schools were aligned in what the CIF called the Group 12 League, comprising Oceanside, Vista, Escondido, Army-Navy, San Dieguito, and Ramona.
St. Augustine and Brown Military were members of the Group 12 but played a limited schedule and their games did not count in the standings.
The season did not start until October and ended in late November. There would be no Southern California playoffs.
A smaller, travel-safer, and more manageable high school football world was important, as was fuel and rubber conservation.
The players also contributed to the war effort. Many left school during the season, before graduation, and answered a call from Uncle Sam.
ADDRESSES CHANGE, AGAIN
San Diego and Hoover were in a different league for the fourth consecutive year.
They left the Coast League, which the Cavers had help found and were members of from 1923-40, as the CIF experimented with a 17-school “Major Conference” in 1941.
With the war on and travel an issue, the Cavers and Cardinals split into two squads each and became part of a 11-team Metropolitan Conference in 1942.
The Cavers and Cardinals each dressed out one squad as part of 1943’s seven-member Victory, which also included Grossmont, Sweetwater, Point Loma, La Jolla, and Coronado.
There were 18 high schools in the County, but only 15 played football. Julian would not field a team until 1967. Fallbrook had suspended play in 1942 and there is no published record of Mountain Empire’s fielding a squad.
CARNIVAL PICKS UP TEAMS
The fifth annual carnival, which featured only city schools San Diego, Hoover, Point Loma, and La Jolla since 1939, took in all seven teams in the second-year Victory League, adding Sweetwater, Coronado, and Grossmont.
Another change in the format was elimination of the second half kickoff. Play was to resume at spot of the ball when the second quarter ended.
The East, consisting of Sweetwater, Coronado, Grossmont, and Hoover scored a 19-0 victory over the West.
Sweetwater and Hoover each scored touchdowns against San Diego and Coronado reached the end zone on La Jolla. Big plays included the Islanders’ George Massek intercepting a lateral and returning 50 yards for a touchdown and a Hoover touchdown passing strike from Bob Paramore to Bob Kynaston that went 65 yards.
CARDINALS FLY
Raleigh Holt, who began his coaching career in the Imperial Valley and who turned out outstanding cross-country and track teams for three decades at Hoover, guided the Cardinals to a 5-0-1 record and the Victory League title.
Holt, assisted by former Cardinals lineman Bob Breitbard, relied on a meat-and-potatoes attack that featured Eddie Crain, Gene Ricard, Julius Kahn, Freddie Espy, Frank Smith, and Bob Paramore.
Crain scored on runs of 14, 35, and 1 yard and completed the only pass (for a touchdown) Hoover attempted in a 40-13 victory over Coronado the week before the Cardinals met San Diego in the 11th annual rivalry game for city bragging rights and the league championship.
Bill Bailey had moved from Point Loma to San Diego, replacing Joe Beerkle, who went into administration and became principal at Memorial Junior High.
Beerkle had advocated the T formation introduced by coach Clark Shaugnessy at Stanford University and which was hailed as the difference in Stanford’s 1941 Rose Bowl victory over Nebraska.
Bailey, assistant to Charlie Wilson several years at Point Loma, led the Pointers to a 6-1-2 record in 1942, and then brought his single-wing attack to San Diego.
Formations and modes of attack were taking a back seat.
CAVERS LOW IN NUMBERS
Bailey facetiously told Bob Lantz of The San Diego Union that he considered suiting up a tackling dummy, his team was so short-handed.
Of more import to the San Diego coach, pass-catching Everett Posey, who missed a week of practice, would be available for the Hoover game. Posey had received his induction notice and reported to Fort McArthur in Long Beach.
Another Caver, junior halfback Sam Balesteri would be playing his final game. He was awaiting a call from the military.
SMALLEST TURNOUT
A crowd of 9,000, representing the lowest attendance in the history of the game, saw the Cardinals strike with a third-quarter, 84-yard drive in six plays to score the game’s only touchdown in a 7-3 victory.
Crain and Espy collaborated on a 45-yard touchdown pass. Guard Frank Smith toed the point after.
The Cavers had taken a 3-0 lead in the second quarter on Neal Black’s 23-yard field goal, the first such placement in the series.
Hoover was fighting off a threat at game’s end.
Sam Balesteri’s passing had moved the Hillers 63 yards but they came up short. Harlan Davenport caught a pass from Balestreri and was tackled on Hoover’s four-yard line. The game ended before another play could be run.
HONORS
Single wing quarterback (actually, blocking back) Al Sawaya of San Diego earned a CIF Southern Section first-team honor. Second team choices were La Jolla quarterback Ed Teagle, San Diego tackle Ralph McCormick, and Coronado center John Ludwig. Hoover tackle Dick Chase made the third team. Another third-team selection was Compton’s Ed Snider, later known as Duke, the slugging Brooklyn Dodgers outfieder.
SIGNS OF THE TIMES
Mayor Harley Knox told the Carlsbad Rotary that, for the first time in generations, San Diego was ready to abandon dumping in the bay and that Harbor Drive, bordering the bay from Point Loma to Chula Vista was almost complete.
Knox also said that the city had asked the government for 13,000 more new housing units. Previous construction of 13,000 units of government housing mostly was occupied by aircraft plant workers.
TRUE GRID
Coach Dick Rutherford’s Oceanside-Carlsbad Pirates, behind quarterback and future Fallbrook coach Al Waibel, swept the CIF Group 12 League with a 6-0 record…the Pirates defeated host Escondido 31-6 in a showdown which drew a record crowd of 3,000 persons to the inland community…newspapers’ accounts variously identified Oceanside, Army-Navy, Escondido, Vista, Ramona, and San Dieguito as representing the CIF County League, CIF Northern County League, or the CIF Northern Victory League….about 8,000 servicemen, students, and a few fans watched the fifth annual carnival…San Diego got it coming and going in the Carnival, surrendering touchdowns to Sweetwater in the first quarter and to Hoover in the fourth…Coronado scored the East’s other touchdown against La Jolla…Point Loma-La Jolla matched two graduates of an Imperial Valley shuttle…La Jolla’s Larry Hanson was head coach at El Centro Central and Point Loma’s Bill Maxwell was Hanson’s assistant in 1938 and ’39 …Hanson went on to coach the nationally-recognized, often-100-point Los Angeles Jefferson basketball teams in the 1950s…tailback Larry Purdy of Point Loma was son of the Pointers coach of the same name in 1929-30…after 8 consecutive losses dating to 1915, Sweetwater’s Leroy Jackson returned an intercepted pass 65 yards with 40 seconds remaining in the game to give the Red Devils their first victory, 6-0, over San Diego…Grossmont saved all its points for a 26-0 victory over St. Augustine…the Foothillers did not score a point in six Victory League games….
