Bill Rainey left with a couple championships when he graduated from Crawford High in 1962 and went on to the University of Southern California.

Rainey, who passed away recently at his home in Seattle, was the San Diego Section football player of the year in 1961 and also was the first San Diego Section track-and-field champion in the 880-yard run in 1961.

Two separate and distinctive achievements.

As a junior Rainey bested  the field at Kearny High in the inaugural San Diego Section championships, winning in a time of 1:58.0.

Rainey proceeded to score 19 touchdowns in the fall and led Crawford to the CIF championship, 13-0 over Kearny, but it was in the game the previous week that forever etched Rainey’s name in San Diego Section lore.

 

The 175-pound halfback scored 5 touchdowns in a 31-13 victory over Helix in a contest billed as matching the two best teams in the County.  Entering the game Crawford was 6-0-2 and Helix 8-0.

Crawford’s 8-0-2 championship record remains the only unbeaten season in school history.

Rainey was an all-Southern California, first-team choice by the Helms Athletic Foundation and the San Diego Section player of the year.

Bill did not defend his 880-yard championship in the spring track season.  He instead contributed to Crawford’s track-and-field squad by becoming a pole vaulter.

The CIF board of managers passed a resolution at the end of the 1980-81 school year that resulted in the dividing of three leagues and the board-approved addition of a 10^th regular-season game.

Cause and effect was County population, which had grown to 1.8 million in the 1980 census, with almost 1 million in the city.

–The 10-team Metropolitan League split into the Mesa and South Bay leagues, under a Metropolitan Conference umbrella.

Bonita Vista, Castle Park, Hilltop, Montgomery, and Sweetwater became the Mesa League in  3-A, a classification for playoffs instituted in 1979 to accommodate enrollment concerns.  The South Bay’s Chula Vista, Coronado, Marian, Mar Vista, and Southwest were designated 2-A schools.

Bosses had to meet a second time to determine the names of the Metro’s new leagues.  Other suggested names included Eastern, Western, Bay, Coast, Inland, and Freeway, according to Bud Maloney of the Evening Tribune.

CITY SHAKEUP

The Eastern and Western leagues realigned and a Central League was formed as part of a three-league City Conference.

The 3-A Eastern went from 8 to 5 teams, losing Clairemont and Point Loma to the 2-A Western, and Crawford to the 2-A Central.

The Western went radical as St. Augustine, Lincoln, Serra, and Hoover left and joined Crawford and formerly independent Christian in a six-team Central.

A revised Western of seven clubs included Clairemont, La Jolla, Mission Bay, Point Loma, San Diego, University, and first-year University City, which played a junior varsity schedule.

Palomar (3-A) and Avocado (2-A) replaced the Avocado East and Avocado West, the change not affecting schools except for division nomenclature. Explosive growth in the 1960’s and ’70’s had created several realignments within the original Palomar and Avocado circuits.

LONG AND WIDE

The San Diego Section’s acceptance of the  Imperial Valley League’s four, smaller entities from the Southern Section had meant expansion in 1980 of the old Southern Prep League, now the Southern Conference with a Mountain-Desert League and Coastal League.

The Mountain-Desert, stretching about 125 miles east from Pine Valley (Mountain Empire) to Winterhaven (San Pasqual), also numbered Imperial, Holtville, and Calipatria.

The Coastal loop was more geographically agreeable, going up and down Interstate 5,  805 and their tributaries, to Army-Navy, Chula Vista Christian, La Jolla Country Day, Francis Parker, and Santa Fe Christian, plus, oddly, Julian, tucked away in the mountains.

— Left standing and unchanged was the nine-team Grossmont League, which in the future finally would split.

AIR CORYELL OF FOOTHILLS

Helix quarterback Jim Plum, throwing to star receivers Allan Durden, Karl Dorrell, and Craig Galloway, set a state record with 3,328 passing yards and passed for 32 touchdowns as coach Jim Arnaiz’ Highlanders posted a 10-3 record and went to the San Diego Section finals before the fogbound Scots lost a  34-16 decision to Vista.

Helix’ passing game had a familial connection to the San Diego Chargers’  “Air Coryell”.

Chargers running backs coach Earnel Durden, a former Los Angeles City player of the year at Manual Arts and all-America at Oregon State, was father of three Helix standouts, beginning with Mike, followed by Kevin, and finally Allan, a  tough, shifty,  60-catch receiver.

Linkage did not stop with the Durdens.  The all-purpose Dan Hammerschmidt was son of Al Hammerschmidt, who quarterbacked an upset victory by Cal Poly-Pomona in 1962 over Coryell’s San Diego State squad and who was Helix’ head coach from 1968-72, succeeded by Arnaiz.

The younger Hammerschmidt  tied a record that can never be broken, a touchdown on a 99-yard pass play, with a couple added feet.

Hammerschmidt backed up Plum, returned kicks, played cornerback, and was variously described as “the heart and soul of Arnaiz’ defense.”

DAN HAD A HAMMER

Midway through the season Hammerschmidt found himself playing flanker on offense, stepping in for the injured Dorrell.

Helix was backed up to its half-foot line after Hammerschmidt misjudged his position in calling for a fair catch, fumbled, and barely saved a safety or a Granite Hills touchdown by recovering the punt just before the end zone stripe.

The Highlanders’ senior had no time to fret about his error.

On first down Plum pitched a lateral  that Hammerschmidt caught, then dodged a tackler at his four-yard line, picked up a block from Durden, and took it to the house.

“After Jim threw me the pass I got that great block from Allan—he always blocks like that—and I just ran as hard as I could,”  Hammerschmidt told the Evening Tribune’s Bud Maloney, who was covering the game, a  24-0 Helix victory.

OH, SAY CAN WE SEE?

Dorrell, Durden, and Galloway arguably were the best set of receivers on the same team in San Diego Section history. Plum ranks among the best quarterbacks and Arnaiz is in the top rung of coaches.

It should have been one of the all-time championship games when Helix met Vista in a rematch of the season opener for the 3-A title in San Diego Stadium, but forces of nature and the pounding attack of Dick Haines’ Vista Panthers prevailed.

Thirty-plus years later Steve Brand of The San Diego Union remembered the game as if it were yesterday.

“Helix was loaded with talented athletes,” said the longtime prep writer.  “Vista just hit you.  It was quite a matchup, until the fog rolled in early in the game.”

WRITERS ALSO GROUNDED

When the game started Brand was in the press box high above the field.  “It got so bad we could not see the game at all.  The media went down to the field  and I remember creeping along the sideline, trying to see.  The fog grounded the Helix attack.”

What struck Brand even more was response of the announced crowd of 15,302.

“The game clock operator and the announcer also were on the field, which meant that when one of the teams scored there was a very obvious pause between the score, the announcement, and the cheers,” said Brand.

“If we were on our sideline hashmark and sent someone in motion, he disappeared in the fog,” said Arnaiz.

“We continued to throw the ball but they were all checkdown, short passes, “said the  Highlanders’ coach. “You could not throw beyond 10 yards.  Our passing attack took a beating.”

VISTA 2-0 VERSUS HIGHLANDERS

“Vista ran the heck out of the option and Dan did a great job of holding them down with his great play.  He went out (with an injury) after the first quarter and they began to wear us down.”

Who’s the say Vista wouldn’t have won, fog, rain, or clear skies?  The Panthers defeated Helix 24-0 in the season’s hastily prepared, first game, the so-called “10th game”, which the CIF approved at the end of the 1980-81 school year.

Fog is not a problem, if you’re Vista.  The Panthers defeated Patrick Henry, 32-0, in a heavy, seasonal shroud for the championship in 1974.

Arnaiz and Haines were virtually even when they hung up their whistles after a combined 52 seasons on the San Diego scene.

Arnaiz was 212-77-7 with 6 trips to the finals (4-2) and a .726 winning percentage in 27 seasons. Haines  was 194-85-1 (.698) with 6 championship games (3-3) and a 3-0 record head to head with Arnaiz in 25 seasons.

CHARGERS CONNECTION, CON’T

Grossmont quarterback Jeff Van Raaphorst, the son of  Dick Van Raaphorst,  a kicker for the Chargers in 1966-67, piloted another air-oriented attack.

A placekicker and a converted tight end, Van Raaphorst was virtually even with Helix’ Jim Plum in  the regular season with 25 touchdown passes and 2,975 yards passing.  Plum had 2,793 and 27.

Plum had the edge when Helix defeated Grossmont, 49-14, with a line that read 18 for 22, 336 yards, and 4 touchdowns.  Van Raaphorst completed 20 of 41 passes for 329 yards, and 1 TD.

CONNECTIONS, CON’T.

Willie McCloud of Clairemont, a 6-foot, 1-inch, 160-pounder, was the son of Willie McCloud a San Diego High football and baseball standout from 1957-59.

Fallbrook coach Tom Pack attended Mission Hills’ Bishop Alemany in the San Fernando Valley, where Granada Hills was an L.A. City Section power, holding sway under coach Jack Neumeier, who nurtured several quarterbacks, including John Elway.

Neumeier retired in 1979…to Fallbrook. “That Jack Neumeier?” Pack exclaimed when a Fallbrook High teacher and neighbor of Neumeier’s casually mentioned the name.

After constructing a new home,  Neumeier was free and accepted Pack’s oft-repeated invitation to join the Warriors’ staff as an unattached assistant coach, sitting in the press box during the first half of games and heading to the sidelines with his play sheets and observations in the second half.

Neumeier brought his spread offense and passing game to the Warriors and the results were dramatic.  Fallbrook scored 82 points and had a 4-5 record in 1980.  They improved to 228 points and an 8-2 record this year, their second winning season since 1967.

MADISON PLAYER’S SILENT WORLD

Darryl Rutland, a 17-year-old, 6-foot, 1-inch, 200-pound junior nose guard occupied a unique position in the Madison defense.

Rutland was deaf.

“It’s totally refreshing to have Darryl on our squad.” head coach Bob Bishop told Bud Maloney of the Evening Tribune. “He doesn’t hear the roar of the crowd, just goes out and plays football.”

What about a play-ending whistle by officials?  Would Rutland be at risk for a penalty.

“No,” said Bishop.  “Darryl plays a very controlled game. He’s very intelligent, knows the rules, and plays by them.  He has never had a penalty…i think it would be the official’s mistake if one was.”

WHO ARE THESE GUYS?

Virtually ignored by the media were very small public and private schools that included Borrego Springs, Francis Parker, Julian, Victory Christian, Chula Vista Christian, La Jolla Country Day, and Santa Fe Christian.  They all labored in six-man and eight-man football obscurity.

Like life on the African veldt, only the strong survived, i.e., those with healthy enrollment and paid-up tuition.

Julian, which began playing in 1967, and Borrego Springs, first season of football in 1967, moved down from 11-man and found their niches in lesser numbers.  So did Santa Fe Christian.

10 MORE THAN ENOUGH?

Twenty-nine schools took advantage of the board of managers’ approval of an extra game.  The schools played before classes started and with limited time to prepare.

Reaction was mixed.

“I’m all for it,” enthused Vista coach Dick Haines, whose team ended Helix’ 12-game winning streak 24-10 before 5,500 persons at Vista. “It was a well-played game with few penalties and no injuries.”

But there were 300 yards in accepted penalties and a couple players sidelined when Sweetwater defeated Carlsbad 18-13.  “I still think the extra game is worthwhile,” said Carlsbad coach Mel Galli.

Point Loma and Morse played before a small crowd in the so-named first “Friendship Bowl”.  “It’s not fair to gauge the crowd because neither school knew about the game until a month ago,” said the Pointers’ Bennie Edens.

Point Loma and Morse were the only city schools to accept the extra game invitation and the teams gathered afterward for a postgame meal.  Players with identical jersey numbers sat across from each other.

“It’s not worth it, no matter what the crowd was,” said Granite Hills’ Paul Wargo.  “It was too soon. I question the sanity of having a 10^th game without preparation.”  Wargo’s club beat Bonita Vista 14-0.

“You have to budget your time,” said Jim Arnaiz.  “Because of the early start we don’t have the luxury of one-a-day practices (instead of “double days”).

Mount Miguel’s Brian Smith said some schools took advantage of unclear guidelines during the one-week of conditioning.  “We weren’t even supposed to touch the football.  Some schools touched the ball, believe me.”

“If they could allow us to split the one week of conditioning period into three days of straight conditioning and three allowing use of the ball and blocking dummies, it would be better,” said Arnaiz.

Carlsbad’s Galli cut to the chase: “We’ll make some money off the game, even if the crowd was down a little.”

San Diego Section schools never looked back.  Ten regular-season games became the norm.

WORTH THE WAIT

University City, 17 years after original planning, opened on 80 acres off Genesee Avenue in North Clairemont, the Section’s 64^th football-playing school and 13^th in the San Diego Unified School district.

Money for U. City, which began with 10^th and 11^th graders and played a junior varsity schedule, was included in a 1974 bond measure, but “politics, court battles, and angry homeowners delayed construction for six years,” reported The Union.

HELLO, BALBOA

The new Balboa Stadium, at Glenn Broderick Field, named after a San Diego High football and track coach in the 1920s and ‘thirties, was home field again for San Diego.

The Cavers played three games in the 3,700-seat facility, which was wired for lights and future expansion to 5,000 seats.

The original stadium was built in 1914.  An upper deck to accommodate the San Diego Chargers was constructed in 1961.  The stadium was demolished in 1978.

TRUE GRID

Helix linebacker and baseball catcher Jerry Schniepp saw beyond the game… Schniepp was destined for a career in athletics and in 2011 became the fifth commissioner in San Diego Section history, serving until Schniepp’s 2020 retirement… the CIF finally was able to raise $21,000 through donations to cover expenses for using San Diego Stadium as the championship venue after fears that a financial shortfall would force the two games to 4,000-seat Mesa College, 7,200-seat Southwestern College, or the  5,500-seat Mt. Carmel High… Helix’ Jim Plum cut off the tip of a finger on his throwing hand in a lawnmower accident in May but “I was throwing a nerf ball as soon as they put in the stitches,” said Plum. Dennis Shaw, who passed for 39 touchdowns in leading Don Coryell’s San Diego State team to an 11-0 record in 1969, became head coach at Chula Vista… Monte Vista beat Helix for only the fifth time in 21 seasons and the Monarchs began the week of preparation “thinking brave,” said coach Gary Cooper, perhaps recalling Hollywood’s Gary Cooper and his brave stand in the movie, “High Noon”…. Sweetwater rolled through the Mesa League behind the powerful running of James Primus and senior brothers, quarterback Wes Saleamua and fullback Dan, who were 13 months apart in age… as a 300-pound defensive lineman, Dan became a seventh-round NFL draft choice out of Arizona State in 1987 and played 12 seasons and in 177 games for three teams… Helix’ Karl Dorrell was a four-year letterman at wide receiver at UCLA and was the Bruins’ head coach from 2003-07…Dorrell became head coach at Colorado in 2020 after several years on NFL staffs… Patrick Henry’s Don Shafer tied a CIF record with 3 field goals in a 9-9 tie with Lincoln… .Lincoln reached the 2-A finals behind the quarterbacking of 5-foot, 4-inch Rodney Hill…Section newcomer Imperial defeated Mountain Empire, 15-6, for the 1-A championship….

 

Will there be a season?

Even a truncated season with no playoffs and play restricted to league games will be cause for rejoicing, it says here.

The state CIF is scheduled to make a decision July 20 on whether there will be games in the fall.

Meanwhile, coaches and players wait.

Active top 10 in career victories:

NAME	YEARS	W-L-T	PCT
Rob Gilster	1989-2019 (31)	230-129-5	.639
Ron Hamamoto	1985-2019 (34*)	228-159-4	.588
Sean Doyle	1996-2019 (24#)	204-94	.685
Matt Oliver	Christian (20)	172-73-3	.700
Chris Hauser	2000-2019 (20*)	168-74-2	.693
Mike Hastings	1998-2019 (22)	148-105	.584
Rick Jackson	2004-2019 (16)	141-49-1	.741
Tom Karlo	Grossmont (15*)	108-65-2	.623
Joel Allen	The Bishop’s (11)	100-35-1	.739
Damon Baldwin	Ramona (15)	100-69-1	.591

*Coached at multiple schools (use Football/Coach 100 Club menu to see a complete list of coaches with at least 100 career victories and their schools).

#When Doyle became coach in 1996 school was known as University of San Diego High, and became Cathedral Catholic at a new campus in Carmel Valley in 2005.

TRY TO TOP THIS

Point Loma has had three head coaches in the last 75 seasons.

Don Giddings, later the school principal and the first principal at Patrick Henry, was 52-23-3 from 1946-54.  Bennie Edens was 238-173-17 from 1955-97, and Mike Hastings is 148-115 since 1998.

QUICK KICKS

Jack Mashin was the first coach to win 100 games, when Grossmont defeated Oceanside, 21-6, in game 6 of the 1941 season… El Camino’s Mike Hobbs coached a San Diego Section record and maybe coached or tied a state record… Hobbs’ team
posted a 9-7 record in 2019…the 16 games played in one season have never been equaled in this area…other teams from San Diego played 15 games in the previous decade, but El Camino went one step further when it did not have a first-week bye and was forced to play four San Diego section playoff games before entering the state playoffs…after a 4-6 regular season, the Wildcats caught fire and won five in a row before bowing at Santa Rosa Cardinal Newman, 31-13, in the state III-AA championship game….

Address changes and new names represent most of the news-making activity these days in the San Diego Section as it pushes on to a critical date and still looking for light at the end of the pandemic tunnel.

The state CIF is scheduled to make a decision later in July on the 2020 future of football in California, but steps here were taken over the spring to position the men who will lead.

Nine new coaching assignments have been announced, including those for five veteran mentors who have moved on to other schools, according to prep writing honcho John Maffei of The San Diego Union and Max Preps.

NAME	NEW SCHOOL	PREVIOUS SCHOOL	REPLACED
Tyler Arciaga	Bonita Vista	Mar Vista	Sam Kirkland III
Jason Texler	Eastlake	San Marcos	John McFadden
Bryan Wagner	Hilltop	Sweetwater	Drew Westling
Will Gray	Hoover	Kearny	Zach Shapiro
Curtis Mays	Mar Vista		Tyler Arciaga
Kyle Williams	Poway	Westview	Scott Coats
Shane Graham	Rancho Buena Vista		Joe Meyer
Ervin Hernandez	Sweetwater		Bryan Wagner
Jason French	Westview		Kyle Williams

Kearny has not announced a replacement for Will Gray, who had a won-loss record of 34-25 from 2015-19.

Jason Texler has coached in the North and East County and now moves south to a strong program at Eastlake, succeeding John McFadden, who was 135-50-4 in 16 seasons.

Texler is 79-58-1 in 12 seasons over 16 years.  He was 18-16 at El Cajon Valley from 2004-06, 5-15-1 at Escondido in 2010-11, and 56-27 at San Marcos from 2012-18.

Texler was an assistant on McFadden’s staff in 2019 and is a classroom teacher at the Chula Vista school.

Arciaga was 41-34 from 2013-19 at Mar Vista and comes from a coaching family.  His father Bob Arciaga, was head coach at San Diego Southwest from 1978-80.

Wagner moves from Sweetwater to his alma mater, Hilltop, where he tied a County field-goal record of 53 yards in 1978 and eventually was a punter for nine seasons in the NFL, including 1994 with the San Diego Chargers.

Williams served at Westview since 2016.

San Diego High was on its fifth head coach in the last three seasons and found itself sharing  headlines for the first time with a team not from Long Beach.

Coronado High, across San Diego Bay, was flexing muscles.

Controversy would follow.

John Perry left coaching after the 1926 season and was succeeded by John Hobbs in 1927 and Mike Morrow and Charlie Church in 1928, changes that were followed by a couple years of mediocrity.

The new  coach was John Harold (Hobbs) Adams, a former standout USC lineman fresh from  a head coaching stint at Monrovia High.

Adams played on Perry’s 1920 and ’21 San Diego High teams (in 2013 Adams was a second-team lineman on the all-time, all-San Diego County high school squad).

Adams’s arrival at San Diego ushered in an era of success rivaling that of coaches Bill Bailey and Duane Maley in later years.

The Hilltoppers were 41-11-3 during  Adams’s tenure, which ended after the 1934 season, when Adams joined the staff of Howard Jones, his college coach at USC.

Adams’s first team  posted a 6-1 record, beaten only by archrival Poly, 20-13, in a Coast League battle before an estimated 13,000 persons in City Stadium.

After that game Coronado coach Amos Schaeffer, who attended the contest between the Hilltoppers and Jackrabbits, “challenged” the Long Beach team.

Under a CIF Southern Section rule, Coronado, a Group B (minor) school, could issue a challenge a Group A (major school).

PLAYOFFS OR BOWLS?

Media described the process and similar other midseason challenges as “playoffs”. In reality they were more like midseason “bowl” games. In effect the games helped the CIF project its postseason invitations.

Nov. 9 had been set aside as a date by the California Interscholastic Federation for challenge games open to all schools.

The CIF  struggled for years to find a structured playoff format. Four teams, beginning play in a semifinal round, eventually were selected this season by Secretary Seth Van Patten, after the schools agreed to participate.

The Islanders, with Frank (Toady) Greene and Johnny Lyons leading 15 outmanned teammates, took the fight to mighty Poly, leading 7-6 with six minutes to play before bowing 20-7 in front of 7,000 spectators at Poly’s David Burcham Field.

Interestingly, the Los Angeles Times described a “courageous” Poly team, apparently the underdog, that came from behind to defeat the heralded and “classy Coronado eleven”.

The trans-bay squad finished with an 8-1 record, scored 415 points, and dominated  the Southern Prep League, also known as the County league.

Greene set a standing state record with 11 touchdowns and 14 points after touchdown in a 108-0 victory over Sweetwater and held the school season scoring record with 164 points for 74 years. J.T. Rogan, playing in 11 games, broke Greene’s record in 2003.

Greene’s running mate, quarterback Johnny Lyons, played only 7 games but had 15 touchdowns and 92 points.  Both players played at Tulsa University. Greene played for the Chicago Cardinals of the NFL.

Speculation was that San Diego and Coronado would meet in a postseason game for city bragging rights, but another CIF rule and prior scheduling by the teams prevented a showdown.

Prep squads not in the  playoffs were barred from playing beyond Dec. 1. Announced schedules were chaotic, opponents often changing on hours’ notice and games routinely canceled.

San Diego seemingly was set for a game on Thanksgiving day with Tucson High of Arizona  after finishing runner-up to Poly in the Coast League and Coronado was rumored to be going into the Southern Section Group B playoffs.

None of those games materialized. Nor did a Nov. 9 San Diego High challenge to Fullerton, which instead played Brea.  A San Diego challenge to Covina also fell through.

COACH CALLS OUT CORONADO

Local fans had flooded media outlets with calls for a San Diego-Coronado showdown. The San Diego Sun reported that a game was in the works.

Adams reacted.

Under a Nov. 14 byline by recent San Diego High graduate Nelson Fisher in The San Diego Sun, Adams said, “What do I care about Coronado? Those guys ran out on us before (challenging Poly instead of San Diego), but tell ’em if they’re still squawking when our season’s ended, we’ll take on the whole gang and Schaefer can play, too.”

Evening Tribune writer George Herrick, only three years removed from when he was sports editor of the student Russ newspaper and a classmate of Fisher’s, took a veiled shot at the The Sun:

“Published reports to the contrary, there will be NO game this season between the elevens representing the high schools of San Diego and Coronado.” Herrick quoted officials of the schools as “categorically” denying a report in the city’s other afternoon newspaper.

Herrick attempted to cool the Adams-stirred controversy,  pointing out that “although noted for his impulsiveness, Adams claims he was misquoted.”

The Cavers and Islanders could have met on Nov. 9, since Coronado coach Schaefer, in attendance at the Oct. 26 Poly-San Diego battle in City Stadium, had informed Herrick that day that he would challenge the Jackrabbits-Hilltoppers winner.

ISLANDERS COACH FIRES BACK

“Inasmuch as we have definite intentions to play Calexico either this week or next, it would be impossible for us to meet San Diego,” Schaefer told the Sun on Nov. 18.

“We want to make it clear we’re not ‘running out’ on San Diego. It’s just that it can’t be done at this time.”

The affable mentor was just warming up:

“Coach Hobbs Adams’ statement referring to Coronado as “squawking for a game” is misleading.

“Coronado never requested a game with San Diego nor has Coronado run out on them.

“We challenged Long Beach because we  thought they were not as strong a team as San Diego (a shot at Adams’ coaching since the Hilltoppers were beaten by the Northern squad?) and, too, the secretary of the SCIF suggested we play Long Beach.

“Since we lost to Long Beach we dismissed all thought of a challenge to San Diego.  We readily admit that it would mean but little for San Diego to defeat us.  They have a much larger squad and a superior coached team.”

THE COTTON TOP

Irvine (Cotton) Warburton has been honored as one of San Diego High’s all-time athletes, known throughout Southern California as a champion 440-yard runner, having won the state championship with a time of :49.6 in the spring  and leading Hobbs Adams’ team in the fall with 10 touchdowns in seven games.

Warburton went on to become an  All-America at USC and, like other Trojans athletes, went into the film industry.  He won an Academy Award for cinematography in 1964 for Mary Poppins

COTTON SETS PACE

Warburton earned  all-Southern California first-team honors, the only San Diego-area athlete in the first 11.  St. Augustine’s Blas Torres was on the second team, and Coronado’s Frank Greene on the third team.

LONELY SAINTS

Out of the loop was St. Augustine High, coached by Herb (Duke) Corriere. The Saints were without a league affiliation and virtually without a country.

The Saints’ motto could have been “Have team, will travel. Expenses negotiable.”

The school at 32nd Street and Nutmeg also played by its own rules.  San Diego High graduates Blas Torres and Harry Jones were standouts on this year’s squad, which posted a 7-3 record against teams from all over, several of which were not on the schedule Corriere announced in September.

Itinerant St. Augustine played three games in eight days: Nov. 8 at Yuma, Arizona; Armistice Day, Nov. 11, at Ontario Chaffey, and Nov. 15 versus L.A. Cathedral.

There were 13 high schools in San Diego County, population approximately 210,000. Julian, Mountain Empire, Fallbrook and Ramona did not field teams. Others playing varsity football were Point Loma, La Jolla, Oceanside, Sweetwater, Grossmont, Escondido, and Army-Navy Academy.

WAIT JUST A GRAPE-PICKIN’ MINUTE!

Escondido principal Martin Perry convened a meeting of Southern Prep League honchos to protest a 6-6 tie with La Jolla. An apparent winning Escondido touchdown was disallowed by referee Glenn Broderick, who penalized the Cougars for having too many men on the field.

An enthusiastic Grape Picker (a name also attributed to almost anyone from the Northern community as a salute to  the area’s favorite fruit)  came off the bench to celebrate the touchdown before the play was whistled dead.

Perry and his coach, Harry Wexler, appealed on the basis that the offending player had not interfered with the game action and was yards away from the play.

Appeal denied.

POLY WINS COAST AND CIF

The large throng at City Stadium watched Long Beach Poly overcome San Diego, 20-13,  with two late touchdowns the day after the stock market crash and earn the Coast League championship and trip to the playoffs.

Poly defeated Huntington Park, 7-6, and met Santa Barbara, 2-0 winner over Fullerton, for the CIF Group A championship. The Jackrabbits outran the Golden Tornado, 14-6.

Santa Barbara coach Clarence Schutte announced early in the week of the championship that the ‘Tornado might have to pull out because several players came down with the flu.

The Los Angeles Times, quoting CIF boss Seth Van Patten, reported the next day that the game was on and that if Santa Barbara did not show the contest would be ruled a forfeit.

Coincidentally, the flu outbreak was revealed about the time big wigs from Santa Barbara were told the championship would be played at Poly’s Burcham Field. Neutral Wrigley Field and the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles were unavailable.

MERCY FOR ARMY-NAVY?

The Cavemen, or Hilltoppers, take your choice, scored all of their 27 points in the fourth quarter of a shutout at Army-Navy.  Hobbs Adams played  his reserves in the first three quarters.

Was the San Diego coach worried about blowback from earlier in the decade?

This was the first game between the teams since 1922. Adams was a member of John Perry’s 1920 squad that hung a 130-7 defeat on the Warriors. Two seasons later Army-Navy was on the short end of a 106-6 score.

NO BLAST 

The  Dynamiters misfired.  Adams’ first game was a 32-0 victory over Glendale.  The Hilltoppers tried two incomplete passes but barged up and down the City Stadium field for 24 first downs to four.

FOOTBALL IN MOUNTAINS?

Ramona announced that it was preparing to field a  team in 1930.  The Bulldogs didn’t have any equipment so coach Jack Wilson had students playing touch football.

It would be 1938 before the Bulldogs took the field in a regulation game.

TRUE GRID

San Diego’s Class B team, coached by Glenn Broderick, defeated Whittier, 33-7, for the Southern California championship…a few days after the stock market crash Tom Salisbury, a key player for the Hilltoppers, briefly quit school because of “financial difficulties”…another player left the team after choosing a haircut over practice…San Diego’s bus trip to Alhambra necessitated an overnight stay in Santa Ana…Oceanside coach Glenn Wilson announced during the season that the school henceforth would be known as the Pirates… Oceanside opened in 1904 but did not play football until 1926…located in Pacific Beach, Army-Navy had unveiled a new turf playing field a week before the San Diego visit when Covina was the opponent…approximately 500 students boarded a passenger train to Santa Ana, where a crowd estimated at 5,000 saw San Diego score what was termed an upset win, 6-0, that knocked the Saints out of a possible tie with Poly for the Coast League championship… Poly’s record was 4-0-1. San Diego was 4-1, and Santa Ana 3-1-1… an estimated 15,000 was on hand at Peabody Stadium when St. Augustine scored a touchdown with 20 seconds remaining for a 12-12 deadlock with favored Santa Barbara… the Golden Tornado’s Johnny Beckrich returned the ensuing kickoff 98 yards for a game-ending touchdown and 18-12 victory…Coronado gridders were presented  gold footballs at an awards banquet attended by more than 300 persons in the Hotel del Coronado…a turnout of 70 invited guests at San Diego Athletic Club, including the  superintendent of schools and other civic honchos, honored the Hilltoppers at their season-ending awards dinner…coach Hobbs Adams declared that San Diego would play a 12-game schedule in 1930, with games already lined up with Phoenix, Los Angeles High, and Fullerton…small schools Whittier and South Pasadena left the Coast League and helped form the Foothill League with Pasadena Muir, Burbank, Monrovia, and the new Glendale Hoover…Fullerton and Covina were expected to take their places in the Coast …Covina was out but Fullerton and Long Beach Wilson joined.

Voices were raised, fists shook, and fingers pointed in a  conference room  at  the downtown YMCA on Oct. 24 in  a dustup over eligibility involving players who notoriously became  known as the “Adopted Football Stars.”

Metropolitan League principals and coaches held a special meeting to consider the status of two “sensational Oceanside athletes,” Jimmy Bender and Bill Brazell.

All league schools except Coronado had representatives at the meeting, chaired by league president Earl Andreen of La Jolla and including vice president Clarence Swenson of Point Loma, CIF representative Martin Perry of Escondido, and secretary Darcie Anderson of Sweetwater.

After much discussion and bluster, the league bosses did nothing, instead launching a high, arcing punt into the lap of CIF Southern Section commissioner Seth Van Patten.

Brazell, described as a “rangy end”, joined the Pirates on Oct. 1 from Kilgore, Texas, and is said to have been taken under guardianship of one C.J. Heltibridle of Oceanside.

Bender, a triple threat back, arrived in Oceanside on Oct. 9, two days before a league game with Escondido.

Bender transferred from Sutton, Nebraska, a community of maybe 1,000 persons in the southeastern corner of the state.  He apparently played in several games for the local high school before being “adopted” by a “cousin,” who lived in Oceanside.

On Oct. 11 “Benter”, as his name was first  reported, punted, drop-kicked an extra point, ran the ball, and threw a pair of touchdown passes to Brazell in Oceanside’s 13-0 victory over Escondido.

EYEBROWS RAISED

Bender’s  debut didn’t go unnoticed by league officials, who, after hearing complaints from coaches, began asking questions.

The players  apparently were okay scholastically but would have to address the question of how they got to Oceanside.  CIF rules stated that a “boy is ineligible unless there is a legal change of address by the parents or legal guardian.”

While the Metropolitan League waited to hear from Van Patten, the Pirates’ coach, Dick Rutherford, an entrepreneurial sort who also owned a farm in Vista and had experience as a wrestling referee, including professional matches at the San Diego Coliseum, defended his use of the players the following week against Sweetwater.

After a 27-18 loss, in which Bender ran 88 yards for one touchdown and passed for another, Rutherford more or less ignored questions about Brazell and said, not convincingly, that he was “playing Bender in good faith because we believe he is eligible.”

Sweetwater coach Cletis (Biff) Gardner had officially protested Oceanside’s playing of Bender and Brazell before the kickoff.

UNION WRITER FIRED UP

A   lengthy   game   account   under   no  byline  in   San   Diego’s morning newspaper the following day began thusly:

“With a furious display of gridiron power Sweetwater High’s rampaging Red Devils, keyed to a torrid fighting pitch, exploded the Jimmy Bender inflation at Oceanside High by roaring to a 27-18 victory over the Pirates in a hectic game on the Red Devil field.”

A week later, Bender figured in all three touchdowns, scoring two and passing to Brazell for another, in a 19-0 victory over Point Loma on a muddy field.

WAS BENDER “STASHED”?

The superintendent in Sutton, Nebraska, weighed in, expressing “bitterness” over the incident and “deploring” the fact that California schools could help themselves to young, midwestern athletes.

It also was reported that “newspapermen” in Sutton claimed that a Pacific Coast Conference university figured in a deal in which all expenses for Bender’s trip to Oceanside had been paid by an unknown party.

Coast Conference “czar” Edwin Atherton, a college fraternity brother of J. Edgar Hoover and former FBI agent and private investigator, was said to be looking into the charges.

Van Patten ruled against the transfers on Nov. 7, citing the suspicious nature in which the guardianships took place.

YOU’RE OUT

Messrs. Heltibridle and Bender’s sponsor, Harry Schwarz, had acted with the swiftness of a Nevada divorce.

Heltibridle became Brazell’s guardian on the day the youngster came from Texas and Schwarz filed papers in the San Diego County Courthouse to become Bender’s guardian on the day Bender played against Escondido.

Oceanside forfeited the Escondido and Point Loma victories and the players were done with two games remaining. Bender and Brazell were reported to be “continuing their studies” at Oceanside High.

HOMELESS 

St. Augustine played all seven games on the road, as there was no campus facility and  it was easier to schedule games if the Saints agreed to be the visiting team. They also continued as an  independent with no league affiliation.

The Saints’ league status would  be changed, slightly, in this decade.  They would be part of a league of small County schools during World War II but their games did not count in the standings.

St. Augustine would join the Southland Catholic League in 1945, but that circuit was made up of schools in and around Los Angeles, which would create travel and financial problems for the small North Park school.

He didn’t know it at the time, but student leader and football player Harry Monahan would play a role the Saints’ finally gaining entry into a league of San Diego schools almost 20 years later.

Monahan attended Notre Dame University and became a sportswriter for the South Bend Tribune.  He met Jack Murphy, sports editor of The San Diego Union, at a USC-Notre Dame game in 1953.

Monahan, who maintained his San Diego ties, eventually landed a position on Murphy’s staff.  In the succeeding years Monahan worked with Murphy and St. Augustine principal John Aherne, among others, to get the Saints into the San Diego City Prep League.  It happened in 1957.

WAR CLOUDS

The Pearl Harbor attack was 14 months away, but future conflict was not far from anyone’s thoughts.

San Diego High’s starting center, Walter Anderson, left school after he was ordered to his national guard unit.  Vista fullback Ralph Dominguez  and his brother Rudy were called from school to report for Coast Guard patrol duty.

San Diego coach Joe Beerkle used a metaphor when asked about his team, declaring the Hillers’ 1940  outlook was  “poorer than the prospect of peace in Europe.”

CAVERS, VIKINGS SEE DOUBLE

Hoover halfback Jim Morgan was the star of the second annual City Schools’ football carnival, running 30 yards for a touchdown against La Jolla and 27 yards for a score against San Diego.

The 4 city schools each played two quarters.  The Hoover-Point Loma combine defeated San Diego-La Jolla 26-0.

Hoover topped La Jolla 7-0 and hammered the Cavers, 13-0.  Point Loma’s Jim (Speedy) Finsters ran 88 yards in the Pointers’ 6-0 shutout of La Jolla.

A crowd of about 3,500 attended the carnival, which also included performances by various school bands, drum majors, and flag twirlers.  The first carnival in 1939 was presented at the end of the season.

McEUEN LOCKS OUT FANS

Escondido coach Charlie McEuen’s  contorted explanation for not allowing Cougars supporters to watch preseason practice: “Fans often get the wrong idea when they see a player in a practice session.  These fans sometimes spread false information about a player that gets back to the boy.”

STADIUM IMPROVED

A new, two-level press box in Balboa Stadium was ready in time for football.  It replaced “the old, wobbling, dangerous structure” and was built with funds supplied by the San Diego County Council and convention committee of the American Legion.

Lights had been installed in time for the season-ending carnival in 1939, but the first regular game after dark in Balboa Stadium took place this season when San Diego defeated Compton, 20-8.

BIG GAME ACROSS BAY

It wasn’t San Diego-Hoover or San Diego-Long Beach Poly.  The game of the year was on quaint Coronado Island, usually accessed by a ferry ride from the foot of Market Street and Pacific Highway.

The undefeated Hemet Bulldogs, coached by former San Diego star Kendall (Bobo) Arnett, took on Hal Niedermeyer’s Coronado Islanders.

The Bulldogs, 4-0, were outscoring opponents 122-6, and led the Riverside League West Division. The Islanders, who had outscored their first four opponents, 110-12, were sparked by quarterback Harry Galpin and fullback Stew (Junior) Worden.

Arnett’s visitors took the game to Niedermeyer’s team, outgaining their green and white-clad hosts, but came up short, 14-0.  Coronado never looked back, winning the Metropolitan League championship and posting an 8-0-1 record for the only unbeaten season in school history.

MUSTANGS RUN FREE, TOO

San Dieguito kept pace with Coronado among so-called small schools. The Encinitas entry, which opened in 1936, ruled the Southern Prep League.

John Eubank’s Mustangs, led by Leo Swaim, Max Hernandez, and Red Schmidt, clinched the league title with a 13-0 victory over Vista in Week 7 and defeated St. Augustine 14-0 the next week to finish with an 8-0 record, their only undefeated season before dropping football and being renamed San Dieguito Academy in 1996.

FIVE MAKE ALL-SOUTHERN TEAMS

Tackles Tom Balestreri of San Diego  and Dick Attig of Hoover were on the all-Southern California first team.  La Jolla tackle Tom Bossert made the second team, and center Chuck Clark of Escondido and Coronado halfback Stew (Junior) Worden were on the third team.

SEASON TO FORGET

San Diego High sustained its second losing season in the last three and only the third since 1914.

Coach Joe Beerkle temporarily lost starting fullback Joe Mathews and other players because of academic ineligibility, benched fullback Jack O’Connor for “insubordination,”  and saw his best playmaker go down in  the third game.

Mike Luizzi directed an offense that gained 362 yards and 20 first downs and completed 13 of 19 passes for two touchdowns in a 20-13, opening-game victory over the Pasadena Junior College Reserves.

Luizzi, a converted end,  passed for two touchdowns the following week in a 20-8 victory over Compton, but disaster would hit the Cavers and Luizzi the following week.

Beerkle’s squad of  36 players  boarded a bus at 9:30 on Saturday morning for a six-hour, 220-mile jaunt through dozens of towns and over the winding,  precipitous  “grapevine”,  a steep strip of U.S. 99 that led to the San Joaquin Valley and often caused  overheated radiators, burned out brake pads, or vapor lock.

The Bakersfield Drillers, coached by the legendary Dwight (Goldie) Griffith, had not lost since 1938, a run of 17 games, and they struck the  Cavers with a power running game that featured misdirection plays and against-the-grain cut backs.   San Diego was on its heels all evening.

The 35-13 loss was bad enough but the Cavers also lost Luizzi for the rest of the season with a fractured left arm on the last play of the game.

With Luizzi out, the Cavers enjoyed running the ball in a 37-18 rout of Glendale, led by first-year coach Ambrose (Amby) Schindler, star of the 1933 and 1934 Hilltoppers teams. Joe Mathews scored 4 touchdowns for San Diego.

RAINY DAYS AND FRIDAYS

Hoover and San Diego called off games because of fields drenched by recent rain.

The Cavers’ game with Los Angeles Cathedral would not be rescheduled.  Hoover’s Coast League contest with Long Beach Poly was played a month later, the Jackrabbits improving to 7-0 before 3,500 at Hoover and clinching the Coast League title, 14-10.

“We didn’t have water wings handy and I couldn’t risk the chance of someone drowning,” explained La Jolla coach Marvin Clark, who postponed the Vikings’ game with Escondido.  Most other County schools got their games in.

NO REST FOR CARDINALS

Hoover played the 1939 Southern California football champion and runner-up on successive weeks.

Cardinals coach Pete Walker took a traveling squad of 28 players to the  Santa Fe Railway Depot for a 7:45 a.m.  trip to Santa Barbara, where the Cardinals dropped a 15-12 decision the next afternoon to the playoffs’ second-place finisher of the year before.

The next week, at home, Hoover whipped 1939 champion Alhambra, 19-0, as Hub Foote raced 58 yards for one touchdown and Charlie Blackburn 83 yards for another.

Santa Barbara won the Southern California championship, defeating Whittier, 26-0.

SIGNS OF THE TIME

San Diego police chief Cliff Peterson was appointed by the Peace Officers’ Association of California to take part in a proposal to eliminate speed limits on state highways during daylight hours, with a limit of 40 miles an hour in night driving.

Chula Vista purchased land to build a $175,000 airport. Fred Rohr, who provided fuel tanks constructed in San Diego for Charles Lindbergh’s “Spirit of St. Louis” on its trans-Atlantic flight in 1927, founded Rohr Aircraft Company in Chula Vista in August.

The 10-round, boxing main event at the Coliseum featured Los Angeles’s “Blimp” Williams against the San Diego favorite, light-heavyweight Sailor Jack Coggins, who deflated the Blimp in the third round.

The largest sporting-event crowd in San Diego history took place on Labor Day, when 26,500 were on hand for the Del Mar Handicap at Del Mar Racetrack

TRUE GRID

UT-San Diego columnist Nick Canepa, a 1964 San Diego High graduate, was nephew of the late San Diego High star Mike Luizzi…Sweetwater’s Marcus Alonzo, a Metropolitan League sprint champ in the spring, closed his football career  with 5 touchdowns in a 33-14 win over Escondido…Alonzo ran away with the league scoring title with 54 points…5,000 persons were on hand at Hoover as Sweetwater outgained Hoover 229-84 on the ground, 52-29 through the air, and recovered 8 Hoover fumbles but got out only with a 0-0 tie after the Cardinals’ Jim Morgan was wide on a 33-yard field goal attempt with a minute to play…Hoover end George Brown went on to become an all-America at the Naval Academy and played at San Diego  State after World War II…Brown was team doctor for Don Coryell’s Aztecs in the 1960s and his son George was one of the leading shot putters in the nation at Granite Hills High and was a fullback on Coryell’s 11-0, 1969 team…15,000 persons in Balboa Stadium witnessed Hoover, trailing, 12-7, entering the final quarter, “get off the floor”,  in Union writer’s Christy Gregg’s words, to beat the Hillers 21-12…weirdness included game officials turning on the lights when darkness descended, then turning them off after a meeting with coaches Beerkle and Walker at midfield… San Diego outgained the Cardinals, 216-109… Hoover’s Herbert (Hub) Foote starred at San Diego State after World War II and went on to a long coaching career in the area… Mike Foote, the coach’s son, was a standout at Mount Miguel High and Oregon State and played three seasons in the NFL with the Los Angeles Rams and Washington Redskins… what’s in a name?: Fallbrook’s fullback was Leroy (Speed) Lash… a Sweetwater lineman was “Waffles” Escalante… San Diego  originally announced a midseason,  nonleague game with  the Riverside Sherman Institute but the game never was played… sluggish and blundering, the Hillers dropped their final game to Inglewood, 13-12, before 2,500 “refrigerated” fans in the stadium…a short-term  member of the CIF Southern Section  was the Instituto Tecnio Indusrial, also known as Tijuana Tech in the Baja California city….