At least 19 schools in the San Diego Section changed football coaches this season and probably that many reasons could be offered for this arguably massive turnover.

In no particular order, a few possible explanations::

— Pressure to win
— Long hours and low stipend pay
— Player eligibility
— Transfer headaches
— Meddling administrators
— Meddling parents
— Medical liability

There are other factors, not the least of which is the continued growth of soccer, which is contested at the same time on the school calendar and has grown in popularity while football has been battling an image problem.

Many parents think the game is too dangerous.

But 98 schools submitted schedules and practice got  underway this week in anticipation of the first weekend of games Aug. 26-27.

My preseason Top 10, based on no  knowledge, other than I’ve heard Cathedral “is loaded”, Helix is Helix (speed, depth), that Rancho Bernardo deserves cred after winning a state championship (III-A) in 2015, and so on.

Keep an eye also on Mater Dei, which won the state V-AA division last season, and returns C.J. Verdell, who scored 204 points  and recently announced he’s going to join former Imperial great Royce Freeman at Oregon.

Rank	School	2015	Key Nonleague	2015
1.	Cathedral	7-5	Modesto Central Catholic @Mission Viejo	16-0
2.	Helix	11-2	Concord Clayton Valley @Mission Viejo	13-2
3.	Rancho Bernardo	13-2	El Camino	7-6
4.	St. Augustine	10-3	@L.A. Loyola	9-3
5.	Mission Hills	11-1	Rancho Bernardo	13-2
6.	Madison	8-3	@Murrieta Vista Murrieta	12-2
7.	Bonita Vista	12-3	@Helix	13-2
8.	Mater Dei	14-1	@L.A. Hawkins	8-1-1
9.	Eastlake	5-6	Lake Forest El Toro	5-6
10.	La Costa Canyon	7-4	Whittier La Serna	11-3

Of the 19 coaching switches, 3 resulted only in change of address.  Jerry Ralph moved from Hoover to El Camino, Tim White from Julian to Borrego Springs, and Kyle Williams from Fallbrook to Westview.

School	New	Previous	2015
Borrego Springs	Tim White	Andy Macuga	4-5
Calexico	John Tyree	Sean Johnson	0-10
C.C. San Diego	Dr. David Riley	Gene Rheam	9-2
Eastlake	Dean Tropp	Lee Price	5-6
El Camino	Jerry Ralph	John Roberts	7-6
Escondido	Jud Bordman	Steve Bridges	1-10
Fallbrook	Bob Burt	Kyle Williams	7-5
Foothills Christian	Joe Mackey	Ron Lyyjoki	5-4
Francis Parker	Darius Pickett	D.J. Walcott	2-8
Helix	Robbie Owens	Troy Starr	11-2
Hilltop	Clay Westling	Cody Roelof	5-6
Hoover	Jimmy Morgans	Jerry Ralph	2-8
Julian	Scott Munson	Tim White	2-8
La Jolla	Matt Morrison	Jason Carter	3-8
Montgomery	Sanjevi Sabbiah	Ted Jarumayan	2-8
Rancho Buena Vista	Joe Meyer	Paul Gomes	1-9
Serra	Dru Smith	Sergio Diaz	1-9
Vista	Dave Bottom	Dan Williams	4-7
Westview	Kyle Williams	Mike Woodward	8-4

San Diego High continued to transition to mediocrity from the championship squad of three seasons before and tiny Coronado mixed with the big boys.

Bryan (Pesky) Sprott and five members of the Hilltoppers’ nationally-acclaimed 1916 team now were leading the University of California’s powerful squad and coach Clarence (Nibs) Price was on the Bears’ football coaching staff.

San Diego High was on its third coach in three seasons.  Price moved to Berkeley after the 1917 campaign and Clint Evans, who coached during the flu-interrupted 1918 season, had announced his retirement and relocated to Idaho.

Vladimir Victor Ligda embarked on what would be a one-season stint as the Hilltoppers’ coach.

Ligda was of Russian descent but born in France.  He attended high school in Oakland, and had achieved some success in  track and field for California-Berkeley.

Ligda was introduced in an expansive article in The San Diego Union, which noted that he was a 1904 Cal graduate and had run :51.0 to win the 440-yard race in the annual big meet against Stanford.

That Ligda was incorrectly identified as “Vernon” Ligda seemed to presage a problematic tenure.

ACROSS THE BAY

Coach Wyman Feeler’s Coronado Islanders made quick work of County League competition and looked forward to a second season in the playoffs, in the same calendar year.

Coronado had lost to Fullerton, 18-0, in a 1918 Southern California finals game that was played in March, 1919.  The CIF had managed to get two teams together three months after the normal end of the season.

The year of 1918 was notable for the Asian flu pandemic that killed an estimated 50-70 million people (at least 3 per cent of the global population) and for the end of fighting in World War I.

Some teams were able to complete seasons in January and February, others had theirs suspended, and still others were idle all season.

POLY NOT HARVARD MILITARY

Coronado, which won games by scores of 74-0 and 66-0, and  was not scored on in three County League encounters, had lost only to college or service teams.

The Islanders were supposed to open the season against San Diego, but Feeler changed his mind, saying he wanted to take on San Diego at the end of the schedule.

A Hilltoppers-Islanders game did not materialize and Coronado was assigned to a CIF first-round playoff at Hollywood Harvard Military.

Harvard apparently backed out of the game, this during a time when the CIF had difficulty filling playoff brackets.  The postseason did not have the cachet it would develop in later years.

Wyman Feeler telegraphed the Union sports department that Long Beach Poly was replacing the Hollywood school.  Poly, with an enrollment of 1,100 and many adults on its squad, would take on Coronado, high school enrollment 100, including 47 boys.

Feeler probably didn’t want the game, but it promised a revenue bump for the school and Feeler agreed when the CIF scheduled the contest in San Diego’s City Stadium, a ferry ride and long walk from the island.

Islanders supporters in “machines” circled the streets of Coronado the night before the playoff, honking  horns, stopping pedestrians in the quiet community, and inviting all to come to a pep rally at the school, highlighted by a bonfire, speeches, and a performance by jazz musicians.

The trans-bay eleven was no match for the champions of the Los Angeles County League the next afternoon.  Poly was a 59-0 winner and then defeated Santa Monica, 21-0, in the semifinals and claimed the championship with a 47-0 victory over Fullerton.

FOOTBALL OR TRACK, COACH?

Victor Ligda’s resume indicated in the years following graduation that he had been an assistant professor of physical education and athletic director at the University of Arizona, and assistant professor of p.e. at Berkeley.

Ligda also had been track coach at Los Angeles Manual Arts and most recently instructor of boxing and wrestling at Camp Fremont in Menlo Park.

Football?

Ligda’s sport was track and field and he made announcements during the football season that were about the spring sport, which didn’t begin until February.

Ligda created a football pentathlon, which consisted of  punting, drop kicking, placekicking, “loose” field running, a dash from one end of the field to the other, tackling, and running through hurdles placed as obstacles.

He also publicized a Stadium Day track and field carnival that was to take place in December and served as  coach of the cross-country team.

WHAT’S GOING ON?

Grumbling was heard on the Hilltop and in the local press after a lackluster tie in the Orange League opener with Orange and a loss at Whittier.

According to Don King in “Caver Conquest,” Ligda had the team show up at Whittier 10 minutes before kickoff as punishment for some players’ “horseplay” on the overnight trip to Orange.

The Union reported that the team did not have lunch during the Whittier train trip and had to immediately change from street clothes to its moleskin uniforms.

On Nov. 1, an anonymous columnist for The Sports Mint in the Union expanded on the Hilltop football program:

“Going behind the scenes we  learn that the material this year is average, that coach Victor Ligda is a hard worker but not a top-notch football coach, for his specialty is track.

It was  pointed out that fifth-year player Elmer Langdon became involved in  coaching the team but that Ligda disapproved and requested Langdon to cease.  “Does Ligda fear Langdon is stealing his thunder?” wondered the writer.

Ligda did not endear himself to the squad after a late-game loss to Pomona, 16-14.

“It was just a piece of hard luck,” said Ligda.  “The boys ought to have had that game but they slacked up a little toward the end.”

LANGDON ISSUED CLEARED

On Nov. 5 a paragraph at the end of a midweek story absolved Ligda of alleged pettiness in regard to Langdon’s coaching the team but made Ligda seem derelict in his head coaching responsibility:

“For a couple of days last week Ligda was refereeing afternoon games and was unable to be with the team, so he asked Langdon to help him out by leading the practice for those two afternoons.  Ligda is taking full charge now himself.”

The school band played “Hail! Hail! The Gang’s All Here” as the Hilltoppers headed to the train station on Friday for its Saturday afternoon game  at Fullerton.

“Coach A.E. Shaver accompanied the team,” it was reported.   Ligda was to follow in a private vehicle that evening after supervising track practice.

The 35-0 loss to Fullerton was followed by a 7-0 win over Santa Ana and a 35-0 rout of San Pedro on Thanksgiving Day, giving the Hilltoppers a final record of 6-3-1, their best since the 12-0 of 1916.

The three losses were against Orange League foes and left the Hilltoppers in fifth and last place.  Issues with Ligda continued.

“The team has been handicapped in that they haven’t had a strong hand to lead them,” wrote a Union reporter.  “Coach Ligda, it is claimed, has let the players have too much their own way in running plays….”

ALOHA!

Victor Ligda resigned at the end of the school year and took a teaching position in Hawaii, where he resided for many years.

Ligda’s experience with championship Manual Arts track teams and devotion to preparing the Hilltoppers, even during football and basketball seasons,  did not translate.

San Diego was winless in three track dual meets, losing to Los Angeles, 77-37, Manual Arts, 67-45, and L.A. Lincoln, 62-50.

EASY ED

There is no record of how many touchdowns Ed Suggett scored in his long and legendary career at Coronado.

Suggett scored seven touchdowns in one game for Coronado in 1916 in  what may have been  his freshman season and probably scored at least 150 points (25 touchdowns) each in 1916 and 1917.

Individual touchdown records were of seemingly passing interest.  Reporters at games or taking results  on the telephones were more interested in starting lineups and substitutions.

Suggett scored so often in Coronado blowouts that no official notice was given.

Touchdowns sometimes were ignored by the media, although more complete records were available for San Diego High.

For prep historians, mystery seems to always surround  Suggett.

Here was Suggett again in 1919, in at least his fourth season with the Islanders after reportedly serving in the military during World War I.

Suggett was listed as having played for the “Balboa Park Sailors,” during the war, but when?  He also was reported in the starting lineup when the Islanders met Fullerton in the 1918 championship, which was played in March, 1919.

Ed Suggett went to score more touchdowns at Whittier College, played minor pro football, and became the first coach at Compton College in 1927.

QUICK KICKS

Ralph Nobel, an  Army officer in Europe, was killed in action…Nobel was head coach at San Diego in 1913…many players who saw service in the military during the war returned to high school and continued eligibility…Bob Sieben, a hurdler and sprinter for the 1917 Hilltoppers’ track team, served with the Coast Artillery at Fort Rosecrans on the Point Loma peninsula, as did Fred Kunzel…Long Beach placed seven players on the all-Southern California first and second teams…San Diego and Coronado had none…Five of the eight schools in the County played football…Ramona, Fallbrook, and Julian were decades away from fielding squads….

Competition and controversy were different words with different meanings, but they blurred in the far-flung Coast League, whose fratricidal members regularly accused their brethren of academic or residential mischief.

San Diego High was on the receiving end of a far-out allegation that threatened to stop one of the best teams in school history.

Senior Captain Russ Saunders, the 5-foot, 9-inch, 190-pound blocking quarterback and linebacking defender, faced a charge of accepting money three years before in a boxing match that would have made Saunders a professional and ineligible for interscholastic sports.

If the curiously-timed indictment proved accurate, the Hilltoppers would be forced to forfeit nine victories and the opportunity to compete in the Southern California playoffs.

Saunders eventually was absolved of wrong doing, but not before a dizzying chain of events that took on the aura of a  Saturday morning movie serial.

CIF CHASING RABBITS

The intramural dustup was typical of the Prohibition-era, anything-goes Roaring Twenties, a decade when the growing CIF and its commissioner, former Escondido coach Seth Van Patten, struggled to keep order.

The CIF’s rule on age limitation was only that you couldn’t play if you were 21 years old, but that meant that post-graduates and assorted roughnecks still populated the prep scene.

Coast League rivals didn’t trust each other.

Trouble began in the final regular-season game, when Bert Ritchey ran 62 yards for a touchdown that would propel the Hilltoppers to a 9-0 victory over the Santa Ana Saints in a battle of teams with 6-0 league records.

The victory, before a record City Stadium high school crowd of more than12,000, clinched a second straight loop championship for coach John Perry’s squad.

With a long ride home Saturday night and all day Sunday to chew on the loss, officials from the Northern school prepared to make a call on Monday morning and notify Coast League president and CIF playoff coordinator Harry J. Moore that they were protesting.

IT WAS OUR FANS, SAY SAINTS

The complaint did not originate with us, Saints officials told Moore, but had come from three Saints fans who were said to have previously resided in Coachella and who recognized Saunders as having participated in the desert community smoker on July 11, 1922.

The Santa Ana Three, apparently so vested emotionally with the Saints’ fortunes, supposedly had returned to Coachella, and was able to produce tickets that announced the main event as being between Saunders and Herbert Miller, plus a statement from Miller’s manager.

Manager D.H. Metzler testified his boxer received $40 and that Metzler and Miller “understood” Saunders, whose family resided in Coachella at that time, to have received $25, even though professional boxing was barred in California in 1922.

The muscular Saunders, who was no more than 15 or 16 at the time of the fight, told San Diego reporters that the townspeople of the Coachella Valley “built the boys a fight arena.”

Saunders said the  match was promoted to help pay back the people that built the arena, and that he had received no money and was not aware of the fact Miller had received money.

HILLTOPPERS’ RIDICULOUS DEADLINE

With stunning eagerness, Coast League bosses convened Tuesday at league headquarters in Whittier and, after hearing the charge, informed San Diego officials they would have until 4 p.m. Wednesday to respond.

Perry and vice principal Edgar Anderson, who attended the meeting at Whittier High, returned to San Diego about midnight. The Hilltoppers would have to launch their own investigation and be at another meeting in Whittier in 16 hours.

The playoffs would begin Saturday, with Fullerton a first-round opponent for San Diego or Santa Ana.

Facing the stunningly narrow time frame, Hilltop officials swung into action.

Principal Glenn Perkins and James Saunders, the player’s father, chartered a small plane, piloted by Henry Ryan of the Ryan Flying Company.

“The tale of the trip to Coachella is an epic,” declared a front-page story in The San Diego Union.

FIRST HEMET, THEN INDIO…

Buffeted by winds, Ryan struggled to get the plane’s altitude above 3,000 feet, over clouds and mountains.

“After flying almost two hours, working continuously to get around clouds, Ryan was forced to drop several thousand feet through a hole in the clouds to get his bearings (and make) a landing at Hemet,” the article continued.

After refueling, the party traveled on to Indio, stopping again for gas and directions.

Friends in Coachella, apprised of the situation Wednesday morning, were waiting and prepared to assist the San Diego contingent.

Perkins, armed with affidavits in support of Saunders from the former commandant of the sponsoring American Legion post in Coachella, gave Ryan the signal to take off for Whittier at 2 p.m.

Meanwhile at Whittier High, San Diego High officials on site, including Russ Saunders, watched the sky for the sight of an airplane.  They finally spotted one that passed over and headed Northwest.

The travelers set down again at 3:40 p.m. at the nearest landing field in Montebello, six miles from the meeting site, with only minutes to spare.

“Sloshing through the mud of an open field to a nearby highway, Perkins and James Saunders flagged down a passing motorist, and, with the aid of a five-dollar bill, purchased a mad cap ride to Whittier,” wrote Don King in Cavers Conquest, the athletic history of San Diego High.

Perkins presented Coast League principals with the information that proved the fight was a charity event, with neither fighter receiving money.  Saunders was cleared and San Diego continued to get ready for Fullerton.

Newspapermen were told by Harry Moore that the vote in the hectic meeting, attended and hotly contested by lawyers from both sides, was a unanimous, 8-0 to absolve Saunders.

Santa Ana honcho W.M. Clayton emphatically denied Moore’s  statement.  Clayton said he had voted against Saunders, making the tally 7-1, according to the Los Angeles Times.

RITCHEY NURSES INJURY

The Cavers defeated Fullerton, which hadn’t been scored on all season,14-6, but Bert Ritchey, who had scored 26 touchdowns in eight games (Perry had held Ritchey out of game 9, a 33-0 victory at South Pasadena) was used sparingly against the visitors.

Ritchey had been playing with a sore knee and it threatened to keep him out of what now was a playoff season of only two games.

Covina was next up in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in the championship contest, but Perry figured the Hilltoppers would have a bye after Fullerton and not have to play for two weeks, until Dec. 19.

PLAYOFF SWITCH

Chicanery was not limited to the Coast League.

Instead of playing Covina in the Los Angeles Coliseum on Dec. 19, San Diego was informed that the title contest would be played on Dec. 12 at Covina, where temporary bleachers were being constructed to accommodate a crowd of more than 4,000.

Wrote a Los Angeles Times reporter: “In a more or less bad frame of mind over alleged poor treatment in the matter of transfer of the game from the Coliseum to Covina,  the San Diego High team was prepared to leave today for Covina.

“It wasn’t the change of venue that rankled the Hilltops so much, however, as it was the switch in date,” wrote the Times correspondent. “The tilt was originally scheduled for December 19 but through deep and dark channels was suddenly moved up to December 12, tomorrow, and the field switched to Covina.”

Playoff coordinator Harry Moore said that Covina was being afforded the home game because the Colts  already had played three playoff contests on the road.

Al Penrose, in The San Diego Sun, hinted of a setup and blasted  Moore for the suspicious switch. Covina was going to the expense of  creating bleachers for a 4,000 crowd and, Penrose wrote, “Neither team will make hardly more than expense money.”

With virtually no participation by Ritchey, the Hilltoppers manned up, twice stopping the Colts inside their three-yard line, but Covina had 18 first downs to 8 and the rushing thrusts of halfbacks Sleepy Don Rieke and Earl Needham continually kept the visitors on their heels.

Covina led, 13-0, in the fourth quarter before San Diego scored a late touchdown to make the final count 13-6. Covina, which twice was rebuffed at the Hilltoppers’ one-yard line, had outplayed the Cavemen.

It was a sour finish for Perry’s squad and the bitterness lingered.

COVINA’S CHIEF

Wallace (Chief) Newman, a native American and former USC player, was hired by Covina this year after coaching successful teams at the Sherman Institute for Indians in Riverside.

There were rumors that at least three over-age-limit native American players from the  Sherman Institute  resided at Newman’s home and played against the Hilltoppers.

Another  report was that Covina reportedly refused a  CIF order to forfeit the title and ship the winners’ trophy to San Diego.

With all of the drama, San Diego did well to go as far as it did.

GROSSMONT IN PLAYOFFS

Coach Ladimir (Jack) Mashin was building a strong program at Grossmont.

The Foothillers were 4-5 and 5-2-1 in Mashin’s first two seasons and swept to the County League title and a 7-0 record this year, earning a berth in the playoffs.

Fullerton dispatched Grossmont, 34-0, but the Foothillers didn’t conclude the season with a loss.  Mashin made a deal with the Yuma High Criminals of Arizona agreeing to come over the Laguna Mountains for a season-ender.

Grossmont won, 20-0.

PLAYOFF CRAZINESS

There seemed madness to the method of the playoffs, from which the CIF received much of its revenue and which the governing body often had difficulty filling out brackets.

Some schools just weren’t interested.

Fullerton’s loss to San Diego marked the Indians’ third consecutive week in the postseason.  The Indians played Grossmont on Nov. 19, nine days before San Diego was concluding its regular season versus Santa Ana.

Fullerton’s first game was a 13-6 win over Norwalk Excelsior, a week before it played Grossmont.

Covina’s  game with San Diego was the Colts’ fourth in the playoffs.  They also defeated San Fernando, 42-0, Santa Maria, 32-13, and Venice, 26-0.

HYPERBOLE

Los Angeles Manual Arts was described in The San Diego Union as “the greatest football aggregation developed at a Los Angeles high school in recent years.”

Final score, San Diego 46, Toilers 0.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Six telephones and nearly 100 pounds of pool room apparatus for horse race betting were part of the equipment seized in a raid at the 428 McNeece Building on F Street.

Detective Sergeants Dick Chadwick and George Sears and patrolman Pat Walsh “pulled” what they called the biggest bootlegging establishment found in San Diego.

Frank O’Hara, George Williams, and James Bradley were arrested. The cops said they heard “telephones being used busily and bets made and race track information being received.’”

NEW DIGS AT LA JOLLA

Work began on the grading of property at La Jolla High between Eads and Fay avenues, where the school’s football field would be located.  The present athletic field was scheduled to become tennis and volleyball courts.

NO POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

Sportswriters of the era routinely fostered racial stereotypes and use of slurs.

San Diego’s Bert Ritchey alternately was described as the “black phantom,” “black bullet,”, “dusky”, and even “the ball-packing gentleman of color.”

Covina coach Wallace (Chief) Newman, a native American, was known as a man “with all the craftiness and cunning which characterize his race.”

HONORS

End Rocky Kemp and quarterback Russ Saunders earned all-Southern California, first-team selections.  Bert Ritchey made the second team.

RUSS IS “TOMMY TROJAN”

Russ Saunders, Bert Ritchey, and Rocky Kemp went on the play at USC and Saunders’s defined and muscular physique served as the model for the famed Tommy Trojan statue on the USC campus.

“Racehorse Russ”  probably was the second San Diego-area player in the NFL (after Brick Muller of the 1926 L.A. Buccaneers, who were based in Chicago). Saunders was a fullback on the 1931 Green Bay Packers championship squad  but forsook football and gravitated to Hollywood.

Saunders was an assistant director and production manager on more than 150 films for Warner Brothers and Burbank Studios, often working with USC teammate John Wayne. Rocky Kemp embarked on a career in high school coaching in Long Beach and Ritchey joined the San Diego police department in 1935, retiring as a detective in 1964, and then earning his degree to practice law.

QUICK KICKS

San Diego, population 145,000, was 52^nd among U.S. cities but second fastest in growth to Los Angeles…San Diego was 93^rd in population in the 1920 census…Glendale, which won the 1924 Southern California championship, was rudely welcomed to the ’25 season in a 42-0 loss at San Diego…Santa Ana made it a two-day trip to San Diego, overnighting Friday at the Stratford Hotel in Del Mar…Gerald (Tex) Oliver coached the San Diego B team to a 13-0 win over Huntington Park for the Southern California championship…Oliver would move on to Santa Ana in 1927, become head coach at the University of Arizona in 1933 and at Oregon in 1938…coach John Perry ordered canvas vests for Cavers runners, saying that Manual Arts players “grasped” the sweaters of Hilltop ball carriers, short circuiting 12 plays…the vests were to be tight-fitting…San Diego stayed in Fullerton the night before the game at Covina…San Diego was penalized 6 times for 100 yards, most being 15-yard holding fines, in a 7-0 win at Pasadena…Henry Ryan’s “Ryan Flying Company” became better known as Ryan Aeronautical, with offices near the Lindbergh Field airport on Harbor Drive…expected to sit on the Santa Ana bench during the game with San Diego was Stanford coach Glenn (Pop) Warner…Saints coach Charlie Winterburn played for Warner at Stanford…San Diego High students provided automobile transportation for more than 50 World War I disabled veterans from the Camp Kearny and San Diego American Legion posts…John Perry had players turn in their equipment following the loss to Covina and announced that the Hilltoppers were declining an invitation to play Phoenix Union in a postseason game….

“Power, deception, speed, coordination, all wrapped in 11 (blue and) white packages from the Border City.”

Such was the observation of a Los Angeles Times reporter who witnessed San Diego High’s 27-0 victory over host Santa Barbara along with 5,000 others at Peabody Stadium in the Southern California playoff semifinals.

“Either Santa Barbara had a bad case of stage fright or the club was astounded by the size of the Coast League champions, who must have averaged nearly 190 pounds per man,” wrote Irving Eckhoff.

The Hilltoppers shocked the Golden Tornado with an opening touchdown drive of five consecutive first downs and 72 yards in 11 plays. They finished with a 298-122 advantage in total yards, rushed for 251, and had 14 first downs to 3.  Santa Barbara had made six consecutive appearances in the playoffs.

Coach Hobbs Adams’s Hilltoppers, favored to win their first title since 1916, charged into the championship game against Inglewood, a team Adams purposely scheduled to compare his team against a potential playoff opponent, and defeated, 21-0,  in the season opener…

…and lost!

The  Sentinels, defending champions, who started the season 0-2-1 and didn’t score until the third game, came into the contest with a 7-2-1 record and made it two straight championships with a 7-6 victory before a crowd estimated at 10,000 in the Los Angeles Coliseum.

As had happened before (Covina, 1925) and would happen again (Santa Monica, 1947; Long Beach St.  Anthony, 1948; Fullerton, 1950;  Anaheim, 1953; Santa Monica, 1954; Downey, 1957, and Long Beach Poly, 1958) a powerful San Diego team, this one 10-0-1 and on a roll, would fall short.

The Hilltoppers’ powerful ground game, led by Ollie Day, Ambrose Schindler, Halden Grey, Kenny Brown, and Coye Dunn, never took hold even after they managed a 6-0 lead in the game’s first four minutes.

San Diego’s R.C. Moore recovered a fumble on Inglewood’s five-yard line on the game’s second play.  The Cavers missed their opportunity, stopped on fourth down.

DREADED MISSED P.A.T.

Following the exchange, Bill Troxel committed Inglewood’s second consecutive fumble and the Hillers’ Jim Riveroll recovered on the three-yard line.  Halden Grey nudged into the end zone on the second play for a touchdown.

Day, who had made 8 consecutive points after touchdown, sailed a kick high and wide to the left.

San Diego had an untidy advantage.

Troxel returned a punt 50 yards in the second quarter but San Diego was able keep the Sentinels at a distance for the remainder of the half.  The Cavemen went to the dressing room with a tenuous, 6-0 lead.

Trouble arrived with the second half kickoff. Two disastrous penalties by the Hilltoppers helped position Inglewood in San Diego territory.

Schindler’s 32-yard kickoff return was nullified by a clipping penalty that set the Hilltoppers back to their 25.  Another penalty for not coming to a complete set after a shift was for five yards.  On fourth down Schindler’s punt went off the side of his foot and out of bounds on San Diego’s 41.

Inglewood labored 14 plays for the tying touchdown by Norm Padgett, and then Troxel scored the winning point after when he caught a lateral from quarterback Padgett and jogged in from the flank.

Inglewood had the edge in yardage and a 9-3 advantage in first downs.  The Cavers, after averaging five yards for 54 rushing attempts the week before at Santa Barbara, were shut down.

Day, Schindler’s alternate at quarterback in the Cavers’ single wing formation,  had 130 yards in 30 rushing attempts in the semifinals but was held in check by the smaller, quicker Inglewood forwards.

TAKE THE METRO

There were 15 high schools in San Diego County.  San Diego was in the elite Coast League of big Southern California schools. Hoover was stepping out as an independent after three seasons in the City League.

What to do with the other 13?

The Metropolitan League was formed, with eight teams playing their first games in the circuit of city and suburban schools on Oct. 6, 1933.

As Charles Savage of The San Diego Union wrote:  “The Metropolitan High School League, which was born with the New Deal last spring, will come before the gaze of the public this afternoon….”

The U.S. was reeling from the Great Depression.  President Franklin Roosevelt, with approval from Congress in early 1933, instituted a series of economic programs known as the “New Deal.”

Byrne saw birth of the Metropolitan League as offering a “new deal” in San Diego County.

Affected were schools from the Southern Prep League and the disbanded City League.

La Jolla, Point Loma, Grossmont, Sweetwater, Army and Navy Academy, Oceanside, Coronado, and Escondido were members of the new alignment.

Officials from the Southern League’s Fallbrook, Mountain Empire, Julian, and Ramona met at the San Diego YMCA and scheduled competition in basketball, track and field, tennis, and baseball.

Mountain Empire, almost two hours away from San Diego in remote Campo, was the only Southern school fielding a football team.  The Redskins adhered to a limited schedule against Imperial Valley teams or local junior varsity clubs.  Fallbrook would send out its first varsity squad in 1936, Ramona in 1938, and Julian in 1967.

HERE COME  HARES

Although Santa Ana and San Diego played for the 24^th time since 1905 in one of the Southland’s oldest rivalries, the big game almost always was Long Beach Poly.  The road to a championship went through the Jackrabbits, this season coping with the recovery of their campus, virtually destroyed by a massive earthquake that struck months before.

Orian Landreth’s team came South with a 5-0 record, better than San Diego’s 4-0-1, but the Hilltoppers prevailed 19-12 in a game of big plays in front of 8,000 at City stadium.

Schindler connected with Kenny Brown on a 52-yard touchdown pass play and ducked through his left tackle on a 48-yard spinner play to clinch the victory in the fourth quarter.

Grant Stone gave the Cavers a 13-0 lead at halftime when he scooped up a punt blocked by Coye Dunn and raced 48 yards.  It was Stone’s third touchdown with a recovered blocked punt.  Kenny Woodruff put Poly on the scoreboard with an 80-yard punt return.

CIF FACES POVERTY HEAD ON

California Interscholastic Federation, governing body of high school athletics in Southern California, was forced to charge dues to all its members.  The CIF had a minus treasury for the first time when the 1933-34 school year began.

The CIF Southern Section had been self supporting since it  began operation  in 1914, drawing revenue through a percentage of proceeds of championships played in all sports. Promotion of the 1933 Southern California and state track meets and effects of the Great Depression necessitated the move, according to commissioner Seth Van Patten.

The assessment schedule was based on student enrollment:

 100 or less, $2.50.

100 to 500, $5.

500 to 1,000, $10.

1,000 to 2,000, $15.

2,000 or more, $20.

A revenue stream of $1,250 was calculated.  That would make up the deficit and provide operating expenses until the championship football games, said Van Patten.

WHAT’S YOUR NAME AGAIN?

A bonus for the CIF was an additional $25 playoffs revenue from San Diego High, which forfeited its 1933 baseball season following the second game of the playoffs when it was discovered that two Hilltoppers had played in a meaningless game in the Imperial Valley the previous summer.

Chet and Henry (Swede) Smith admitted they used aliases when they appeared in the contest.  The Cavers, heavily favored to beat Santa Maria in the Southern California finals, had their 19-3 record erased and were bounced from the playoff finals.

CARDINALS COME OF AGE

Hoover stepped up in class in its fourth varsity season, opting to go independent and playing San Diego for the first time.

Chester Webber of the Elks Club provided a trophy and 12,000 turned out in City Stadium.

Coach John Perry’s Redbirds marched 64 yards to the 20-yard line, stopped by the halftime gun.  It was Hoover’s only threat as San Diego won 33-0.

FOOTBALL IS KING

San Diego High, enrollment almost 2,900 in three grades, was one of the largest schools in the state and Hobbs Adams did not want for football candidates.  More than 100 turned out in September.

Adams scheduled Sweetwater and Calexico on the same day in the season’s first week.  His plan was for the Cavers’ varsity and fourth units to play one of the opponents and his second and third units to play the other.

The varsity played Sweetwater and the newly-formed sophomore squad played Calexico. Escondido originally was to be San Diego’s opening opponent, but Cougars coach Harry Wexler pulled his squad and took on Hemet at home.

GONE FISHIN’

A popular summer occupation for decades for San Diego area athletes was work in the local tuna fleet. Cavers letterman halfback Bob Chase didn’t return from an extended trip until the third game of the season.  Meals aboard ship agreed with Chase, who came back 15 pounds heavier at 167.

Chase was one of nine lettermen returning from the 1932 team that was 7-2. Only two regulars were guard Jim Riveroll and end Alex (Pudge) Gentles.

CIF, GET LOST!

The CIF informed John Perry the Cardinals would qualify for the playoffs by winning five of their eight games.  Hoover still was invited with a 3-2-3 record but declined because the CIF wanted the Cardinals in the minor division.

Hoover’s opponent would have been Grossmont, which also was not interested.  Hoover wanted to go big school.  Grossmont, 9-0 and the first Metropolitan League champion, perhaps did not want to risk a loss and put a blight on its undefeated season.

4 ALL-SOUTHERN  TEAMS 

Ambrose Schindler was on the all-Southern California first team, guard Jim Riveroll on the second team, end Alex (Pudge) Gentles on the third team, and center Bill Simons on the fourth team.

Tackle Dave Devarona of Point Loma also was on the fourth team, along with halfback John Scott of Coronado.

Ollie Day, the County’s leading scorer with 90 points who alternated with Schindler, made a terrific, late-season run (8 touchdowns in 3 games) but after votes were cast.

Player of the year was Los Angeles Jefferson end Woody Strode, who went on to act in 70 motion pictures and was one of the first African-American players to sign with the NFL Los Angeles Rams in 1946.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

San Diego police chief Harry Raymond was summarily canned by City Manager Fred Lockwood.  Donning his “fighting clothes”, Lockwood charged that  “Raymond’s not the man for the job.  He has shown no executive ability.”

The Chief got the word when he returned from lunch to find a successor in his office.

AZTECS GET GYMNASIUM

Completion was nearing for a 50,000 square-foot, $200,000 edifice that would host athletic offices and serve as the San Diego State Aztecs’ basketball gym. For years the building housed the 1,800-seat home court for the Aztecs.

BURGLARS LIKE FOXES

For the third time in three years a Fox Theater venue in San Diego was robbed.  Bad guys struck at Seventh Avenue and B Street. The Fox North Park at 29^th and University, and the Fox Balboa at 4^th and E also had been hit.

BARBERS TRIMMED

San Diego city council was asked to get involved in a dustup over the cost of a haircut.  An arbitrary price of 65 cents scheduled under the barbers’ section of the California Recovery Act spurred outrage.

The barbers finally agreed to 50 cents for haircuts, .25 for shaves, .40 for women’s neck trims, and .35 for children’s cuts.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

This never caught on in San Diego:  Players for Jefferson High in San Antonio did not have jersey numerals but letters.  When all linemen were in the game the letters spelled Mustang, the team nickname.

TEACHER AND PUPIL 

John Perry’s Hoover Cardinals battled to a 6-6 tie with Long Beach Wilson, led by first-year  head coach Rockwell (Rocky) Kemp, former USC athlete who played for Perry at San Diego High from 1922-24.

ARMY-NAVY SPANS THE GLOBE

The boarding school in Pacific Beach put an 0-8 team on the field and they came from faraway locales, such as Ketchikan, Alaska; Tijuana, Mexico, and Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Monograms were awarded to 15 players and the team manager at the semi-annual lettermen’s dance.  Not explained but endorsed by Cadet brass was the accepted invitation of Grossmont’s championship team, coach, and principal, who were honored guests.

MAGIC STEEL CARPET

Railroad travel has been described as the “civilized way” of getting to a destination and was a mode San Diego High used.

The Cavers boarded a northbound train at Santa Fe Depot at 2:15 p.m., switched to Southern Pacific in Los Angeles, and arrived in Santa Barbara around 9 p.m.  They also rode the Santa Fe to Los Angeles the day before the CIF finals.

TRUE GRID

Phoenix Union came here a day before its game with San Diego and stayed at the upscale U.S. Grant Hotel… San Diego overnighted in Whittier before pushing on to Alhambra for a Saturday afternoon game… Francis Leary, letterman guard in 1930, re-enrolled at Hoover after dropping out of school for a year… Hoover used a huddle instead of calling plays at the line of scrimmage during a game with San Diego State Frosh… three ex-Cardinals knew Hoover’s signals… Oceanside drove 99 yards in the last two minutes to beat Point Loma on a eight-yard pass with 10 seconds remaining, 13-12…the Pirates then  came out in blue jerseys and “flaming” red pants when they met Sweetwater… the Pirates’ colors may have changed; they are green, white, and black today… Hoover was stopped three times inside Yuma’s five-yard line in an 0-0 tie, highlighted by the first game under lights in Yuma history, courtesy of the local Merchants’ Association…an Escondido player hid near the sideline, then caught a pass and scored in a 6-6 game with Coronado…Covina lost track of downs and did not punt from its seven-yard line…St. Augustine used the blunder to score in a 6-6 tie…Long Beach Poly and Santa Barbara accused the Cavers of fibbing, claiming they were much bigger than listed weights…Hobbs Adams, shrugging off the accusations as “psychology”, said he weighed all his players and they averaged out at 167, a healthy size for that era…The San Diego Union invited all area coaches and spouses to view “College Coach,” a movie in which the entire USC squad appeared…Pat O’Brien played a ruthless coach, Dick Powell and Ann Dvorak co-starring… the film was viewed at the Plaza Theater, a block from Union offices…Hal Higgins, years later co-owner of Higgins and Crosthwaite’s successful sporting goods emporium at 10^th  Avenue and B Street, was a standout for La Jolla….

 

San Diego High represented one of the best football coaching jobs in the state, but was John Perry all in?

Perry ruminated that the 1925 season, which ended in a bitter, 13-6 loss to Covina in the CIF championship game, was too long, ending Dec. 12, and a reason his club had let down in the title game.

That apparently was why Perry’s started practice a week later this season and moved the start time from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., still  ending around 6.

Perry also had been delayed getting back to school because he was attending a summer football class in Los Angeles taught by USC coach Howard Jones.

Despite Perry’s seeming detachment, the Cavemen appeared ready to make another strong run.  Superstar halfback Bert Ritchey was back for his third varsity season, joined by tackle Cy West, and several other holdovers from the 10-1 team of the year before.

Albert Crosthwaite, a fullback on the 1923 squad, was back in to school after a two-year hiatus. Players were eligible as long as they hadn’t reached their 21st birthday.

Youngsters also were moving up from coach Gerald (Tex) Oliver’s B team, which defeated Huntington Park, 13-6, for the 1925 Southern California championship.

And there were incoming sophomores from Roosevelt and Memorial, teams which played for the championship of the city junior high league in ’25.                                    

After a 27-0 victory in the opening game against the San Diego State Frosh, the Hilltoppers lost sight of the end zone. They scored three touchdowns and 29 points, total, in seven Coast League contests.

The Cavemen dropped back-to-back road games at Long Beach Poly and Whittier, which knocked them out of playoff consideration, but still finished with a 6-2 record.

UNHAPPY SCRIBES

Local newspaper writers were stunned and peevish after the 15-3 defeat at the hands of the Whittier Cardinals, in their eyes at least three-touchdown underdogs.

There was a story in The San Diego Union two days before the Santa Ana trip in which Perry, despite his earlier statements concerning the long season, confirmed the report of a possible Christmas or New Year’s Day game with Phoenix Union.

That game did not materialize.

IS PERRY OUT?

Perry’s 52-14-5 achievement in seven seasons would not seem raise any doubt about his future as coach.

But the afternoon San Diego Sun  published a story Nov. 19, 1926, the day before the Hilltoppers’ last home game against South Pasadena, that declared Perry was out as coach:

“A complete rearrangement of the coaching staff at the San Diego high school has taken place, and will go into effect at once, it was made known today.

“John Perry, who heretofore coached varsity football, becomes supervisor of physical training and director of school athletics, but will have no coaching connections with the various teams.

“John Hobbs, assistant grid coach to Perry, and in direct charge of the second team, is now head coach of the Hilltop varsity football team.”

The timing of the no-attribution, no-byline article was curious, with two games remaining on the schedule.  It looked as if Perry was being removed from his position and given a highfalutin’ title of reduced significance.

NOTHING TO IT?

San Diego principal Glenn Perkins reacted with a non-denial denial the next day in the scrambling, morning The San Diego Union:

“For two years there has been serious consideration of appointing Perry physical education director in charge of all athletics and naming Hobbs mentor of the varsity football squad, but to date that has not been done and it is hardly likely that it will be affected until next fall, if at all,” said Perkins.

Perkins added that “should the position ‘director physical education’ be created Perry can have it if he chooses and undoubtedly Hobbs will be named varsity football coach.”

Perry responded with a flowery no comment and Hobbs ducked the issue.  “How could I assume control of the varsity football team now when I have called varsity basketball practice for Monday afternoon?” said Hobbs.

SUN STORY ON THE MONEY

The Sun article may have been premature but Perry did step down after the season and became a P.E. coach and head of the athletics department.  He would stay away from football until starting the program at the new Hoover High in 1930.

The Sun also was correct about the “rearrangement” of the coaching staff.

Hobbs became head football coach and remained in charge of basketball.  Dewey (Mike) Morrow began a legendary career on the hilltop, replacing Perry as baseball coach, and Glenn Broderick took over the track program.

Perkins, principal since 1923, was replaced at the end of the school year by John Aseltine, who also became a legendary figure, leading the way until his retirement in 1954.

ARE THEY ON SAME PAGE?

Despite the loss to Whittier, the Cavers still were in the Coast League title hunt when they went to Long Beach, where a controversial play prompted Perry to protest the game.

Principal Glenn Perkins a day later would say there would be no protest.

Trailing, 3-0, Perry told referee Arthur Badenoch, the head coach at Inglewood, that San Diego end Roy Schoettler, a transfer from Santa Ana, was going to “hide out” near the Cavers’ sideline on the play following the third-quarter kickoff.

Penalty flag.

Badenoch had noticed a Long Beach player offside on the kickoff, according to press reports.  The referee asked San Diego captain Eddie Moeller if the Hilltoppers wanted the penalty or the ball.

Moeller took the ball.  The stratagem worked, John Donohue teaming with Schoettler on a 65-yard scoring pass play to apparently put the visitors in front, 6-3.

Badenoch nullified the play.  The whistle had not been blown to begin play after the referee and Moeller, the San Diego captain, had discussed options.

COACH LOOKS BACK

Twenty-five years later, at a San Diego High homecoming, Perry had a different recollection.

“It worked okay, for (Schoettler) caught the ball and scored in spite of the fact that he was detected by Long Beach,” Perry told George T. Herrick of the Evening Tribune.

“However,” Perry added, “our enthusiasm was dampened when the umpire announced Long Beach had called time out.  It was the only time in my 31 years of coaching that I ever protested a game.”

The coach recalled that the Cavers tried the play again, but a Long Beach defender deflected the pass into the hands of a teammate, who ran 50 yards for a score in Poly’s 10-0 victory.

TRANSFER RED FLAGGED

Two weeks into practice, the Cavers’ stock went up when quarterback Jimmy Meeks and end Laurie Hall transferred in from Hollywood High and were reported to have moved into San Diego’s enrollment district.

Meeks had set a national record of :15.1 in the 120-yard high hurdles, finished second in the 220 lows, and anchored the Sheiks to a national record of 1:29.9 in the 880-yard relay at the state meet in Palo Alto the previous spring.

FRAT BOYS

Meeks entered the opening game in the second quarter but was benched in the second half after he was penalized for “slugging” a San Diego State  Frosh player.

Days later it was learned that Meeks and Hall had been bounced at Hollywood because they violated a state interscholastic rule by becoming members of a school fraternity.

Santa Ana, which filed a protest in 1925, claiming that Hilltopper Russ Saunders had boxed professionally, alerted Coast League bosses.

“We shall place our cards on the table and let league officials act,” said principal Perkins, who thought the rule was unfair and wasn’t sure it would hold up in a court of law.

Meeks and Hall were out.

SANTA ANA UNHAPPY

Tex Oliver, the ex-Hilltop B coach and track mentor, now was head coach at Santa Ana. The Saints still were unhappy about another protest apparently submitted by San Diego.

Santa Ana wanted Harvey Durkee reinstated. Durkee had played in a practice game in 1925 after not having completed a semester of attendance following a transfer from Huntington Beach.

The few minutes in the ’25 game was declared a full season by the Coast League after Durkee left school, then returned in February, 1926, and completed a full semester thinking he’d be eligible in the Fall.

Durkee and Santa Ana officials were told the player was out of eligibility.  Perry also claimed that Durkee transferred without changing his home address and therefore would be ineligible for a full year.

INDIRECT CRITICISM

Perry’s next-to-last game as coach and Oliver’s first against his former boss was a 9-7 success in overtime for the visiting Cavers, but there were no huzzahs from the San Diego media.

Despite the victory wrote Charles Savage of the Union:

“…Oliver’s speedy Saints team reversed the San Diegans dizzy; battered their way through the heavy San Diego line for 15 first downs, and worked the ball within the shadows of the visitors’ goal five times only to lose the ball on fumbles.”

Savage  ended with this zinger:

“The San  Diegans didn’t display any more fighting spirit here today than they have at any time this season.  In fact, their showing could not have been much worse.  And San Diego has displayed some poor football this season.”

A Southern California championship in 1922, two Coast League titles in the league’s four years, and a .768 winning percentage since 1920 apparently were not enough.

Perry couldn’t be blamed for taking a step back.

OVERTIME

San Diego and Glendale were locked in a scoreless tie at the end of regulation play.  A Coast League rule, “unique in that it’s the only one in the country,” according to a newspaper report, allowed each team 10 “alternating plays” each, the team ending up in the enemy territory being awarded the victory

The Hilltoppers were declared 2-0 winners. They had defeated Santa Ana in a similarly-formatted extra session.

STARRING RED GRANGE

The Pantages theater and The San Diego Sun newspaper invited members of the football teams of San Diego High, St. Augustine, and the Marine Corps Recruit Depot to a showing of “One Minute To Play”.

The silent movie (talkies still were a few years away) starred Harold (Red) Grange, the all-America halfback from the University of Illinois who had signed with the NFL Chicago Bears and was marketed by C.C. (Cash & Carry) Pyle.

Grange, playing the role of “Red Wade”, shook off an injury, came into the game with one minute to play, and scored the winning touchdown.

SIGN OF THE TIMES

Politics in Coronado, the allegedly sleepy community across San Diego Bay, made for angry bedfellows.

The city auditor decked the city manager, twice, in a fist fight outside City Hall and then dropped the manager again a few days later in the street in front of the building after tempers flared during a contentious meeting of the town’s honchos.

A newly appointed city marshal and said gentleman along with a trustee was sued for $25,000 for assault after expelling an angry attorney from the meeting.

All members of the fire and police departments either were fired by the Coronado board of trustees or resigned.  The fistic-proficient city auditor, was fired and the city recorder resigned.

The attorney, struggling with the two officials, claimed to have strained  ligaments in his shoulder.

Typical of the almost comic events was the firing in the morning of a police boss, who was reinstated in the afternoon…and then immediately resigned.

SUBURBS AND BACK COUNTRY

+Point Loma and Mountain Empire, which opened in 1925, joined the County League as varsity members and Oceanside, fielding its first squad, made for an eight-team circuit.

+Escondido, 5-4 under first-year coach Amner Petty, posted its first winning season since 1919 and  first league victory since 1921.  The Cougars opened with a 14-0 victory at first-year Brea-Olinda, which took students from neighboring Fullerton High, holding the Wildcats to one first down and 18 total yards.

+Sweetwater was 7-0 in County play but dropped a 13-2 decision in the first round of the playoffs at El Centro Central.

+Oceanside’s first foray into football ended with a 1-6-1 record that included losses of 47-0 and 57-0 to league powers Coronado and Sweetwater, respectively.

+Mountain Empire, 45 miles East of El Cajon in the Mountain Community of Campo, was 0-6-1.  There were 12 males on campus, 11 were on the team and the other was coach Cy Walton.

TRUE GRID

Although he was in and out of games and hampered by a back injury all season, Bert Ritchey was second-team all-Southern California, perhaps a nod from the media selectors who chose Ritchey for a third-team spot despite Bert’s leading Southern California with 25 touchdowns in 1925…captain and tackle  Cy West also earned second-team honors…378 Alhambra supporters made reservations on the steamship S.S. Ruth Alexander out of Los Angeles and arrived the morning of the Moors’ game with San Diego…Alhambra was coached by Charlie Church, who would briefly be the Hilltoppers’ boss in 1928…word from the North was that Church was scrimmaging his charges two hours a day and had taken the team on a two-week trip to the High Sierras in the summer…. Eddie Moeller kicked a field goal from the 35-yard line, on first down in the first quarter, for a 3-0 victory over visiting South Pasadena…about 8,500 persons in City Stadium watched the Hilltoppers beat Pasadena, 6-0….

John Perry was 29-10-2 with a winning percentage of .738 in four seasons as San Diego High coach.

But that wasn’t good enough for one sportswriter on San Diego’s largest daily newspaper.

A crushing midseason, 26-0 loss to Long Beach Poly was followed by a “disinterested”, 13-0 victory over Coast League doormat Whittier.

“The wreck of the Hesperus didn’t have a thing on the disaster of the Cavemen,” wrote Alan McGrew of the Poly game, taking a page from Greek mythology.

McGrew, no Damon Runyan, was The San Diego Union beat man covering the Cavemen and regularly found fault with Perry’s stewardship, very unusual for the era.

The young San Diego High graduate was especially peevish in his account of the Whittier contest:

“…the team had no fight and players seemed to take the ‘I don’t care’ attitude. Coach John Perry seemed to be as bad as any of the players.”

McGrew said the starting backfield “was like four moving dead men.”

“Coach John Perry should receive a good part of the responsibility for the poor showing,” McGrew continued. “Since the Long Beach game he has lacked enthusiasm just as much as many of the players.”

McGrew thought the Cavers should turn in their uniforms if “the high schoolers intend to finish the season in the same miserable manner they played yesterday.”

PHOENIX, BUT FIRST AN EASY ONE

Principal Glenn Perkins and Perry scheduled a postseason game for charity against the Phoenix Coyotes, billed as champions of Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of Texas.

William Richardson, the California governor, was going to attend and a large crowd was expected, proceeds going to the football fund at the Hilltop and to buy 50 uniforms for members of the band.

There would be a three-week layoff between the Whittier and Phoenix tussles, so Perry called John Nichols, his former Coronado coaching colleague, and booked a home contest against Nichols’ Oxnard squad.

The Yellowjackets reportedly had posted a 7-0 record, but the competition was against teams from small, neighboring Ventura County farming communities.

PUSHOVER?

McGrew went on the offensive again.

“Although it has been the general impression that the Oxnard Union High would be ‘pickings’ for the local high school eleven, the San Diego coach claims the northern squad will give the Hilltops plenty to worry about.”

McGrew had gotten to the point of sometimes not even referring to Perry by name.

Later:

“Perry has been inclined to blame sportswriters for his troubles.  First he did not want them to praise the work of his team, declaring that praise was bad for the players.

“Then he did not want the work of the team to be harshly criticized.  That, too, he thought was very bad.  Just what (Perry) wanted was hard to figure out.”

McGrew added that the Cavers would have been better served in 1920 had they hired a coach who had college playing experience, which Perry didn’t.

“At any rate the fact remains that all San Diego High can claim under Perry’s coaching this year is the championship of San Diego County (the Cavers defeated Sweetwater, 33-8).”

11 CONSECUTIVE PAT

Oxnard “looked like a kindergarten squad opposing eleven giants,” wrote McGrew.

The Yellowjackets were on the trampled end of a 77-0 San Diego stampede, highlighted by 11 successful points after touchdown and three touchdowns by probably the smallest varsity player in school history.

Firpo (Shorty) Bethauser, 4-feet, 4 inches, 116 pounds, if you believe the tape measure and scale, scored three touchdowns and was joined in the end zone by six other teammates.

On this day, the writer couldn’t criticize Perry’s coaching or the play of the team:

“Oxnard had no business being on the same field with the Hilltoppers, but this should not take credit away from the high schoolers. With (Coney) Galindo again calling signals. the team oozed with pep, fight, and aggressiveness.”

The season ended with a 0-0 tie against Phoenix, but despite the scoreless result, the teams’ combined 24 punts, and 120 yards in penalties, McGrew declared that “the crowd was lifted by thrilling plays and many long gains.”

NEW BOSS AT GROSSMONT

Up from Calipatria in the Imperial Valley, out of the University of Montana, came Ladimir Mashin the new athletic coach at Grossmont.

Mashin was better known as ”Jack”,  an easy cognomen for a man who was easy to know and respect.

Mashin would coach all teams and soldier through the Great Depression and World War II.

He retired from football as the winningest coach in County history after 25 seasons and a 9-1-1 campaign in 1947.

Mashin concentrated on track and field and tutored some of the finest dual meet and invitational teams in Southern California, turning out Grossmont distance runners and weight throwers who ranked among the best in the country.

Grossmont would be 4-5 this season, but championships were on the horizon.

Mashin had 17 winning seasons and finished football with a career record of 125-66-19, a .640 winning percentage.  The Foothillers won or tied 24 games in a row from 1932-34.

A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN

John Perry and principal Glenn Perkins attended a meeting the first of September in Santa Ana, where San Diego High became a member of the Tri-County League.

Other schools were Long Beach Poly, Pasadena and Whittier from Los Angeles County and Orange County entries Fullerton and Santa Ana.

A couple weeks later the CIF announced that the alignment would be known as the Coast League and, with exception of the 1941-45 period, the Coast would be San Diego’s home until the San Diego City Prep League was formed in 1950.

San Diego and Poly, which first played against each other in 1910, would be enduring members of the so-called “T.N.T. League”.

The other  schools came and went and newcomers replaced them, but the  circuit always was respected as being as strong as any in the state.

The Hilltoppers had been members of a Coast League alignment with Poly, Pasadena, Santa Monica, and Whittier in the 1920-21 school year, but, while participating in most sports, they were an independent in football.

RULES AND REGS

General admission to all Coast League games was .50.  All funds derived from advance sales were to go to the school selling the tickets.  Game expenses were to be deducted before there was a split of gate receipts.

Perpetual trophies would be offered in all sports with each school annually contributing $25 to the bauble fund.

Officers of the league were Harry J. Moore of Long Beach (also state CIF representative), president; R. O’Mara, Pasadena, vice president, and H.A. Hammond, Santa Ana, secretary and treasurer.

SWEETWATER WHO?

Coach Herb Hoskins’ Red Devils competed in the shadow of San Diego for years, but, despite a 33-8 loss to the Hilltop team in the season opener, won the County League with a 6-0 record, compiled a 7-3 mark overall, and earned a Southern California playoff bid.

Sweetwater upset Orange, 7-0, in a quarterfinals game but was beaten, 27-7, by Long Beach Poly in the semifinals.

Sweetwater often was a San Diego opponent in the first game, but Hoskins and Perry dickered over financial terms this year.

Perry, as coach of the home team, offered a $100 guarantee to the Red and Gray-colored squad from National City.  Hoskins wanted a 50-50 share of the gate receipts.

“I can get a Northern team to come to San Diego for as much as Sweetwater wants,” said Perry.  “My club’s as good as any Northern club,” countered Hoskins.

The game was played but no result of the bargaining was published.

GENERATION GAP?

Ages of San Diego High players were from 15 (Phil Winnek) to 20 (Coney Galindo, John Fox, and Howard Williams).  Al Schevings was 21 when he graduated in June, 1923.

Galindo, Fox, and Williams would have another year of eligibility in 1924.  Rules eventually would change, such that a youngster could not be 19 years of age before Sept. 1 of his senior year.

HONORS

End Barkham Garner of Sweetwater was on  the all-Southern California first team.  End Jim MacPherson of San Diego and center Otis of Sweetwater were on the second team.

SIGN OF THE TIME

Neal Anderson, automobile editor of The San Diego Union, embarked on a unique trip.  Anderson, riding in a Nash Touring car, covered the 572 miles of San Diego County roads and highways in 18 hours, leaving the Nash showroom floor at the Shaw agency at midnight and arriving back at 6 p.m that day.

TRUE GRID

San Diego’s Ed (Carburetor) Caballero intercepted 5 passes in one game and threw  five interceptions in another…Whittier’s joining the league allowed San  Diego to fill an open date late in the season…San Diego’s trip to Stanford not only was disappointing  but long…the team took the train to Los Angeles and then boarded the Lark for the 470-mile overnight ride to San Francisco…the Cavemen, who played on the dirt surface of City Stadium, complained of the slippery, grass gridiron on the Palo Alto campus, resulting in numerous fumbles and a reported nine first-half injuries…the Cavers hit the rails again for an early-morning ride to an afternoon game in Fullerton…San Diego road games usually were of two days’ duration…Hal Fitzpatrick,  Al Schevings, Eddie Ruffa, and Bob Perry, members of San Diego’s 1922 championship squad, were on the San Diego State varsity…the Montezuma Mesa school numbered only 160 boys in the entire enrollment…Schevings left and later was on the squad at USC…a midweek Sweetwater game with Fleet Air was called off because rules restricted the airmen from leaving their base on North Island….