John J. Montgomery High’s football history does not require an encyclopedic tome.

A few pages would be more than enough.

Most of those pages would be devoted to the 1982 season.  Coach John DeVore’s Aztecs posted a 9-2 record, the best in their history and one of the few winning seasons since the  Otay Mesa school opened in 1970.

Poets and rhapsodic observers might be moved to exclaim that Montgomery’s success under DeVore not only was rare, it was kismet.

The DeVore name resonates in the South Bay region.  John followed a path similar to that of Chet DeVore, his legendary father, who is remembered for football success at Chula Vista and for a long and respected tenure in administration.

When he retired in 2010, John DeVore had been principal at Sweetwater Union district schools Southwest and Olympian and had posted the best record ever for a Montgomery coach.

DeVore was the third head coach in Montgomery history.  His won-loss record of 49-35-5 from 1976-83 has not been approached.  Julio Alcala’s 35-47-1 is next.

MONTY’S YEAR?

Big enough, fast enough, and fairly deep, Montgomery was 6-0 in nonleague games and went to 9-0 overall and 3-0 in Mesa League play with a dramatic, 20-17 victory over visiting Castle Park.

Behind for the first time all year, the Aztecs had the ball on the 16-yard line of Castle Park and trailed, 17-13.  Quarterback Bernardo Vasquez scrambled and hit Joe Clifton for the winning score with a minute left in the game.

Clifton was the fourth or fifth receiver on Vasquez’ progression list.  Star wideout Art Ramsey was roughed up out of bounds at the end of the first quarter, then was ejected for retaliating.

SWEETWATER PREVAILED

Victory over the traditionally difficult Trojans was a formidable achievement, but not enough. Old nemesis Sweetwater won the league championship the following week by defeating the Aztecs, 20-6.

Montgomery didn’t give in to James Primus, the County’s leading rusher, who scored 6 touchdowns and rushed for 305 yards in his previous game.

The bigger Red Devils came at their lighter opponents with repeated student body power sweeps, but Primus had to work, rushing 29 times for a hard-earned 115 yards and one touchdown as Sweetwater broke a 6-6 tie in the fourth quarter.

Montgomery’s season ended when Morse, another rugged squad, took a 13-12 decision in the first round of the San Diego Section AAA playoffs.

Misfortune struck the Aztecs on the second half kickoff when Darryl Rosette ran 90 yards for a touchdown and a 13-6 Morse lead after Montgomery had outplayed the Tigers throughout the first half.

PRACTICE NOT PERFECT

The Aztecs practiced kicking away from the dangerous Rosette all week, and then unintentionally kicked to him.

Monty struck back with a 14-play, 69-yard touchdown drive but a two-point conversion attempt was unsuccessful and a bad snap from center aborted a late field goal attempt that could have the won the game.

“Most teams didn’t throw,” said DeVore, who played quarterback in high school at Hilltop.  “We had a good quarterback, a good offensive line and really strong wideouts.

“Beating Castle Park before a sold out stadium was a real high point.  I think the difference between us and Sweetwater is that Sweetwater had been in that type of game and we hadn’t.”

JOHN J. WHO?

Montgomery High is named after a Northern California aviator who became airborne two decades before the Wright brothers.  Montgomery piloted a glider from a hill on Otay Mesa in 1883, near where the school campus sits today.

As there were no independent observers of Montgomery’s flight some aeronautical historians doubted the feat. It was not recognized until 1894.

According to historian Donald Harrison, aviation pioneers conducted their tests in great secrecy in order to be the first to bring their inventions to the patent office, so only relatives claimed to be witnesses to Montgomery’s 600-foot flight in a flying machine with curved wings.

Montgomery was killed in 1911 in a crash of another glider and is buried near San Francisco.

Several schools here and the Montgomery airport on San Diego’s Kearny Mesa honor his name. The wing of a World War II era plane stands upright on the hill in Otay Mesa, where John J. was said to have taken flight.

WRITER CALLS TIME

Visiting San Pasqual and Torrey Pines were earnestly going at it early in the season’s opening game.  A late arrival was The San Diego Union reporter Steve Brand, who looked at the scoreboard and noted that 12 minutes, 30 seconds remained in the first quarter.

As the Evening Tribune’s Bud Maloney explained, “In the tenor of ‘What’s going on here?'” Brand quizzed colleagues on the field, who hadn’t noticed.

Brand continued to pose the question as he watched the teams play a 15-minute quarter, okay for college and pro games but 3 minutes more than for high school.

The scoreboard clock lined up at 15:00 when the second quarter started.

Brand couldn’t stand it any longer.

COACH SURPRISED

The veteran scribe made his way into into the Torrey Pines bench area, seeking out Falcons coach Ed Burke.

Brand, voice rising:  “Are the high schools playing fifteen-minute quarters now?”

Burke, puzzled by Brand’s presence and by what the coach considered a peculiar question:  “Ah, no, we still play twelve minutes.” Brand:  “Well, you’ve just played a fifteen-minute quarter and it looks like you’re going to play another.”

Burke blinked as he looked at the scoreboard clock, then hailed the closest official and pointed to the scoreboard. Arm-waving and more pointing continued as other officials and San Pasqual coach Bob Woodhouse joined the conversation.

IRRIGATION SYSTEM PART OF PLAY

The game timekeeper was summoned and an official conference was called. There was discussion about a nine-minute second quarter but agreement was finally reached on the regulation 12 minutes for the last three quarters.

As if on cue, water sprinklers came on just before halftime, adding to a comedic scene.

Fortunately the teams were at the other end of the field and a valve was shut off before the contest had to be stopped.

San Pasqual won the 51-minute game, 21-16. One of  the longest regular-season, non-overtime high school contest in San Diego history.  Quarters were 15 minutes for many years decades earlier.

NEW CENTURIONS AND OTHERS

University City High, which opened in 1981, played a varsity schedule for the first time.  Mission Bay High played games on a home field for the first time since the school opened in 1953.  New lights were in at Fallbrook and “not quite” in at Southwest.

Sixty-four light banks, at $315 each, were needed to illuminate the field at Fallbrook.  Twenty-thousand dollars was raised as the money was collected in shares of $315 each.

JUST FINE, THANK YOU!

The question was posed to Helix coach Jim Arnaiz:  “What’s life like without Jim Plum, Allan Durden, Karl Dorrell, and Dan Hammerschmidt?”

Helix answered with an opening, 30-6 win over Patrick Henry and rolled to a 12-1 record, and topped Mt. Carmel, 10-6, in the 3-A championship at Southwestern College.

The Highlanders weren’t rebuilding but reloading.

Arnaiz’ big four led Helix to a combined 29-4-1 record in the last three seasons, but Scott Webb, who replaced Plum at quarterback; running back Steve Webster, receiver Tony Necoechea, and defender  Chuck Cecil, among others, stepped up.

Cecil, also a dangerous kick returner, transferred in the previous winter from the Central Section’s Hanford in the San Joaquin Valley.  Cecil’s hard-hitting reputation followed him to the University of Arizona and into the NFL, where he played and coached.

SCOTS’ SCOTT

Scott Webb’s point after and field goal were the difference as the Highlanders won their 51^st game (against 7 losses and a tie) in the last five seasons, defeating Mt. Carmel, in San Diego Stadium.

Webb stepped in at quarterback this season after sitting behind Jim Plum since Scott was a freshman and directed the Scots to a dozen wins, many of which positioned by his solid leadership and by his kicking leg.

Webb scored 3 touchdowns, 41 points after, and 12 field goals for 95 points, fourth in the San Diego Section. He set a Section record with 5 field goals (plus two extra points for a record 17) in a 29-0 victory over Granite Hills.  Webb’s career totals included 120 points after and 29 field goals.

NOT DECLAWED DESPITE RECORD

Coach Dick Haines’s Vista Panthers were only 4-6 but they scored one of the biggest victories in program history, knocking off the state’s third-ranked team, Huntington Beach Edison, 6-0, in Week 2.

A crowd of 8,000 at Vista watched as Scott Black kicked 47- and 43-yard field goals in a span of 49 seconds in the second quarter to end the Chargers’ 36-game, regular-season winning streak.

Five of Vista’s six losses were to teams with a combined record of only 24-29-2, but the Panthers also defeated Morse, a 8-4 playoff semifinalist, 23-14. They lost to 2-A champion El Camino,12-0, and 3-A finalist Mt. Carmel, 27-10.

FLAT FINALE

When regulation play ended and Point Loma and El Camino were tied, 6-6, in the 2-A championship, the 6,000 fans in attendance at Mt. Carmel High expected an overtime session and let their displeasure be known when CIF commissioner Kendall (Spider) Webb declared the teams co-champions.

Playoff rounds through the semifinals have overtimes because one team has to advance.  Fans were expecting a tie-breaker, although no provision had been made for one. It was the second championship tie in the 23 seasons of the CIF San Diego Section.  Escondido and San Diego deadlocked at 21 in 1969.

WIN ONE FOR THE BENNIE

His coaching career at Point Loma was in season number 28 and Bennie Edens said he’d never witnessed anything like the Pointers’ big Western League win over Clairemont.

“I told the kids at halftime that whether we won or lost I was prouder of them than any team I’ve ever coached,” said the Bennie.  “I’ve never seen anything like it, being hit like we were and then coming back to win.”

Clairemont scored on the first two plays it possessed the ball, Chris Hardy running 71 and 49 yards for touchdowns.  The Pointers fought back, going 58, 76, and 58 yards for a 19-13 halftime lead. The lead switched twice more before Clairemont etched a tie at 27 with eight minutes left in the game.

After Eric Allen ran 67 yards to the Chieftains’ 9, Point Loma’s David Rod kicked a 25-yard field goal. Rod’s kick gave the Pointers a final, 30-27 advantage as the teams, apparently spent, did not score in the final 7:06.

CAVERS LEGEND FEELS PAIN

One week after the crushing loss to Point Loma, Clairemont took out its disappointment on San Diego, 76-6, prompting a call from writer Steve Brand to retired Cavers coach Duane Maley.

The Cavers were 97-19-2 under Maley from 1948-59 but their program had not been the same since.

“It’s incredible that it could happen to a school with such a rich history,” said Maley.  “I believe the type of athlete attending Sn Diego High has changed.  It’s sad the program has slipped to that level.”

Maley did not point a finger.  “I know (Clairemont coach) Steve Miner and he purposely wouldn’t run the score up on anyone.  He’s a fine young man.”

The widest margin of victory for a Maley-coached team at was in a 59-0 victory over La Jolla in 1958.

“It’s foreign for a coach to tell his players not to play hard,  to tell a fourth stringer to ease up,” said Maley.  “We tried to let everyone play when the game started to get out hand, and we had more players then.”

POINTERS, SUNDEVILS, AND NFL

Probably 300 to 400 San Diego-area preps have landed on active rosters in the NFL or other pro football leagues, beginning with San Diego’s Brick Muller with the 1926 Los Angeles Buccaneers and Russ Saunders with the Green Bay Packers in 1931.

Few have surpassed the career of Eric Allen, a standout on Bennie Edens’ 11-0-1 Pointers and  a second-round draft choice out of Arizona State, the 30^th player selected in the 1988 NFL draft by Philadelphia.

Allen played 14 seasons for three teams, is in the all-time top 15 with 54  pass interceptions, with eight touchdown returns; earned 6 Pro Bowl berths, and played in 214 of a possible 217 games.

TRUE GRID

The 3-A championship was played in the afternoon at Southwestern College…high rent costs forced the 3-A and 2-A  games out of San Diego Jack Murphy…El Camino coach Herb Meyer called his team the “Dirty Thirty”…the Wildcats never dressed out more than 30 players and sometimes less…a week after resigning at the end of the season  to spend more time with his family, Patrick Henry coach Dale Twombley was replaced by longtime assistant Walt Baranski…Baranski was a Hoover graduate, class of 1957;  Twombley was Hoover, ’63…Edens on  the 2-A tie:  “I would have loved to win and of course Herb feels the same way, but perhaps a tie is fitting; we had a great game between two great teams”…Meyer:  “A tie is what we deserved, as bad as we played”…Edens was the Section’s senior coach, followed by Meyer (24 seasons), La Jolla’s Gene Edwards (23), and Vista’s Dick Haines (13)…Point Loma went undefeated in the regular season for the first time since 1939…Ronnie Lewis was successful on Morse’s first field goal attempt since 1977, a 26-yarder in the 10-6 win over Madison…Monte Vista standout Herb Duncan showed some of the moves that reminded Chargers fans of his dad, the great punt returner and defensive back Leslie (Speedy) Duncan…Morse and Serra played in the second annual Friendship Bowl and were the only city schools playing 10 regular-season games…Bennie Edens of Point Loma and John Shacklett of Morse started the series in 1981…Morse topped Serra, 20-7….

..

Coach Hobbs Adams was in his office a couple years before, finishing some paper work

during the quiet of the Christmas vacation break.

A strapping youngster walked into the school’s recently constructed gymnasium and found Adams at his desk.

The visitor told Adams he was from Texas and wanted to play football at San Diego High.

Adams was curious.

The coach and the boy spoke for almost an hour.

At length Adams convinced the young man that he should return home to his parents.

Adams went so far as to helping purchase a train ticket that would take the youngster north to Los Angeles and then east.

The train stopped in Santa Ana.  The youth got no further.

Earle (Tex) Harris made another visit, to coach Gerald (Tex) Oliver at Santa Ana High, enrolled in school, and became an all-Coast League end in 1931.

Adams related the moment to Charles Byrne of The San Diego Union as the Cavemen were getting ready for their annual battle with the Saints.

Word had reached Adams that Harris had been declared ineligible at Santa Ana through enforcement of the “nine-semester” rule.

Harris, it was learned, had played football three years before at a Texas military school.  He had attended high school for at least eight semesters, exhausting his athletic eligibility.

Harris’ and Santa Ana’s loss was not the Cavemen’s gain.

In the midst of a 24-game unbeaten streak, the Saints defeated San Diego, 6-0, and advanced to the Southern Section championship  before losing to Inglewood, 14-0.

SAY WHAT?

San Diego’s starting 11 players averaged only 151 pounds, making for its lightest team in years.

“We won’t get to first base unless we block,” Adams said, frowning but unaware that he was mixing his metaphors.

WHO’S IN? WHO’S OUT?

San Diego was out of the playoffs for the seventh consecutive season, denied by some tough Coast League rivals.

Hoover won the four-team City Prep League and coach John Perry and principal Floyd Johnson petitioned the CIF for inclusion in the major division playoffs.

Hoover was granted the step up, but Coronado, undefeated and champion of the Southern Prep League, was denied a similar request.  The Islanders then prepared for a playoff against Wildomar Elsinore.

CARDINALS FLY

Hoover surprised, winning its first-ever playoff, 7-6,  at Los Angeles Loyola, which had won its league with a 7-0 record.

Hoover coach John Perry “laughed” when he learned that Loyola employed an unheard of four-man defensive line, as most teams deployed six linemen.

Perry said the way to defeat the 4-man line, which did not become popular until the 1950s in the NFL, was with straight ahead, power running.

The Cardinals didn’t win with offense.

Hoover’s Jack Beal launched a punt that traveled 70 yards to Loyola’s two-yard line. Possession was akin to holding a hot potato.  Loyola immediately punted back on first down.

Beal received the punt on Loyola’s 30-yard line and raced to Hoover’s lone touchdown and kicked the winning point after.

The Cardinals, who returned 18 lettermen from the 1931 City League-championship season, prepared to take on the winner of Brea-Olinda-Anaheim in the quarterfinals.

Not so fast.

CIF BOSS STEPS IN

CIF commissioner Seth Van Patten, after returning from an Amateur Athletic Union meeting in New York, apparently did not like the pairing.

Van Patten assigned the Cardinals to a game at City Stadium  against Santa Ana.

Santa Ana had beaten Hoover, 13-0, earlier in the season. The Saints made their third trip South and, after a sluggish first half, scored 26 points after intermission and won, 33-0.

The Elsinore game did not materialize for Coronado, which then awaited the champion of the Imperial Valley League.

George Herrick of the Evening Tribune a few days later wrote that Coronado was “unable to get a booking from the CIF or schedule a practice game.”  The Islanders turned in their gear, secure with a 5-0-1 record.

ESCONDIDO BACKS IN

Escondido, which tied Coronado, 6-6, in the regular season and was runner-up to the Islanders in league play, dropped a 7-6 decision to Orange in its final game.

Season over? Not quite.

Cougars principal Martin Perry announced that coach Harry Wexler’s squad would go to Brawley to play the Imperial Valley League champion for the Southern Section Southern Group title for small schools.

The Cougars would be appearing in their second finals in the last three seasons, having lost to El Centro Central, 20-6, in 1930.

Brawley won, 27-13, and created an unhappy end for Cougars halfback Ed Goddard, who completed an outstanding, four-season career.

Goddard earned an astounding 14 letters, four each in football, baseball, and track and field, and two in basketball.  A fast, breakaway runner, Goddard was equally renowned as a punter, adept at “coffin corner” kicks and many which were said to travel from 50-80 yards.

Goddard  continued on to Washington State, where he won all-America honors and was the second selection in the first round by the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1937 NFL draft.

CAN YOU HEAR US?

Football was making progress regarding, to use a modern expression, “in-stadium entertainment.”

The San Diego Union and Evening Tribune again announced that they would sponsor a public address system at City Stadium for San Diego High and San Diego State games.

Local personality Hal Brucker would give the fans a play-by-play report on downs, distances, penalties, etc. Former Hilltop gridder Ed Ruffa was behind the mike when a P.A. was believed to have been installed for the first time in 1931.

Oceanside also employed a public address for its big Southern League game against Grossmont.

HONORS

San Diego quarterback Morris (Mushy) Pollock, all of 132 pounds, was named to the first all-Southern California team. Pollock was the only local player on the four squads.

Six writers, representing teams in their newspapers’ respective circulation districts, voted for Pollock and lineman Walt Beerle for the first all-Coast squad. Ed Knapp and Don Collison were on the second team.

WHAT GOES AROUND…

Lawrence Carr replaced Clair Seeley at La Jolla and Seeley moved to Point Loma to teach in the classroom and assist head coach Lawrence Purdy.

Purdy returned from a one-year hiatus at Point Loma, succeeding Algy Lambert, who took over for Purdy in 1931.  Lambert  moved to Pacific Beach Junior High and eventually coached Kearny in 1945.

Yuma, Arizona, which dropped a 25-7 decision to Hoover under a heavy nighttime fog at Navy Field, was coached by former University of Arizona athlete Marvin Clark, who became coach at La Jolla in 1937 and later the principal.

SIGNS OF THE TIME

The CIF added the football throw to the state track meet and discussed recognition of horse shoes as an interscholastic sport.

The CIF also made starting blocks mandatory in track and held the first cross-country championship.  Thigh guard pads were required in football and a pay ceiling of $10 was established for game officials.

Commissioner Seth Van Patten’s office was embroiled in its first legal challenge when Covina High sued over an issue of playoff receipts.

San Diegans had no sympathy for Covina, which cheated with the use of ineligible players in its 1925 title win over the Hilltoppers.

“GASOLINE BUGGIES” TO RACE

Artist’s concept (below) is of an auto racetrack that was to be built fronting Barnett

Avenue and the “Causeway” and would be across the street from the Marine Corps Recruit Depot and the former Ryan Airport.

The 5/8th mile dirt course would be similar to the Ascot course in  the Los Angeles area, said the local promoter.

BLAMES DEPRESSION

Harvey Fall, 70, of San Diego hurled a crude bomb over a transom into the offices of a stock brokerage located on  Third Avenue at Plaza Street about 5 a.m.

The disgruntled investor told Police Captain Harry Kelly that “I wish I could have done this on Wall Street.”

No one was hurt but the explosion rocked the downtown area and caused about $10,000 damage to the building.

Fall said the fuse had been activated when he held the explosive. “It I had held it a minute longer I would have been killed,” he said.

WHERE’S THE OFFENSE?

Southern League schools played a round-robin schedule of 10 games.  Six concluded with scores of 7-0 or less and another was 9-0.

Mountain Empire’s games did not count in the standings, as the Redskins played only when one of the other four had a bye.

WRITER FEELS EXCITEMENT

The lead paragraph in The San Diego Union following the season’s opening game:

“In one of the most spectacular climaxes ever witnessed in a high school football game in San Diego County, Oceanside defeated Garden Grove of Orange County on the Pirates’  field yesterday, 15-12….”

The score actually was 13-12, but no less exciting.

Thompson of Oceanside intercepted an Argonauts pass on his 16-yard line with 1:40 remaining in the game and Thompson’s squad trailing, 12-6.

“Following a series of off-tackle smashes and with less than five seconds to play, Stevenson fought his way over right tackle for a touchdown to tie the score,” the Union report continued.

“Thompson, fullback, then proceeded to put the game on ice by smashing over right tackle for the extra point.”

The game actually turned after a third quarter touchdown put Garden Grove ahead, 12-6.  The Argonauts converted but the point was canceled by an offside penalty.

HAND-ME-DOWNS

Writer George Herrick wrote that the Santa Ana-San Diego game “has all the earmarks of a pocket-sized Notre Dame-Southern California battle”.

Santa Ana used the Knute Rockne Notre Dame Box system and the Hilltoppers employed the “mystery” shift of Howard Jones’s Trojans.

LOSE BATTLE OF BOOKS

Approximately 75 per cent of San Diego State’s freshmen team was declared ineligible, costing a game San Diego High had scheduled against the Frosh.

The Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rule stated that “ineligible men are not to be used in any games, whether they are conference or not.”

Aztec coach Morris Gross then scheduled a scrimmage with his remaining players against Hobbs Adams’ Cavemen.

TRUE GRID

Sweetwater officials made a media request often repeated: “Call us Red Devils, not Sweeties”…student body president Dean Gardner had announced the previous December that the school officially was adopting Red Devils,  but newspaper habits were hard to break…future politicians Lionel Van Deerlin (U.S. Congress) and Ivor DeKirby (State Assembly) were on the rosters of Oceanside and San Diego, respectively……San Diego’s 30-6 win at Phoenix before more than 4,000 persons was the Coyotes’ worst loss in a decade…coach Hobbs Adams took the Cavemen to Arizona by bus and had them work out behind locked gates in the evening…Adams wanted his team to get used to lights…an otherwise uneventful San Diego season ended when the Cavemen were stopped inside the one-yard line as the game ended at Long Beach with Poly a 7-6 winner…a handful of Grossmont athletes defeated Mountain Empire, 26-0, and then those Foothillers who didn’t get into the game, topped Hoover’s Reserves, 20-0, in the nightcap of the afternoon doubleheader…a intersectional match between Brawley and St. Augustine was canceled because of a “misunderstanding of schedules”…Escondido’s Ed Goddard raced 105 yards with a Sweetwater interception to highlight a 28-13 victory….

Oakland Raiders managing general partner Al Davis spoke in 2006 about Art Powell, whom Davis signed out of the Canadian Football League years before.

“I wish I could take you back to 1963,” said Davis, “because I had one of the greatest receivers who have ever played this game.  His first year for me, he carried us.”

Powell caught 73 passes and scored 16 touchdowns as the Raiders, under first-year coach Davis, improved their record from 2-12 to 10-4.

Powell played one season in Canada and 10 seasons in the AFL and NFL and was a member of the all-American Football League team for the decade of the league’s existence, 1960-69.

Powell recently passed away at age 78 in Aliso Viejo in Orange County, where he and his family had resided many years.

A 6-foot, 3-inch, 210-pound receiver as a professional, Powell was the third in arguably the most gifted family of athletes in San Diego history.

His older brother Charlie earned an unequaled 12 varsity letters at San Diego High.  Ellsworth Powell was a standout basketball player at San Diego, and younger brother Jerry was the San Diego Section football player of the year at Lincoln in 1967.

Art Powell caught 479 passes in his NFL-AFL career.  His 81 touchdowns represented one touchdown for every 5.9 catches.

Powell was all-Southern California in 1954 at San Diego and was the City League player of the year in basketball in 1954-55.

A proud and principled man, Powell stood up when others sat.

Powell was one of the first to balk when black players were not allowed to stay in white hotels with the rest of their teammates in the days when pro athletes experienced segregation and discrimination.

Powell was on the verge of quitting at San Diego High in 1954, upset at head coach Duane Maley, who had elevated Powell from the junior varsity in 1953 but then played Powell sparingly.

It was Powell’s teammate; quarterback Pete Gumina, who prevailed on the youngster to stick it out.  Powell responded with an outstanding season.

As a sportswriter for the San Diego Evening Tribune, I interviewed Powell after the Raiders had beaten the Chargers, 34-33, in Balboa Stadium in 1963.

When I asked Powell who had been the most significant person in his athletic development, I expected him to identify Maley or basketball coach Merrill Douglas.

But Powell pointed to Augie Escamilla, a coach at the Boys’ Club on Marcy Avenue, not far from the youngster’s home in Logan Heights.

Art had gotten his inspiration from the energetic and encouraging Escamilla, who coached all of the Boys’ Club teams and all of the great athletes who would graduate from those playing fields known as the 40 acres.

JIMMY GUNN, LINCOLN AND USC’S ‘WILD BUNCH’

James (Jimmy) Gunn, a star on Lincoln’s San Diego Section championship team and a member of 3 USC Rose Bowl teams and the “Wild Bunch” defensive line, was 66 when he passed in Los Angeles this month.

Lincoln posted a 10-1 record and defeated Point Loma, 21-14, for the Division 1-A title in 1965.

The 200-pound Gunn also was talked into going out for track in his senior season by coach Bobby Smith, became a 50-second quartermiler, and ran on some of Lincoln’s fast sprint relay squads.

As a starting defensive end and all-America in 1969, Gunn starred on a USC unit that was named after the title of a popular shoot-‘em-up movie of the day, “The Wild Bunch”.

Gunn was selected in the 12th round of the 1970 NFL draft by the Chicago Bears and played seven seasons in the NFL.

The Star Spangled Banner became our national anthem, Al Capone was convicted of tax evasion, the Empire State Building rose in Manhattan, the small community of Las Vegas voted to legalize gambling.

And 8 million Americans, at least 16 per cent of the work force, were on the street, out of work, and soon to be joined by millions of others.

That’s the way it was in September, 1931.

Football in San Diego survived but was not untouched by the deepening Great Depression.

San Diego High was preparing for the regular-season finale against Long Beach Poly, when coach Hobbs Adams was told to extend the season and have his gridders help in “the nationwide call to charity.”

City Schools superintendent Walter Hepner announced at a press conference that the Cavemen would play a postseason game against the Riverside Sherman Indian Institute.

There were approximately 30,000 elementary, junior, and senior high students in the city.  Many of their parents were affected by the mounting despair of a failing economy and vanishing jobs.

Proceeds from the game would be apportioned to the Parent-Teachers’ Association for student nutrition support and to the City Schools’ Student Aid department, said Hepner.

The superintendent pointed out that students in elementary school were being found to be undernourished as their parents struggled to make ends meet and put food on the table.

Student Aid hopefully would help older boys and girls remain in school. Many were being forced to go out in search of work.

Also attending the event were Bud Kearns, superintendent of city playgrounds who would be the game manager, and Adams and his boss, John Aseltine, San Diego High principal.

About 2,500 persons (Kearns was quoted as predicting a turnout of 8,000) attended the Cavemen’s 24-0 victory over the Sherman Institute.

City Schools’ bands and ROTC units provided halftime entertainment and more than $1,200 was raised, a small but useful sum in a period of growing desperation and unemployment.

ADAMS’ SHORT FUSE

Hobbs Adams hoped he had found a “new Cotton Warburton” in Morris (Mushy) Pollock, a diminutive junior halfback who weighed 132 pounds and made the all-Southern California second team.

Pollock, who resided in Coronado but had come to the Hilltoppers from Memorial Junior High, lived up to expectations but Adams, impatient if not impetuous, often was on the warpath.

The coach benched 3 regulars after a 32-13 victory over San Bernardino and jerked three more regulars following a 25-7 win over Redondo Beach Redondo Union.

Headline  in The San Diego Sun:  “Adams Declares Hillmen Asleep on Feet”.

The coach was especially peevish when the Cavemen dropped an 18-14 Coast League decision at Alhambra on Armistice Day.  San Diego led, 14-0, at the end of three quarters.

Adams never was totally comfortable with his 7-2-1 team, but the season was a success after the Hillers had laid the wood to Long Beach Poly, 26-0.

ISLANDERS MAKE AMOS FAMOUS

Amos Schaefer’s Coronado Islanders tied with Grossmont and Escondido for the Southern League championship and were the league’s nominee for the playoffs for the second consecutive year.

The teams had tied for first in 1930 and Coronado was chosen after a meeting of coaches Schaefer, Harry Wexler of Escondido, and Jack Mashin of Grossmont.

Escondido principal Martin Perry made the announcement at a 1931-season-ending meeting of the San Diego County Football Officials’ Association.

Perry said the decision came after a three-way telephone conference involving Perry, Coronado principal J. Leslie Cutler, and Grossmont honcho Carl Birdsall.

Perry declined to address the question of whether there was a vote, but it was apparent the schools would ignore, for the second year in a row, the Southern Section rule that league championship ties require playoffs.

“There will be no playoff to determine the Southern League’s representative,” said Perry.

The Islanders stopped Hoover, 18-9, in a first-round game at City Stadium, but were shut out at El Centro Central, 14-0, the next week.

Coronado’s chances of victory in the Imperial Valley were doomed when star quarterback Jimmy Blaisdell was announced out of the game minutes before kickoff. Press reports did not give a reason, but Blaisdell had played hurt in several games.

COUGARS’ RAZZLE-DAZZLE

Escondido hid end Red Broerman on the sideline before Ed Goddard completed a long pass to set up a touchdown and Goddard scored on a hidden ball play as the Cougars defeated visiting Norwalk Excelsior, 27-13.

Goddard was the County’s leading scorer with 94 points (Blaisdell was runner-up with 79) and  made the all-Southern California third team.

Escondido finished the season with a 10-1 record, best in school history.  The 10 victories would be equaled by Cougars teams in 1969, 1978, and 2008.

NEW KID (AGAIN) ON BLOCK  

Mountain Empire High in Campo, which opened in 1925, took a second, hesitant  attempt at football.

The Emperors, as they were known, did not find the game to their liking, as was the case six years before in an 0-5 inaugural campaign.

Coronado pulled its regulars with five minutes left in the first quarter and still handed principal-coach James Martin’s team a 74-0 loss.

The Emperors played their schedule on the road, forfeited twice, and finished with a 0-5 record in the Southern Prep League. A game with the Oceanside varsity was not played.  Instead, the Emperors dropped a 47-6 decision to a team representing the Oceanside varsity, the Oceanside B’s.

Future football at Mountain Empire would be on a Class B or junior varsity level.

IT’S SANTA ANA’S TIME

After San Diego struggled in a 13-2 victory over Pasadena, Eddie West, writer for the Santa Ana Register, challenged the hometown Saints.

“Coach Oliver’s team has the best chance since 1927 of waxing the Hilltoppers as Santa Ana has so longed yearned to wax ’em,” wrote West.

“The Saints now know they are meeting no ‘wonder team,’” said West, “and know, too, they have a better-than-even chance of winning—if they don’t choke up as other Santa Ana teams have against San Diego.”

Gerald (Tex) Oliver, who coached Hilltoppers B teams in the mid-‘twenties, guided the Saints to a 14-2 victory, their first over San Diego since 1921.

GOOD NEWS BAD NEWS

The most signifcant application of the old saying took place  for the Hilltoppers when Mushy Pollock punted from his end zone.

Pollock raced up the field in coverage and recovered his punt after the San Ana return man fumbled.  The Hilltoppers immediately fumbled the ball back to the Saints.

Santa Ana went to defeat Covina, 34-0, for the Southern Section title and interrupted a Coast League run in which San Diego or Long Beach Poly usually finished on top.

Poly had won five championships and San Diego two since the league, in its present alignment, was formed in 1923.

TRANSFERS KEY

After becoming one of the top players in the Imperial Valley at El Centro Central in 1930, Dave Wynne moved to San Diego and was an offensive standout first at quarterback, then at halfback, when Hobbs Adams shifted junior Mushy Pollock to quarterback.

Wynn scored 8 touchdowns and drop-kicked 12 point after touchdowns.  He was the third leading scorer in the County with 60 points.

Quarterback George Albin rushed for six touchdowns as Hoover qualified for the playoffs in  its second season, a year after Albin played at St. Augustine.

HILLTOPPERS BEAT POLY

The all-time series record now  favored Long Beach Poly, 13-6-1 after San Diego defeated the Jackrabbits, 26-0, and for the second year in row Poly did not gain a first down rushing.

The Hilltoppers have gained 30 first downs to Long Beach’s 3 in the last two seasons, but have managed only a split of the games.  They lost to Poly, 14-8, in 1930.

SIGNS OF THE TIME

Federal “dry” officers raided a ranch two miles north of Escondido and arrested Tony Norris, 40, for the second time in two months for violating the national prohibition act.

Norris was in County jail, charged with being the “maintainer” of 5,000 gallons of wine and brandy.

WILD TOSSES

Mary Elizabeth Shourds sued for divorce from Richard Shourds.

Mrs. Shourds told a San Diego Superior Court magistrate that her husband threw hair brushes at her during spousal tiffs.

RACIST TO SPEAK

From The San Diego Union Oct. 20, 1931:

“As elected guardians of a public-owned auditorium, members of the board of education last night spent 45 disturbed minutes last night.

The group discussed ethics, morals, policies of the board and religions before they decided to not cancel a contract which the San Diego citizens’ committee has made for the Russ auditorium, where in two weeks former Senator James T. Heflin of Alabama will speak.”

A redneck, white supremacist, Heflin was known as “Cotton Tom.”

BEACH TRAGEDY

Oceanside High football player Henry Langford, 17,  was killed when the car in which he was riding overturned on the beach in the North County community.

Elwood Phillips, the driver, was uninjured.  The accident occurred when the front wheels of the vehicle locked in the sand.

SOUTHWEST BRAGGING RIGHTS

Phoenix Union, arrived a day early on the Arizona and California Railway for its intersectional tussle with San Diego.

Billboarded as the “Southwestern Champions of 1930” after beating teams from California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, the Coyotes and Hilltoppers were allowed to play the only intersectional game of the season in Southern California.

In time the Southern Section would pass a rule prohibiting inter-state games but okayed this year’s contest because it was the second in a series of home-and-home games.

Phoenix defeated San Diego, 22-20, in 1930 in the Arizona city.

The Hilltoppers had 16 first downs to 1 and defeated the Coyotes, 9-6, after trailing, 6-0, at the half.

TRUE GRID

Hoover’s Burnell Paddock kicked a 40-yard field goal in an 18-9, playoff loss to Coronado…Paddock”s placement from the Islanders’ 30-yard line was believed to be the second longest in County history behind a 44-yard dropkick field goal by San Diego’s Bill Garber in a 1916 playoff versus Ontario Chaffey…City League teams were limited by rule to a total of seven regular-season games, including  three league games…Coronado’s opening game victory over Hoover was not all because of Jimmy Blaisdell, who scored both touchdowns in the 12-0 win…Kent Bush’s 45-yard punting average kept the favored Cardinals backing up…businesses and stores closed for the afternoon when Escondido and Oceanside met in their annual North County battle at Oceanside…San Diego’s varsity players were invited to the Spreckels theater to see “The Spirit of Notre Dame” motion picture, which was a tribute to the late coach, Knute Rockne, killed in a plane crash in Kansas earlier in the year…Hobbs Adams took 20 Hilltoppers to the USC-Stanford game on Saturday, returned home, and then traveled to Alhambra for a Tuesday Armistice Day game…John Perry of Hoover chartered a bus for his Hoover team’s trip to Yuma, Arizona, but some players traveled in private cars…after defeating the Criminals, 6-0, the Cardinals’ were guests at a postgame dance and returned on Sunday to San Diego…El Monte defeated Oceanside, 34-0, for the Southern California Southern Group minor Class B title…Russ Saunders, a star on San Diego’s 1924-25 teams and an all-America at USC, played for the champion Green Bay Packers this season and was the second San Diego athlete in the NFL…Brick Muller played and coached for the Los Angeles Buccaneers in 1925-26, but the Buccaneers were based in Chicago, did not play a game in Los Angeles, and all of their contests were on the road….

San Diego High avoided a tragic event when star sophomore fullback Bert Ritchey almost drowned before the Hilltoppers’ “bowl game” at Phoenix Union.

After  a 12-hour ride on a special San Diego & Arizona railroad car and arriving Friday morning, the Cavemen worked out at Phoenix’s Riverside Park late Friday afternoon.  That evening many in the squad took advantage of a nearby swimming pool.

Ritchey got into trouble but was not noticed until Werner Petersen saw his teammate lying at the bottom of the pool.

Petersen quickly dived, embraced Ritchey, and got his teammate to the surface, according to the report in The San  Diego Union.   

Ritchey was shaken but okay after a few minutes.

Coach John Perry declared the youngster out of the game, but Ritchey played about 10 minutes the next day, according to various reports, and scored a touchdown in the 14-13 victory.

Perry had scheduled the game late in the season as a reward for the team after the Hilltoppers had clinched the Coast League championship.

Following the Saturday afternoon contest, the Hilltoppers boarded a railroad car for another 12-hour trip back to San Diego, arriving Sunday morning.

RITCHEY’S NAME RESONATED

Big Ritchey, a 180-pounder, was born in Kansas and moved to San Diego at a young age in 1909, when his family lived downtown at the corner of Front and F streets.  His was one of the earlier African-American families to settle here.

Bert’s younger brother, Johnny, was the first black player in baseball’s Pacific Coast League when he joined the San Diego Padres in 1948.

Ted Ritchey, the star of San Diego High’s 1947 Southern California finalist, was a nephew of Bert, who also had athletic brothers Alfred and Earl.

SOUR ORANGES

According to The San Diego Union’s Alan McGrew, the Cavemen wasted five scoring opportunities in their 0-0 tie at Orange.

“The game might be a moral victory for Orange,” wrote McGrew.  “Their ability to hold San Diego at times appeared uncanny.”

McGrew, who had been particularly critical of Perry in 1923, took a shot.  “San Diego either lacked good plays or good judgment in their many attempts to score.”

Orange scored more than a moral victory in the quarterfinals of the playoffs.  The Panthers took a 17-0 lead and returned intercepted passes 35 and 60 yards for touchdowns in a 29-20 victory over the Hilltoppers.

Orange scored three touchdowns on intercepted passes, a safety, three PAT, and two field goals, one from the 40-yard line.

The Panthers’ first touchdown came on a 95-yard intercepted pass return by Wuelff.

According to historian Don King’s Caver Conquest, San Diego stunningly outgained Orange, 559 yards to 98, and held a 33-1 advantage in first downs.

Who was keeping the stats?

PERRY WANTS TO PEEL ORANGE

The  yardage anomaly was reason enough for coach John Perry to seek a third game.  He challenged Orange to a Christmas Day showdown in San Diego.

“I am confident that our team is better than Orange,” said Perry.  “They did not score on their own plays but on our fumbles.”

The challenge was in play only if Orange did not win the Southern California championship.  Orange wasn’t interested after playing five postseason contests and being eliminated in the semifinals

COMPLEX PLAYOFFS

One had to follow closely to understand the postseason.

Orange  defeated Redlands, 39-0, in the first round.

Orange defeated San Diego in the second round.

San Diego had a first-round bye and Sweetwater had first-round and second-round byes (not an unusual procedure for that era since travel and who was available came into play).

Orange defeated Sweetwater, 14-0, the following week in the quarterfinals.

Glendale and Compton deadlocked, 0-0, in the semifinals and, by rule,  played again the following week, Glendale winning, 7-0.

The Dynamiters then defeated Compton, 24-0, for the championship as star lineman Marion Morrison played his final game before moving on to USC and later was successful in the movies under the name of John Wayne.

CAVEMEN GRIND

Having first played Santa Ana in 1905, the Saints were the Hillltoppers’ oldest intersectional rival and this year’s game, a physical, 13-0 San Diego victory, showed how much coach John Perry team liked to run the ball.

Individual game statistics for high school games were rarely published, but someone kept a record in this game.

Bert Ritchey gained 76 yards in 25 carries and scored 1 touchdown.  Phil Winnek had 50 yards in 12 attempts and scored once.  In all, the Hilltoppers rushed 58 times for 171 yards.

MONEY TIGHT

San Diego B coach Gerald (Tex) Oliver greeted 60 candidates, all reportedly fewer than 140 pounds and averaging 132 (Sweetwater had 62 B prospects, with about 30 that weighed no more than 110) and Oliver was hard pressed to outfit all.

The San Diego board of education denied an appropriation for the Hilltoppers’ B squad, so Oliver planned benefits.

The “Infants,” as Oliver’s club was known, charged 15 cents for a game with La Jolla.

‘BEES’ VITAL

Usually fast and experienced, most B players had participated in junior high or interclass competition.

With eligibility based on “exponents”–height, weight, and age–B teams, similar to junior varsity squads, were an integral part of Southern California football programs for many years.

Many players would start with the B team but advance to the varsity and return to the B’s in the same season.

The San Diego varsity generally practiced at 2 p.m. in City Stadium, followed by the Bees at 4.

IT’S ABOUT THE GREEN

Sweetwater’s student executive committee voted for the Red Devils to give up a possible home-field advantage and play San Diego in the City Stadium.

The committee rubber-stamped the request of athletic manager Cheeney Moe and head coach Herb Hoskins, who wanted the gate receipts from a larger turnout in the stadium to go to improving the school’s football facilities.

MISPLACED CONFIDENCE?

Hoskins, whose teams were in the Southern California playoffs four out of five seasons in the 1920s, didn’t flinch when asked his team’s chances against San Diego in the season opener.

Writer Alan McGrew of The San Diego Union asserted that the Sweeties had lately “taken some of San Diego’s thunder”.

“We’ll win,” said Hoskins.  “We never figure on losing when we enter a game.  I am confident we’ll win.”

The Cavemen defeated the Red Devils, 33-0, as Bert Ritchey made his debut with four touchdowns.

COLLEGE BLOWUP’S FALLOUT 

Stanford and California announced they were suspending relations with the University of Southern California at the end of the season.

Things had soured between the Pacific Coast powerhouses, with the Northern schools, original conference members since 1915, accusing the Trojans, who joined in 1922, of paying players and not enforcing admittedly vague conference academic standards.

USC promptly announced it was a canceling a home game that week with Stanford, saying that the Northern schools had challenged USC’s “honor”, had a “anti-Southern California feeling” and that the Trojans had always played by the rules.

The USC action affected that week’s San Diego-Long Beach Poly battle for the Coast League title.

Originally scheduled Saturday, Poly boss Harry Moore announced a switch to Friday, not wanting to go against USC-Stanford.

When USC bailed on Stanford, Moore switched again, back to Saturday, saying that his school would “lose too much money” and a probable big San Diego crowd by playing on Friday.

San Diego clinched a tie for the Coast League championship with a 6-3 victory over Poly in a taut defensive struggle.  The Hilltoppers’ Rocky Kemp kept the Jackrabbits backing up with booming punts, one traveling 80 yards.

CAVEMEN ON CARPET

Northern schools in the Coast League also were angry with one of their brethren.

San Diego High vice principal Edgar Anderson was called to Los Angeles for a meeting in which the Hilltoppers were forced to defend themselves against possible expulsion.

Fullerton’s principal charged the Hilltoppers with “rough tactics” in San Diego’s 33-7 victory weeks before.

One Indians player “even had a black eye”, said the school administrator.

Fullerton coach Shorty Smith complained to officials at the end of the game that the Cavemen were “holding” and “coached to play dirty.”

THEY CAN’T HEAR WHISTLE

Pasadena also pointed out that San Diego was penalized twice for roughing.

The Union’s McGrew dismissed the charge by noting that the locals only “kept on playing after the whistle”, which apparently was okay with the writer.

The meaningless vote, which needed the CIF’s approval, was 3-2, with Pasadena backing Fullerton.

Whittier, Santa Ana and Long Beach Poly sided with their Border City rival.

INELIGIBLE?

Fullerton also claimed that Hilltopper Alden Johnson, son of the San Diego City Schools superintendent, was not on the eligibility list when the teams met.

San Diego  stated that Johnson indeed was eligible but was on the “Seconds” squad and didn’t play.

Edgar Anderson then stuck it to Fullerton by producing an eligibility document sent by Fullerton during the previous track season.

The Orange County school’s list had only a scarce number of athletes cited, not nearly enough for a track meet. Instead of being on the Coast League’s official form, the information “was on a piece of scratch paper,” said the San Diego official.

CIF NOT HAPPY

The Hillers did not have clean hands.

“San Diego High was in hot water during this time period, because of not following CIF rules. There were delays in making reports (forwarding game receipts, etc) ,” said CIF Southern Section historian John Dahlem.

Similar complaints of travel were voiced many times over the years.

TROUBLE NEAR THE OCEAN

Army-Navy also drew the wrath of the Southern Section.

The Cadets’ starting backfield and three linemen were declared ineligible thirty minutes before kickoff against El Centro Central.

 

Thirty players in all were banished from football, according to coach Ed Tarr.

Alan McGrew wrote that “most of the ineligibility was caused by students transferring from other schools after being out a semester.”

McGrew was emotional.

The scribe declared that “the murder of Caesar was nothing compared to the ‘crime’ the Southern California Interscholastic Federation, boss of prep sports in this section, has committed.”

Minutes from a Southern Section executive committee meeting 10 days before did not shed much light, only that games played by Army-Navy “are not to count towards a championship in any way.”

The CIF was uneasy about the Pacific Beach military boarding school, whose perceived unfair housing advantage raised questions of residence and eligibility.

TARR REGROUPS

The Army-Navy coach announced that he would have to dismantle the “Seconds” team and that he was debating whether to field an “Ineligible” squad.

Tarr thought his ineligibles could meet the San Diego Lightning squad.

The Lightning also was comprised of  ineligible players and was coached by Rupert Costo, a 200-pound Native American lineman who was expected to be a starter on the Hilltoppers’ varsity.

Costo had gotten the rubber key from school officials after he had exhausted  his eligibility when it was discovered that Costo had attended “several other high schools.”

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

The new Coliseum Athletic Club was being constructed at 15^th and E Streets.  “Every possible modern convenience” was to be included in the 4,500-seat stucco and tile structure.

TASTY

Carlsbad celebrated its second annual “Avocado Days”.  Some 2,000 guests enjoyed Avocado soup, Avocado sandwiches, and Avocado ice cream.

A dance concluded the event, at which a local Avocado honcho said the fruit had made the North Coast of San Diego County famous.

WILSON JUNIOR HIGH ON DECK

Low bid of $247,000 was submitted by contractor William C. Reed for construction of Woodrow Wilson Memorial Junior High at 37^th Street and El Cajon Blvd., in East San Diego.

Wilson would open in 1926 and be the primary feeder for a high school that was to be built later in the decade.  That school would be named after future President Herbert Hoover.

PARK THE CARS HERE

The last quarter of Coronado’s 38-12 victory at Army-Navy was played with the aid of automobile lights.

Many scoring plays and penalties meant a longer game and late October’s dwindling sunlight contributed to the need for artificial illumination.

STEPPING STONE

Pay dues at Memorial or Roosevelt, the city’s two junior highs, which opened in 1922 and ’24, respectively, and be promoted to the high school.

Future San Diego coaches Dewey (Mike) Morrow and George Hobbs were on the Memorial staff.

FOOTBALL AT PARKER

Francis Parker in Mission Hills announced Sept. 4 it would field a high school football team this year, under the guidance of Lloyd Prante, former Nebraska player.

The school, which opened in Mission Hills in 1911, would move to Linda Vista in the late 1960s and begin playing football again in 1969.

LARGER LOOP

The County (Southern) League, inclusive of all schools other than San Diego High, entered its eighth season of operation with a double, round-robin schedule and welcomed newcomer La Jolla Junior-Senior High.

Other football-playing members were Grossmont, Sweetwater, Escondido, and Coronado. Point Loma would open and join the league in 1926.

FOOTHILLERS HEAD FOR HILLS

Twenty-one Grossmont players and coach Ladimir (Jack) Mashin engaged in a one-week camp at Pine Hills YMCA (later known as Camp Marston) in Julian.

“Most of the boys have been on ranches all summer with little time for recreation,” explained principal Carl Birdsall.

The group was accompanied by a chef.  Goal posts were added to the athletic field, and a swimming pool was available.

TRUE GRID

San Diego had one player on the all-Southern California team, blocking back Russ Saunders…Glenn Rozelle, the uncle of future NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, also was a first-team choice, from Compton…San Diego players didn’t practice on the first day of school, instead watching a slow-motion film on fundamentals, instructed by USC coach Gus Henderson and Notre Dame boss Knute Rockne…Grossmont defeated Brawley, 6-0, in the first ever game between San Diego and Imperial County clubs…the Pasadena Star newspaper ordered a phone line for the City Stadium press box so its correspondent could provide a running, play-by-play of the Bulldogs’ game against San Diego…San Diego and the Pomona College freshmen almost evenly split 25 punts and Pomona missed four field goals…”Blackboard” practice was a precursor to modern-day game film…coaches diagrammed plays on a chalkboard and tested the players…

San Diego coach Duane Maley said it best:  “He can run sideways faster than most backs can forward.”

Maley spoke of a favored player,  5-foot, 4-inch, 145-pound halfback Cleveland (Smiley) Jones, who literally carried the 1956 Cavemen.

Jones was the City Prep League player of the year despite missing almost all of two games and parts of others.

San Diego was 6-0 when Jones was healthy, 1-2 when he was sidelined.

OFF TO 3-0 START

In what was supposed to be a major rebuilding season after Jones and teammates won the 1955 Southern California championship and were declared national prep champions, the Cavers won their first three games in impression fashion.

Jones was hurt in the first quarter of the fourth, an upset, 20-12 loss to Hoover.  He played sparingly the following week, a 54-13 win over Mission Bay, and missed much of the 35-21 loss to Downey in the first round of the playoffs.

OFFENSE, DEFENSE, SPECIAL TEAMS

In between, Jones scored 96 points, with 12 touchdowns and kicked 24 points after.  He also played defense, but was  player of the year because of a 10.8-yard rushing average, 17-yard pass-receiving average, and a stunning 45-yard average on punt returns.

“Jones is a great broken field runner, the greatest I’ve ever coached,” said Maley, who was not given to hyperbole.

Of Jones’s many long runs, the most memorable came in the showdown with Lincoln, playoff berth and tie for the CPL title on the line.

Lincoln scored first to take a 7-0 lead on a short run by quarterback Russ Boehmke.

Jones juggled the ensuing kickoff and the ball  bounced back to the one-yard line.  The diminutive Caver almost lost his balance, but recovered, and ran 99 yards for a tying touchdown.

Jones scored one other touchdown as San Diego won a thrill-packed game, 26-19, earning a first-round playoff date with Downey at Long Beach Veterans’ Stadium, site of San Diego’s  epic 1955 semifinal  victory over  Anaheim.

PLAYED DOWNEY CLOSE

Jones was hurt in the loss to Downey, the eventual, 13-13 tie co-champion with Anaheim.

The Cavers’ 14-point loss, with Jones out much of the game,  compared well to the Vikings  41-point victory over Beverly Hills and 33-point win over Lancaster Antelope Valley in other playoff games.

Comparatively, Downey defeated Long Beach Wilson, 13-7.  San Diego defeated the Bruins, 21-7, and had three touchdowns called back.

This wasn’t a championship Cavers team, but it might have been had Jones not been sidelined with some untimely injuries.

PLAYED ON AND ON

Jones was on a conference championship team at San Diego Junior College in 1957, was a two-year star at Oregon,  a late roster cut of the NFL Dallas Cowboys, and then starred for the powerful San Diego Marine Corps Recruit Depot team.

Jones still was playing semipro football at age 38.  Compared to 21st century NFL players, he most closely resembled Darren Sproles, who thrilled San Diego Chargers fans a couple generations later.

Jones went on to a long career as an officer in the Orange County Probation Department.

He was known as “Smiley” because his facial bones were such that his countenance is a perpetual pleasant expression or smile.

Cleveland brought a lot of smiles to those who watched him and played with him.