Hoover, led by high jumper-hurdler Bernie Nelson, stole thunder usually heard only by San Diego High opponents.

The Cardinals were 6-0 in dual meets and along with Grossmont and Point Loma won a dual meet from the usually unbeatable Hillers.

Nelson, who cleared 6 feet, 4 inches, was the County’s first state champion since Grossmont’s Hal Norris won at 56-5 ½ in the shotput at Sacramento in 1950.

Point Loma’s Herman Thompson made a splash in the 100-yard dash, and Dick Bronson continued Grossmont’s domination in the shot put.

3/4/53

Tom Williams of Vista set a school record of 4:55.4 in the mile as the Panthers defeated Mar Vista, 61-41, in a Metropolitan League dual meet.

3/6/53

Charlie Rose set a Coronado school record with a 6-foot, 1 3/4-inch high jump in the Islanders’ 57-38 dual meet win over St Augustine.

Oceanside won the 880-yard relay in 1:36.9 and defeated Metropolitan League rival Sweetwater, 53-51.

–Football star C.R. Roberts ran a leg on the relay, won the 100 in :10.8, and was second to John Foster‘s 21-10 ½ broad jump.

Point Loma scored 44 points to win the City Prep League relays, a series of medley events and field events with winning scores based on teams’ combined heights and distances.

Kearny was second with 38, followed by Hoover, 34, Grossmont, 31, San Diego, 29, La Jolla 20, and Helix, 2.

Grossmont, the Class A defending champion, maintained in Class B and C, winning each.

Individual event honors went to the Pointers’ Herman Thompson, who won the 100-yard dash in :10.4 and teammate Bob Miller, who took the 120-yard high hurdles in :15.3.

3/20/53

Both teams were disqualified for lane violations in the 880 relay, but Kearny already was in the house with a 55-44 victory over Point Loma.

The Pointers’ Herman Thompson was a double winner at :10.1 and :23 in the 100 and 220.

3/24/53

Jim Giyer set a Grossmont school record of 4:35.2 in the mile, but Hoover, led by Bernie Nelson’s three wins, defeated the Foothillers, 60-44.

Nelson’s ran :15.2 and :20.5 in the high and low hurdles, respectively, and high jumped 5-11 ¼.

3/27/53

Hoover improved to 3-0 in dual meets with a 55-49 win at Point Loma, although the Pointers relay squad of Waldo Palmer, Jesse Denny, Hal Krupens, and Herman Thompson set a school record of 1:33.2.

Bernie Nelson set the pace for Hoover with wins of :15.3 in the high hurdles, :20.2 in the lows, and 6-1 in the high jump.

4/9/53

Fred White of Chula Vista, chasing the school record of 56-1 3/4 set by his brother Kenny in 1950, took the County lead with a 55-10 toss in a 77-26 victory over Vista.

Coronado and Escondido battled to a 52-52 deadlock, the second this season for the Islanders, who earlier had a 52-52 stalemate with Chula Vista.

4/10/53

San Diego lost a dual meet for the first time since 1948, a span of 26 victories and one tie, as Grossmont stunned the Hillers, 55 1/2-48 1/2.

The Cavers held a 16-2 advantage in the sprints, but the Foothillers made up the deficit with a 17-1 advantage in the distances and shot put.

Grossmont’s Dick Bronson hurled the shot 55 feet, 5 inches, and Jim Giyer won the mile in 4:36.7.

San Diego’s Halden Grey was a double winner in the 100 (:10.2) and 220 in a time-disputed :21.7. Grey’s best time before and after was at least one second slower.

Hoover improved to 4-0 with a 73-31 win over Kearny.  Bernie Nelson high jumped 6-3, third best in school history.  Alvin Cordray cleared 6-3 ½ in 1938 and Jack Razzeto 6-5 ¼ in 1948.

Nelson also won the 120-yard high hurdles in :15.5 and the 180 lows in :20.9.

4/17/53

Beating San Diego in track and field no longer was news.  Point Loma stunned the Hillers, 69-35, in Balboa Stadium and the Peninsula thinclads did it by barging into San Diego’s figurative kitchen.

Junior Herman Thompson won the 100 in :09.9, 220 in :22.5, broad jump at 21-9, and anchored a school record, 1:32.0 victory in the 880 relay, events San Diego had dominated locally.

Bob Miller also bruised the Hillers with wins of :15.6 and :21.1 in the high and low hurdles.

Football star C.R. Roberts won the 100 in :10.3 and broad jump at 21-5 ½, and ran a leg on the winning relay (1:37.8) that was the difference in Oceanside’s 56 ½-47 ½ win over San Dieguito.

4/23/53

Fred White of Chula Vista broke the school shot put record held by his brother.

Fred pushed the 12-pound ball 56 feet, 2 ½ inches in a dual-meet with Oceanside, which outscored the Spartans, 56 ½-46 1/2. Kenny White reached 56-1 ¾ in a CIF divisional meet in 1950.

Russ Elwell of Coronado set a school record of 53 feet and Charlie Rose tied his early-season school record of 6-1 ¾ as Coronado beat Mar Vista, 88-16.

Point Loma’s Herman Thompson became the seventh sprinter in County history to cover 100 yards in :09.8 and tied George Able’s school record, set in 1938.

Thompson negotiated the distance in a dual meet with La Jolla in Balboa Stadium.

5/1/53

Escondido won the 12-team Vista Relays with 41 1/2 points.  Oceanside was second with 34. C.R. Roberts of Oceanside won the Open 100 in :10.3 and was part of the Pirates’ :47.3 winning effort in the 440 relay.

5/2/53 

Hoover completed a 6-0 dual-meet season with a 61 ½-41 ½ victory at San Diego as Bernie Nelson won the high hurdles (:15), lows (:20.1) and high jump (6-0).

Nelson’s Cardinals teammate Dave Abbott hurled the shot 53 feet, 6 inches, an outstanding effort but on this day second to (next paragraph).

Grossmont junior Dick Bronson bettered the school record with a 58-foot, 10 1/2-inch toss but Point Loma won the last-event relay in 1:34.8 and the meet, 55 ½-48 ½.

Bronson bettered Clyde Wetter’s school record of 58-4 7/8 in 1951.

5/5/53

City Prep League Class B and C finals were held in Balboa Stadium, where La Jolla’s Bob Gutowski set a B record with a pole vault of 11 feet, 10 ½ inches.

Less than four years later (three years, 357 days), Gutowski vaulted 15-8 for a world record as a member of the Occidental College team in Eagle Rock.

5/8/53

CITY PREP LEAGUE FINALS, @BALBOA STADIUM

Three meet records were set despite “nippy weather” before an estimated crowd of 3,500 persons.

Hoover’s Bernie Nelson set a record of :14.9 in the high hurdles, won the lows in :20.1 and signed off early after beating the competition at 5 feet, 8 inches, in the high jump.

Grossmont’s George Davis ran the 880 in 2:02.1 and teammate Jim Giyer the mile in 4:32.4.

Hoover, the dual-meet champion, scored 45 1/3 points, edging Point Loma (43 7/12), which was followed by Grossmont, 37 ½, San Diego, 23 ½, Kearny, 19 ¾, La Jolla, 14 ½, and Helix, 8.

METROPOLITAN LEAGUE FINALS, @VISTA

No meet records were set and San Dieguito scored 34 ¾ points, followed by dual meet champion Coronado, 31, Oceanside, 26, Vista, 25, Sweetwater, 20 ½, Escondido, 18, Mar Vista 13, Chula Vista, 9.

Escondido’s Rich Gehring was a double winner in the 120 high hurdles (:15.4) and 180 lows (:20.0).

SOUTHERN PREP LEAGUE FINALS, @CAMP PENDLETON

Fallbrook won seven of 12 events and scored 128 ½ points to runner-up Army-Navy’s 97 ½.  Mountain Empire followed with 28, Ramona 27 ½, and Brown Military, 1.

Best mark was a :10.3 in the 100-yard dash by Manning of Army-Navy.

5/16/53

A CIF Divisional meet for City Prep, Southern Prep, Metropolitan, Orange, and Sunset leagues was held on what The San Diego Union writer Harry Monahan declared was a “soggy, windswept” San Diego State track.

Santa Ana led team qualifiers with eight.  Hoover and Grossmont each had seven.

Bernie Nelson survived disaster in the 120-yard hurdles when he tripped on the third barrier and fell.  Nelson regained his feet and finished fourth in his race to qualify for the Divisional semifinals the following week at Ontario Chaffey.

Nelson also made the cut in the 180-yard low hurdles and high jump.

Point Loma’s Herman Thompson was not as fortunate. Thompson arrived late in the afternoon, missing a chance to qualify in the 100 and 220.

The junior speedster anchored The Pointers to victory in one of the 880-yard relay heats in 1:33.6.

Grossmont individual winners were Jim Giyer, who ran the mile in 4:35.4, and Dick Bronson, who led all shot putters with a toss of 53-5 5/8.

5/19/53

Kearny’s Lee Buchanan won a 440 heat in the Chaffey divisional semifinal in Ontario in :50.9.  Grossmont’s Jim Giyer won one of the mile races in 4:30.5 and teammate George Davis took an 880 heat in 2:01.3.

Tom Noonan of Coronado cleared 6 feet for the first time and got over 6-2.  Bernie Nelson of Hoover qualified in the high jump at 6 feet and advanced in both hurdle races.

5/23/53

SOUTHERN SECTION FINALS, @OXNARD HIGH

Point Loma, Hoover and Grossmont tied for eighth in the Southern Section finals with 6 points each at Oxnard High.

Bernie Nelson tied with three others for third in the high jump at 6 feet, 1 inch, but qualified for the state meet along with Coronado’s Tom Noonan on the basis of fewer misses.

Nelson also was fourth in the 120 high hurdles in a wind-aided :14.6 and fifth in the 180 lows, won in :19.2 on the breezy afternoon.

Jim Giyer of Grossmont was fourth in the mile and Dick Bronson was second in the shot put at 56 feet, 3 3/4. Don Vick of Ontario Chaffey won at 61-1/8. Fred White of Chula Vista was third at 54-4 7/8.

Waldo Palmer of Point Loma tied for first with Turner of San Bernardino in the broad jump with a best of 22 feet, 4 ¾ inches.

Charlie Cota of Kearny tied for first in the Class B pole vault at 12 feet.  Bob Gutowski of La Jolla tied for third at 11-8.

Armstrong of Grossmont won the Class C shot put at 50-10 ¾.  Bodenhamer of Kearny was fifth in the Class C 120-yard low hurdles.

5/30/53

35TH STATE MEET, @FRESNO 

Bernie Nelson completed a brilliant season by winning the state high jump at Fresno’s Ratcliff Stadium with a leap of 6 feet, 4 inches.

Grossmont’s Dick Bronson, fifth in the shot put at 55-2 3/8, was the only other County entry to score.

Jack Mashin coached football at Grossmont from 1925-47 and posted an excellent record, 125-66-19 (.644), but he became more known as an international figure in track and field.

Mashin would, under auspices of the U.S. State Department, coach the first Pakistan Olympic team in 1956 in Melbourne, Australia, and his decades-long success at Grossmont led to the friendly mentor’s legendary appellation, the “Fox of the Foothills”.

From 1950-57 Grossmont produced eight shot putters who reached at least 54-feet, 6 inches; two who hit at least 60 feet, and several others of at least 50 feet.

Clyde Wetter (58-4 ¾, 1951) and Hal Norris (58-2 1/2, 1950) now were in college and sophomore Dick Bronson, who had a best of 46-9 ½ in his first meet this season, was going to eventually produce similar results under Mashin’s guidance.

Mashin, whose teams won 143 league championships in all sports at Grossmont from 1923-59, continued to work with weight men as an assistant coach/consultant at Grossmont and was coaching at Cal Western University in San Diego and at Grossmont College well into his eighties.

Mashin also refereed many Hoover-San Diego football battles and  thousands of games in football and basketball.

2/22/52

Bert Kohnhurst was a double winner at :10.3 in the 100-yard dash and :23.6 in the 220 as Grossmont swamped Chula Vista, 86-18.  Kohnhurst also would have anchored the 880-yard relay team but Chula Vista forfeited the race.

2/26/52

Grossmont scored 39 points to lead defending champion San Diego (31) and La Jolla (31), and Kearny (30) in the varsity portion of the fourth annual City Prep League relays in Balboa Stadium.

La Jolla won Class B (31) and Grossmont Class C (34).

San Diego’s Walter (Red) Taylor won the 100-yard dash in :09.9 and anchored a 1:34.1 victory in the 880-yard relay.

Hoover’s Bernie Nelson high jumped 6 feet, 1 ¾ inches, and Kearny’s John Rushing won the 120-yard high hurdles in :15.3 in the other, standard events.

Grossmont won the distance medley (440, 880, 1320, mile) in 11:11.09.

2/28/52

Tom Parker, later to be a successful football coach at Sweetwater, took over at Mar Vista for Garold (Gerry) Spitler, who left to become recreation director in the Marshall Islands.

3/1/52

Kearny’s Jim Weir (4:46.9 mile) and Roy Howell (2:07 880) set school records as Kearny opened the CPL season with a 67-37 dual-meet win over La Jolla.

3/6/52

Bernie Nelson high jumped 6-1 ¾ for the leading mark in Hoover’s 63-41 City Prep League opening dual meet with La Jolla.

3/15/52

Rain, which fell a fourth-highest-on-record 18.16 inches in San Diego County for the 1951-52 calendar year, was playing havoc.  Three CPL duals were washed out.

Sweetwater and arch-rival Chula Vista managed to get in a meet and the Red Devils came away with a 54 ½-49 ½ Metropolitan League victory by winning the 880 relay in 1:39.1.

3/19/52

Continual rain forced a meeting of CPL coaches at the San Diego Education Center, where re-scheduling and makeup meets were coordinated.

3/21/52
Tracks had finally begun to dry out and CPL thinclads posted season highs in four events.

John Parker sailed 23 feet, 8 inches, to break the San Diego High record of 23-6 ¾, set by Bob Logan in 1938.

Parker also won the 220 in :22.5 and was part of the Cavers’ relay team that lowered the best time to 1:32.8.

Parker’s teammate, Hubert Smith, lowered his area lead in the 440 to :51.9.

The short end of a 64-40 team score didn’t diminish the individual accomplishments of Point Loma’s Lincoln Lucero, who topped the San Diego hurdlers, winning the 120 highs in :15.3 and the 180 lows in a school record, season best :20.2.

Point Loma’s Lance Morton set a school record with a 51-3 ¼ shot put.

–Kearny defeated Hoover, 54-50, as Jim Weir logged a school-record 4:37.7 mile and Roy Howell a school record 2:06.1 in the 880.John Rushing  doubled in :15.2 and :20.8 in the hurdles and brought the Komets to victory by anchoring a 1:34.1 triumph in the relay.

–The first-ever Grossmont-Helix confrontation resulted in an expected win by the more established Foothillers, 67 ½-36 ½. Bert Kohnhurst led the way for Grossmont with :10.2 and :22.8 sprint victories.

–Coronado’s Harry Sykes ran :19.7 in the 180-yard low hurdles against Mar Vista.

3/29/52

SOUTHERN COUNTIES INVITATIONAL

LARGE SCHOOLS

Compton won this portion of the 31^st annual meet with 34 points to San Diego’s 30, but the Cavemen had four first places to the Tarbabes’ two.

Red Taylor won the 100 championship in :09.9, Hubert Smith one of the 440 races in :52.8, Bernard Hansen one of the 880s in 2:03.3, and John Parker the broad jump at 23-4 ¾.

Point Loma’s Lincoln Lucero won championships in the high hurdles (:14.8) and lows (:20).

Burt Kohnhurst was second to Taylor in the 100 and then swapped places with the San Diego athlete in a :22 flat 220.  George Davis of Grossmont set a school record with a 2:03.2 880.

San Diego entries had seven first places in 16 events.

4/1/52

Walter Taylor ran a :09.8 100, fastest in Southern California, and San Diego won 11 of 12 events in a 77 ½-26 ½ win over La Jolla.

Hubert Smith bettered his 440 time with a :51.5 and Taylor also won the high jump at 5-10.

La Jolla’s Andy Skief hurled the shot 48-2 for the Vikings’ only first place.

–John Rushing won the 100 in :10.3, the 120 high hurdles in :15.1, and the broad jump at 20-4 1/2, but Grossmont depth trumped Rushing and the Komets, 60 2/3-43 1/3.

Rushing defeated Tommy George in the short race, in which Bert Kohnhurst did not enter.  Kohnhurst won the 220 in :23.

4/4/52

San Diego (5-0) posted the fastest time of the season with a 1:32 in the 880-yard relay in a 73-31 dual-meet win over Kearny in Balboa Stadium.  Walter Taylor won the 100 in :10, the high jump at 5-9, and was second to Hubert Smith’s :51.9 440.

John Rushing ran :14.9 and :19.9 in the high and low hurdles for Kearny.

–Sweetwater’s Ted Granger tied the school record with his :15.8 in the 120-yard high hurdles and Don McCarver of San Dieguito cleared 11-5, breaking a school record of 11-3, set in 1946.

4/12/52

Kearny and Grossmont entered small contingents in the Santa Barbara Relays.  John Rushing won the small schools broad jump at 22-1.

Dick Bronson of Grossmont was fourth in the large schools shot put at 48-10.

4/17/52

SOUTHERN PREP LEAGUE FINALS, @VISTA

Army-Navy outscored Vista, 96-64 1/2, for the team championship. Brown Military had 48 ½.  Fallbrook won Class B and Vista Class C.

One varsity meet record was set by Vista’s Dick Bedford, who covered the 180 low hurdles in :21.7.

Kearny athletes set four school records in a 68-36 win over Helix.  John Rushing ran the 100 in :10.2 and 220 in :22.8. Ray Howell toured the 880 in 2:05.6, and the 880 relay team, with Rushing running anchor, timed a reported 1:32.9.

4/22/52

LEAGUE TRIALS

Hoover, mediocre (3-3)  in the dual-meet season, provided a mild surprise by qualifying for 11 berths in the City Prep League at San Diego State, but San Diego led with 14.  Grossmont had eight, La Jolla, Point Loma, and Kearny, seven each.

John Rushing set a record with a time of :19.6  in the 180 low hurdles and Bert Kohnhurst bettered the record with a :21.9 220 on the San Diego State straightaway.

Sweetwater’s defending team champion qualified 10 to dual-meet champion Coronado’s 8 in Metropolitan League trials at Vista.  Escondido led with 15.

Harry Sykes, who led Coronado to its first outright league dual-meet championship since 1925,  remained undefeated with victories of :10.4 in the 100 and :21.3 in the 180 low hurdles.  Ted Granger bettered his Sweetwater high hurdles record with a :15.5.

4/25/52

FINALS

METROPOLITAN LEAGUE, @CHULA VISTA

Dick Geck of San Dieguito ended the unbeaten season of Coronado’s Harry Sykes in the 100, but the Islanders won the  team championship with 44 points to 33 for Escondido, which won the Class B and C championships.

Geck’s 100 time was :10.4 and he won the 220 in :23.1.  Sykes, a virtual triple winner in almost every meet, won the broad jump at 21 feet, 10 inches, and the 180 low hurdles in :20.9.

George Edwards rallied from fifth place on the final turn to win the mile in 4:58.7, and Charlie Rose was the Islanders’ third winner at 5-11 in the high jump.

CITY PREP LEAGUE, @SAN DIEGO STATE

Writer Gene Earl of The San Diego Union described the conditions at San Diego State as a “biting and oft-time strong wind (that) razored across the Montezuma oval.”

The hefty breezes affected many performances, but favored San Diego still outlasted Grossmont for the team title, 53-49 ½.  Grossmont won Class B and Kearny Class C.

San Diego’s Walter (Red) Taylor battled the wind in the 100 and edged Grossmont’s Bert Kohnhurst in :10.1.  Kohnhurst won the 220 in :22 after Taylor withdrew, complaining of a stomach ache.

Grossmont led, 48 ½ to 48, but finished fifth in the final event 880-yard relay, won by the Cavers in 1:32.8.

John Rushing figured in 18 of Kearny’s 35 points, winning the high (:15.8) and low hurdles (:20.6), placing second to the 23-6 broad jump of San Diego’s John Parker, and anchoring the Komets to second place in the relay.

Grossmont’s other victory came in the shot put as Dick Bronson reached 50 feet, 11 ¼ inches.  Foothillers  weight man Dick Barnes won the Class B shot put at 53-5 1/2.

5/3/52

San Diego led all teams with 10 qualifiers in the Divisional quarterfinals at San Diego State, but junior Lanny Carter of Orange made the headlines with a Southern Section record of :48.9 in the 440 around two turns.

Some quarter miles began in a chute and covered only one turn, at about the 220-yard mark.  Carter bettered the record of :49.2 by Duane Lewis of Compton in 1940.

John Rushing doubled in the high and low hurdles in :15.2 and :20.1, respectively, and Bert Kohnhurst doubled in the 100 and 220 in :10.1 and :22. John Parker of San Diego set a County record of 23-9 1/2 in the broad jump and broke a school record of 23-8 he set earlier.

San Diego’s Bernard Hanson won the 880 in 2:01.6 and defeated reigning Southern Section champion Bob Suess of Huntington Beach.

5/10/52

Walter Taylor won his heat in :10.0 and ran a leg on the relay as the San Diego squad of Taylor, John Parker, Jon Taylor, and Hubert Smith posted the fastest heat, 1:30.5, in the Divisional semifinal meet at Ontario Chaffey.

Grossmont’s Burt Kohnhurst, one of the favorites, finished a nonqualifying third in his heat, won by George Lewis of El Monte in :09.8.

Kohnhurst recovered to win a 220 heat in :21.7. San Diego’s Bernard Hansen won his 880 heat in 2:02.5 and Kearny’s John Rushing won a heat in the 180-yard low hurdles in :19.7 after failing to qualify in the 120 highs.

Rushing also was third at 22-1 in the broad jump and San Diego’s John Parker fifth at 21-6 ½.

Grossmont’s Tommy George doubled in  the Class B sprints, winning his heats in :10.2 and :22.5.

Five qualified, including Hoover’s Bernie Nelson, at 5-10 in the high jump, and five made the finals in the pole vault, including Jim Terry of Helix at 11-9 ½.

San Diego, Alhambra, and San Bernardino each led qualifiers with 5 each for the following week finals.

5/17/52

San Diego was fourth in team scoring with 8 points, behind the Compton Tarbabes, who ran away with the championship with 31 points at Huntington Beach.

Kearny scored 6 points, Grossmont 2, and Hoover and Chula Vista 1 each.

SAN DIEGO HIGH

Walter Taylor was third behind a :09.9 100 by George Lewis of El Monte and ran a leg on the 880 relay, in which the Cavemen were second to the 1:30.1 of Long Beach Wilson.

Bernard Hansen was fifth behind a 1:59.7 880 by North Hollywood Harvard’s Bert Purdue.

KEARNY

John Rushing was second in the broad jump at 22-10 ½ and fourth behind the :19.2 in the 180-yard hurdles by Newquist of Long Beach Wilson.

GROSSMONT

Burt Kohnhurst finished fourth in :21.5 in the 220, won by Mal Hughes of Beverly Hills in :21.2.

HOOVER & CHULA VISTA

Bernie Nelson of Hoover was fourth at 6 feet in the high jump and Fred White of Chula Vista fifth in the shot put at 51-9 1/8.

BEES AND CEES

Tommy George of Grossmont was third in the Class B 100 and fourth in the 220.  Teammate Dick Barnes won the 10-pound shot put competition at 53-5/8.

Helix’ Young won the Class C 180 in :18.7.

Ron Vavra of team champion Glendale Hoover won the B 100 in :10.2 and seven years later opened the new El Capitan High program in La Mesa and followed with a long tenure as track coach at Grossmont College.

5/24/51

The 34^th state meet was held at the Los Angeles Coliseum. County athletes barely avoided a shutout.

Walter Taylor was fourth in his heat in the 100 in :10.2 but did not place in the afternoon finals.  John Rushing of Kearny was fourth in the broad jump at 22-8 ¾.

SAY, AREN’T YOU?

Grossmont coach Jack Mashin need not have asked that question. Mashin was well acquainted, with the shot putter from a school almost 300 miles away.

Jay Humphrey of Strathmore in the Central Section had attended and competed at Grossmont but transferred to the Northern community for his senior year and finished third at 58 feet, 4 inches, behind the 60-9 1/8, national record by Leon Patterson of Taft.

 

 

 

 

Martin Pedigo, a former University of Oregon broad jumper, became the San Diego High coach and inherited a potential powerhouse.

The Cavers, representative of one of the state’s great programs—184-30-2 in dual meets since 1929—were 14-7  under longtime assistant Henry Wiegand and hadn’t beaten Lincoln, their latest rival, since 1959.

Wiegand deserved another year. Coincidentally, Pedigo, the seventh to occupy the position since Glenn Broderick took over in 1927, was married to a former Cavers cheerleader and student leader that Pedigo met at Oregon.

STATE GETS LARGER

The state meet, in its 45th year,  became a two-day event and was more popular than ever. A crowd of 14,000 watched the final day at Edwards Field on the University of California campus in Berkeley..

Read down until you reach the Eastern League trials and finals in B and C field events.  An interesting name emerges.

Plus, take in a season of terrific performances, particularly by the San Diego High 880-yard  relay squad of Walter Blackledge, Gordon Baker, Raymond Dixon, and Charles Sanford, and the explosive arrival of junior Bob Hose in the 880-yard run for first-year Madison.

2/27/63

San Diego opened with a 63-41, dual-meet win at Granite Hills, winning nine of 12 events.

Lloyd Walker (120 high hurdles, :15, and high jump, 6 feet 2 inches) and Charles Sanford (100-yard dash, :10, and 180 low hurdles, :20.1) won two events each and teamed on a winning 880-yard relay team, 1:33.1.

3/1/63

Hilltop looked like a solid contender in the Metropolitan League, having won a nonleague dual with La Jolla, 64-40, as Darrell Dunafon clocked 1:58.9 in the 880.  John Miller set a La Jolla shot put record of 54-8 ½.

3/2/63

Compton Centennial made its almost annual trip South for a quadrangular meet with San Diego (45), Grossmont (35), and Lincoln (22).

Coach Bill Gill’s Apaches had 46 points, but San Diego won the big races. Charles Sanford took the 100 in :09.8, Gordon Baker the 440 in :50.4, and Robert Wash and Raymond Dixon joined Baker and Sanford in a :1:29.2 880 relay win.

Grossmont’s John Rendina won the 880 in 1:58.7 and Paul Manning the pole vault at 13-6 5/8.

—Gary Hafner tripled in Helix’ 79-25 win over Monte Vista, winning the 440 in :51.6, broad jump at 22 feet, and setting a school record at 6-2 ¾ in the high jump.

3/9/63

Crawford won a dual with Grossmont League power El Cajon Valley, 53-51, by winning the relay in 1:32.8.

Steve Weston doubled for the Braves in the high hurdles (:14.9) and low hurdles (20.7).  Bill Sanders (:10.2, :22.7) doubled for Crawford and was on the relay team and Rick Herrmann turned in a :50.8 in the 440.

—Tom Agsten doubled at Clairemont with a :09.7 100 and :50 flat 440 and Eddy Hanks high jumped 6-2 ½ in Hoover’s 75 ½-28 ½ victory.

—Versatile Bob Hose won the 440 in :52.9 and 120 high hurdles in :16.4 and was second in the broad jump but St. Augustine, behind Henry Daniels’ :09.8 and :23.1 sprint victories won, 65-38.

3/15/63

Tom Agsten of Hoover set a County record of :49.0 in the 440 and raced to :09.9 100 victory as Hoover beat Point Loma, 64-40.

Coronado’s Scott Knox held the 440 record of :49.2, set in the 1961 San Diego Section meet and San Diego’s Norman Stocks ran :49.3 in the Southern Section meet in 1946.

3/26/63

Martin Koenekamp set a Helix record of 1:56.3 in the 880 as the Highlanders defeated El Capitan, 79-25. Two months later, in the Section meet, Koenekamp’s teammate, Don (Flash) Gordon also clocked 1:56.3.

3/30/63

Hoover coach Raleigh Holt might have been accused of stacking his entry list and  going for the rare shutout.

The Cardinals scored a 103-1 dual meet victory over Morse.  A Hoover Class C pole vaulter, Hirata, was elevated to the varsity and won his event and set a C record of 12-2.

Morse’s only point was a third place in the 100-yard dash.

—San Diego took a huge step towards its first Eastern League dual-meet title since 1959, 64-40 over Lincoln, which had won the last three.

Lloyd Walker high jumped 6-3 ½ and won the 120 highs in :14.7 and the Cavers swept the Hornets in the sprints, 18-0, as Charles Sanford won the 100 in :09.9 and Raymond Dixon the 220 in :22.2 in a track that had been slowed by recent rain.

3/31/63

San Diego, Lincoln, and Granite Hills each won team championships in the National City Junior Chamber of Commerce Relays at Sweetwater.

The eighth annual event, delayed a week by rain, saw six records broken.

Large Schools Division winner San Diego outscored Grossmont, 45-42, followed by Hoover, 25, Crawford, 22, El Capitan, 21, Helix, 19, and Point Loma and Mount Miguel, 17 each.

Lincoln had 44 points, El Cajon Valley 36, Chula Vista 33, Hilltop 32, Escondido 25, Kearny 15, Clairemont, and St. Augustine 12 among medium schools.

Granite Hills outdistanced the small schools’ field with 50 ½ points, followed by Coronado, 35, La Jolla, 31 ½, Sweetwater, 30 1/3, Mar Vista, 24, Monte Vista, 19, and Mission Bay, 13 2/3.

Grossmont’s Phil Napierski high jumped 6-4 and El Cajon Valley’s Steve Weston ran :14.8 in the 120-yard high hurdles. Three records were set in relays events, which later were not recognized after the Sweetwater track was discovered to be approximately 3 yards short of a 440-yard oval.

Helix’ record 10:36.1 in the distance medley, 440, 880, 1320, and mile.  Those distances required 10 trips around the oval, thus about 30 yards short of the official distance.

Bogus records also were set in the 880 and Mile relays and mile run.

4/3/63

Madison’s Bob Hose, who had run hurdles and broad jumped, won his 880-yard specialty in 2:00.7.  Hose, competing for Clairemont as a sophomore in 1962, had finished fourth in the San Diego Section finals with a best time of 1:58.8.

Hose also took thirds in the high hurdles and broad jump but Point Loma won the Western League dual, 84-20.

4/6/63

Tom Agsten won the 100 in :09.8 and the 220 on the Hoover curve in :21.6 but Crawford won the Eastern League dual, 61-43.

The Colts’ Rick Herrmann won the 400 in :49.8 and the Colts set a school record with a 1:29.6 880 relay win.

–Russ Eckhardt set a Granite Hills record of :09.8 in the 100 and La Jolla’s John Miller improved his school record to 54-11 ¼.

—James Kennedy of Lincoln upped his San Diego Section lead in the broad jump to 23 feet, 9 inches.

—Gary Hafner set school records of :49.7 in the 440 and 22-9 ½ in the broad jump and won the 220 in  Helix’ pivotal Grossmont League triumph against visiting Grossmont, 53-51.

—Dave Funderburk, a sophomore at Vista, ran 4:27.7 in the mile, a class record.

4/6/63

Bob Hose broke two minutes for the first time with his 1:59.9 in Madison’s 80-23 loss at Kearny.

4/14/63

Seven meet records were set at the San Diego Relays in Balboa Stadium, most notable the three-man high jump in which San Diego jumpers cleared a cumulative height of 18-8 ½.

The 6-5 ¼ by Tom Maloy, 6-3 ½ by Lloyd Walker and 6-0 by Willie Steel was a foot higher than the record.

Paul Manning led a Grossmont team to 38 feet with a 13-6 pole vault (matched by Escondido’s Bob Good). James Kennedy led 3 Lincoln broad jumpers to a combined 66-3 ½.

Four Helix milers averaged 4:58.7 and they set a 4-mile record of 18:34.8.

Lloyd Walker of San Diego posted a record, :14.5 in the high hurdles and San Diego ran: 42.5 and 1:28.0 in the 440 and 880 baton races.

The anticipated 100-yard dash was marked by a disqualification after two false starts by St. Augustine’s Henry Daniels, who earlier won a heat in :09.9.  Crawford’s Bill Sanders got the best of San Diego’s Charles Sanford in the final in :09.8.

5/1/63

A gusty breeze pushed St. Augustine’s Henry Daniels to a :09.5 100 and :21.4 220.  Granite Hills won a 220 duel at Helix from the Highlanders’ Gary Hafner.  Eckhardt ran :21.1, Hafner :21.3.

Madison’s Bob Hose logged a :50.5 440 and won the high hurdles in :16.1 and Mission Bay’s Bob Getzen broke the school mile record for the second time, 4:28.2.

Bill Trujillo set a Kearny record with a 4:27.8 mile and La Jolla found a challenger for John Miller in the shot put.  Holland Seymore reached 52-5 5/8.

Escondido’s Ed Mathews ran a 1:57.7 880 at Sweetwater.

5/4/63

Henry Daniels beat Charles Sanford in a :09.9 100 and Gordon Baker ran the Balboa Stadium curve in :21.6 as San Diego beat the Saints, 68-36.

—Crawford’s Bill Sanders got into the act at Morse with a windy :09.6 100 and Sanders’ Crawford teammate Rick Herrmann took the 440 in :49.7 in the Colts’ 85-19 breeze.

—Madison’s Bob Hose clocked 1:59.1 in the 880, but saw his school mile record of 4:45 bettered by teammate Loeber, who ran 4:38.7 in an 83-21 loss to big brother Clairemont.

5/8/63

Trials in the Eastern, Western, and Metropolitan leagues saw several season bests and included records in lower classes.

San Diego’s Walter Blackledge won a windy heat in the 220 at Morse in :20.8, and Gordon Baker won the following heat in :21.1.

A wind gauge was on hand and the usual breeze actually was measured at less than the allowable 4.447 miles per hour when the Cavers’ Lloyd Walker set a record in the high hurdles, :14.4.

It seemed of no great importance when a Class C high jump record was made at 5 feet, 10 inches.

Who won the event made the jump noteworthy. The winner was Morse sophomore Arnie Robinson, who would go on to win the 1980 Olympics long jump gold medal.

Robinson also won the San Diego Section title in the C high jump at 5-10, but would finish fourth in the broad jump, won by Point Loma’s Earle Lott, who set a record of 21-10 5/8.

5/11/63

EASTERN LEAGUE FINALS, @BALBOA STADIUM

The season was replete with outstanding performances in almost every event, so Charles Sanford’s :09.7 100 was almost almost routine.

Sanford also set a record in the 180-yard low hurdles (:19.4) and anchored the relay team to a 1:27.7 clocking, the fourth fastest in County history.

San Diego won six events and scored 73 points.  Lincoln was runner-up with 41, followed by Hoover 35 ½, Crawford 32 ½, St. Augustine 10, and Morse 1.

League championship records also were set by Tom Agsten of Hoover, :48.7 440; Robert Wash of San Diego, 52-7 ¾ shot put; and Hoover’s Eddy Hanks, 6-6 high jump.

WESTERN LEAGUE FINALS, @CLAIREMONT

Bob Hose of Madison was picking up steam, winning the 880 in a season best 1:57.7.

Holland Seymore, number two to John Miller for much of the season, set a La Jolla record of 56-4 in the shot put.

Point Loma won five events, charged by Charles Streeter’s :19.6 in the low hurdles, and won the team championship with 62 points.  Clairemont had 40 1/2, Mission Bay 37 3/4, La Jolla 19, Madison 12, and Kearny 8 ¾.

METROPOLITAN LEAGUE, @ESCONDIDO

Mar Vista’s George Butler won the 440-yard race in :50, nosing out Sweetwater’s Gary Gardner, who ran :50.4. Bob Dunn of Hilltop put the shot 54-7 ½.

Jim Pritchard of Escondido won a pole vault duel with teammate Bob Good and Hilltop’s Bob Thoe at 13-6 and the host Cougars outscored Hilltop, 44-40, for the team title.

Chula Vista, rolling with Bill Masseys’ double of :10.2 and :22.6 in the sprints and Massey’s anchor leg for the winning, 1:32.2 relay squad, scored 39 points.  Mar Vista had 26 and Sweetwater 22.

GROSSMONT LEAGUE FINALS, @EL CAJON VALLEY

Homeboys Russ Eckhardt and Steve Westin of El Cajon Valley raced to :09.9 and :21.5 victories in the sprints and :15 and :20.2 in the high and low hurdles, respectively, for four of the eight records set on their layout.

Donn Renwick of Grossmont ran :49.3 in the 440, Helix’ Don (Flash) Gordon 1:57.0 in the 880, El Capitan’s Leon Herzog reached 58 feet, 2 inches, in the shotput, and Renwick’s teammate, Phil Napierski, clearing 6-4 in the high jump, also claimed a record.

5/19/63

SAN DIEGO SECTION TRIALS,@BALBOA STADIUM

Seventeen records in Classes A, B, and C were set as the Trials moved to Balboa Stadium, where there was less intrusion from the breezes at Kearny, site of the 1961 and ’62 trials and finals.

Seven Class A records, beginning with the :14.4 Oceanside’s Mike Swaim logged in the high hurdles, first event of the day, set the pace. Swaim handed San Diego’s Lloyd Walker his first defeat.

Bill Sanders of Crawford ran a :09.8 100, Tom Agsten of Hoover a :48.5 440, Darrel Dunafon of Hilltop a 4:23.3 mile, Charles Sanford of San Diego, a :19.3 in the low hurdles, and James Kennedy of Lincoln, a 23-9 ½ broad jump.

The day concluded with San Diego tying a County record with a 1:27.2 880 relay.

5/23/63

San Diego Section weight specialists conducted finals in the discus, an event the Southern Section put on hiatus from 1933-48 and contested by area athletes infrequently and usually in unofficial competition until the San Diego Section was formed and made the discus an official but non-scoring event in 1961.

The discus’ high school weight is 3.9 pounds.  In earlier years athletes used an Olympic-sized platter of 4.64 pounds.

A non-scoring competition was held at San Diego State for purposes of choosing a state meet qualifier.

An athlete from the city’s Western League, Point Loma’s John Bishop, won at 145 feet, 11 inches, followed by Grossmont’s Richard Grise at 145-3 1/2.

Grossmont League schools, with much larger athletic venues would, for several years, make the discus an official event in dual meets.  City schools did not have discus competition.

5/25/63

SAN DIEGO SECTION FINALS, @BALBOA STADIUM

Twelve records were broken in Varsity, B, and C, and San Diego ran away with the varsity team titled with 42 points to Lincoln’s 25, Grossmont’s 20, and Crawford’s 15.

San Diego’s Charles Sanford set a record in the 100-yard dash, :09.6, and was involved in tying two others, :19.3 low hurdles, and 1:27.2 relay.

The Cavers won two additional events:120-yard highs (Lloyd Walker, :14.5), and 220 (Gordon Baker, :21.7).

Madison’s Bob Hose continued to lower his best time in the 880, beating a class field in 1:54.9.  Lincoln’s Raymond Darrough followed in 1:56.2 and Helix’ Don Gordon was next in 1:56.3.

Eddy Hanks of Hoover and Tom Maloy of San Diego tied at 6-5 in the high jump but Hanks won with fewer misses.

Lincoln’s James Kennedy, who won the state meet at 24-5 ¾ in 1962, reached 24 feet, 1/2 inch for a meet record, and got the Section’s only spot in the state meet after Kennedy held off Point Loma’s Lyle Schaefer, who jumped over a towel placed in the pit and made 23-11 ¾. Kennedy became the third Lincoln broad jumper to hit 24 feet.  Luther Hayes did 24-1/8 in 1956 and Kenny Tucker, 24-3/4 in 1959.

5/31/63

45TH STATE TRIALS,@BERKELEY

Eleven individual winners from the San Diego Section, including members of the San Diego High 880-yard relay team, arrived at Edwards Field on the University of California campus in Berkeley and qualified in 10 of 13 events.

Bob Hose of Madison ran the third fastest 880 in County history. His time of 1:52.8, behind only the 1:52.7 by Mission Bay’s Jim Cerveny on this same track and same meet in 1957 and Hoover’s John Garrison, who ran 1:52.7 at the 1962 state meet.

Hose trailed Whittier Lowell favorite Dennis Carr, whose 1:52 in the same heat with Hose, was one-tenth of a second off the national record set by Bonita’s Ray Van Asten in 1960.

San Diego was in tough in the relay heats.  The Cavers ran 1:27.1 but were second to Los Angeles Manual Arts’ 1:26.7 and just in front of L.A. Jefferson (1:27.4) and L.A. High (1:27.5).

Hilltop’s Darrel Dunafon’s qualifying 4:19.6 mile was the second fastest in County history to Jack Hudson’s 4:16.7 in the 1959 state meet.

The only nonqualifiers were San Diego’s Lloyd Walker (high hurdles) and Gordon Baker (220) and Point Loma’s John Bishop (discus).

6/1/63

STATE FINALS

San Diego High executed an almost perfect race, winning the 880-yard relay in 1:26.3, 4/10 seconds off the national record by L.A. Jefferson in 1956.

Not far behind in all-time performances was the 880 run by Madison’s Bob Hose.

The Cavers surprised the field and their half-mile, two-lap odyssey represented a perfect exchange of batons after taking the lead from the outset.

Running in lane 1, not the best starting position, Walter Blackledge got out quickly and forged a lead with a :22 flat leg.

Gordon Baker maintained with a :21.4 second lap and handed the stick and a three-yard lead and the pole position to Raymond Dixon.

With the posse in hot pursuit Dixon held the lead with a :21.6 leg.

Charles Sanford, who had been unplaced in the 100 and low hurdles finals, finished with a :21.3 and with room to spare ahead of Manual Arts, second in 1:26.8.

Bob Hose, who came into the meet with a best time of 1:54.9, completed two hard days and a stunning, personal  improvement of three seconds.

Lowell’s Dennis Carr set a national record of 1:50.9 and Hose bettered the previous record of 1:51.9 with a 1:51.7 finish.

Grossmont’s Paul Manning, third at 14 feet, 4 inches, in the pole vault, and defending broad jump champion James Kennedy, fourth at 23-9 ¾, were the other scorers from the San Diego Section.

Track and field, long a Southern California stronghold in San Diego, celebrated some powerful performances.

Lincoln lost only a late-season, nonleague dual meet at Helix, 57-47, won its third straight Eastern League dual meet championship and the San Diego Section title for the second year in a row, and contended for the state team championship.

The Hornets’ Vernus Ragsdale and James Kennedy, and Hoover’s John Garrison put up numbers that ranked high in California and in the nation.

3/9/62

Lincoln’s Vernus Ragsdale won the 100-yard dash in :09.8 and 220 in :22.2, and anchored a come-from-behind 880-yard relay victory in 1:32.2 in cold, blustery weather, but host Grossmont (47) outpointed the Hornets (42) and Compton Centennial (40) in the season-opening triangular meet.

3/14/62

Ray Alexander doubled in the 100 and 220 in :09.9 and :21.9 and Gavin Riley logged a 1:58.8 880 in Point Loma’s 68 2/3-35 1/3 dual meet win over Mount Miguel.

3/15/62

Lincoln beat Hoover, 58 ½-36 ½ in an Eastern League dual at Hoover that had moments of comic drama.

Hoover’s John Koethe “won” the 220-yard dash, shocking unbeaten Vernus Ragsdale,  and Rags’ teammates and followers, his “posse” in 21^st century nomenclature.

Koethe covered the distance over the tight curve and traditionally slow Cardinals track in a stunning :21.1.  Ragsdale, 10 yards behind, was in disbelief at the finish line, as were all in the stands.

DREADED ADMINISTRATIVE GLITCH

What happened?

The maintenance and grounds personnel at Hoover had erred when lining the track and putting down the runners’ lime lane markings. The crew created a lane that required Koethe to cover only approximately 205 yards.

Even Koethe was nonplussed as he was congratulated by a swarm of red-clad teammates. A good quarter miler (:50.4), the Princeton-bound junior had not run better than :23.6 in the 220.

The lane error was discovered and, after a few minutes of raised voices and arm waving by Lincoln coach Bobby Smith and  Cardinals boss Raleigh Holt, the race was declared no contest and the event’s nine points were erased.

3/24/62

Vernus Ragsdale bolted to a :09.5 100-yard dash in the National City Junior Chamber of Commerce Relays at Sweetwater.

Ragsdale’s  was the second fastest, to Roscoe Cook’s wind-aided :09.4 in 1957, ever run by a San Diego-area prep.

There was no wind gauge on site, so Ragsdale’s feat, whether it was above or under the allowable 4.447 miles per hour, took on questionable status.

I was the writer covering the event for the Evening Tribune, which carried a headline over my weekly, follow-up With the Preps column, “Let the Wind Blow, National City JC’s Will Never Know.”

Reaction to the story and the headline, which I did not write, resulted in my receiving an unfriendly telephone call from Sweetwater athletic director Tom Parker.

“Mr. Smith, you no longer are welcome at Sweetwater,” was the gist of Parker’s comments.

Almost 50 years later, at a luncheon of retired track coaches, the late Rich Gehring, a hard-working and principled coach for three decades, unsmilingly repeated to me the no-wind-gauge headline.

Wind gauges were used mostly at more major events, such as the CIF championships.

The relays were staffed by Gehring and volunteer junior chamber of commerce personnel.

I should have taken a more temperate approach and at least given Gehring or the Jaycees an opportunity to respond.

3/30/62

Lincoln beat San Diego, 58 ½-45 ½, in the pivotal Eastern League dual before a roaring crowd at Lincoln (including many watching from behind a fence hundreds of yards away on Imperial Avenue) as Vernus Ragsdale won the 100 in :09.8 and 220 in :22.1 and then made a rare appearance in the broad jump, finishing third at 22 feet, behind teammate Walter Scott’s 23 ¾.

Twins Elmer and Eddie Logans kept San Diego close, Eddie winning the 440 in :50.3 and Elmer the 120-yard high hurdles in :15.4 and 180-yard lows in :19.8.

FAST SAINTSMAN

The Crawford track, perched on a high plateau and offering favorable breezes from the West, was the site of many good 100-yard dash times, the latest a :09.7 by St. Augustine’s Henry (Bunny) Daniels.

4/10/62

Bruce Long pole vaulted 13 feet, 5 inches, and raised his Point Loma school record in a 77-26 win over Mission Bay.

Bryce Santry had set a Pointers record of 12-9 in the 1935 Metropolitan League finals.  Santry competed with a bamboo pole and became a vocal critic of the modern, more flexible fiberglass implement (“It’s like a pogo stick,” complained Santry) used by Long and others.

Santry went so far as to bring a pressure gauge to one Long’s meets, comparing the minimal flex of a bamboo pole with Long’s implement.

Long and Point Loma coach Ed Thomas, who approved  Santry’s appearance after Santry had contacted me at the newspaper, regarded the demonstration with subdued amusement.

4/12/62

Monte Vista’s Lynn Chenowth took the section lead with a 13-foot, 6 ½-inch pole vault and was second in the 180-yard low hurdles and high jump but La Jolla shook off a wind-biting cold at Scripps Field and won the dual meet, 68-36.

4/13/62

Helix won its fifth consecutive Grossmont League dual, 77-25, over El Capitan and miler Ted Hack lowered his section-leading mile mark to 4:24.7.

John Garrison of Hoover ran the season’s fastest 880, 1:56, and Tom Agsten was a double winner at :10.1 and :22.1 in the 100 and 220, offsetting a double by Crawford’s Bill Rainey, who won the 440 in :52.6 and pole vault at 12-6.

Hoover won the last-event, 880-yard relay in 1:30.3 and the meet, 56-48.

5/6/62

A consensus of coaches and some observers declared there was no over-the-limit wind in Vernus Ragsdale’s :09.6 100 in the Eastern League trials at Crawford, although a surprising 09.8 by San Diego’s Raymond Dixon in Class B was declared wind-aided.

5/11/62

Top mark of the Eastern’s evening finals was the league-record 1:54.4 880 by Hoover’s John Garrison. Only  Mission Bay’s Jim Cerveny (1:52.7) in 1957 had run faster.

Other league records were the :49.9 440 by St. Augustine’s James Moore and :21.7 220 by Lincoln’s Vernus Ragsdale, who also won the 100 in :09.7 and teamed with Ron Peavy, Robert Miller, and Larry Greenwood to set an 880-yard relay record of 1:28.2.

Escondido’s Jim Pritchard continued the ascension of pole vaulters, clearing 13-3 to set a Metropolitan League record in finals at Mar Vista.

Helix, undefeated in dual meet competition, came up short as Grossmont won the Grossmont League finals with 64 points to the Highlanders’ 43.

Steve Adams was a double winner in the Grossmont finals at El Cajon Valley, winning the 100 in :09.9 and 220 in :21.5.

5/18/62

Trees had been planted behind the south end of the track but had not matured to help shield the wind when the CIF finals were awarded to Kearny in 1961 and the result of races run away from the trees was predictable.

Only one flat race, Dave Blunt’s :21.0 220, was not wind aided.

Kearny was host again for the CIF finals and trials.

The wind was blowing 7-10 miles an hour and gusting higher on the first of the two-day trials.

Steve Adams took advantage with a :09.4 100 followed by the :09.5 of Point Loma’s Ray Alexander.

5/19/62

Eastern, Western, and Metropolitan League athletes gathered the following day and Lincoln’s Vernus Ragsdale, with wind, raced to a :09.6 100 and :20.7 220.

Perhaps most impressive achievement of the day was a 6-foot, 3 1/8-inch high jump by 5-foot, 8-inch Class C sophomore Eddy Hanks of Hoover, who would go on to set varsity records.

5/26/62

Vernus Ragsdale turned in more exciting but unrealistic times of :09.4 and :20.3 as the wind continued in the finals.

Cold and overcast weather prevailed as Lincoln won the team race with 39 points to Grossmont’s 32 (Foothillers also won Classes B and C) and San Diego’s 19.

Lincoln also served notice that it could be a contender for the team title in the following week’s state meet when it tied the County record with a 1:27.2 recording in the 880  relay and James Kennedy went 23-7 ¼ in the broad jump.

Grossmont’s Ed Speed beat his teammate and season-leading shot putter Brad Baer with a 58-11 ½ effort.  Baer had a gone 59-2 ¼.

Speed reached 61-6 ¼ the previous year but had been inconsistent through this spring.

6/1/62

Lincoln unofficially tied Los Angeles Jefferson for the team championship, each with 14 points at Modesto Junior College.

The Hornets roared into contention when James Kennedy beat a loaded field with a stunning, 24-foot, 5 ¾-inch broad jump early in the competition.

Lincoln had caught a break when films from the afternoon trials showed that Vernus Ragsdale had tied for a qualifying fourth in :09.7 in his heat of the 100.

It did not hurt that Ragsdale’s coach, Bobby Smith, had been an international pole vaulter from San Diego High and San Diego State in the late ‘forties and early ‘fifties and was a friend of Cornelius (Dutch) Warmerdam, the former world recordholder in the event and the state meet director.

Ragsdale was given the ninth lane, which was next to a barrier and screen separating spectators from the track. He unofficially finished third in :09.6 in the final, and was second to L.A. Fremont’s Richard Stebbins’ :20.9 in the 220 in :21.1. Ragsdale had blazed the straightaway in the trials in a 7.4 m.p.h. wind-aided :20.4.

EXCHANGE PROBLEM

Lincoln ran 1:27.1 in the 880 relay trials but slipped to fourth in 1:27.8 in the evening because of a poor exchange between Ragsdale and Larry Greenwood.

Hoover’s John Garrison and Monte Vista’s Lynn Chenowth were the only other San Diego Section point winners

Garrison tied Jim Cerveny’s County record with  a 1:52.7 and was second in the 880, won by Chico’s Doug Parker in 1:52.2. Chenowth tied for fourth in the pole vault at 13-6.

Helix’ Ted Hack was fifth in one of two mile races but eighth overall in 4:24.4 as junior Dennis Carr of La Habra Lowell set a national record of 4:08.7.  Carr’s best had been 4:18.8.

San Diego’s Elmer Logans ran a wind-aided :19.0 in the 180-yard low hurdles trials and was a non-scoring sixth with a no-wind :19.1 in the finals.

6/4/62

A review of film from the finals showed that Vernus Ragsdale was fifth, not third, in the 100, dropping the Hornets to 12 points and giving L.A. Jefferson the title.

“That’s news to me,” said Lincoln coach Bobby Smith when notified by The San Diego Union‘s Chuck Sawyer, who had read a wire-service announcement.

“I just took our trophy downtown to get it engraved,” said the disappointed Smith.

 

 

 

 

A couple newcomers led the shouting in a last hurrah for San Diego.

Area schools were preparing to leave the Southern Section after 47 years and embark on their own, 31 institutions forming the San Diego Section in the next school year.

Clairemont and El Capitan, numbers 30 and 31, ignored usually unsuccessful results for start-up programs.

Clairemont’s Chieftains, in their second year and without a senior class, with students and transfers from Kearny’s and Mission Bay’s enrollment districts, won the Western League track championship and bulldozed through four games in the baseball AA playoffs to another title.

El Capitan’s Vaqueros in Lakeside, sharing with another new school, Granite Hills, students from El Cajon Valley, won the Grossmont League baseball championship, finishing ahead of redoubtable Helix.

CAVERS MISS

San Diego High gained the Southern Section AAA finals in baseball, in which it had been dominant from the beginning of the CIF, but lost in its bid for a record 17^th championship when Whittier scored an 11-1 victory at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles.

Track and field competition was as steady as usual, although the area was blanked in the state meet in Palo Alto.

Some 1960 highlights, baseball in bold typeface, track in italics:

2/20/60

Righthander John Lippert opened the season by pitching a no-hitter in Helix’ 1-0 victory over visiting Point Loma.

Ray Koenig’s seventh-inning home run provided the victory over the Pointers’ Ronnie Holmes, who allowed only two hits.

2/24/60

Fred Shuey’s hit a bases-loaded triple and Myron Morper drove in the winning run with a single in the bottom of the seventh inning as San Diego topped Point Loma, 5-4.

3/3/60

Lefthander Ronnie Holmes pitched a no-hitter and Point Loma gave the lefthander more offense than he needed in an 11-0 win over Coronado.

St. Augustine’s Dennis Shields pitched four innings of a 7-1 win over La Jolla and helped himself with three hits, two home runs and four runs batted in.

3/5/60

Darryl Nelson won three events, 120-yard high hurdles (:15.8), high jump (6-1 ½), and broad jump (20-11 ½) and would become a double or triple winner almost every week but Kearny dropped a 72-32 dual meet  to Lincoln.

Dick Armstrong allowed three hits and drove in four runs as Hoover defeated visiting Alhambra Mark Keppel, 9-2.

Harold Peterson and Steve Simon hit home runs and San Diego erupted for six runs in the sixth inning to defeat guest San Gabriel, 14-9.

3/7/60

Dick Waisman of Mount Miguel and Dave Rebello of University pitched no-hitters and 10 losing teams in the County scored a total of 11 runs. Waisman punched out Clairemont, 7-0.  Mountain Empire scored a run on a walk, two stolen bases, and an error but was beaten, 9-1.

3/14/60

Crawford’s Norm Marr tripled in a run in the sixth inning and drove in the winning run with a single in a 10-inning, 2-1 victory over Point Loma.

3/18/60

Point Loma’s Ron Steele was second in :49.5 in one of two, 440-yard dash heats in the 37^th Southern Counties’ Invitational at Huntington Beach. 

Steele’s time in the one-turn race, behind the :49.1 of Long Beach Poly’s Willie Martin, tied for the second fastest ever by an area runner.  San Diego’s Norman Stocks ran :49.3 in 1946 and Coronado’s John Fawcett :49.5 in 1937.

Lincoln’s Lafayette (Mackie) McIntosh was second in 1:58.3 in a large schools 880-yard run.  Point Loma’s Robert Nelson was third in the broad jump at 22-8 ¾.

Kearny’s Darryl Nelson tied for first in the small schools’ high jump at 6 feet, 3 ¼ inches and was second in the broad jump, won by Oceanside’s Rich Lazaro at 21-10 3/4.

3/25/60

A three-way tie in the pole vault was enough for Lincoln to score an upset, 53 2/3-50 1/3 victory over San Diego in the decisive Eastern League dual meet.

Lincoln trailed, 47 1/3-42 2/3, going into the 880-yard relay, final running event, .  Ed Goodman held off the Cavers’ Benny Lewis on the anchor lap for a 1:31.3 victory, but the pole vault had not been completed.

Jim Cransey and Adam Cato of Lincoln and San Diego’s Otis Doxey finally tied for first at 11 feet, each with the same number of misses, and the Hornets claimed 6 of the event’s nine points.

Dave Morehead, who would pitch a no-hitter for the Boston Red Sox in 1965, was chased in a five-run San Diego first inning.

The Cavers went on to score two runs in the top of the seventh inning and defeat Hoover, 10-9, in a big Eastern League contest.

3/28/60

Gary (Slats) Maloy allowed five hits and went the distance in Crawford’s 7-6 victory over San Diego, which committed seven errors and fell into a first-place tie with Crawford, each at 3-1 in the East.

The loss was San Diego’s first in 10 games.

El Capitan improved to 9-0 by scoring a run in the bottom of the seventh inning to edge El Cajon Valley, 12-11.

The first-year Vaqueros were led by Danny Kern, who tripled and came home on an error for the winning run.  Kern added a single and double in four times at bat.

NO-HITTER BY CADETS

Jack Vincent and Ed Standon combined to no-hit San Miguel School in Army-Navy’s 14-0 win.

A 55-49 dual meet loss to Helix was San Diego’s third of the season, the most since the 1943 squad posted a 2-3 dual-meet record.

Helix’ Larry Aiken won both hurdles events and tied the 1957 school record of :20.0 by Gale Barsotti in the 180 lows.

4/2/60

San Diego outscored Grossmont, 50-44, with El Cajon Valley third at 38 points to win the large-school division of the sixth annual South Bay relays at Sweetwater.

Lincoln’s 53 points were enough to win the medium schools over Helix (51 1/3) and Point Loma (31 2/3). 

Mission Bay (61), Mar Vista (51), and Kearny (36) were the leading small schools.

Grossmont’s Don Clarke cleared 13-2 ½ in the pole vault, bettering by almost nine inches the record of 12-5 /12 by Escondido’s Bing Howe in 1959.

A San Diego team of Charles Dimry, Thomas Phillips, Emile Wright, and William Dentham raced the 440-yard relay in :42.7.

The Cavers’ time in the infrequently run event was the fastest in County history but was erased, along with other marks, after a survey of the Sweetwater track years later showed the oval was less than 440 yards.

4/8/60

Bill Jones cleared 6-3 ½ in the high jump to break Joe Page’s school record of 6-3, set in 1947, and Grossmont (6-0) won the big meet in the foothills, 57 ½-46 ½ over Helix (5-1).

Don Hamlin :10.3, :22.2 in the 100 and 220-yard dashes, and Dennis Cradit, :51.6, 21-4 ½ in the 440 and broad jump, were double winners for the Foothillers.

Hamlin, Steve Adams, Dick Pray, and Cradit combined to run 1:32.1 to win the 880-yard relay. 

4/11/60

Don Dart of Grossmont pitched a no-hitter in setting down Lincoln, 3-0, on the first day of the 10th annual Lions’ Tournament at Navy Field.

Hoover topped Escondido, 1-0, in eight innings and was the only city school of six to win an Unlimited Division game.

Kearny won its Limited Division opener, 8-3 over Coronado.

4/12/60

Tournament teams played doubleheaders on the second day of the three-day event.

Defending Unlimited Division champion San Diego shut out by El Cajon Valley, 2-0, on opening day, was bounced from the consolation bracket by St. Augustine, 3-2.

4/13/60

Sophomore George Sherrod cuffed Hoover on two hits and Helix won the Lions’ Unlimited Division title, 5-0.

El Centro Central beat Kearny, 7-2, for the Limited championship, while St. Augustine, 2-1 in eight innings over Escondido, and San Dieguito, 7-4 over Coronado, won the respective division consolation titles.

4/15/60

Competitors from San Diego to Yuma, Arizona, converged on Balboa Stadium for the first annual Easter Relays.

Mike Graves of El Cajon Valley cleared 13 feet, 6 ¼ inches in the pole vault for the day’s outstanding mark. 

Graves’ performance allowed the Braves to tie Grossmont at the three-man cumulative height of 37 feet and earn the schools the Dean C.E. Peterson perpetual trophy in honor of the late San Diego State coach.

4/20/60

Bill Froehling hurled a no-hitter as Army-Navy shut down visiting Mountain Empire, 9-0.

4/22/60

San Diego outlasted visiting Hoover, 13-12.  The Cardinals’ Dave Morehead pitched in the first inning, was removed and went to first base and then returned to pitch in the fourth inning.

4/26/60

Jim Thompson’s two-run home run was important in San Diego’s 8-7 win over Crawford, and moved the Cavers closer to the Eastern League title, its 7-1 record three games better than runner-up Hoover (4-4).

4/29/60

Favored and deep Point Loma was shocked by youthful Clairemont, which won the 880-yard relay, the meet’s deciding event, and claimed the Western League dual meet championship, 53-51.

Lanky Jim Godfrey got up for second in the 100-yard dash, won the 220-yard dash in a County-leading :21.7, and anchored the Chiefs to a 1:31.2 victory in the battle of baton exchanges.

Clairemont’s surprising win was especially satisfying for coach Bob Kirchhoff, who had been out of the loop since being let go at Hoover after a stunning football loss to San Diego in 1954.

A City Schools administrator and parent of a Clairemont thinclad had asked the reluctant Kirchhoff to take the coaching reins as a personal favor.

Helix (9-3) walloped El Capitan (10-0), 14-6, in a Metropolitan League battle as Randy Schwartz and Ray Koenig hit home runs.

5/6/60

League finals were held at Camp Pendleton (Southern), El Cajon Valley (Metropolitan), La Jolla (Western), and Balboa Stadium (Eastern).

San Diego, despite losing leading 220-440-and-relay anchorman Benny Lewis to scholastic woes, dominated with 79 1/3 points to runner-up Lincoln’s 51. A Cavers foursome of Thomas Phillips, Emile Wright, Eddie Frost, and Bill Dentham timed 1:29.5 in the 880 relay.

Darryl Nelson set a Western League meet record of 6-3 ½ in the high jump but Clairemont won the team title with 54 5/6 points to Mission Bay’s 43 1/3.

Point Loma’s Ray Alexander ran faster than any city-wide Class C sprinter ever with winning times of :10 in the 100 and :18.3 in the 180.

Grossmont, 8-0 in the dual meet season, with wins over Compton Centennial, Helix, and San Diego, outscored Helix, 41-38, for the varsity championship.

El Capitan improved to 12-2 in the Metro League with a 12-3 win over Escondido that included John Udall’s eighth home run of the year and Al Hinkle’s 5-for-5, three doubles, a triple and single.

Point Loma clinched a tie for first for the Western League crown behind Jerry Jeli’s two-hit pitching and 6-0 win over La Jolla.

5/14/60

Athletes from the Eastern, Western, Metropolitan, Avocado, and Southern leagues met those from the Orange County Sunset, Freeway, and Orange leagues in a Southern California divisional meet in Balboa Stadium.

El Cajon Valley’s Mike Graves, the Southern California pole vault leader at 13-8 ½, dropped down to Class B and cleared the same height, breaking the record of 13-6 ¼ by a Glendale vaulter in 1957.

San Diego led with 7 varsity qualifiers.  Fullerton and Tustin had five each.

5/17/60

Clairemont, runner-up to Point Loma in the Western loop, topped Vista, 6-0, in a first-round, Southern Section AA playoff as Ron Power tripled and hit a two-run homer.

5/20/60

Dave Morehead shut out El Capitan, 9-0, in a surprising Southern Section AAA playoff result.  The Cardinals, in and out all season, rolled with Morehead’s three-hit pitching and stunned the first-year Vaqueros, who were 14-2 in the Metropolitan League.

San Diego outlasted Helix, 10-8, as Steve Simon was 3 for 4 and pitcher Larry Murillo 2 for 3.

Clairemont advanced with an 18-5 win over Torrance Bishop Montgomery in Class AA.

Riverside Ramona ousted the Southern League’s Ramona, 11-8, in Class A.

5/21/60

San Diego qualified five entries in the semifinal divisional meet at Chaffey high in Ontario, led by its relay team, which clocked a season-best 1:28.9.

Kearny’s Darryl Nelson led all high jumpers at 6-4 and San Diego’s Thomas Phillips won a 100-yard dash heat in :10 and was second in his 220 heat.

5/24/60

Clairemont earned a trip to the Southern Section AA finals with a 6-3 victory over Santa Ana Mater Dei at Anaheim.

Bill Black’s three-run homer in the fourth inning broke a 2-2 tie in the Chieftains’ victory.

San Diego advanced to the AAA quarterfinals with a 6-1 win at Compton as lefthander Larry Murillo and last-inning reliefer Frank Lopez set down the Tarbabes on 3 hits.

About 30 professional scouts descended on San Diego State to watch future major league pitchers Dave Morehead of Hoover and Tommy Sisk of Long Beach Poly.

Sisk and the Jackrabbits turned back the Cardinals, 3-1, on Brian McCall’s two-run home run in the fifth inning.

5/27/60

Clairemont, coached by Ernie Beck,  struck with five runs in the first inning as Mike Smith and Jay Critchley hit back-to-back home runs and lefthander Jerry Haight limited Rosemead Bosco Tech to four hits for six innings in a 9-2 win and surprising Southern Section AA championship.

San Diego High advanced again behind the two-hit pitching of Larry Murillo and surprised the favored and host Fullerton Indians, 11-2, in the AAA semifinals round.

Murillo allowed two hits and first baseman Jim Thompson drove in four runs with a single, double, and triple.

5/28/60

Thomas Phillips of San Diego ran the 100 in :09.9 for third and Darryl Nelson of Kearny was third with a 6-4 1/2 high jump in the Southern Section finals at Long Beach Veterans’ Stadium.

Phillips and Nelson each qualified for the state meet at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto. 

El Capitan’s Les Cites was fourth in the shot put at 58-2 ¼.

More impressive were some lower division competitors.

Vernie King of San Diego set a Class B broad jump record of 23-10 ¾ and won the 120-yard low hurdles in :12.8. El Cajon Valley’s Mike Graves cleared 14 feet in the pole vault, bettering his record of 13-8 ½, set two weeks before.

Lincoln’s Class B 660-yard relay team of James (Preacher) Johnson, Walter Scott, Ed Goodman and Vernus Ragsdale, won in 1:07.9, off their best of 1:06.3 but also qualifying the group to run in an exhibition 660 at Palo Alto.

Ray DeBolt represented a third new County high school, Granite Hills, located about a mile east of El Cajon Valley High, and won the B 660-yard run in 1:23.6.

6/4/60

Lincoln’s B 660-yard speedsters bettered the national high school record of 1:05.9, running 1:05.7 but Los Angeles Fremont won the exhibition race in 1:04.9.

Thomas Phillips of San Diego and Darryl Nelson of Kearny did not place in the 100 or high jump. 

Larry Murillo’s bid for a fourth straight playoff pitching victory and San Diego High’s attempt to win its 17^th championship since 1917 came up short.

Whittier took a 5-0 lead after two innings and cruised to an 11-1 triumph at Los Angeles’ Wrigley Field.

The Cavers, under first-year coach Jerry Dahms, posted an overall record of 23-4 and came much further than expected to this, the last competition of San Diego County teams in the Southern Section.

 

Grossmont was the  champion in baseball.  San Diego High was the champion in track and field…for three days.

San Diego lost a title after a review of film from the 440-yard race in the Southern Section finals revealed that Hal Espy had finished fifth and not fourth, taking away a point from the Cavemen and awarding the team championship to Glendale Hoover, Glendale, and Compton.

The winners tied with 15 points each, edging the stunned Cavers, who had 14 ½.

BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

Grossmont, picked below San Diego and La Jolla in early-season City Prep League forecasts and a non-factor in previous races in the Coast League, rode the strong arms of its pitching staff, headed by left-hander Ray Preston, to win the Southern Section title.

Splitting the sports with regular and italics typefaces:

3/5/51

Clyde Wetter, his eye on Hal Norris’ 1950 school record of 58-2 1/2, took the Southern California lead in the 12-pound shot when he reached 56 feet, 4 ¾ inches, in a 66-38, dual meet win over visiting Sweetwater.

3/8/51

San Diego and La Jolla tied for first in the City Prep League Relays in Balboa Stadium, each with 51 ½ points, followed by Grossmont with 45.

All marks were combined. Distances were cumulative.  Teams could enter three in each event and their performances were combined.

An individual record was set when San Diego’s Hal Espy ran the 100-yard dash in :10.0.

3/9/51

San Diego Lions Club announced it was sponsoring a three-day, first annual baseball tournament of sixteen teams, including outside teams Anaheim, Brawley, El Monte, and Norwalk Excelsior.

San Diego and La Jolla were seeded No. 1 and No. 2, followed by Excelsior and El Monte.

Metropolitan League boss Joe Rindone, principal at Chula Vista, announced a double-round robin baseball schedule, highlighted by the annual carnival April 27 at Lane Field. 

John Green was named coach at Sweetwater, replacing Bruce Clarke, called to active duty by the Marine Corps in response to the war in Korea.

Other new Metro coaches included Bob Ganger at Mar Vista and John MacDonald at Oceanside.  Bill Duncan returned at Escondido and Chet DeVore at Chula Vista.  Coronado did not field a team.

3/11/51

Coronado was awaiting the results of its “telegraphic” track meet with Balboa High of the Panama Canal Zone.

3/14/51

Clyde Wetter took the national lead in the shot put at 58 feet, 3/8 inches, as Grossmont outscored Kearny, 73-31.

“A shot putter relies on the wrist snap for great power and distance,” the 5-foot, 8-inch, 180-pound Wetter told Gene Earl of The San Diego Union, “but strong fingers are just as important, to keep the ball from slipping while being released.”

Wetter revealed that part of his exercise regimen is standing several feet from a wall and falling against it with all fingers extended and kept straight to prevent flex.

–San Diego won an early City League dual-meet showdown against La Jolla, 61 2/3-42 1/3.

The Vikings’ Joe Epps and San Diego’s Hal Espy were double winners in the 120-yard high hurdles and 180 low hurdles and 100 and 440-yard races, respectively.

Espy also anchored the Cavers to a 1:32.4 victory in the 880-yard relay and Frank Johnson won the broad jump at 22-6.

–Lincoln Lucero set a Point Loma record of :20.3 in the 180 lows, but Hoover won, 53 1/3-50 2/3.

3/16/51

San Diego and La Jolla made the Lions seeding committee look good by reaching the championship game, the Cavers 22-1 over Oceanside and 6-3 over El Monte. 

La Jolla advanced, 5-4 over Escondido and 3-2 over Grossmont.

Doug Hubacek’s 3-run homer in the last of the seventh inning ousted El Monte and Tom Tomaiko scored on Bill Whitson’s single in the 10^th inning to top Grossmont.

3/17/51

San Diego outscored Long Beach Poly, 32 4/15 to 29, to win the large-school team championship for the third consecutive year in the 30^th Southern Counties’ Invitational at Huntington Beach.

Newport Harbor won the small schools division with 30 points, followed by Covina (24) and Kearny (21 3/5).

Several running events in the crowded field included two heats.

–Walter (Red) Taylor won his heat in the 100 in :10.2, followed by Hal Espy, who also anchored the San Diego 880-yard relay squad to victory in one of three races.

–Clyde Wetter broke Hal Norris’ meet record (56-3/4) with a 57-9 ¾ effort, almost 7 feet further than Ontario Chaffey’s Don Vick, who would set a national record in 1953.

–John Rushing of Kearny won the 180 lows in :19.7 and La Jolla’s Joe Epps took a heat in the 440 in :52.

–Don Hydrick of Chula won a division of the pole vault at 12-3.

La Jolla’s Bill Whitson was tournament most-valuable player as the Vikings defeated San Diego, 5-3, for the Lions title at Lane Field.

Whitson struck out 10, walked one, allowed five hits, and profited from three double plays.

Kearny won the consolation bracket, 19-0, over St. Augustine in the morning championship at San Diego High.

3/18/51

Because of a San Diego City League ruling that no school could compete or practice during the Easter week, there would be no teams in the upcoming, Pomona 20-30 Club tournament, which San Diego High had won 7 times in the event’s 16-season- history. 

Escondido would be the County’s lone representative.

3/28/51

Oceanside won seven of 12 events and Bob Penrod took the 100 in :10.1 and set a school record of :22 seconds in the 220, but Chula Vista claimed the Metropolitan League dual, 55-49.

3/30/51

John Rushing of Kearny ignored blustery weather and won three events and anchored the relay team to victory in the meet’s final event as the Komets edged Point Loma, 54-49.

The 1:35.4 victory in the two-lap exchange of batons broke a 49-49 tie.  Rushing also won the 100 in :10.4, 180 lows in :20.6, and broad Jump at 21-2 ½.

Bill Whitson struck out 16 and didn’t allow a hit and La Jolla won its CPL opener, 11-0, over Point Loma.

Pointers base runners were by a walk and two errors.

–Charlie Powell hit a 400-foot home run and Eddie Boyle doubled in two runs in the sixth inning as San Diego topped Kearny, 5-4. 

San Diego sophomore Bob Borovicka came on in the sixth and struck out 10 of the 15 batters he faced, allowed three hits and two walks, and tagged out a Kearny runner at the plate for the final out of the game.

4/3/51

Kearny beat La Jolla, 5-4, but the Vikings’ Bill Whitson, in a three-inning relief appearance, faced the minimum 9 batters and struck out 5. 

–Grossmont outscored San Diego, 7-2, in what was inaccurately described as an upset.

Grossmont coach John Hancock’s signature pitcher, Ray Preston, set down the Hillers on seven hits and drove in a run with a third-inning single.

–San Diego’s junior varsity defeated Grossmont’s JV, 22-0.

4/12/51

Grossmont (4-0) was pulling away in the CPL baseball race, routing challenger Kearny (2-2), 14-4. 

Ray Preston, the Foothillers’ pitching ace, moved over to first base and collected four hits, including two home runs, a double and single.

4/14/51

Grossmont walloped La Jolla, 11-0, as Ray Preston struck out 18 and allowed two singles to Vikings shortstop Art Luppino.

The Foothillers finished the first half of the CPL race with a 5-0 record. San Diego was 4-1 and Lions tournament champion La Jolla was 1-4.

–La Jolla’s Joe Epps and Bill Lawrence posted CPL season highs in the Vikings’ 67-37 win over Point Loma.  Epps cleared the 120 high hurdles in :15.0 and Lawrence traversed the mile in 4:46.6.

–John Parker led the way with a 22-6 broad jump and San Diego teammates Alex Hudson and Frank Johnson also spanned at least 22 feet in an 87-16 win over Kearny.

–Kearny high jumper Danny Bain became the first in the City League to clear 6 feet.

4/20/51

Sweetwater claimed the Metropolitan League dual meet championship, 66 ½-37 ½, at Chula Vista.

The Red Devils won 9 of 11 events and John Palhegyi tied a school record of :22.2 in the 220 on the Chula Vista straightaway.

–No score was reported, only that San Diego topped Point Loma for a 5-0 dual meet record.

–Coach Bill Patten’s Cavers had won 22 consecutive dual meets, dating to a 57-47 loss to Grossmont in the opening dual of the 1948 season.

4/20/51

Art Webber of La Jolla no-hit Point Loma, 6-2, overcoming seven bases on balls and four Vikings errors.

4/24/51

Grossmont closed in on the CPL baseball title, 5-0, at San Diego.  The Foothillers were 7-0, Cavemen 5-2.

4/27/51

San Diego, as expected, cruised to the City Prep League team championship with 73 ½ points, followed by Grossmont (34 3/4) and La Jolla (33 ½) before about 1,000 persons in Balboa Stadium.

–Joe Epps of La Jolla was a double winner in the high hurdles (:15.3) and 440 (:52).

–San Diego finished 1-2-3 in the broad jump, led by Alex Hudson’s 21-10 ½.

–Clyde Wetter won the shot put at 57- ¾, but had some competition from San Diego’s dual-sport star Charlie Powell, second at 55-11 ¾, which was better than the 1948 school record of 55-2 1/4 by Bob Van Doren.

–Bernie Nelson, a Class B performer at Hoover, took the area lead in the high jump when he cleared 6-1 13/16.

A crowd of 2,000 attended the Metro League carnival at Lane Field and saw San Dieguito, Oceanside, and Sweetwater emerge as winners.  . 

–Teams played three innings each.  Mar Vista, Escondido, and Chula Vista were losers.

–Sweetwater’s Dick Walker pitched two hitless innings, and struck out five as the Red Devils beat Chula Vista, 1-0 in the final three innings.

–San Dieguito, borrowed from the Southern Prep League, was a 4-0 winner over Mar Vista and Oceanside beat Escondido, 4-3

4/28/51

Postponed twice, the Metropolitan loop trials at Chula Vista were dominated by Sweetwater with 17 qualifiers, followed by Escondido, 12, and Chula Vista, 9.

–The weather again was cold and blustery but did not hinder Mar Vista hurdler John Poole, who ran :15.3 in the 120 highs.  Dave Binney of Chula Vista recorded a 4:45.6 mile.

4/30/51

San Dieguito ran away with the Southern Prep League title with 103 ½ points, but Bob Knapp of Army-Navy set the only meet record with a 49-foot shot put.

5/1/51

Sweetwater won five events and scored 56 ½ points to win the Metropolitan championship.  Chula Vista was second with 31 ½, followed by Escondido, 29.

Sweetwater’s Jim Seebold won the 440 in :53.4 and was second in the 100.  Teammate Ted Granger was first in the 180 low hurdles (:21) and second to Mar Vista’s John Poole, who won the high hurdles in :15.3.

Oceanside’s Bob Penrod doubled in the sprints with a :10.4 100 and :22.4 220.

No meet records were broken but Sweetwater set a school record with its 1:34.4 victory in the 880 relay and Chula Vista’s Don Hydrick cleared 12-5 1/8 in the pole vault.

5/4/51

Ray Preston pitched a 3-1 victory over La Jolla as Grossmont (8-0) clinched the CPL title..

San Diego dropped a 10-inning, 4-3 decision to Hoover on Dick Pomeroy’s single after the Hillers’ Carl Lutz tied the score in the ninth with a two-run home run.

5/5/51

John Parker broad jumped 23-9½ to take the state lead and break Bob Logan’s 1938 school record of 23-6 3/4 as San Diego High led with 11 qualifiers at the Huntington Beach divisional meet.

Three-hundred athletes competed from San Diego’s three leagues, City, Metro, and Southern Prep, along with qualifiers from the Orange and Sunset circuits.

Hal Espy doubled with wins in the 100 (:10) and 440 (:51.9).  Haldon Grey and Walter Taylor were disqualified for false starts in the 100 and the relay team was bumped for a lane violation. Grey recovered to win his heat in :22 in the 220.

–Oceanside’s Bob Penrod won a 220 heat in:22.1 and John Rushing of Kearny doubled in the Class B hurdles with times of :09.1 in the 70-yard highs and :13.1 in 120 lows.

–Forty-eight of the 108 San Diego County entries from league finals qualified to move on to the divisional semifinals at Ontario Chaffey.

5/8/51

Ray Preston struck out 19 batters and didn’t allow a hit in a 21-0 rout of Point Loma.  The Foothillers were 9-1 in league play, San Diego 7-3.

–This was the 35^th and final season the Cavers played home games in Balboa Stadium. They would move to the upper practice field north of the Stadium in 1952.

–Chula Vista shut out Sweetwater, 8-0, as Chuck Phinney pitched a no-hitter.  Escondido claimed the Metro championship with a 5-2 record.

5/12/51

Twenty-two athletes from San Diego’s 3 leagues qualified in semifinals at Chaffey.

San Diego led with six advancers in three events.  Hal Espy won his heat in the 440 in :50.4, off the school record of :49.3 by Norman Stocks in 1946 but unofficially the fifth fastest in area history.

More significant was Clyde Wetter’s losing his first competition of the season, beaten by the Cavers’ Charlie Powell, who had turned in his baseball uniform only four days earlier.

Powell’s winning toss was 56-3 to Wetter’s 56 feet.

5/19/51

San Diego thought it had won the team championship with 15 ½ points.  Glendale Hoover, Glendale, and Compton had 15 each.

The Cavers scored their points early and held on.

John Parker won the  broad jump at 23-3, followed by Compton’s Rollin Garrison, 23-2 ¼, and Parker’s teammates, Frank Johnson, third at 22-1 ¾ and Alex Hudson, tied for fourth at 22-1. When Espy was awarded fourth in the 440 more than half the meet remained.

–Wetter won the shot put with a school-record 58-4 7/8 and Powell was runner-up with 57-9 ¼.

–Others included Joe Epps of La Jolla, fourth in the 120 high hurdles; Bob Penrod of Oceanside 4^th in the 220, and Don Hydrick, Chula Vista, tied for fifth in the pole vault vault at 12 feet.

–Kearny’s John Rushing tied the Class B record of :08.9 in the 70 hurdles and won the 120 lows in :13.2.

Grossmont opened the Southern Section playoffs with a 5-2 win at Santa Ana.  Ray Preston stopped the Saints on 3 hits and 14 strikeouts to improve his record to 8-0.  Preston also singled, doubled twice, and hit a home run.

5/23/51

Grossmont won its semifinal playoff versus visiting El Monte, 9-4, as Preston allowed five hits and struck out seven and his battery mate, Bob Rand, and Bill Harris homered.

5/25/51

Escondido, having beaten Wildomar Elsinore and Holtville, was three outs away from the Southern Section minor division crown, leading 6-4, but bowed to Bonita, 7-6, at Fullerton.

5/26/51

Clyde Wetter was second to Leon Patterson of Taft with a best of 57-8 ½ to Patterson’s 59-2 ½ in the state meet in Berkeley.  Charlie Powell was fourth in the shot put at 54-7 ½ and John Parker fifth in the broad jump at 21-4 1/4.

5/26/51

Ray Preston (10-0) struck out 16 and allowed 2 hits as Grossmont won the Southern Section major division, 5-0, over Compton, before about 1,000 persons at Lane Field. 

Preston, finishing his season with a 10-0 record, beat future major leaguer Benny Daniels, who struck out eight and walked eight.

The Foothillers’ Bill Harris, 2 for 3, and sophomore Ernie Merk, 2 for 4, backed Preston.

STRIKES AND SPIKES

San Diego sprinter Hal Espy entered the Air Force after graduation and then enrolled at Idaho State, where he became a national collegiate boxing champion…Point Loma’s coach was Bennie Edens, later one of the County’s all-time winningest football mentors…Metropolitan League principals, at a meeting at Coronado, announced that ticket prices for football and basketball in the 1951-52 school year, would be increased to 80 cents for adults, while students still would pay 30 cents…Jim Hunt was an all-around contributor at Hoover, scoring in the high jump, 880-yard run, and hurdles…his son, Thom, was one of the nation’s top milers a generation later at Patrick Henry…shot putter Clyde Wetter was one of five brothers and two sisters of a La Mesa family whose father was a grocery store butcher…Ray Preston and Bob Rand were all-Southern California first-team selections….