There were two races in the Eastern League, one with four teams see-sawing through the season seeking two playoffs berths, and another, weekly shootout between Crawford’s Larry Blum and San Diego’s Elburt Miller.
St. Augustine (19-5), led by Bob Spence, Mike (Zeke) Shea, Jimmy Antl, John Emerson, and Gary Hoffman, held off Crawford (24-6-1), Hoover (18-8), and San Diego (19-8) and won its first league championship in any sport since joining the City Prep League in 1957.
But Crawford, the presumptive favorite at the start of the season, prevailed in the San Diego Section playoffs.
CIF honchos resolved what was described by The San Diego Union’s Chuck Sawyer as a “long and bitter argument” by voting after the 1961-62 season to allow teams to participate in two tournaments. Several schools had begun a trend of skipping the traditional Kiwanis event to participate in similar tests in other locales.
Coaches, players, and fans had complained about short-sighted goals and thinking since the Section was formed in 1960.
SCORING SOARING
Blum, a 5-foot, 11-inch guard, scored 737 points in 31 games and broke the County record by one point. St. Augustine’s Tom Shaules had 736 in 1957-58. Miller, a 6-3 forward, scored 689 points in 27 games and had the highest average, 25.5.
Miller also broke a 19-year-old San Diego High single-game scoring record. He had 39 in a 68-55 win at home over Lincoln to better the mark of 38 by Ivan Robinson in the 1943-44 season.
Miller’s record would be topped later in the decade when Oscar Foster scored 40 and then 41.
OTHERS FIND THE NET
There were at least two dozen players after Blum and Miller who contributed to a sharp, upward trend in scoring.
Kearny’s Dick Dowling (570), Granite Hills’ Bob Lundgren (513), Hilltop’s Bob Gray (479), Crawford’s Dick Woodson (460), Grossmont’s Bill Biggs (453) La Jolla’s Dave Grund (447), and Morse’s Kenny Leininger (407) were among 26 players who scored at least 300 points.
A decade before you could count the number of 300-point scorers on one hand, without counting the thumb. Eleven players scored 300 or more points in 1961-62.
KIWANIS
The season usually started in the last week of November but the mid-December San Diego Kiwanis Tournament, one of the largest in the state, signaled that basketball would be king for the next three months.
The 16th annual event, involving almost 400 athletes, 32 teams, and eight venues, was the first of six different that kept several local squads busy through the Christmas holiday.
Crawford, 5-0, was top seed in the Unlimited Division and 7-0 La Jolla was favored in the Limited Division for smaller schools.
Granite Hills’ Bob Lundgren scored 41 points in a 62-54 win over San Dieguito. La Jolla’s Dave Grund made 16 baskets and 32 points in a 72-38 victory against Morse. Larry Blum had 30 in an 82-42 win over El Capitan and 34 in an 81-59 rout of Lincoln.
An all-Eastern League semifinal was averted when Sweetwater upset 8-0 St. Augustine, 60-49. Crawford eliminated San Diego, 48-41, although Blum was held to six points, all free throws. Hoover, a 72-53 loser to Hilltop earlier, defeated the Lancers, 49-41, and Sweetwater, 50-43, setting up a Cardinals-Colts final.
DARKNESS
Crawford defeated the Cardinals, 55-49, but its lead was only 46-45 with 4:13 remaining in the game. At that point the lights dimmed at Peterson Gym. The approximate 3,000 persons in attendance stirred restlessly through a 32-minute delay.
Hoover outscored the Colts, 44-32, from the field but Crawford had a 23-5 edge in free throws.
La Jolla wrapped the Limited Division with a 65-48 win over Western League rival Mission Bay.
Blum and teammate Dick Woodson were joined on the all-tournament team by Hoover’s Bob Powell and Gilbert Hernandez, and John Adams of Sweetwater. The Limited Division squad included Lundgren and Grund, Charlie Buchanan of La Jolla, Richard Vera of Mission Bay, and Marty (The Mop) Jensen of Coronado.
MUSTANG-OPTIMIST
La Jolla was 2 for 2 in tournaments after scoring the last nine points to defeat Mission Bay, 51-48, in a repeat of the Kiwanis final. The Vikings also defeated Kearny, 68-44, and tournament host San Dieguito, 72-57.
SAN BERNARDINO
Elburt Miller set scoring and rebound records and the Cavers topped Redlands, 57-29, for the consolation championship. San Diego lost its opener, 49-47, to Riverside Poly, and then defeated Riverside Ramona, 65-57, and San Bernardino Pacific, 58-55.
Miller scored 24, 29, 31, and 25 points for a total of 109 and had 78 rebounds.
Froebel Brigham, a starter on Coach Bill Standly’s squad, also served as an on-site reporter, filing game accounts with The San Diego Union.
NEWPORT HARBOR OPTIMIST
Grossmont held off Santa Monica, 60-57, for the consolation championship.
FILLMORE
Helix was beaten by Santa Paula, 71-61, in the semifinals and by Bishop, 47-42, in the third place game.
COVINA
In reaching the finals of the 32-team event, Crawford played five games in six days. Trailing, 32-30 at halftime of the championship against host Covina, the Colts faltered and saw a 13-game winning streak end with a 57-50 defeat.
Dick Woodson scored 22 points and Larry Blum 20. No other Colt scored a field goal.
Blum scored 25, 44, 10, 22, and 20 points during the tournament and had a shot at the single game record of 48 but was whistled to the bench with his fifth foul midway of the fourth quarter in an 87-35 win over La Puente.
“I think I had forty-four with seven or eight minutes to play and then picked up three charging fouls running through the key and on two of them there was no contact, so I fouled out and I think we won by fifty,” Blum recalled years later.
Blum was 17×32 from the field for 53 per cent and scored 21 points in the second quarter.
The Colts’ other victories were 68-49 over West Covina Edgewood, 65-43 over San Gabriel, and 67-47 over West Covina.
Hoover was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Crescenta Valley, 50-47, after 69-30 and 60-46 victories over Baldwin Park and Glendale.
Mount Miguel lost its opener, 50-44, to Norwalk and then marched to the Consolation bracket championship, 52-34 over Lawndale Lennox, 44-38 over Edgewood, and 66-44 over Covina Northview.
GROSSMONT LEAGUE
Helix and Grossmont tied for second with 9-3 records. Rather than conduct a vote among league bosses to determine a second playoff participant, Grossmont principal Walter Barnett got his colleagues to agree to a playoff at neutral El Cajon Valley.
The San Diego Section board of managers vetoed.
CIF commissioner Don Clarkson pointed out that the teams had played a schedule of 20 games plus participated in two tournaments and that the board of managers had enacted a rule prohibiting playoffs before the playoffs.
Barnett knew the inconvenience of unresolved ties. As a lineman on Grossmont’s 1927 team, Barnett was on the field for a 0-0 playoff with Calexico. The CIF Southern Section ruled that the teams play again to determine the small schools’ champion. Grossmont blanked Calexico, 9-0.
The Foothillers also won the vote for the postseason berth. Helix finished at 16-11. Grossmont also would close with a 16-11 record after a 56-51 playoff loss to St. Augustine.
SCOTS HAVE A HOME
Bob Divine, who had campaigned for years for a gymnasium at Helix, had mixed feelings.
After more than a decade of practicing outdoors and playing most of their home games at Grossmont, a new facility rose on the Helix campus.
Divine was there as Helix defeated Monte Vista, 49-38, in a Grossmont League game that inaugurated the 1,800-seat showcase.
No longer coaching, Divine was vice-principal at Monte Vista.
MATADORS, OLE!
At 10-2 in the league and with a final record of 20-9, Mount Miguel was breathing rarefied air.
The Matadors, who began play in 1957-58, had posted an overall record of 34-71 in their first five seasons.
Larry McCollister’s 28 points led a 55-48, league-clinching win over Granite Hills.
EASTERN
After a 13-1 start, Crawford lost five of its next nine games, including 67-56 and 61-59 nonleague losses to Helix and La Jolla, and a 56-54 decision in a head-to-head meeting with St. Augustine.
Saints fans, who sold out their tiny Dougherty Gym the day before, let Crawford coach Jim Sams have it after the often brusque Sams had declared, “We’re better offensively and defensively. They’ll have to score in the sixties to beat us.”
Crawford fell to 4-3 in league play after a 55-54 defeat at San Diego, where the Cavers’ Froebel Brigham drained a 30-footer with 13 seconds to play and Elburt Miller scored 29 points.
The Colts would not lose again, but their playoff hopes were at risk entering the final night of the regular season. St. Augustine was 8-1, Crawford, Hoover, and San Diego each 6-3.
CIF big shot Don Clarkson was on hand at Crawford to conduct a postgame telephonic vote among principals to determine the league’s second playoff representative.
Hoover knocked out San Diego, 52-45, and Crawford slammed St. Augustine, 89-59, marking the second loss in a week for the Saints, who stumbled against Hilltop, 48-38, three days earlier.
Crawford, which was 3-0 against Hoover, seemed a shoe-in but it was not until a meeting three days later and a second vote did the Colts get in.
Politics almost ruled. There were some in the Eastern League who resented the Colts and Sams, whose dour personality could be off-putting.
Hoover struggled with a 2-3 start but was 16-5 after guard Tom Nettles cleared eligibility problems involving his transfer from St. Augustine. Some Eastern League principals apparently reasoned that the Cardinals should get the bid because they had swept San Diego and San Diego had swept Crawford in league play.
WESTERN
La Jolla, coached by Bill Reaves, a 1949-50 Vikings standout, was 15-0 at the end of December and guard Dave Grund was averaging 18.8 points.
Despite a 22-5 overall record, the Vikings finished fourth in the league with a 5-5 record. Grund became a target for opponents and officials.
Mission Bay, which featured a front line of 6-foot, 7-inch John Williamson, 6-6 Jeff Ockel, and 6-2 Wally Garman, accompanied by 5-7 playmaker Richard Vera, reversed two losses when it upended the Vikings, 53-40.
Grund was held scoreless by the Buccaneers’ tight, zone defense and was ejected when he shoved a referee after teammate Charlie Buchanan was called for his fifth foul.
Mission Bay, 24-6 overall, was 8-2 in league play and joined by Kearny, 7-3 and 16-10, in the postseason.
PLAYOFFS
Crawford was involved in more intrigue in its first-round victory at Mount Miguel.
The Matadors’ Larry McCollister scored in the final two seconds to tie the game at 33 and send it into overtime.
Colts coach Jim Sams didn’t argue that McCollister’s shot was in the air before the game-ending buzzer but challenged what had happened a few seconds before.
It was not one of Mount Miguel timer Gary Letson’s finest moments.
Letson admitted to officials Nolan Harvey and Mel Kendall that he had started the clock late following a missed free throw by McCollister with four seconds remaining.
Letson also said that he started the clock early, as The San Diego Union’s Dave Gallup recounted, “on an out-of-bounds situation a second or so later, just before McCollister’s tying field goal.”
Harvey and Kendall finally decided 25 minutes later that McCollister’s basket counted. Crawford pulled way to a 40-35 win in the extra session.
A 46-42 victory over Mission Bay in the semifinals was followed by a 64-44 championship game victory over St. Augustine.
Blum scored 27 points, his final two coming with 1:08 remaining to break the record. Writer Larry Littlefield said the Saints tried to stall, perhaps in loyalty to alum and recordholder Tom Shaules, when it became apparent that Blum was closing in.
“I wasn’t keeping track of my points, but the fans made so much noise after the last one that I began to wonder,” Blum told Littlefield.
St. Augustine ousted Grossmont, 61-51, and Hilltop (18-9), 48-47, to gain the finals. Mission Bay (24-6) earned third-place honors, 57-47 over Hilltop.
MENTOR SEE, MENTOR DO
Dick Eiler set Kiwanis records in 1952 with 30 points in one game and 85 in four as a standout at Beverly Hills, moved on to play at the University of Utah, and returned to the scene of his exploits here as coach at Clairemont.
Eiler was a disciple of Utah coach Jack Gardner, a legend in the Rockies and a member 11 different halls of fame, including the Naismith College Hall of Fame.
The young coach followed Gardner’s coaching tenets and his flamboyant sideline persona.
Eiler always had a quart of fresh, homogenized milk at his side on the Chieftains’ bench. He’d take a few gulps each game. Gardner did it so often that it resulted in a local dairy commercial and his likeness on Salt Lake City billboards.
LEATHER LOOPS
That’s how the Grossmont and Metropolitan Leagues were known. Those circuits still used leather basketballs. City leagues employed the now conventional rubber spheres.
NEW FRANCHISES
Madison in north Clairemont and Morse in the Skyline district east of Lincoln were first-year schools, joining the Western and Eastern leagues. The result was the city teams played balanced league schedules for the first time since 1958-59. League play generally was on Friday with Tuesday reserved for nonleague games.
A TIE GAME…IN BASKETBALL?
Crawford and the San Diego State freshmen reached the end of regulation play in a 57-57 deadlock.
There would be no overtime.
Aztecs varsity coach George Ziegenfuss waved the frosh and Crawford off the court so the main event of San Diego State-Los Angeles State could get under way.
Ziegenfuss was said to consider the fact that a late-ending game would make for an even later return home for the bus-bound Diablos. A gentlemanly concession by Ziegenfuss, who was not a fan of Coach Bill Sharman’s visitors.
OLD WHATSHISNAME
Staffers in The San Diego Union sports department occasionally didn’t hear well or didn’t hear at all when taking reports over the telephone.
Helix’ Al Skalecky saw himself identified in the newspaper as “Hal” Skalecky. Dick Woodson of Crawford initially was known as “Dave” Woodson. There also was Kearny’s Dick Dowling (“Dave”), La Jolla’s Dave Grund (“John”), and Crawford’s Larry Blum (“Bill”).
Elburt Miller’s first name was spelled “Elbert” throughout his career at San Diego High.
Going on the road almost often resulted in misidentification, because the student reporter calling in the box score would be from the home team. When La Jolla won a game at El Centro Central, the Vikings’ Rick Eveleth was identified as “J.” Eveleth.
ALWAYS A DIVIDEND
Hoover coach Charlie Hampton stepped down after 11 seasons to replace Hilbert Crosthwaite as coach at San Diego City College.
Often called the “Banker”, because he had the mien of a friendly mortgage specialist, Hampton’s teams won six league championships in his last eight seasons and tied for second in three others.
A Kentucky native who went to Hoover and played at San Diego State, Hampton’s 222-65 record and won-loss percentage of .774 would stand the test of time.
BIG LEAGUERS
Crawford’s Dick Woodson, and Madison’s Al Fitzmorris went on to major league baseball careers.
Woodson a righthanded pitcher, was 34-32 in six seasons, mostly with Minnesota. Righthander Fitzmorris pitched 10 seasons with Cleveland and Kansas City and posted a 77-59 record. Helix’ Ron Slocum was a utility catcher and infielder for the expansion San Diego Padres in 1969.
Clairemont’s Bill Peterson played six seasons as a linebacker with the Kansas City Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals in the NFL.
JUMP SHOTS
Larry Blum broke the Crawford single game scoring record several times, the first when he had 32 points in the Colts’ second game, a 68-39 victory over Mount Miguel…Paul Janicki had scored 30 in the 1961-62 season…Clairemont set a school record with 78 points against Monte Vista…Oceanside’s Terry Scott bettered the Avocado League record with 35 points in a 97-67 win over University…Scott’s outburst, which topped the 34-point efforts in 1958-59 of Fallbrook’s Pete Sasche and Oceanside’s Keith Jensen, also led Oceanside to the section’s highest team output of the season…Clairemont’s Mike Serafin walked on at UCLA, made the team, and was part of two Bruins NCAA championships in the Lew Alcindor era…El Cajon Valley’s Joe Queen set a school record and tied Bob Lundgren’s record for most points by a Grossmont League player with 41 in an 87-63 win over El Capitan…San Diego outscored Crawford, 29-12, in the fourth quarter at Crawford to win the teams’ first league meeting, 63-57…Granite Hills scored 22 unanswered points to come from 14 points down and eventually put away Grossmont, 61-51…St. Augustine led for the first 10 seconds and for the last 10 seconds of a 56-54 win over San Diego…Gary Hoffman’s basket won the game for the Saints…Dave Grund scored 14 points in a row to fuel a La Jolla comeback in its 61-59 win over Crawford…Vikings junior Rick Eveleth scored only 4 points but had 16 assists and 8 rebounds…Carlsbad defeated Army-Navy, 44-36, before 1,200 persons at La Jolla for the Class A title….
