“Willson, with two l’s.”
Jimmy Willson had been correcting the spelling of his last name since he was in grade school but that changed when Willson’s family moved from Massachusetts and 11th grader Jimmy turned out for Coach Glenn Broderick’s track team at San Diego High.
After a “Wilson“ or two, local sports writers got with the program when Willson ran a 10-second 100-yard dash and tied the school record in the first meet of the season.
Willson also won the 220 and anchored the Hilltoppers’ 880-yard relay team in a 74 ½-38 ½, dual-meet victory over Pasadena.
The rout of their Coast League rival was the starting point of one of the greatest seasons in school history, in any sport.
–The Cavemen and Hilltoppers, as they also were known, were 5-0 in dual meets, winning by an average score of 71-42.
–They won team championships in the calendar’s four major events: Southern Counties’ Invitational, Coast League, CIF Southern Section, and State.
Broderick went into the season with just two returning lettermen, including two-time defending state pole vault champion Bill Miller, but the addition of Willson and the development of several others promised a talented, deep squad.
Meet by meet with Broderick’s thinclads:
PASADENA
The last time the Hillers had met Pasadena, in 1927, the Bullpups romped, 80 ½-32 ½.
Willson’s :10 flat century equaled the school mark set by Bill Powell and Harry Holloway in 1925.
Miller cleared 12 feet, 6 inches, two feet higher than the next vaulter, and Evan Dowers was a 4:49 winner in the mile.
San Diego won 10 of 13 events and swept the discus, led by Athos Sada, who waved the platter 109 feet, 6 inches, in between playing third base for coach Mike Morrow’s baseball team.
SAN DIEGO STATE FROSH
Willson ran another 10-second 100, which tied a record for the Aztecs’ oval, but Aztecs freshman Lawrence Petersen tied Willson in a :23-flat 220 and defeated Irvine (Cotton) Warburton in the 440 in :51 4/5, which rounded off to :51.8. Stop watches eventually would time all races in tenths instead of fifths.
The Hilltoppers won, 72 ½-42 ½.
SOUTHERN COUNTIES’ INVITATIONAL
More than 200 athletes, almost all from south of the Los Angeles County Line, were entered in the eighth annual event on the Huntington Beach High track. San Diego High was on hand, while other local teams took part in a DeMolay track meet in City Stadium.
Six meet records, including a national-record pole vault of 13 feet, 3 inches, by Bill Miller and a Hilltoppers triumph with 28 1/3 points, were highlights.
Miller bettered the record of 13-2 5/8, but he shared honors with Alvin Koenig of Huntington Beach, who set meet records with a :09.8 100 and a :22 flat 220. Willson was runner-up in each race.
Santa Ana’s Alva Reboin also was a double winner, in the 120-yard high hurdles in :15.4 and his :25.2 in the 220 lows was a record.
Santa Ana was second in team scoring with 28 points, followed by Huntington Beach (23) and Ontario Chaffee (19 ½).
San Diego clinched the team title with a 1:33.4/5 victory in the 880-yard relay, last event. A second place by Santa Ana would have given the Saints the championship but they were third, nosed out by Koenig and Huntington Beach.
SAY, AREN’T YOU…?
Imagine how strong this San Diego team would have been had one athlete made the 1.6-mile trolley ride down Park Boulevard from Roosevelt Junior High to the Hilltoppers’ campus.
But Alva Reboin’s family moved North after his ninth-grade year and Reboin starred at Santa Ana in the hurdles and pole vault.
LONG BEACH POLY
The Jackrabbits were state champions in 1928, but not a match. San Diego won, 69 2/3-43 1/3, and was first in 11 events, all but the 120-yard high hurdles and high jump.
Coach Glenn Broderick trusted the weather man after days of rain and promised the meet would go on “unless the (jumping) pits fill up with water.”
Willson ran his usual :10 flat 100 and his :22.6 in the 220 was two-tenths slower than the school record. Irvine (Cotton) Warburton won the 440 in :51.8 and Evan Dowers took the mile in 4:45. Without Willson, San Diego won the relay in 1:32.2.
Joe Dobbins was the principal figure in a story recounted by Don King in Caver Conquest.
Dobbins was declared broad jump winner in a heated competition with two Poly jumpers. With teammates cheering, Dobbins apparently had leaped 22 feet when the event judge shouted, “Twenty-two.”
What the judge actually meant was 20 feet, 2 inches.
Apparently no one was the wiser, including Poly coach Norman Barker, Hillers coach Glenn Broderick, and anyone else involved in management of the meet.
The jump went into the books as 22 feet and was a school record until Fred Montpelier went 22-2 ¼ in 1931.
Apocryphal is the first word that comes to mind.
AT SANTA ANA
Bill Miller was nursing sore ankles and did not vault but Wade Potter managed a tie for first with the favored Reboin and his Saints teammate Bill Stiles at 10-6 and San Diego won, 66-47.
Reboin also won both hurdles races, nudging Fernando Ortiz in a :25.8 trip in the 220 lows.
Jimmy Willson, against a strong wind, led a sweep with a :10.2 in the 100-yard dash, won the 220 in :22.6, and ran a leg on the winning relay.
Dobbins did not place in the broad jump, won by Santa Ana’s Norman Paul at 22-4 ½.
Willson scored 11 ¼ points but high point honors went to Reboin with 13.
TEX, TOO
Reboin was not the only transplanted San Diegan. The Saints were coached by Gerald (Tex) Oliver, former Memorial Junior High mentor. Oliver also was the Saints’ football coach and eventually was a collegiate boss at Arizona and Oregon.
AT GLENDALE
The once-powerful Dynamiters, no longer stocked with such graduated stars as Frank Wykoff, Russ Slocum, and Fulton Beatty, who dominated the sprint scene earlier, were easy for the Hilltoppers, who scored a 71 ½-41 ½ victory.
Maybe the groundskeeper was daydreaming about the glory days of the rapid threesome and erred when he rolled the lime markings and lane boundaries for the races. Either that or the clerk of the course and timers positioned the finish line tape in the wrong location.
The distance for the 100-yard dash would have been more appropriate for the 1928 Olympics.
Willson and others entered were forced to run a reported 110 yards, slightly more than the Olympic 100 meters, with Willson’s winning time announced as a very un-Olympic :11.6.
Maybe they had to run more than 110 yards.
The Hillers could have added to the final score but they lost five points when disqualified for a violation after winning the relay in 1:32.0.
COAST LEAGUE TRIALS
Home team Pasadena surprised by leading with 19 qualifiers, including non-participating field event entries. San Diego had 18, Long Beach 16, and Santa Ana, 14. Glendale, South Pasadena, Whittier, and Alhambra brought up the rear.
The top five in each event qualified for the finals, along with one wild card, to be determined by the respective teams.
Jimmy Willson raced to victories of :10.1 in the 100 and 22.6, and was the relay leadoff man as the Hillers ran 1:31.6. Fernando Ortiz also ran a :10.1 century trial and Irvine Warburton and Maurice Staker each won a heat in the 440 in :53.6 and :52.6, respectively.
COAST LEAGUE FINALS
San Diego outlasted dogged Santa Ana for the team title, 44 ½-39 ½. Pasadena had 19, Poly 17, Glendale 6, South Pasadena 5, Whittier 2, and Alhambra 0.
Bill Miller, who missed three meets with sore ankles, finished second in the pole vault to Santa Ana’s Alva Reboin, who cleared 12 feet and also set a record in the 120-yard high hurdles at :15.6 and won the 220 lows in :25.4.
San Diego offset Reboin with Jimmy Willson’s :10.2 100 and :22.8 220 victories, Cotton Warburton’s :51.4 440, and Evan Dowers’ 4:40 4/5 mile. Willson, Warburton, and Dowers, along with sprinter-hurdler Fernando Ortiz, would be the Hilltoppers’ wheelhorses in the most important meets to follow.
SOUTHERN SECTION TRIALS
The Friday-Saturday virtual carnival necessitated some travel logistics for coach Glenn Broderick.
Don Pearse and Jack Dawson left for Los Angeles on Thursday, accompanied by assistant coach Charlie Church, because they would be required for Friday morning Class B competition in the 120-yard low hurdles and pole vault.
Broderick and the rest of the San Diego contingent took off on Friday for the Saturday competition.
Irving Eckhoff of the Los Angeles Times selected 4 favorites for the team title before trials in the Los Angeles Coliseum. “Twenty-five points will win the meet,” said Eckhoff, who chose San Diego, Los Angeles High, L.A. Fairfax, and Santa Ana to battle it out.
TIRELESS
“Jimmy Wilson (sic), midget San Diego sprinter, and Alva Reboin, the chunky Santa Ana hurdler, stole the show with spectacular performances,” wrote Eckhoff.
Willson ran 5 races during the long day, winning 4 and running a leg on the relay team, which was the second qualifier in its heat behind the winning 1:31.4 of L.A. High.
The diminutive Hilltopper won his heats in :10 and :22.6 and prevailed in :10 in the 100 semifinals before setting a school record of :21.8, enjoying the 220 straightaway at the Coliseum after running most of his furlongs during the season on the City Stadium curve.
Fernando Ortiz was eliminated in the 100 but was first twice in the 220 low hurdles, running :25.5 in the preliminary race and nipping Reboin in the semifinal in :25.
Cotton Warburton was third in his 440 heat, won by Rogers of Hollywood in :51 flat. The two other 440 heats were won in :50.8 and :51.6.
Miller was one of 10 who qualified at 12 feet in the pole vault. Ed Reed moved on by making 5 feet, 8 inches, in the high jump after not qualifying in the discus. Evan Dowers advanced, fifth in one of two heats in the mile in 4:39.4, and Ray Russell was a qualifier in the discus.
Al McGlinchy and Maurice Staker did not make it in the 120-yard high hurdles and 440, respectively, and Don Pearse and Jack Dawson were eliminated in their Class B events.
L.A. High led all qualifiers with 9. San Diego, Santa Ana, and Hollywood advanced 8 each.
SOUTHERN SECTION FINALS
The Hilltoppers were struggling.
Fernando Ortiz, leading in the 220 low hurdles, crashed into the last barrier, stumbled and did not place, but Evan Dowers, with “leaden feet and iron heart”, came to the rescue and from behind to win the mile, upsetting the field in 4:32.6.
Bowers’ enigmatic pace saw him lead early in the race, fall behind and take the lead again, but he was in third place coming into the final turn.
Irving Eckhoff picked up the action:
…”down the stretch came Dowers, seemingly barely able to drag his feet off the ground with each shortening stride. Ahead of him as he rounded the curve were Baker of Huntington Park and Roberts of El Monte. They had distanced the field.”
(Dowers passed Baker and set sight on Roberts).
“Ten yards from the tape, Roberts was leading the San Diegan by three yards. But he was tiring fast. His steps were dragging, even slower than the laboring, towheaded youngster behind him.
“A yard from the tape Roberts collapsed, but a fraction of a second before he stumbled across the finish line, Dowers breasted the ribbon, the winner by scant inches.
“That gave the Hilltoppers five totally unexpected points and won the meet for them.”
San Diego scored 22 ½ points. Hollywood was second with 14, followed by L.A. High, 13 ½, Los Angeles Jefferson, 11 ½, and L.A. Fairfax, 11.
PILE UP POINTS
Willson won the 100 in :10.1 and was runner-up to Hollister of Carpinteria Cate’s :22 flat 220. Willson teamed with Ortiz, Maurice Staker, and Warburton in the 880-yard relay. Despite being bumped a couple times in the speedway-like traffic, the group set a school record of 1:30.4, behind Hollywood’s winning 1:29.6 and Jefferson’s second place.
Bill Miller took the pole vault at 13 feet and Warburton was fourth in the 440. Ed Reed tied for third in the high jump at 5-10.
STATE MEET
Dowers went out too fast in the mile, falling out of contention on the last lap after leading early, and Baker of El Monte and Roberts of Huntington Park, vanquished by Dowers in the Southern California meet, ran 1-2.
While Dowers’ failure to place was a stunner, a bigger surprise came when Warburton, running in lane 1, jumped the field early, led by three yards coming out of the Coliseum tunnel, gained the pole position in the one-turn race, and raced to a record-tying :49.6 440.
Miller defended his pole vault championship with a 12-foot, 6-inch effort. Ed Reed tied for fourth at 5-8 in the high jump.
Willson won the 100 in a school record :09.8 and equaled Frank Wykoff’s state meet record with a :21.4 220.
San Diego’s 22 ½ points once again outdistanced Hollywood, which had 16 1/2, followed by Santa Ana, 11, and L.A. Jefferson, 10 ½.
Sixty-one schools, including 40 from the South, were represented.
CINDER DUST
The seven-man San Diego contingent, leaving at 10 a.m. Friday, traveled to the state meet on a Los Angeles Steamship Company vessel to San Pedro and then rode a Pacific Electric Trailways “Red Car” to their hotel…they were accompanied by team manager Bill Tinker, as coach Glenn Broderick traveled by automobile later…Jimmy Willson’s victory in the 100-yard dash at the Southern California meet was the first by a Hilltopper and the first time a Hilltopper had scored a point in the event…Willson’s son, John, ran the 440 in :48.5 for Point Loma in 1972…Lawrence Carr, future track and basketball coach at Hoover and principal at San Diego High, was San Diego State’s leading scorer with a 10-point average in seven Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference basketball games…Escondido High fielded its first track team…coach Harry Wexler greeted almost 50 candidates…Wallace set an Army-Navy pole vault record of 11-3 7/8 against the San Diego “Seconds”, who defeated the Cadets, 79-34…Bill Miller’s winning vault in the Southern Section was accompanied by continued jeering from L.A. High students, who favored Romans schoolmate Limeburger, second at 12-6…Coliseum patrons, thinking Willson had won the 220 in the same meet, were heard “razzing” the finish judges…Gordon Jones of Sweetwater won 5 events in the Southern Prep League finals at the soggy (from recent rain) San Diego State oval…Jones won the 100 (:10.8), 220 lows (:28.0), 120 high hurdles (:18.8), shot put (41-11), and discus (99-11 ½) for the Red Devils, who claimed their fifth league title in 10 years…Everett Thurber and George Hoaglund won 6 events for Sweetwater in previous SPL finals.…
