Hoover, as newspaper accounts and the school yearbook indicated, might have been an undefeated, 12-0 champion.
Published reports in The San Diego Union show that the East San Diego team played only a couple military teams in early-season March, emerging victorious in each.
Other games may not have been reported.
Schools were cutting back on travel because of World War II.
And apparently there was an outbreak of an infectious disease.
A hint was provided in the season review in the 1942 “Dias Cardinales”.
“The team returned from Easter vacation wearing smiles that proved as contagious as the measles the (early) season brought,” wrote a student on the yearbook staff.
Hale and hearty, Hoover had spent the vacation week winning the prestigious, Pomona 20-30 Rotary Club championship, an event usually owned by San Diego High, which had won six titles in the 10 previous tournaments along with 14 Southern California titles.
Roy Engle, the hero of Hoover’s first win over San Diego in 1935 (search “1935: Redbirds and Rioting”) had played for USC in the 1940 Rose Bowl, and joined the school faculty and served as an assistant football coach in 1941.
Engle’s tenure as baseball coach was similar to that of John Brose’s first season at San Diego. Hoover’s John Perry and San Diego’s Mike Morrow both anticipated calls to active military duty and had stepped back.
The 24-year-old Engle, a favorite of school principal Floyd Johnson, would eventually return to Hoover as head football coach and had a long career (1955-77) in that position.
San Diego High, under coach Ed Ruffa, was the dominant track-and-field squad and won the Southern Section team championship in a tight competition with Glendale.
Special thanks to Southern Section historian John Dahlem for contributions to this narrative.
Some season highlights, with track and field in italics.
3/3/42
Don Le Grande and Lou Ortiz each hit home runs and Le Grande and Bob O’Dell had three hits apiece as San Diego opened the season with a 6-2 win over the Marine Corps Recruit Depot on the Base diamond.
3/5/42
Oceanside officials notified Point Loma that the Pirates were canceling a track meet scheduled tomorrow.
The Pirates also announced that because of transportation difficulties the school would not compete in track or baseball this season, although they participated in some later events.
3/6/42
Bob O’Dell’s two-run home run in the seventh inning broke a 3-3 tie and Bob Usher’s four hit pitching provided San Diego with a 5-3 victory at Long Beach Wilson.
Grossmont won the 880-yard relay to defeat Sweetwater, 54 ½-49 ½, in a Metropolitan League dual meet opener and Escondido topped La Jolla, 68-36.
3/9/42
Hoover pounded Fort Rosecrans pitching for 18 hits and won, 18-6, at Hoover.
3/11/42
The Cardinals made it two in a row over the Fort Rosecrans army squad, 4-1, at Navy Field as Bob Stevenson allowed four hits.
3/14/42
Trailing, 5-1, in Balboa Stadium, San Diego scored 4 runs to tie in the ninth inning and another in the 10th to defeat Long Beach Wilson, 5-4.
Bob O’Dell singled, Bob Usher doubled, and O’Dell scored on Don Le Grande’s infield hit.
–La Jolla’s Bill Cook, in a decathlete-like performance, won the high jump (5 feet, 8 inches), 70-yard high hurdles (:10.3), and tied for first in the pole vault (10-0), but Sweetwater won the dual meet, 68-34.
–Fred Gallup was the 100-yard dash (:10.3) and 220 (:23.8) winner, and won the broad jump (19-10) as Escondido nipped Coronado, 57-47.
3/21/42
San Diego topped Redondo Beach Redondo Union, 11-1, in Balboa Stadium after a March 14 game at Redondo was canceled.
The Hillers, leading, 3-1, broke open the contest with a six-run sixth inning for their third straight win over a Northern opponent.
3/21/42
San Diego defended its Southern Counties’ Invitational championship with 27 2/3 points. Glenn Willis and Don Smalley finished 1-2 in the dashes and led the winning relay squad.
Ed Pohl won the 220-yard low hurdles in :24.3 and George Schutte was fourth in the shot put at 47 feet, 11 inches.
3/25/42
Hoover, Point Loma, Escondido, and defending champion San Diego entered the 10th annual Pomona 20-30 Club tournament scheduled to begin March 30.
3/28/42
San Diego won a triangular meet in Balboa Stadium, outscoring Pasadena and Hoover, 70-26-25, respectively.
Ed Pohl set school records of :09.3 in the 70-yard high hurdles and :13.1 in the 120 lows and Glenn Willis tied Jimmy Willson’s 1929 record of :09.8 in the 100.
Willis also won the 220 (:22.3) and anchored the winning 880-yard relay team (1:30.4).
Dual met scoring had the Hillers over the Bullpups, 71-33 and 78-26 over Hoover.
–Point Loma runners set two school records in the Pointers’ 61 ½-41 ½ win over Coronado. Evan Stover ran the 440 in :53 and Finster took the 120-yard low hurdles in :13.8.
3/30/42
San Diego forfeited to El Monte and was out of the Pomona tournament because the Hillers did not arrive in time for the game.
Hoover won two games, 7-1 over Pasadena and 4-2 over Redondo Beach Redondo Union.
Escondido defeated Fullerton, 4-2, but lost to San Bernardino, 8-6.
Point Loma advanced in the consolation bracket, 7-1, over Long Beach St. Anthony after bowing to Los Angeles Cathedral, 5-3.
3/31/42
Hoover raced into the Pomona finals with victories over Redlands, 3-1, in the morning quarterfinals and 22-5 over Burbank in the afternoon semifinals.
Point Loma dropped a 3-0 decision to Pomona and was eliminated from the consolation bracket.
4/1/42
Hoover unleashed a 19-hit attack and routed San Bernardino, 16-3, for championship of the 10th annual event.
Pitcher Bob Stevenson did not allow a run until the Cardinals had built a 15-0 lead through seven innings.
Bob Haddock and Olney Patterson each had four hits and Skippy Long added a pair of two-base hits.
Cardinals coach Roy Engle was a catcher on the 1936 Hoover team that, along with future Hall of Famer Ted Williams, won the consolation championship.
4/10/42
Rain interrupted a Hoover trip to Long Beach Poly and San Diego and guest Pasadena could get through only three innings. The Cavers led, 3-0.
Grossmont, hosting on a crushed gravel track, defeated La Jolla, 63 ½-33 ½, in a Metropolitan League dual, with the relay called off because of the weather.
4/17/42
Evan Stover won the 440 in :52.3 and added a leg in the 880-yard relay, in which his team set a school record of 1:35.8, as Point Loma scored a 63-41 win over Sweetwater.
La Jolla defeated a squad from the 184th Infantry, 60-44.
The soldiers had been deployed to Del Mar, San Diego and Lindbergh Field for defense of a possible Japanese attack but would move within days to Fort Lewis, Washington.
4/17/42
Hoover, the “Yankees of the West” in California prep circles, as so described by The San Diego Union, knocked out 17 hits and topped San Diego, 9-1, in the first game of what was called the city diamond championship.
Two singles, a walk and doubles by battery mates Bob Stevenson and Ray Boone staked the Cardinals to a 4-0 lead in the first inning.
Stevenson, who scattered eight hits, homered and the Cardinals piled up four more runs before Skippy Long tripled to score Olney Patterson in the eighth inning.
The series would resume in one week at San Diego.
Strong wind helped propel Hoover’s Jim Lakin to a :22.4 220 and Williams of Brawley to a :09.9 100 in Hoover’s triangular meet victory in El Centro.
The Cardinals outscored El Centro Central and Brawley, with 64 ½ points to the host’s 40 /1/2 and the Wildcats’ 23 ½.
San Dieguito won the Southern Prep League team title at Fallbrook with 68 points. Vista had 63, Fallbrook 26, and Army-Navy and Ramona, 6 ½ each.
4/23/42
Glenn Willis won his customary three events and took part in another win as San Diego won a triangular track meet at Long Beach Poly.
The Cavers scored 66 points to Long Beach’s 46 2/5 and Hoover’s 18 3/5.
Broken down into dual meets, the Hillers defeated Poly, 68-46, and Hoover, 72-30.
Willis’s wins were :09.9 in the 100-yard dash, :23.0 in the 220, 21 feet, 11 inches, in the broad jump, and the 880-yard relay, which the Hillers were first in 1:32.5.
Ed Emerson added to the San Diego total with a 4:45 mile.
4/24/42
Hoover won the city diamond series, 4-3. when Gene Gesler came on in relief of Hoover starter Bob Stevenson and handcuffed San Diego, allowing one run and two hits in the final six innings.
San Diego outhit the Cardinals, 10-8, and led, 2-1, into the seventh inning.
The Hillers’ Don Le Grande, with four hits in four times at bat, had given his team the lead with a second-inning home run.
Hoover put together two walks, two hits, and a San Diego error to score three runs in the seventh.
5/1/42
Bill Bailey was moving to San Diego High to become head football coach but not before his Point Loma squad claimed the Metropolitan League championship.
The Pointers’ 18-hit attack overwhelmed Grossmont, 15-5. Eddie Correia homered and Edgar Woods had three hits.
Escondido’s 6-3 win over La Jolla clinched second place for the Cougars.
San Diego wrapped an 8-0 dual meet season with a 69 1/2-34 ½ victory at Hoover.
Glenn Willis ran the 100 in :09.9, 220 in :22.5, won the broad jump at 21 feet, and participated in the relay team’s 1:32.8 win.
5/2/42
Evan Stover set a school and Metropolitan League meet record of :51 in the 440 and ran a leg on the winning (1:35.2) relay as Point Loma scored 43 1/3 points to win the team championship in Balboa Stadium.
Stover’s mark bettered the :51.9 by Coronado’s Colin Guillmette in 1941. Guillmette dropped down to Class B for this meet and set a 660-yard run record of 1:27.
San Diego State’s track, usually the site, was unavailable. The host Aztecs had a track meet with Santa Barbara State.
Sweetwater was second with 24 1/6, followed by La Jolla, 18 1/6, Coronado, 17, Grossmont, 13 1/3. Escondido, 13, and Oceanside, 5.
5/8/42
Road team Hoover defeated Long Beach Wilson, 4-3, on relief pitcher Clark Higgins’ two-run home run in the eighth inning of the CIF semifinals playoff.
Higgins took over for starter Gus Gesler in the third inning and shut out the Bruins for the final six innings.
The Cardinals had received a bye in the first round into the round of four of the eight-team CIF postseason. Long Beach Poly defeated Santa Barbara in the other semifinal, 16-9.
5/9/42
San Diego dominated the Southern Section divisional meet in Balboa Stadium with 67 points.
Glenn Willis ran a :09.8 100, :22 flat 220, won the broad jump at 21-8, and anchored a 1:31.6 relay victory.
Evan Stover of Point Loma won the 440 in :51.3. Athletes from San Diego, Hoover, the Metropolitan League, and Imperial Valley loop took part.
5/15/42
Hoover, playing at home, scored five runs in the eighth inning, breaking a 3-3 tie and giving the Cardinals an 8-3 victory over Long Beach Poly for the CIF championship.
Roy Engle, a Hoover football and baseball star from 1933-36, coached the Cardinals to their 12th consecutive victory.
Bob Haddock tripled and scored on an error in the first inning and pitcher Bob Stevenson added a home run in the second.
The Cardinals scored another run in the third, but Poly’s Don Richardson drove in two runs in the fifth inning and tied the game with a home run in the seventh.
Ray Boone and Don Parker each singled in two runs and Bob Haddock singled in another in Hoover’s, clinching five-run seventh.
5/16/42
The CIF team championship came down to the final event and San Diego ran its best race of the year to nose out host Glendale for the title, 25 points to 23. Glendale Hoover was third with 15 ½.
Don Smalley, Jack Cawley, Ed Pohl, and Glenn Willis teamed to win the 880-yard relay in 1:29.6 to break a tie with the Dynamiters at 20 points each.
Smalley won the 100 in :10, with Willis second, and Willis won the 220 in :22.3, with Smalley fourth. Ed Pohl was first in the 220-yard low hurdles in :24.6.
Point Loma’s Evan Stover was third in the 440.
ALL-CIF
Hoover’s Ray Boone and Bob Stevenson were first-team selections, with Bill (Skippy) Long and Bob Haddock on the second team. Don Le Grande and Bob Usher of San Diego made the second team and Sam Rosenthal the third.
STRIKES AND SPIKES
CIF boss Seth Van Patten, facing lack of interest and emerging war-time travel restrictions, put together an eight-team playoff, beginning with quarterfinals, that included Hoover, Long Beach Poly, Long Beach Wilson, Santa Barbara, El Monte, Redondo Beach Redondo Union, Azusa Citrus, and Pasadena…Evan Stover, third in the CIF 440, held Point Loma’s school record until Ron Steele ran :49.5 in 1960…there was no state track meet this year and would not be another until 1946… Point Loma, with 13 points, won the Southern Section Class C track championship…one month and a day after the baseball title game Hoover coach Roy Engle and San Diego State basketball coach Morris Gross were commissioned in the naval reserve and left for Annapolis for training prior to joining the navy’s physical development program…Gross went in as a Lieutenant, Engle as an ensign… San Diego coach John Brose, 9-5 this season, held the position until Mike Morrow returned from the Navy for the 1945-46 school year…Glenn Willis scored an astounding 191 points in 14 meets the most since Fred Montpelier had a similar total in 1932…Don Smalley had 141¾ and Ed Pohl 133¼, according to Hillers statistician Kearney Johnson.…
