The 880-yard relay, a frenetic and often perilous event, provided a wild conclusion to the CIF Southern Section finals at Compton.
San Diego High won the team championship, surviving rush-hour traffic and a near pileup, not unlike a wild main event of a midget auto racing card in Balboa Stadium.
The Hillers’ Charlie Davis, spiked by another runner about 100 yards from the finish line, hung on for a second place that was the difference in the team standings.
San Diego’s 20 points topped Glendale Hoover, which had 19, and Compton, which did not have a relay team and finished with 18. Fullerton was fourth with 15.
Coach Bill Patten’s seven-man squad and Glendale Hoover, led by sprint ace John Bradley, each had 16 points entering the final event.
Laguna Beach was a “surprise gun-to-tape winner but they went virtually unnoticed,” wrote the Los Angeles Times’ John De la Vega, who captured the moment.
HILLERS VS. TORNADOES
“All eyes were on the two title rivals,” said De La Vega.
“San Diego ran second most of the way while Hoover, the favorite, got two bad passes and trailed the Hillers by nine yards in next-to-last place as the anchor leg started.
“Then came the rousing finish,” wrote De La Vega.
Hillers anchorman Davis survived a cut on his leg when Inglewood’s Jack Hadley crashed in front of the fast-closing Bradley and Hadley’s shoe spikes tore Davis’ flesh.
Bradley, accelerating as he traversed the curve, had closed to within three yards of Davis as the pack turned for home. Hadley, also charging, suddenly stumbled, nipping Davis, and falling in front of Bradley.
Bradley pulled up and ran around Hadley, according to De La Vega, and then made another challenge but finished two yards behind Davis.
Champion Hilltoppers with perpetual title trophy, front row (from left): Harold Miller, Bob Van Doren, Ernie Smith. Standing (from left): coach Bill Patten, Rudy Graham, Calvin Carter, Charlie Davis, John Davis. Courtesy, John Dahlem/CIF Southern Section.
IS THAT WHAT HAPPENED?
Three published accounts of that relay race, beginning with De La Vega’s, are not in agreement.
Wrote Don King in Caver Conquest, the athletic history of San Diego High:
“Sparked by some nifty running and baton passes among Hal Miller, Calvin Carter, and Ernie Smith, the Hillers jumped into an early lead (De La Vega’s Times story said Laguna led all the way) coming into Davis’ anchor leg. But a rival runner accidentally spiked Davis in the baton exchange (the Times story indicated it happened much later).”
The San Diego Union correspondent, unidentified, reported in a “Special” dispatch:
“The Hiller quartet took an early lead, but on the last lap Davis was spiked by a rival runner. The mishap enabled Laguna Beach to take the lead, but Davis, continuing in spite of the injury, held off his Glendale Hoover rival to finish second.”
THE OTHERS…
Seven San Diego High athletes were among the fifteen from the Coast, Metropolitan, and Southern Prep leagues who qualified for the finals after loop meets and two divisional competitions.
–San Diego’s Harold Miller was not among the top five finishers in the 100-yard dash, won by Howard Bugbee of Redondo Beach Redondo Union in: 09.6.
–Miller and Davis were not among the top five in the scorching 220-yard dash, won by Bradley by less than a foot over Compton’s Bill Fell in: 21.
–Calvin Carter was fourth in the 440-yard dash, won by San Dieguito’s Don Balsley in :51.2, providing two points for the Hillers.
–Bob Van Doren won the shot put at 55 feet ¾ inch and John Davis got up for fourth at 50-10 ¾, giving the Hillers 7 points.
–Rudy Graham was a surprising second in the high jump at 6 feet, 3 inches, and picked up four points, beating among others San Diego Hoover’s Jack Razzeto, who cleared 6-5 3/4, two Saturdays before in a divisional meet at Balboa Stadium.
–Ernie Smith, the 1947 champion at 22-6 ½, was third in the broad jump at 22-1½, giving the Hillers three points and a total 16 as they awaited the relay sprint.
San Diego was one of the favorites in the relay, having run 1:30.4 and 1:30.7 leading to the finals. With an accident-free race the Hilltoppers may not have equaled Laguna Beach’s winning time of 1:29.9, but their second place finish was good for 4 points and the winning total of 20.
…AND OTHERS
–Point Loma’s Bob Mahon, usually a triple winner in both hurdles and broad jump during the Pointers’ dual meet season, was disqualified along with Glendale Hoover’s Jack Davis and Beverly Hills’ Bill Storum in the 120-yard highs.
Mahon’s best time of: 15.1 would have had him in the mix in a race in which Bob Boaz of Fullerton won in :15.
–Martin Donahue of Grossmont and Kenny Holly of Escondido were unplaced in the mile.
–Grossmont’s Hal Norris was unplaced in the shot put.
–Jack Razzeto of Hoover cleared 6-2 but lost a coin toss to Dick Brombach of Long Beach Poly in the high jump. Brombach became the third qualifier for the state meet the following week in Berkeley.
–Jack Lucas of La Jolla was third in the 880, won by Wilbur Firestone of Compton in 2:00.
–Duane Pusey of Grossmont tied for third with two others in the pole vault but lost a coin toss to determine who would advance to Berkeley.
STATE MEET
–Jack Lucas was third in the 880, won by Firestone in 1:57.8.
–Don Balsley unofficially was timed in: 50.4 and finished fifth in one of two 440-yard dashes. Luther Butler of Los Angeles Jefferson and Fred Thompson of L.A. Jordan were declared co-champions at :49.2.
–Bob Van Doren’s 54-6 ¼ in the shot put was third to the national record 59-7 ½ by L.A. Washington’s Bob Cameron.
–Rudy Graham tied for third in the high jump at 6-2. Dick Brombach of Long Beach Poly and Ed Young of L.A. Jefferson were co-champs at 6-3.
–Ernie Smith did not place in the broad jump.
–San Diego was fifth in the 880 relay, behind L.A. Jordan, L.A. Jefferson, Glendale
Hoover, and San Francisco Lowell. Jordan’s winning time was 1:29.5.
–The Hilltoppers were seventh in the team scoring with 6 ¼ points. L.A. Jordan led with 22.
RELAY MADNESS
San Diego was 3-1 in dual meets, losing an early-season, 57-47 decision to Grossmont when the Hilltoppers dropped the baton in the 880 relay, depriving them of a 52-52 tie.
Charlie Davis’ strong anchor leg, in which he caught and passed Hoover and Tucson runners, gave the Hillers a triangular meet victory in a night session before 1,200 persons at Balboa Stadium. The Hillers scored 53 points. Tucson, an Arizona power, 51, and Hoover 25 ½.
A dropped baton in the Class A relay deprived Grossmont of a clean sweep in classes A, B, and C, in the Metropolitan League finals at San Diego State.
Point Loma won the relay and the Class A title with 46 points to the Foothillers’ 42 ¾. Grossmont coach Jack Mashin dropped six varsity (A) performers into Class B, opening the door for coach Don Giddings’ Pointers.
Grossmont swept dual meet opponents in all but one A, B, and C competition. La Jolla beat the Foothillers in a Class B dual.
FOOTHILLERS TOP HILLTOPPERS
The dual meet victory over San Diego was Grossmont’s third against the Hilltoppers since 1944, rare achievements by a school not in the San Diego city limits.
Indeed, Grossmont coach Jack Mashin, who retired as football boss after the 1947 season, built a powerful program of deep and talented teams, particularly in the field events.
Grossmont led area schools with 17 ¼ points in the 27th annual Southern Counties meet at Huntington Beach High.
Three Grossmont pole vaulters cleared 12 feet to tie for first and sophomore Hal Norris topped San Diego’s Bob Van Doren and John Davis in the shot and finished second.
Compton won the team championship at Huntington Beach with 29 points, riding the rapid wheels of Bill Fell, who won the 100-yard dash in :09.6, 220 on the straightaway in :20.8 and broad jump at 22 feet, 6 inches.
5/1/48
Grossmont was deprived of championships in Classes A,B, and C in the Metropolitan League meet when the Foothillers botched a baton exchange in the final event 880-yard relay.
A dropped baton did in the Foothillers an Point Loma won the relay in 1:33.9 and Class A with 47 points to the Foothillers’ 42.7/10.
SPIKE DUST
Future pro golf champion Gene Littler was one of La Jolla’s shotputters…St. Augustine fielded A, B, and C teams for the first time in the school’s 26-year history…Bob Van Doren set a San Diego school shot put record with a heave of 55-2 ¾ in the Balboa Stadium divisional meet…Van Doren unofficially bettered the mark at 55-7 1/8 in an extra trial after the shot put competition in the state meet…Van Doren also was first at Berkeley with a 46-10 3/4 toss in the non-counting 16-pound shot competition…Ernie Smith didn’t repeat as Southern Section broad jump champion but had a career-best 22-9 in the Coast League triangular dual meet with Pasadena and Pasadena Muir…Hoover’s Bill McColl, all-Southern California in football, basketball and baseball, also found time to run the hurdles for coach Raleigh Holt’s track team….
