The thinclads were so good that several made national lists.
Roscoe Cook of San Diego High held the national record in the 100-yard dash, if only for a few days. Mission Bay’s Jim Cerveny came close to the national record in the 880-yard run.
Bobby Staten, Jim Wade, Luther Hayes, Ed Buchanan, and Dick Verdon also made their marks and would remain historic names.
San Diego and Hoover still were entrenched powers in the City Prep League, but Lincoln, in its third year, established itself. County leagues Avocado and Metropolitan had their moments, but urban forces held sway.
The Cavemen of coach Birt Slater won the Southern California team championship for the first time since 1948, outscoring heavily favored Compton Centennial.
2/15/57
Lincoln announced itself as a City Prep League contender, winning 10 of 12 events in a 74-29 win at Chula Vista.
After the dual meet Tom Rice, the coach of the Spartans, requested that Lincoln coach Walt Harvey not report the results to the downtown newspapers.
Unbeknownst to the coaches, I was there as a representative of the Lincoln High Buzz and collected $5 for reporting the results to The San Diego Union.
It was my first newspaper reporting payday.
The small story included the byline By Ricky Smith, Lincoln High correspondent.
Rice. who passed away in Coronado at age 100 in 2023, was surprised and unhappy. Harvey, after seeing the result published and hearing from Rice, gave me a very mild rebuke.
Chula Vista’s Ed Fabisak had the day’s best mark, a school record of 4:36.4 in the mile.
2/21/57
A show of City Prep League power: San Diego rocked Grossmont, 76-28.
—Kearny defeated St. Augustine, 74-30.
—Hoover beat Sweetwater, 71 ½-32 ½.
—Mission Bay edged Oceanside, 58 ½-45 ½.
Roscoe Cook doubled in the 100-yard dash (:10.3) and 220 (:23.4) and got the Cavers off to a good start on the first leg of a 1:32.4 relay victory.
Dick Verdon pushed the shot 55-6 in Hoover’s win and Sweetwater’s George McElvain turned the 440 in :51.8.
2/26/57
Luther Hayes (6-foot, 2-inch high jump) and Russ Boehmke (:23.4 220) set school records as Lincoln beat El Cajon Valley, 70-34.
Jim Cerveny ran :51.7 in the 440 in Mission Bay’s 62-42 win over St. Augustine.
3/3/57
The ninth annual City Prep League relays were canceled because of wet grounds in Balboa Stadium. San Diego High coach Birt Slater said the event would not be rescheduled.
3/5/57
Ed Buchanan, a junior at Kearny, raced himself into the sprint picture with a :09.7 in the 100 at Lincoln, which defeated the Komets, 62-42.
Buchanan returned to traverse the Lincoln curve in a eye-opening :21.2 220.
But the time for the race was exaggerated because there was no smoke from the starter’s pistol. Smoke is seen before the sound, so timers, on the other side of the track, went with the delayed noise.
Hoover routed La Jolla, 92 ½-11 ½. Dick Verdon pushed the shot a school-record 56 feet, 5 inches, almost an inch better than what Verdon reached in 1956.
3/8/57
More than 1,000 athletes in large and small schools divisions, including a sizable contingent of San Diego entries, converged on Huntington Beach High for the 36th Southern Counties’ Invitational.
Rain had everyone running for cover after two events. Compton Centennial’s Preston Griffin won the small schools 100 in :10 and Los Angeles Mt. Carmel Mike McKeever pushed the shot 55-9 ¼.
Ed Buchanan of Kearny and Jim Stewart of Sweetwater were second and third in the 100 and Larry Himmer of Sweetwater was fifth in the shot put.
The meet would not be rescheduled, according to Huntington Beach athletic director Alvin Reboin, former 1920’s star at Roosevelt Junior High in San Diego.
3/13/57
Ed Buchanan was not available, so Larry Ray took charge, winning the 100 in :10.3 and 220 in :22.6 and helped the winning relay team (1:35.2) as Kearny beat Point Loma, 68 1/3-35 2/3.
3/15/57
Dick Verdon set a County record of 60 feet, 10 inches, and led Hoover to an impressive 55-49 victory over Lincoln. The score would have been 60-44 had not the Cardinals been disqualified for a lane violation in the relay.
“I didn’t think I was big enough to throw sixty feet,” said the 200-pound Verdon. In bettering his best of 56-5 1/8, Verdon served notice with practice throws of 58 feet.
Mike Madrigal and Denny Berg followed Verdon, giving Hoover a sweep and adrenaline charge early in the meet. The Cardinals finished off the Hornets when Bill Stephenson and Chuck Hansen went 1-2 in the 180 low hurdles.
Despite the loss Lincoln still set three school records. David Grayson won the 100 in :10.1, Bill Hultz the 120-yard high hurdles in :15.2, and Russ Boehmke the 220 in :22.7.
3/16/57
The third annual National City Junior Chamber of Commerce Relays were washed out by rain, joining the Southern Counties Invitational and City Prep League relays as weather casualties.
3/19/57
A triangular meet that had been scheduled at El Cajon Valley between the host Braves, San Diego, and Compton Centennial, which had come South for a dual meet with Grossmont in 1955, was postponed because of rain.
3/21/57
El Cajon Valley was not available, but San Diego and Centennial met in Balboa Stadium.
The Apaches won eight of 12 events and the meet, 60-44. Roscoe Cook of the Cavers was second in the 100 and 220 and third in the broad jump.
Cook was stunned when he set a school record of 23-10 in the jump but was third, behind the 24-6 1/4 by Preston Griffin and 23-11 by John Blaylock of the visitors.
San Diego’s Bobby Staten won the 180-yard low hurdles in :19.2 and added a strong anchor leg in the relay, although Centennial won in 1:28.8 to the Cavers’ 1:29.
San Diego’s other victories came in the shot put, in which Bobby Hatcher reached 48-5; mile, with Ralph Holt running 4:46.5, and high jump, with Andrew Willis tying three Centennial jumpers at 6-feet, 2 inches.
Cook and the Cavemen would get another shot at Griffin and Centennial later.
3/23/57
Kearny’s Ed Buchanan posted the fastest 220 of the season, :21.5 on the Chula Vista straightaway and Kearny won, 83-21.
Sweetwater’s Jim Stewart logged a :09.9 100 and :22.7 220, but Helix hung on to win, 54-50, after a sweep and 9-0 start in the 120-yard high hurdles, paced by Gael Barsotti’s :15.8.
Larry Himmer set a Sweetwater record of 50 feet, 1/2 inch in the shot put.
Hoover routed Point Loma, 86 ½-17 ½, as the Cardinals’ Chuck Hansen ran :14.9 in the high hurdles and Bill Stephenson :19.5 in the lows. Dick Verdon got to 57-3 in the shot put.
3/26/57
Wendell (Bill) Ernest set a school 220 record of :22 and Larry Williams bettered the shot put record with a 51-6 ½ heave in Helix’ 69-35 win over defending Metropolitan League champion El Cajon Valley.
3/27/57
Mission Bay’s Jim Cerveny ignored his favored 880 and set Mission Bay records of :22.2 in the 220 and :49.6 in the 440 in the Bucs’ 58 2/3-45 1/3 win over Point Loma.
3/29/57
Sixteen-year-old Jim Wade, 6 feet, 5 inches, 210 pounds, hurled the shot 58-6 ½ after reaching 60 feet in practice and Grossmont went on to a 79-25 win over Chula Vista.
3/30/57
Lincoln stunned San Diego, 56-43, winning seven of 12 events. The Hornets also finished first in the 880 relay but both teams were disqualified because of lane violations.
Luther Hayes doubled for Lincoln at 6-1 1/4 in the high jump and 23-3 in the broad jump. Scott Archibald set a Lincoln record of 50-5 ½ in the shot put.
3/31/57
Six meet records were bettered in the South Bay Relays at Sweetwater, where a carnival of events’ results were mostly team cumulative.
Helix’ Bill Ernest topped Sweetwater’s Jim Stewart in the featured 100-yard dash in :10.1.
Grossmont was the team leader with 36 ½ points, followed by El Cajon Valley, 29 ½.
4/5/57
Helix trailed, 46 2/3-42 1/3 with two events remaining against Grossmont, but sophomores Morris Nunez and Vic Berg led a 1-2 Highlanders finish in the mile and Bill Ernest anchored the Scots to a 1:32 flat win in the 880 relay and Helix had its first dual meet win over Grossmont, 55 1/3-47 2/3, clinching a tie for the Metropolitan League championship.
San Diego bombed Point Loma, 88-16, and, after winning the 880 relay, extended the race for another 880 yards, timing 3:01.9.
The eight runners were Fred Jackson, Art Buchanan, Richard Engler, Earl Kellough, Willie Jordan, Charles (Sugar Jet) Davis, Roscoe Cook, and Bobby Staten.
El Cajon’s Max Cheney ran a 1:59.4 880 but Hoover won the dual meet, 68 1/3-35 2/3.
4/9/57
The gap between the City and the Metropolitan League was glaring as Hoover won nine of 12 events and tied for first in another, and eased past Helix, 68 ½-36 ½.
4/12/57
City competitors were warming as was the weather.
Jim Cerveny took the national lead in the 880 with a 1:55.9 clocking. San Diego’s Roscoe Cook ran :09.9 in the 100 and Bobby Staten :21.4 in the 220. Lincoln’s Luther Hayes broad jumped 23 feet, 4 inches.
Cerveny and Mission Bay were on the receiving end of an 86-18 loss to Hoover, Kearny of a 79-25 loss to San Diego, and Grossmont of a 67 1/3-36 2/3 loss to Lincoln.
Curtis Tucker set a Lincoln record of :10 in the 100 and anchored a 1:30.7 record relay victory. Bill Hultz (:15) and Ronnie Grey (:19.5) also set school records in the 120-yard highs and 180-yard low hurdles.
4/26/57
Cleavon Little, destined for Hollywood and a legendary role in the movie “Blazing Saddles’, was credited with a broad jump of 23-4 in the Komets’ 61-38 win at La Jolla.
Bob Reynolds of Kearny became the sixth pole vaulter in county history to clear 13 feet. Reynolds thrust was measured at 13-1/8.
El Cajon Valley’s Bill Logan cleared 13-6 in 1956, preceded by four San Diego High athletes: Bill Hubbard, 13-2, 1926; Bill Miller, 13-3, 1929, Bob Henderson, 13-0, 1936, and Bobby Smith, 13-2, 1947.
—San Diego routed Hoover, 65 1/3-38 2/3 and created a three-way tie with Lincoln for the CPL dual-meet championship.
Roscoe Cook won the 100 (:09.9), broad jump (22-3), and ran a leg on the Cavers’ relay team that won in 1:29.9.
“I’ve always thought San Diego had the best team, even though it lost to Lincoln,” a perspicacious Hoover coach Raleigh Holt told Jerry Magee of The San Diego Union, before the meet.
—Don Magoffin set an El Cajon Valley shot put record of 49-4 ½ and the Braves defeated Chula Vista, 69-35.
—Grossmont’s Jim Wade hit a career shot put high of 59-11 ¾ but Sweetwater won, 64-40, as George McElvain led the way with a :51.4 440.
—Bill Ernest doubled in :09.9 and :22.2 in the 100 and 220 and Helix whipped Mission Bay 67 1/3-36 2/3. Jim Cerveny stepped up to the mile for the Buccaneers and logged a CPL best 4:33.7.
4/30/57
CITY PREP LEAGUE TRIALS, @BALBOA STADIUM
Ed Buchanan ran the 220-yard dash on the Balboa Stadium curve in a record :21.6. San Diego’s Bobby Staten ran :21.8 in the previous heat, which also had bettered the mark of :21.9 by Grossmont’s Bert Kohnhurst in 1952.
Buchanan and San Diego’s Roscoe Cook earlier had tied the 100-yard dash record of :09.9, set by the Cavers’ Herman Thompson in 1954.
The :19.3 clocking in the 180-yard low hurdles by Staten tied Thompson’s 1954 record.
San Diego led qualifiers with 14, followed by Lincoln, 11, and Hoover, 8.
Helix qualified 17 in Metropolitan League trials at El Cajon Valley, followed by Sweetwater, Chula Vista and El Cajon Valley with 11 each.
Coronado qualified 12 and Oceanside 11 to lead Avocado League entries at Vista.
5/3/57
CPL FINALS, @BALBOA STADIUM
San Diego was first six times, tied for first in another event, and scored in 9 of 12 races and field events to win the team championship in the with 59 points.
Lincoln had 44 ½ points and Hoover 43. Kearny followed with 19 ½, Mission Bay with 10, La Jolla with 8, and Point Loma with 7.
Five meet records were set or tied:
–Lincoln’s Bill Hultz ran the 120-yard high hurdles in :14.8, topping :14.9’s by Hoover’s Bernie Nelson in 1953 and San Diego’s Leonard Kary in 1955.
–San Diego’s Roscoe Cook tied the often-equaled :09.9 100-yard dash and Bobby Staten equaled the 180-yard low hurdles record of :19.3.
Mission Bay’s Jim Cerveny ran the 880 in 1:55, fastest in the nation, and bettered by two seconds the record Cerveny set in 1956
–Luther Hayes of Lincoln broad jumped 23 feet 10 ¾ inches, improving on his 23-9 ½ in 1956.
–The San Diego 880-yard relay quartet of Willie Jordan, Charles (Sugar Jet) Davis, Cook, and Staten ran 1:28.3, bettering the 1:30.1 of Hoover in 1955.
Lincoln led the Cavers until Cook passed David Grayson coming off the turn on the third leg.
Staten was a double winner, topping 100 runner-up Ed Buchanan in a :21.8 220.
METROPOLITAN LEAGUE
El Cajon Valley edged Helix for the team title, 56 ¼-49 ¾.
Jim Wade of Grossmont set a shot put record of 61-2, third best in the country. The league record was 59-8 ¼ by Grossmont’s Dick Bronson in 1954 and Bronson had broken the record of 57-3 by another Foothiller, Clyde Wetter in 1951.
AVOCADO LEAGUE
Coronado won the relay in a meet-record 1:32 to claim the team title with 39 points. Oceanside had 38, as did Vista.
Ron Sjoberg of Vista set a record of :15 in the 120-yard high hurdles.
5/11/57
Five-hundred athletes from the City Prep, Metropolitan, Avocado, Southern Prep, Sunset, and Rio Hondo leagues, and independent St. Augustine were prepared to compete in the CIF Divisional meet at San Diego State, but were rained out.
5/14/57
Three days later the venue was Balboa Stadium. Lincoln led with nine qualifiers, followed by San Diego and Hoover with six each. El Cajon Valley had five.
Best mark of the day was a :19.2 in the 180-yard low hurdles by Bobby Staten of San Diego. Grossmont’s Jim Wade hurled the shot 59-5 /34 and beat Hoover’s Dick Verdon, who reached 57-9 ¾.
5/21/57
El Monte Arroyo was site of a Divisional semifinal meet that was almost as good as a championship.
—Jim Cerveny had launched a chase of the national record of 1:52.3 in the 880 and set a CIF record of 1:53.9, better than the 1:54.7 of Claremont’s Ernie Cunliffe in 1955.
—Roscoe Cook, a :09.7 sprinter a year ago, finally got below :09.9, winning his heat in a season best :09.8 and defeating Alhambra’s Rusty Weeks, who ran :09.6 in another divisional the previous week.
—Hoover’s Dick Verdon won a shot put duel with Grossmont’s Jim Wade, reaching 59-10 ½. Wade was second at 59-1/2.
—An unheralded Lincoln relay team of Russ Boehmke, David Grayson, Ronnie Grey, and Curtis Tucker also qualified in 1:29.2. San Diego won its heat in 1:28.3.
There was elation and disappointment for Lincoln hurdlers.
Football and basketball standout Leonard Burnett, lowered his best time from :15.1 to :14.8 and qualified for the finals in the 120 highs. Bill Hultz ran :14.7 in another, faster heat but was third and nonqualifying.
Cook and Bobby Staten each showed their competitiveness and savvy against Jerry McCullough of Riverside Poly, Carl Skavarna of Ontario Chaffey, and Rusty Weeks, who were favored in the 100, 220, and 180 low hurdles because of their times during the season.
Up ahead was the CIF finals with the imposing Preston Griffin, who ran :09.5 in the other divisional today and who would lead favored Compton Centennial.
5/26/57
Also Search 1957: Cook’s and Cavers’ Great Day.
San Diego outscored Compton Centennial, 19 ½-16 ½, for the CIF team championship, coming up tough against the Apaches’ Preston Griffin.
Griffin was favored in four events, 100 (tied by Roscoe Cook), 220 (edged Bobby Staten), 880 relay (beaten by San Diego), and broad jump, defeated by Lincoln’s Luther Hayes, who had a season best 23-11.
6/1/57
Jim Cerveny again was dominating, setting a state record of 1:52.7 in the 880 and topping the 1:52.9 by Don Bowden of San Jose Lincoln in 1954 but falling short of Bowden’s 1:52.3.
Luther Hayes of Lincoln won the broad jump at 23-8 ½. Jim Wade was third in the shot put at 60-7 ¼ and flashed potential in a post-competition exhibition, going 50-6 with the 16-pound shot.
The state wouldn’t not become a two-day meet until 1963. The morning-afternoon format was not good for San Diego.
Roscoe Cook and Bobby Staten were required, in a space of a few hours, to run several races.
Bobby Staten had virtually no rest, with only a five-minute interval after the 220-yard dash, and pulled out of the 180 lows.
Cook was third in the 100 in :09.7 to Griffin’s :09.6 and :09.7 by Taft Union’s Doug Smith. Ed Buchanan of Kearny was fourth in :09.7 and fifth in the 220 in :21.7.
Staten was third in the 220 in :21.4 and ran a tremendous anchor leg in the relay, almost catching Berkeley’s Fred DeWitt, who brought the Yellowjackets home in 1:27 to the runner-up Cavers’ 1:27.2.
San Diego and Centennial tied for second with 10 points each, behind Berkeley’s 22.
