Arnold Tripp took charge early in the Southern Section championships at Long Beach Veterans’ Stadium when he upset hometown favorite Dee Andrews of Long Beach Poly in the broad jump, then followed with a second in the 100 to San Bernardino’s John Howard, and ran down Howard in the stretch of the 220-yard sprint, bettering the national record with a time of :20.5, although the mark was disallowed because of a trailing wind.
It was one of the greatest performances ever by a San Diego athlete. Tripp became the second from the area to win two individual events at the Southern meet. San Diego’s Jimmy Willson won the 100 and 220 in 1929. Several athletes had multiple firsts as part of an 880-yard relay team.
Tripp’s 14 points, by himself, was good for third place in the team race, won by Poly with 24, followed by San Bernardino with 15.
Tripp was positioned to make another spectacular effort at the afternoon-evening 41st state meet at Bakersfield College the following week, but there was a vague warning sign when it was mentioned in the newspaper mid-week that the Colts senior had been bothered recently by shin splints.
Whether it was the effect of shin splints or, as written by the Evening Tribune‘s Paul Cour after the meet, that Tripp was slowed by by an old groin injury, the big Crawford senior experienced a disappointing finish to his high school career.
Tripp qualified in the 100 in :09.9 and 220 in :21.5 in the trials but was seventh in :10.1 and eighth in :22.3 in the 220. He managed a measurement of 21-10 3/4 in the broad jump.
Tripp went on to UCLA and was the 100 (:09.6) and 220 (:21 flat on the curve) champion in the 1962 conference finals.
Tripp wasn’t done. He also was drum major at Bruins football games.
4/3/59
El Cajon Valley’s Jack Hudson staked his claim as the County’s premier middle-distance runner, racing to a :50.2 clocking in the 440-yard dash in the Braves’ 62-42 loss to Grossmont.
Hudson, who held the school 440 record of :51.1, also ran 1:55.9 to win his race in the Southern Counties’ Invitational at Huntington Beach 11 days before and looked to improve his mile time of 4:24.3.
Lincoln’s Charlie Meekins, who ran :50.4 in a dual meet with San Diego in March, had been the County leader in the one-lap race.
El Cajon Valley’s David Landis lowered his school record in the 120-yard high hurdles from :15.1 to :14.7
—Arnold Tripp won three events, :09.8 100, :21.8 220, and 22-10 3/4 broad jump, but San Diego defeated the Crawford, 63-41.
—Lorenzo Buchanan of Point Loma won the 100 in :10.1 and 220 in :22.7 but Point Loma claimed a 53-51 victory only when Mission Bay runners who finished 1-2 in another race were disqualified for lane infractions.
Bill Gould of Mission Bay doubled with victories of :15.6 and :20.1 in the high and low hurdles.
4/10/59
San Diego whipped Mission Bay, 66 1/3-37 2/3, highlighted by the hurdles duels between the Cavers’ Thurman Pringle and the Bucs’ Bill Gould, who won the 120 highs in :14.9 but was beaten by Pringle’s :19.8 180 lows.
—Kenny Tucker broad jumped 23 feet, 3 inches, in Lincoln’s 76-28 win over La Jolla.
—Dewey Taylor hurled the shot 57-8 ½ in Grossmont’s 80-24 rout of Mount Miguel. Teammate Jerry Halterman tied with a Mount Miguel high jumper at 6-1 ¾, and Grossmont’s Dick Cooksey broad umped 22-2 ¼.
–Kenny Griffin of Kearny won the high hurdles in :15.6, was second in the lows and won the broad jump at 22-2 1/8, but Point Loma won the dual meet, 64 2/3-39 1/3.
4/14/59
Arnold Tripp ran the 100 in :09.8 and set a Crawford record of :49.8 in the 440 in the Colts’ 57 1/2-46 ½ loss to Mission Bay. Kenny Tucker broad jumped 23-7 ¼ as Lincoln beat Point Loma, 59-45.
4/17/59
Dewey Taylor’s 59-2 7/8 shot put took the national lead and was fourth longest in San Diego County history.
Taylor took the lead over Billy Joe of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, (59-1) and George Buehler of Whittier (59-3/4). Joe and Buehler were future pro players, Joe a running back with the Denver Broncos and New York Jets, and Buehler a lineman for the Oakland Raiders and Cleveland Browns.
Taylor’s effort was third best in Grossmont history, behind the 61-5 ¾ of Jim Wade in 1957 and 60-4 ½ of Dick Bronson in 1954.
Grossmont clinched a tie for the Metropolitan League dual-meet championship, outscoring Chula Vista, 54-45. Both teams were disqualified in the 880-yard relay.
The Spartans’ Jay Dunn ran the 880 in 2:01.3 and teammate Chuck Schertzer won the 440 in :51.8.
–Bing Howe of Escondido took the County lead with a 12-foot, 8-inch pole vault in a 81-23 loss to Mount Miguel. Jack Thoreson vaulted 12-3 ¼ for Carlsbad in the Lancers’ 54-45 win over Fallbrook.
4/24/59
Kenny Tucker won the broad jump at 23-3 and anchored a 1:30.5 victory in the 880 to secure Lincoln’s 55-49 win over Crawford. Tucker was second to Arnold Tripp’s :09.8 100, and edged Tripp in the jump and held off the Colts’ sprinter in the relay.
—San Diego wrapped a second consecutive unbeaten dual-meet season, 98-15 over St. Augustine as Kent Williams ran :51 in the 440 and Ed Ott took the 880 in 2:02. Albert Watson doubled in the high jump (5-11 1/2) and broad jump (21-5) and Thurman Pringle doubled in the hurdles (:15.4 and :20).
—Grossmont won the big meet in the foothills, 58-46, over Helix as David Nunez ran :14.9 and :19.9 in the hurdles, Paul Thoryk vaulted 12-4, and Dewey Tylor put the shot 56-11 ¾.
4/28/59
CITY PREP LEAGUE TRIALS, @BALBOA STADIUM
San Diego led with 13 qualifiers, followed by Point Loma and Mission Bay with nine each.
Bill Gould of Mission Bay turned in the day’s best performance, running :14.6 and :20 in the hurdles. San Diego’s Thurman Pringle won both of his heats in :15.2 and :20.
Crawford’s Arnold Tripp won a 100 trial in :09.9 and a 220 in :22.
METROPOLITAN LEAGUE TRIALS, @EL CAJON VALLEY
Chula Vista sent 14 qualifiers to the finals, followed by Mount Miguel and Helix with 11 each. Dual-meet champ Grossmont had nine.
Five records were set in Class B, none in varsity. Most notable were El Cajon’s David Landis, who ran :08.9 and :13.3 in the 70 high and 120 low hurdles. Brian Ross of El Capitan hurled the 10-pound shot 53-3.
4/30/59
AVOCADO LEAGUE TRIALS, @MAR VISTA
David Rightmer of San Dieguito doubled with a :10.4 victory in the 100 and :23.2 in the 220.
—On the day before the league finals City Prep League officials changed the score of the Point Loma-Mission Bay dual meet, originally favoring the Pointers, 53-51, to a 52-52 deadlock.
Mission Bay had protested a third-place disqualification in the mile. As a result, Point Loma and Mission Bay finished in a tie for third, each with 5-2-1 records, behind San Diego and Lincoln.
5/1/59
CITY PREP LEAGUE FINALS, @BALBOA STADIUM
San Diego ran away with the team championship, scoring 56 ¾ points to the 24 ¾ of Crawford and Mission Bay. Hoover trailed with 21 ¾, followed by Lincoln (18), Point Loma (17 1/2), Kearny (10), La Jolla (10), and St. Augustine (8).
Jeff Dragila of La Jolla ran the mile in 4:28.9 to break the record of 4:30.1 by Hoover’s Bob Monzingo in 1956.
“Mike ran three or four days a week for the past two summers to improve himself (after unsuccessful tries at the Class C 660 and B 1320) and came on to set a city record in cross country and take third in the small schools CIF meet last winter,” Vikings coach Sandy MacLaren told Paul Cour of the Evening Tribune.
Jack Woy of Point Loma cleared 12-3 5/8 to better the 12 feet, ½ inch of Kearny’s Bob DeMarco in 1955. Arnold Tripp of Crawford was a triple winner, :09.8 in the 100, :21.7 in the 220, and 22-10 1/4 in the broad jump.
A San Diego foursome of Emile Wright, Bill Dentham, Kent Williams, and Richard (Prime) McClendon won the 880-yard relay in 1:30.1. Harold Valderhaug’s 1:58.2 in the 880 did not set a record but was more than two seconds faster than he had run.
METROPOLITAN LEAGUE, @CHULA VISTA
Grossmont edged Chula Vista with 56 points to 54 ½ as David Nunez doubled in the 120-yard high hurdles (:14.8) and 180 lows (:20.2), and Dewey Taylor won the shot put at 56-2. Don Hamlin won a miss-measured 100-yard race that was 110 yards in :11.2 and took the 220 in :22.4.
Chula Vista’s Jay Dunn joined a group of Southern California leaders with a 1:58 effort in the 880-yard run. Teammate Chuck Schertzer won the 440 in :51.2.
Jack Hudson of El Cajon Valley, gearing for a possible challenge to national leader Dale Story of Orange, won the mile in 4:24.4.
AVOCADO LEAGUE, @MAR VISTA
John Fousatt Oceanside pole vaulted 12-5 ¼ and Larry Plew of Vista ran the mile in 4:42 for records in the meet won by Coronado with 49 ½ points. Mar Vista had 41.
SOUTHERN PREP LEAGUE, @CAMP PENDLETON
Army-Navy won a three-way battle with Ramona and Mountain Empire, scoring 57 ½ points to 54 ½ to 52, respectively. Rich Keagy of Army-Navy (:23.5 220 and 20-7 broad jump) was a double winner as was Dave Shipley of Mountain Empire (:10.3 100, :21 180 lows).
Qualifiers from the four San Diego leagues, City Prep, Metropolitan, Avocado, and Southern Prep, were to join those from the Imperial Valley, Freeway, Orange and Sunset leagues in the next step of eliminations.
5/9/59
CIF DIVISIONAL, @KEARNY
Wind blowing off the mesa on which Linda Vista and Kearny High sit deprived Crawford’s Arnold Tripp of a near-record run.
Tripp ran the 100 in :09.7 and 220 in :20.7 but was aided by an estimated eight-miles-an-hour breeze, above the allowable limit of 4.473 in the furlong. Tripp also was the leading broad jumper at 22 feet, 7 inches.
Orange’s Dale Story and El Cajon Valley’s Jack Hudson fought the wind and Story set a Southern Section record of 4:20, erasing one of the oldest, the 4:21.2 or Torrance’s Louie Zamperini in 1934.
Hudson ran his best time of the year and won his heat in 4:22.3.
Mike Kellough of San Diego stood out in Class B, running wind-aided :09.8 in the 100 and :21.4 in the 220.
5/16/59
DIVISIONAL SEMIFINALS, @BELLFLOWER
The real racing and field competition began in this event as 33 San Diego athletes faced two heats in flat races in which the top two finishers in each heat would move on and the top four in the field events would qualify for next week’s finals.
Seventeen qualified.
Mission Bay’s Bill Gould won a 120-yard high hurdles heat in :14.6 and Grossmont’s David Nunez ran :14.6 and was second in his race. Thurman Pringle of San Diego was second to Gould in :14.7.
Pringle made the cut, finishing second in :19.5 in the 180-yard lows. Gould ran :19.6 in another heat but did not advance.
Arnold Tripp of Crawford doubled in the sprints in :09.7 and :21.1, setting up a clash with San Bernardino’s John Howard, who ran :09.7 and was runner-up to Thermal Coachella’s Gary Crystal, who timed :21 flat.
Dale Story set another record in the mile, 4:16.9.
Jack Hudson of El Cajon Valley ran the fastest mile in San Diego County history, 4:19.9, which would have broken Story’ CIF record of the previous week and was better than the 4:21.7 of Grossmont’s Rene Rogers in 1955.
Jay Dunn of Chula Vista, improving almost every week, won a heat in the 880 in 1:55.7. Dewey Taylor, battling back problems caused by a leg injury, was first in the shot put at 55-9.
Bing Howe of Escondido led pole vaulters by clearing 13 feet, 4 3/4 inches.
San Diego’s Mike Kellough won his Class B sprints in :10 and :21.6. Gary Todd of Crawford won a 1320 race in 3:14.7.
5/24/59
CIF FINALS, @LONG BEACH VETERANS’ STADIUM
Which was more impressive? Arnold Tripp’s two firsts and a second, or Jay Dunn’s perceived super upset in the 880-yard run?
Tripp heard a resounding roar from the crowd of about 4,000 when he sped down the broad jump runway on his first attempt, hit the takeoff board in the middle, and soared 24 feet, 9 inches.
Southern Section commissioner Ken Fagans came out of the stands to officiate the measurement, which bettered the Southern Section record of 24-6 ¼ by Steve Turner of Glendale in 1950.
Tripp was second in the 100 in :09.9 to the :09.7 of San Bernardino’s John Howard and then took down Howard in the stretch run of the 220, coming from a yard back to win in :20.5 to :20.6, Tripp’s time bettering the national record but disallowed because of a wind of 7 miles an hour, over the 4.473 limit.
Favored Dee Andrews of Long Beach Poly could not catch Tripp in the jump, runner-up with a personal best of 24-2 ½, and Lincoln’s Kenny Tucker, who fouled on several attempts, was a surprise third at 24-1/4 on his final try, breaking the school record of 24-1/8 by Luther Hayes in 1957.
Undefeated for two years, Dick Davis of Poly was the unanimous favorite in the 880, but Chula Vista’s Jay Dunn, coming on in the last month, jumped the Jackrabbits runner heading into the final turn and won in 1:54.7 to Davis’ 1:55.1.
Jack Hudson of El Cajon Valley ran with Orange’s Dale Story and then gassed out when he attempted to pass Story on the backstretch of the final lap in the mile and Story won going away by about 30 yards in 4:17.7. Hudson’s time was 4:24.1 in second.
Grossmont’s Dewey Taylor was second in the shot put with a toss of 56-3 and teammate David Nunez was fifth in the high hurdles in :14.8.
By himself, Tripp scored 14 points, which earned Crawford third in the team race, behind the 24 of Poly and 15 by San Bernardino. Tripp’s Class B teammate, Gary Todd, was third in the 1320 in 3:16.4.
Mike Kellough of San Diego was second in :09.9 in the 100, third in the 220 in :22, and anchored the Cavemen to a 1:06 victory in the 660 relay. The Cavers were second to Pasadena Muir’s 15 points with 12 in Class B team standings.
41st STATE MEET, @BAKERSFIELD
Arnold Tripp qualified in the sprints in the afternoon trials but never was a factor in the 100, 220, or broad jump in the evening finals.
Jay Dunn was running with the leaders as the field reached the end of the first lap, where Dunn was jostled off the track by another runner, and the shaken Dunn pulled out of the race. No foul was called.
Jack Hudson set a pace of 2:05 in the 880 but still was second in 4:16.7 to the national record mile of Dale Story, who ran 4:11.
Bing Howe was second in the pole vault at 13-5 ¾ and Kenny Tucker second in the broad jump at 23-1 ¾. Grossmont’s Dewey Taylor, withdrew from the shot put, after a leg injury contributed to back problems in the last month.
Jay Dunn worked the night shift at Rohr Aircraft and then would do a full workout with the rack team after school. He had amazing natural abilities. I lost track of him over the years, but I stlll think of him.
The picture of Jay and coach Tom Rice in my 1959 narrative reminded me that Rice, who graduated from Coronado in 1940, recently passed in Coronado at age 100.
He ran a tremendous race to win that CIF 880 in 1959, coming down the stretch to beat favored and undefeated Dick Davis of Long Beach Poly.
Dear Rick,
Coach Pedigo was my coach all right. I became his gardener and baby sitter until I
went into the Marines in 1968. After I left active duty, I stayed with him and his family
until early 1971. I went to many, many T&F meets with him. I used to sit and listen to
him and the other coaches talk and talk. I learned a lot by just listening. It was a great
learning experience. I used some of the information later my life when I became a T&F
and Cross country coach at Elsinore HS and Temescal Canyon HS in Lake Elsinore. Currently
I am a T&F starter in the Southern Section, Inland. If I remember correctly, you were a
regular at Balboa Stadium and Eastern League dual meets. If the rain stops and no more
snow, perhaps, I will be able to start some races! Sincerely, Carroll.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t you about a 4:35-4:40 miler at San Diego High? Track was my first love when I attended Lincoln and my assignment for the school newspaper wa track during the spring. I also covered high school track for the Evening Tribune. Is Martin and his, wife, (Cookie?) still with us? Thanks for writing, Carroll.
This brings back many pleasant memories! I ran at The Old Gray castle from September 1962 to June 1965. I used my step-father’s name in those days: McNab.
I remember you, a distance runner. Martin Pedigo was your coach. Thanks for writing, Carroll.