Martin Pedigo, a former University of Oregon broad jumper, became the San Diego High coach and inherited a potential powerhouse.
The Cavers, representative of one of the state’s great programs—184-30-2 in dual meets since 1929—were 14-7 under longtime assistant Henry Wiegand and hadn’t beaten Lincoln, their latest rival, since 1959.
Wiegand deserved another year. Coincidentally, Pedigo, the seventh to occupy the position since Glenn Broderick took over in 1927, was married to a former Cavers cheerleader and student leader that Pedigo met at Oregon.
STATE GETS LARGER
The state meet, in its 45th year, became a two-day event and was more popular than ever. A crowd of 14,000 watched the final day at Edwards Field on the University of California campus in Berkeley..
Read down until you reach the Eastern League trials and finals in B and C field events. An interesting name emerges.
Plus, take in a season of terrific performances, particularly by the San Diego High 880-yard relay squad of Walter Blackledge, Gordon Baker, Raymond Dixon, and Charles Sanford, and the explosive arrival of junior Bob Hose in the 880-yard run for first-year Madison.
2/27/63
San Diego opened with a 63-41, dual-meet win at Granite Hills, winning nine of 12 events.
Lloyd Walker (120 high hurdles, :15, and high jump, 6 feet 2 inches) and Charles Sanford (100-yard dash, :10, and 180 low hurdles, :20.1) won two events each and teamed on a winning 880-yard relay team, 1:33.1.
3/1/63
Hilltop looked like a solid contender in the Metropolitan League, having won a nonleague dual with La Jolla, 64-40, as Darrell Dunafon clocked 1:58.9 in the 880. John Miller set a La Jolla shot put record of 54-8 ½.
3/2/63
Compton Centennial made its almost annual trip South for a quadrangular meet with San Diego (45), Grossmont (35), and Lincoln (22).
Coach Bill Gill’s Apaches had 46 points, but San Diego won the big races. Charles Sanford took the 100 in :09.8, Gordon Baker the 440 in :50.4, and Robert Wash and Raymond Dixon joined Baker and Sanford in a :1:29.2 880 relay win.
Grossmont’s John Rendina won the 880 in 1:58.7 and Paul Manning the pole vault at 13-6 5/8.
—Gary Hafner tripled in Helix’ 79-25 win over Monte Vista, winning the 440 in :51.6, broad jump at 22 feet, and setting a school record at 6-2 ¾ in the high jump.
3/9/63
Crawford won a dual with Grossmont League power El Cajon Valley, 53-51, by winning the relay in 1:32.8.
Steve Weston doubled for the Braves in the high hurdles (:14.9) and low hurdles (20.7). Bill Sanders (:10.2, :22.7) doubled for Crawford and was on the relay team and Rick Herrmann turned in a :50.8 in the 440.
—Tom Agsten doubled at Clairemont with a :09.7 100 and :50 flat 440 and Eddy Hanks high jumped 6-2 ½ in Hoover’s 75 ½-28 ½ victory.
—Versatile Bob Hose won the 440 in :52.9 and 120 high hurdles in :16.4 and was second in the broad jump but St. Augustine, behind Henry Daniels’ :09.8 and :23.1 sprint victories won, 65-38.
3/15/63
Tom Agsten of Hoover set a County record of :49.0 in the 440 and raced to :09.9 100 victory as Hoover beat Point Loma, 64-40.
Coronado’s Scott Knox held the 440 record of :49.2, set in the 1961 San Diego Section meet and San Diego’s Norman Stocks ran :49.3 in the Southern Section meet in 1946.
3/26/63
Martin Koenekamp set a Helix record of 1:56.3 in the 880 as the Highlanders defeated El Capitan, 79-25. Two months later, in the Section meet, Koenekamp’s teammate, Don (Flash) Gordon also clocked 1:56.3.
3/30/63
Hoover coach Raleigh Holt might have been accused of stacking his entry list and going for the rare shutout.
The Cardinals scored a 103-1 dual meet victory over Morse. A Hoover Class C pole vaulter, Hirata, was elevated to the varsity and won his event and set a C record of 12-2.
Morse’s only point was a third place in the 100-yard dash.
—San Diego took a huge step towards its first Eastern League dual-meet title since 1959, 64-40 over Lincoln, which had won the last three.
Lloyd Walker high jumped 6-3 ½ and won the 120 highs in :14.7 and the Cavers swept the Hornets in the sprints, 18-0, as Charles Sanford won the 100 in :09.9 and Raymond Dixon the 220 in :22.2 in a track that had been slowed by recent rain.
3/31/63
San Diego, Lincoln, and Granite Hills each won team championships in the National City Junior Chamber of Commerce Relays at Sweetwater.
The eighth annual event, delayed a week by rain, saw six records broken.
Large Schools Division winner San Diego outscored Grossmont, 45-42, followed by Hoover, 25, Crawford, 22, El Capitan, 21, Helix, 19, and Point Loma and Mount Miguel, 17 each.
Lincoln had 44 points, El Cajon Valley 36, Chula Vista 33, Hilltop 32, Escondido 25, Kearny 15, Clairemont, and St. Augustine 12 among medium schools.
Granite Hills outdistanced the small schools’ field with 50 ½ points, followed by Coronado, 35, La Jolla, 31 ½, Sweetwater, 30 1/3, Mar Vista, 24, Monte Vista, 19, and Mission Bay, 13 2/3.
Grossmont’s Phil Napierski high jumped 6-4 and El Cajon Valley’s Steve Weston ran :14.8 in the 120-yard high hurdles. Three records were set in relays events, which later were not recognized after the Sweetwater track was discovered to be approximately 3 yards short of a 440-yard oval.
Helix’ record 10:36.1 in the distance medley, 440, 880, 1320, and mile. Those distances required 10 trips around the oval, thus about 30 yards short of the official distance.
Bogus records also were set in the 880 and Mile relays and mile run.
4/3/63
Madison’s Bob Hose, who had run hurdles and broad jumped, won his 880-yard specialty in 2:00.7. Hose, competing for Clairemont as a sophomore in 1962, had finished fourth in the San Diego Section finals with a best time of 1:58.8.
Hose also took thirds in the high hurdles and broad jump but Point Loma won the Western League dual, 84-20.
4/6/63
Tom Agsten won the 100 in :09.8 and the 220 on the Hoover curve in :21.6 but Crawford won the Eastern League dual, 61-43.
The Colts’ Rick Herrmann won the 400 in :49.8 and the Colts set a school record with a 1:29.6 880 relay win.
–Russ Eckhardt set a Granite Hills record of :09.8 in the 100 and La Jolla’s John Miller improved his school record to 54-11 ¼.
—James Kennedy of Lincoln upped his San Diego Section lead in the broad jump to 23 feet, 9 inches.
—Gary Hafner set school records of :49.7 in the 440 and 22-9 ½ in the broad jump and won the 220 in Helix’ pivotal Grossmont League triumph against visiting Grossmont, 53-51.
—Dave Funderburk, a sophomore at Vista, ran 4:27.7 in the mile, a class record.
4/6/63
Bob Hose broke two minutes for the first time with his 1:59.9 in Madison’s 80-23 loss at Kearny.
4/14/63
Seven meet records were set at the San Diego Relays in Balboa Stadium, most notable the three-man high jump in which San Diego jumpers cleared a cumulative height of 18-8 ½.
The 6-5 ¼ by Tom Maloy, 6-3 ½ by Lloyd Walker and 6-0 by Willie Steel was a foot higher than the record.
Paul Manning led a Grossmont team to 38 feet with a 13-6 pole vault (matched by Escondido’s Bob Good). James Kennedy led 3 Lincoln broad jumpers to a combined 66-3 ½.
Four Helix milers averaged 4:58.7 and they set a 4-mile record of 18:34.8.
Lloyd Walker of San Diego posted a record, :14.5 in the high hurdles and San Diego ran: 42.5 and 1:28.0 in the 440 and 880 baton races.
The anticipated 100-yard dash was marked by a disqualification after two false starts by St. Augustine’s Henry Daniels, who earlier won a heat in :09.9. Crawford’s Bill Sanders got the best of San Diego’s Charles Sanford in the final in :09.8.
5/1/63
A gusty breeze pushed St. Augustine’s Henry Daniels to a :09.5 100 and :21.4 220. Granite Hills won a 220 duel at Helix from the Highlanders’ Gary Hafner. Eckhardt ran :21.1, Hafner :21.3.
Madison’s Bob Hose logged a :50.5 440 and won the high hurdles in :16.1 and Mission Bay’s Bob Getzen broke the school mile record for the second time, 4:28.2.
Bill Trujillo set a Kearny record with a 4:27.8 mile and La Jolla found a challenger for John Miller in the shot put. Holland Seymore reached 52-5 5/8.
Escondido’s Ed Mathews ran a 1:57.7 880 at Sweetwater.
5/4/63
Henry Daniels beat Charles Sanford in a :09.9 100 and Gordon Baker ran the Balboa Stadium curve in :21.6 as San Diego beat the Saints, 68-36.
—Crawford’s Bill Sanders got into the act at Morse with a windy :09.6 100 and Sanders’ Crawford teammate Rick Herrmann took the 440 in :49.7 in the Colts’ 85-19 breeze.
—Madison’s Bob Hose clocked 1:59.1 in the 880, but saw his school mile record of 4:45 bettered by teammate Loeber, who ran 4:38.7 in an 83-21 loss to big brother Clairemont.
5/8/63
Trials in the Eastern, Western, and Metropolitan leagues saw several season bests and included records in lower classes.
San Diego’s Walter Blackledge won a windy heat in the 220 at Morse in :20.8, and Gordon Baker won the following heat in :21.1.
A wind gauge was on hand and the usual breeze actually was measured at less than the allowable 4.447 miles per hour when the Cavers’ Lloyd Walker set a record in the high hurdles, :14.4.
It seemed of no great importance when a Class C high jump record was made at 5 feet, 10 inches.
Who won the event made the jump noteworthy. The winner was Morse sophomore Arnie Robinson, who would go on to win the 1980 Olympics long jump gold medal.
Robinson also won the San Diego Section title in the C high jump at 5-10, but would finish fourth in the broad jump, won by Point Loma’s Earle Lott, who set a record of 21-10 5/8.
5/11/63
EASTERN LEAGUE FINALS, @BALBOA STADIUM
The season was replete with outstanding performances in almost every event, so Charles Sanford’s :09.7 100 was almost almost routine.
Sanford also set a record in the 180-yard low hurdles (:19.4) and anchored the relay team to a 1:27.7 clocking, the fourth fastest in County history.
San Diego won six events and scored 73 points. Lincoln was runner-up with 41, followed by Hoover 35 ½, Crawford 32 ½, St. Augustine 10, and Morse 1.
League championship records also were set by Tom Agsten of Hoover, :48.7 440; Robert Wash of San Diego, 52-7 ¾ shot put; and Hoover’s Eddy Hanks, 6-6 high jump.
WESTERN LEAGUE, @CLAIREMONT
Bob Hose of Madison was picking up steam, winning the 880 in a season best 1:57.7.
Holland Seymore, number two to John Miller for much of the season, set a La Jolla record of 56-4 in the shot put.
Point Loma won five events, charged by Charles Streeter’s :19.6 in the low hurdles, and won the team championship with 62 points. Clairemont had 40 1/2, Mission Bay 37 3/4, La Jolla 19, Madison 12, and Kearny 8 ¾.
METROPOLITAN LEAGUE, @ESCONDIDO
Mar Vista’s George Butler won the 440-yard race in :50, nosing out Sweetwater’s Gary Gardner’s, who ran :50.4. Bob Dunn of Hilltop put the shot 54-7 ½.
Jim Pritchard of Escondido won a pole vault duel with teammate Bob Good and Hilltop’s Bob Thoe at 13-6 and the host Cougars outscored Hilltop, 44-40, for the team title.
Chula Vista, rolling with Bill Masseys’ double of :10.2 and :22.6 in the sprints and Massey’s anchor leg for the winning, 1:32.2 relay squad, scored 39 points. Mar Vista had 26 and Sweetwater 22.
GROSSMONT, @EL CAJON VALLEY
Homeboys Russ Eckhardt and Steve Westin of El Cajon Valley raced to :09.9 and :21.5 victories in the sprints and :15 and :20.2 in the high and low hurdles, respectively, for four of the eight records set on their layout.
Donn Renwick of Grossmont ran :49.3 in the 440, Helix’ Don (Flash) Gordon 1:57.0 in the 880, El Capitan’s Leon Herzog reached 58 feet, 2 inches, in the shotput, and Renwick’s teammate, Phil Napierski, clearing 6-4 in the high jump, also claimed a record.
5/19/63
SAN DIEGO SECTION TRIALS,@BALBOA STADIUM
Seventeen records in Classes A, B, and C were set as the Trials moved to Balboa Stadium, where there was less intrusion from the breezes at Kearny, site of the 1961 and ’62 trials and finals.
Seven Class A records, beginning with the :14.4 Oceanside’s Mike Swaim logged in the high hurdles, first event of the day, set the pace. Swaim handed San Diego’s Lloyd Walker his first defeat.
Bill Sanders of Crawford ran a :09.8 100, Tom Agsten of Hoover a :48.5 440, Darrel Dunafon of Hilltop a 4:23.3 mile, Charles Sanford of San Diego, a :19.3 in the low hurdles, and James Kennedy of Lincoln, a 23-9 ½ broad jump.
The day concluded with San Diego tying a County record with a 1:27.2 880 relay.
5/23/63
San Diego Section weight specialists conducted finals in the discus, an event the Southern Section put on hiatus from 1933-48 and contested by area athletes infrequently and usually in unofficial competition until the San Diego Section was formed and made the discus an official but non-scoring event in 1961.
The discus’ high school weight is 3.9 pounds. In earlier years athletes used an Olympic-sized platter of 4.64 pounds.
A non-scoring competition was held at San Diego State for purposes of choosing a state meet qualifier.
An athlete from the city’s Western League, Point Loma’s John Bishop, won at 145 feet, 11 inches, followed by Grossmont’s Richard Grise at 145-3 1/2.
Grossmont League schools, with much larger athletic venues would, for several years, make the discus an official event in dual meets. City schools did not have discus competition.
5/25/63
Twelve records were broken in Varsity, B, and C, and San Diego ran away with the varsity team titled with 42 points to Lincoln’s 25, Grossmont’s 20, and Crawford’s 15.
San Diego’s Charles Sanford set a record in the 100-yard dash, :09.6, and was involved in tying two others, :19.3 low hurdles, and 1:27.2 relay.
The Cavers won two additional events 120-yard highs (Lloyd Walker, :14.5), and 220 (Gordon Baker, :21.7).
Madison’s Bob Hose continued to lower his best time in the 880, beating a class field in 1:54.9. Lincoln’s Raymond Darrough followed in 1:56.2 and Helix’ Don Gordon was next in 1:56.3.
Eddy Hanks of Hoover and Tom Maloy of San Diego tied at 6-5 in the high jump but Hanks won with fewer misses.
Lincoln’s James Kennedy, who won the state meet at 24-5 ¾ in 1962, reached 24 feet, 1/2 inch for a meet record, and got the Section’s only spot in the state meet after Kennedy held off Point Loma’s Lyle Schaefer, who jumped over a towel placed in the pit and made 23-11 ¾. Kennedy became the third Lincoln broad jumper to hit 24 feet. Luther Hayes did 24-1/8 in 1956 and Kenny Tucker, 24-3/4 in 1959.
5/31/63
45TH STATE TRIALS,@BERKELEY
Eleven individual winners from the San Diego Section, including members of the San Diego High 880-yard relay team arrived at Edwards Field on the University of California campus in Berkeley for the 45th state meet and qualified in 10 of 13 events.
Bob Hose of Madison ran the third fastest 880 in County history. His time of 1:52.8, behind only the 1:52.7 by Mission Bay’s Jim Cerveny on this same track and same meet in 1957 and Hoover’s John Garrison, who ran 1:52.7 at the 1962 state meet.
Hose trailed Whittier Lowell favorite Dennis Carr, whose 1:52 in the same heat with Hose, was one-tenth of a second off the national record set by Bonita’s Ray Van Asten in 1960.
San Diego was in tough in the relay heats. The Cavers ran 1:27.1 but were second to Los Angeles Manual Arts’ 1:26.7 and just in front of L.A. Jefferson (1:27.4) and L.A. High (1:27.5).
Hilltop’s Darrel Dunafon’s qualifying 4:19.6 mile was the second fastest in County history to Jack Hudson’s 4:16.7 in the 1959 state meet.
The only nonqualifiers were San Diego’s Lloyd Walker (high hurdles) and Gordon Baker (220) and Point Loma’s John Bishop (discus).
6/1/63
STATE FINALS
San Diego High executed an almost perfect race, winning the 880-yard relay in 1:26.3, 4/10 seconds off the national record by L.A. Jefferson in 1956.
Not far behind in all-time performances was the 880 run by Madison’s Bob Hose.
The Cavers surprised the field and their half-mile, two-lap odyssey represented a perfect exchange of batons after taking the lead from the outset.
Running in lane 1, not the best starting position, Walter Blackledge got out quickly and forged a lead with a :22 flat leg.
Gordon Baker maintained with a :21.4 second lap and handed the stick and a three-yard lead and the pole position to Raymond Dixon.
With the posse in hot pursuit Dixon held the lead with a :21.6 leg.
Charles Sanford, who had been unplaced in the 100 and low hurdles finals, finished with a :21.3 and with room to spare ahead of Manual Arts, second in 1:26.8.
Bob Hose, who came into the meet with a best time of 1:54.9, completed two hard days and a stunning, personal improvement of three seconds.
Lowell’s Dennis Carr set a national record of 1:50.9 and Hose bettered the previous record of 1:51.9 with a 1:51.7 finish.
Grossmont’s Paul Manning, third at 14 feet, 4 inches, in the pole vault, and defending broad jump champion James Kennedy, fourth at 23-9 ¾, were the other scorers from the San Diego Section.
In 1963, San Diego HS had 5 dash runners, that at one time during the year, ran under 10 flat in the 100 and under 22 flat in the 220. Blackledge, Baker, Dixon, Sanford and Wash. They won State 880 relay that year.
Hi Rick,
Interesting to see how the opening of various schools was handled. When Crawford opened in Sept. 1957, there were only sophomores and juniors, as the seniors were allowed to stay at Hoover so they could graduate from there. As a result, Crawford’s “Varsity” football team only played at the Junior Varsity level, while all other teams did, indeed compete as Varsity teams. Therefore, the entering Sophomore class of 1957, which became the Senior class of 1960, was the first to go all the way through, as all City High Schools were only grades 10-12.
Spencer Milne, distance runner, Crawford, early ‘sixties. Nice to hear from you. Many high schools started without senior classes. A few might even have been like Lincoln, my alma mater. The school opened in September, 1949, with grades 7 and 8 and added a class each year until 1954-55 when it added a seniorc lass. I started there in seventh grade in 1951, when the school was 7-9. We were in double session in 1954-55, my sophomore year. Gompers Junior High opened and by 1955-56 Lincoln was grades 10-12. Thanks for writing, Spence.
Man! 1963, what a year for track & field! That 3 man high jump relay included my older brother Willie Steel. Morse High School must have been grades 9- 12 because I was at Memorial Jr. High when Arnie was competing at Morse.
Thanks for writing, Doyle. You’ll be getting some props when I write about the 1966 track season. You make an interesting point about whether Morse, which was in its first school year, had grades 9-12. I’m going to have to double check [ed: see 7/15 followup comment]. Thanks again.
Doyle, thanks for that note about Morse being grades 9-12. That threw a big doubt in my mind, that I had identified the wrong person. I checked Morse’s wikipedia and Morse did have a ninth grade in the 1962-63 school year. Morse opened in September, 1962, with grades 9, 10, and 11…no senior class. That has happened at several area schools in the past. I went to Lincoln, starting in seventh grade. Lincoln was grades 7-8-9 and then added a class each year. When I was a sophomore Lincoln finally had grades 10-11-12. It had dropped 7-8-9 as Gompers opened. I hope all of this isn’t too confusing. Thanks again.