Arnie Robinson was coming to the end of four brilliant seasons at Morse.
Robinson high jumped 6-7, long jumped 24 feet, and won the 120-yard high hurdles in :14.8 in his last competition (see below) at the school on Skyline Drive in Encanto that Robinson watched open in September, 1962.
The nephew of 1940s San Diego High stars Ermer and Ivan Robinson went on to Mesa College, San Diego State, and, later, to international acclaim.
Arnie won the Olympic gold medal in the long jump at the 1976 Olympics after earning a bronze in 1972.
Robinson, who eventually returned to teach and coach the Mesa track team, had career bests of 6-10 in the high jump, 27-4 ¼ in the long jump, and 51 feet in the triple jump.
2/28/66
Madison’s Dennis Smith cut almost 10 seconds off his 1965 school record when he ran 10:04.7 in the two-mile, but Granite Hills, defending San Diego Section team champion, won the season-opening meet at Madison, 82-31.
3/2/66
San Diego defeated Point Loma, 67-46, as Doyle Steele doubled in the high jump (5-10) and long jump (22-7) and Orvin Romo logged 1:58.7 in the 880.
Steele could have gone much higher, said coach Martin Pedigo, but the event was halted after the takeoff area became slippery and unsafe because of rain.
3/4/66
Doyle Steel tied Bob Logan’s 1938 school high jump record of 6 feet, 5 ½ inches. Steele also won the long jump at 23-1 and the triple jump at 43-3, but San Diego dropped a 72-59 decision to Grossmont.
—Crawford routed Kearny, 90 ½-17 ½, and future decathlete Don Bajema set a school record of 6-1 ½ in the high jump and won the long jump at 21-9.
3/11/66
Lincoln’s Johnny Mack Ellis demonstrated strength and speed when he pole vaulted 11-6 and won the sprints in :09.8 and :21.5 and anchored a 1:30 relay victory in Lincoln’s 85-28 win at Kearny.
Ted Scales ran :14.3 in the 120 highs and David Edwards took the 180 lows in :19.3.
Marks were complemented by the breezes that blow off the Kearny Mesa.
—Arnie Robinson long jumped 23-10 ½ in Morse’s triangular meet with Chula Vista and Mission Bay, which the Tigers won with 79 points to the Spartans’ 44 and the Bucs’ 17.
Chula Vista’s Tim Danielson, idled by the flu last week, won the 440 (:50.7) and mile (4:24.2).
3/17/66
Lincoln’s dual-meet power, enhanced by the arrival of Johnny Mack Ellis from Tyler, Texas, rolled on usually respectable Crawford, 84-29.
Ellis took advantage of the Crawford track, elevated, on a mesa and in line with westerly breezes, beat the Colts’ Danny Patton (:09.9) with a :09.7 100, took the 220 on the curve in :22.1, anchored a 1:30.1 relay victory, and pole vaulted 12 feet for a four-win, golden spike afternoon.
—El Cajon Valley’s Armando Valencia took the state lead with a 1:54.9 880 and broke Jack Hudson’s 1958 school record of 1:55.9 in the Braves’ 71-60 loss to Granite Hills and Hilltop’s Terry Rogers, who would win the 880 in the state meet in June, ran 1:55.5 as the Lancers defeated Escondido, 71-60.
3/23/66
Morse would not compete three days later in the National City Junior Chamber of Commerce Relays at Sweetwater, but the Tigers showed they would have been contenders for the team championship by defeating Helix and San Diego in a triangular meet that featured events of the relays.
The Tigers scored 79 points to Helix’ 45, and San Diego’s 32.
Tigers high jumpers Larry Greenwood (6-7 1/2), Paul Lee (6-2), and Arnie Robinson (6-0) cleared an aggregate, average height of 6-3 ½.
3/26/66
Tim Danielson took the national lead with a time of 4:11.2 in the mile in the 12th annual National City JC Relays, with Terry Rogers of Hilltop, the leader until final 110 yards, second in 4:12.2.
Problem.
The track was yards short of the typical 440-yard oval, but no matter to Danielson. He had several times better later in the season on other tracks.
3/30/66
St. Augustine’s Tom Eklund tossed his hat into the 880-yard ring with a 1:54.8, topping by 1/10 second that which El Cajon Valley’s Armando Valencia negotiated earlier.
Eklund’s mark did little to help the Saints, 85-18 losers to San Diego.
“I’m using starting blocks, so it will get me out there quicker,” said Eklund of his :54 first quarter. “Then it will let the second quarter take care of itself.”
Eklund was third in 1:55.2 in the San Diego Section championships in 1965 and his best this season before today was 1:56.4.
4/1/66
Tim Danielson took a shot at the 880 and ran 1:53.2, fourth fastest in area history, and Chula Vista won at Escondido, 87-26.
–The wind blew and the marks flew at Morse, where the Tigers’ Donald Anders beat Crawford’s Danny Patton in a :09.8 100 and Patton beat Anders, :21.3 to :21.4, in the straight 220.
–Rick Rubin set a Helix record of 4:20.6, but Armando Valencia won the mile in 4:16.1, although Valencia and his El Cajon Valley teammates were on the short end of the 91-40 score.
4/6/66
–Ira Raibon set an Oceanside record of 6-2 3/4 in the high jump. Terry Rogers broke Hilltop’s two-mile mark with a 9:41.8 and Brent Rowlett ran 9:50.8 for an Oceanside record. Fred Logel lowered the Morse mile to 4:38.6 and teammate John Roberts hurled the shot 51-2 ½ for another school record.
4/9/66
Hilltop won the Dean C.E. Peterson trophy for the outstanding performance and Lincoln hurdler Ted Scales for the outstanding individual performance in the seventh San Diego (formerly Easter) Relays in Balboa Stadium.
The Lancers’ distance medley team of Bruce Pradels (440), Bernie Calderon (880), Jimmy Gelsomini (1,320), and miler Terry Rogers, who anchored in 4:16.1, completed the distance in a County-record 10:23.4.
Scales came from behind on the last hurdle to nip teammate David Edwards in the 120-yard high hurdles in :14.1, best ever in the area, and Monte Vista’s 4-man, 4-mile relay team of Dave Matheny, Rod Stephens, Mark Clark, and Don Olsen clocked 18:06.08, another all-time best.
4/15/66
Arnie Robinson won the 120-yard high hurdles in :14.8, high jumped 6 feet, 7 inches, and long jumped 24 feet in Morse’s 71-42 win over Hoover, the same school that had beaten the first-year Tigers, 103-1, in 1963.
Of one of the most impressive three-event performances in area dual-meet history, Robinson said, “It was my last meet at home and I wanted to do good.”
“Arnie had the spirit today,” remarked teammate Harold Greenwood after Robinson reached 24 feet on his first try. Robinson and Greenwood tied in the high jump but Arnie had fewer misses.
Another Robinson teammate, Donald Anders, won the 100 in :09.9 and 220 in a school-record :21.5.
–Johnny Mack Ellis ran :09.8 and :22.2 in the 100 and 220 and pole vaulted 12-6 as Lincoln erased any drama in the usually heated rivalry with San Diego, 74 ½-38 ½.
The Hornets even topped the Cavemen with essentially a backup relay team of Louis King, James Gunn, Albert Quinn, and Leroy Davis, which ran 1:30.
–Terry Rogers of Hilltop turned in a 1:54.4 880 and barely minutes later tried to double in the 440, finishing last. Sweetwater won the 880 relay in 1:33.4 and the meet, 59-54.
–Oceanside’s Ira Raibon high jumped 6-2 and long jumped 23-2 and Bill Reilly put the shot 55 feet in Oceanside’s 74-52 win over Orange Glen.
4/22/66
George Brown was almost 10 feet better than his father.
The senior Brown, an El Cajon doctor and former all-America football player at Navy, set a Hoover High record of 51 feet, 11 inches, in the shot put in 1941.
The younger George III, a muscular 220 pounds, heaved the 12-pound ball 60-10 ½, seventh best in County history, and defending champion Granite Hills stayed alive in the Grossmont dual-meet race with Grossmont and Helix.
The Eagles, who lost to Grossmont, 67-64, last week, defeated favored Helix, 70 ½-60 ½. With the meet in the balance, Granite Hills’ Donald Evans anchored a 1:30.2 victory in the 880 relay after topping the Highlanders’ Ralph Lavage in :09.9 and :22.2 in the sprints.
Granite’s Bruce Rickett’s (:49.5) edged Helix’ Ron Koenig (:49.8) in the fastest 440 in the area this season.
–Armando Valencia’s 9:15.7 two-mile was the fastest this year in California and left Valencia and his coach Joe Brooks wondering.
“If Danielson and Rogers run the mile and 880, we might go in the two-mile,” said Brooks. “It would really give our area a real shot at three first places in the state meet.”
–Point Loma ended Mission Bay’s two-year rule in the Western League, 75-38, and will meet Kearny for the title next week.
Grossmont (5-0) must get past Helix (4-1) for an outright Grossmont title next week.
Lincoln, 91-14 over St. Augustine, goes for the Eastern crown against Morse, 61-52 over San Diego, next week.
Chula Vista, 81-32 over Hilltop, and Sweetwater, 95-17 over Escondido, will settle matters in the Metropolitan League.
4/29/66
Grossmont nipped Helix, 67-64; Lincoln rolled Morse, 80-33; Chula Vista edged Sweetwater, 59-54, and Point Loma routed Kearny, 74 ½-38 ½, to either claim league titles outright or face only virtual formalities in the final week of dual meets next week.
–Grossmont secured its win over Helix with a 1:30.8 victory in the relay. Crawford did the same in a 58-54 thriller with San Diego as Danny Patton anchored a 1:29.8 win after taking the 220 in :21.8 on the Balboa Stadium curve. The Colts’ Jim (Big Game) Hunter ran :14.8 in the 120-yard highs.
–Terry Rogers threw down on the state’s 880-yard run aspirants with his 1:53.2, which tied Tim Danielson’s area season best.
–Rick Geer set a Monte Vista record with a 162-8 discus throw and doubled with a 50-11 shot put. Granite Hills’ George Brown heaved the shot 59-4 and teammate Mike Bimer set a school record with a discus throw of 160 feet.
–Tom Danielson jogged a :50.4 440, teammate Johnston ran a 1:59.7 880, Jim Baldwin hurled the shot 54-6 1/4, and Don French covered the 120 high hurdles in :14.7, all of which helped Chula Vista to a 61-51 win over Sweetwater, which embraced a school-record 22-11 1/4 long jump by Jim Rice, minimally longer than Burte Jackson’s 22-10 1/2 in 1965.
See additional narrative, 1966 Track II, for more information.
