They have been cast in the 6-foot, 11-inch shadow of Bill Walton and Helix’ 33-0 team of 1969-70.
History has overlooked the Mount Miguel clubs that dominated the Grossmont League and San Diego Section in the late 1960s.
The Matadors were 25-6 in 1966-67 and 32-0 this season.
But coach Dick Ridgway’s squad did not embrace an intersectional schedule.
The Matadors won a couple December tournaments of local import and ran roughshod over area teams, eight times scoring more than 100 points.
Walton and Helix “went national”.
The Highlanders dominated the prestigious Covina Tournament, winning by 42 points in the finals against Pasadena and, in an earlier round, routing eventual Southern Section champion Long Beach Millikan by 24 points.
Walton was spotlighted in Faces in the Crowd, a weekly feature of Sports Illustrated.
Ridgway, who played for coach John Wooden at UCLA in the early ‘fifties, employed a pressing zone defense that Wooden’s teams had perfected to domination on the collegiate level.
Junior varsity graduate Ken Barstow, a 6-foot, 9-inch center, joined 6-3 forward Mike Ela and two split-second guards, Blake Mathews, and Ken Greenman, who formed the offensive and defensive attack along with forward Dave Lower.
Bill Center of The San Diego Union covered the Matadors and Walton’s Helix squads.
Which was better?
”Very close,” said Center. “Walton was such a great athlete that I think Helix would win.”
But Center reserved a special place in his hoops hierarchy for the Spring Valley entry.
“Mount Miguel played so well together,” said Center. “It was the most fun team to watch that I covered. It was so unselfish and Mathews and Greenman were the perfect players to run his (Ridgway’s) press.”
The Matadors outscored their 32 opponents by an average score of 85.1-46.6 and set a County single-game scoring record in a 121-64 victory over Santana. They beat Point Loma, 118-54, and scored 92 points in the last three quarters in a 111-62 win over El Cajon Valley.
Ela scored 685 points and averaged 21.4. Greenman scored 594 and averaged 18.5. Mathews scored 467 and averaged 14.6.
Helix, a year away from beginning a great run with Walton, was 0-4 against its neighboring rival. The Matadors prevailed, 80-62, 86-57, and 67-56 in the regular season, and 69-55 in the CIF finals.
Oceanside got closer than anyone, bowing, 58-47, in the playoff quarterfinals after trailing, 31-26, at the half. The Pirates, led by big Jim McCargo, Steve Waddell, and Willie Buchanon, had won 14 straight.
DIFFERENT VIEW
Point Loma coach Don Buechler tossed cold water on the idea that Mount Miguel could beat the best team in the Southern Section.
Buechler had some local knowledge. His team dropped a 118-54 decision to the Matadors and also played a powerful Northern squad.
Point Loma scheduled an unusual, late-season, nonleague home game against the 27-0 Compton Tarbabes, who would conclude a 32-0 season with the Southern Section championship a couple weeks later.
Compton easily whipped the 14-11 Pointers, 106-43, and Buechler was asked to compare the Matadors and the Northern powerhouse.
“They’re the best team I’ve seen in many a season,” Buechler said of Compton. “There is no team in our area that can match them man-for-man, rebounding, shooting, and individual defense.
“Everyone takes turns killing you.”
TOURNAMENTS
KIWANIS
Mount Miguel won the Unlimited Division, 83-50, over Eastern League power Morse. The Matadors topped Granite Hills in an earlier game, 103-38, but fell short of the record 104 by Newhall Hart against Oceanside in 1954.
Castle Park claimed the Limited Division championship, 63-56, over Chula Vista and Vista topped Fallbrook, 55-54, in overtime to win the newly created Classified Division.
UNIVERSITY
Top seed Mount Miguel defeated No. 2 Lincoln, another Eastern League big shot, 69-52, after scoring 107 in one tournament game and 118 in another.
CHINO
Chula Vista, which had been playing in this post-December event almost from the time the school opened in 1947, swept to four straight victories including a 73-56 decision over Santa Clarita Simi Valley in the championship game.
SAN BERNARDINO KIWANIS
A free throw with 1:30 remaining in the game was what separated Long Beach Poly from San Diego in the Jackrabbits’ 63-62 championship game victory. Cavers Steve Clifford and Orie McLemore were all-tournament.
MUSTANG
San Dieguito won its own tournament, 48-47, over Coronado. The Mustangs posted a 4-0 record in the round-robin event, followed by Coronado (3-1), San Marcos (2-2), Poway (1-3), and Bonita Vista (0-4).
EL CENTRO ELKS
Six-foot, 10 1/2-inch Ron Dahms scored 25 points to lead Madison to a 62-47 win over Orange Glen, which was making its second straight appearance in the finals.
Brawley edged Crawford, 56-55, for third place, the Colts missing Rodney Boone, who sustained a back injury the day before.
El Centro Central topped Morse, playing without Monroe Nash, home in bed with the flu, 50-46, for fifth place. La Jolla defeated Holtville, 54-43, for the consolation title.
PLAYOFFS
Despite protests from Metropolitan League coaches that their top teams, Chula Vista, Castle Park, and Hilltop, were disrespected in the 16-team pairings, the postseason playoff committee approved its original seedings.
No. 1 Mount Miguel ousted 24-5 Castle Park, 64-44, in the first round and 17-8 University upset 26-3 Chula Vista, 52-50. Hilltop upheld South Bay pride by bouncing 15-10 Clairemont, 69-51.
Hilltop (23-9) reached the semifinals before bowing to 21-10 Helix, 69-57. Mount Miguel thumped Madison, 67-44.
The 27-5 Warhawks defeated Hilltop, 73-54, for third place.
Steve Bajo scored 29 points as Marian (21-6) was a 91-44 winner over 11-5 La Jolla Country Day in the 1-A final.
FOUL
Santana defeated El Cajon Valley, 90-76, by converting 50 of 70 fouls shots.
Game officials called 72 infractions, an average of more than two a minute, including 45 against the Braves.
Seven El Cajon Valley players and three Sultans were whistled to the bench with five personals each.
The Braves converted 22 of 36 free throw attempts and would have won, 54-40, if only field goals counted.
REALLY FOUL
Bizarre finish in a Western League game between University and Clairemont.
The score was tied at 62 with the Chiefs in possession when the Dons’ Kevin Madden was called for a personal foul with four seconds remaining.
Madden complained and was additionally assessed a technical.
Clairemont’s Pat Casey missed the first free-throw in the one-and-one for the personal foul.
But Clairemont remained in possession as the Chiefs still had a free throw coming for the technical.
Chiefs coach Russ Cravens opted for his best player and scorer, Frank Petersen, to attempt the technical free throw.
Petersen found the bottom of the net, giving Clairemont a 63-62 lead.
Four seconds still remained and the Chiefs retained possession at midcourt.
Game over?
Clairemont stunningly was called for a rules violation with one second remaining.
The Chiefs, according to student correspondent Homer Williams, were called for “a violation of the rule which requires the team ahead move the ball into an attacking area.”
Clairemont coach Cravens was outraged, lashing out at the official, who promptly slapped Cravens with a technical.
All’s well that ended well. University’s Dennis Kramer, who was 4 for 4 from the foul line, missed the technical free shot.
“SCORING” THE BASKETBALL
It’s a trite term overused in the modern game, but scoring was what San Diego preps did best this season.
Ten players averaged at least 20 points a game and 10 teams scored at least 63.3 points a game.
Mount Miguel’s record-setting 85.1 was followed by the Chula Vista average of 71.2. Helix was third at 69.3, Hilltop fourth at 67.7. Figures unheard of as recently as 10 years before.
Madison’s Ron Dahms scored 706 points, third to the 737 that Crawford’s Larry Blum scored in 1962-63 and to the 736 by St. Augustine’s Tom Shaules in 1957-58.
Morse’s Monroe Nash won the scoring championship with a 24.3 average, with 608 points in 25 games. Dahms averaged 22.06 and was edged by sophomore Paul Halupa of Bonita Vista, who scored 574 points in 26 games for an average of 22.08.
Halupa’s total represented the most ever by a 10th grade player.
Leaders by points:
| NAME | TEAM | GAMES | POINTS | AVERAGE |
| Dahms | Madison | 32 | 706 | 22.1 (3) |
| M. Ela | Mount Miguel | 32 | 685 | 21.4 (5) |
| Tschogl | Hilltop | 32 | 649 | 20.3 (10) |
| Nash | Morse | 25 | 608 | 24.3 (1) |
| S. Bajo | Marian | 28 | 594 | 21.2 (6) |
| Greenman | Morse | 32 | 594 | 18.5 |
| Anderson | Lincoln | 27 | 586 | 21.7 (4) |
| Halupa | Bonita Vista | 26 | 572 | 22.1 (3) |
| Kellison | Helix | 31 | 571 | 18.4 |
| Petersen | Clairemont | 25 | 528 | 21.1 (7) |
| Olson | Chula Vista | 29 | 526 | 18.2 |
| Faulkner | San Dieguito | 28 | 511 | 18.3 |
| Trueblood | Chula Vista | 29 | 511 | 17.6 |
| Weichert | Mar Vista | 26 | 502 | 19.3 |
| Chaffin | Orange Glen | 26 | 496 | 19.1 |
| Havens | Hoover | 26 | 478 | 18.4 |
| Nielsen | El Capitan | 23 | 468 | 20.3 (9) |
| Caradonna | Santana | 26 | 465 | 17.9 |
| Mayville | Mission Bay | 21 | 435 | 20.7 (8) |
| LeBrun | Vista | 23 | 420 | 18.3 |
| Tyler | Kearny | 23 | 418 | 18.2 |
| Doerr | Granite Hills | 24 | 416 | 17.3 |
| Chastang | St. Augustine | 20 | 371 | 18.6 |
| Franch | Ramona | 18 | 331 | 18.4 |
HEAVENS! MR. HAVENS
Hoover’s John Havens broke two school records.
Havens’ 38 points in a 91-69 win over Granite Hills in consolation play of the Kiwanis Tournament bettered the 36 by Dick Barnes in 1944-45.
Havens, who averaged 18.4 points as the Cardinals struggled to a 9-17 record, had a season total of 478, bettering the 446 by Norris Greenwood in 1957-58.
NEEDED: ONE COPY EDITOR
San Diego coach Bill Standly did not take kindly to what he considered editorial impudence by the staff of The Russ, as noted by Don King in Caver Conquest.
Standly was not amused after reading a headline in the school newspaper that described a “Bush Sports Calendar.”
After all, the coach had put together a strong nonleague and intersectional schedule as his team was defending its 1966-67 San Diego Section championship.
Standly was mollified when a Russ editor apologized and explained that the headline was a typographical error and should have read “Busy Sports Calendar.”
WALTON SAMPLE
Helix outscored Hilltop, 24-12, in nine minutes of the second and third quarters in their 69-57, CIF semifinal playoff victory before 3,573 persons at Peterson Gym, “with sophomore center Bill Walton and forward Paul Drozd leading the way.”
Writer Bill Center elaborated:
“Walton, a spindly, 6-6 center who was brought up from the junior varsity for the playoffs, took charge around the basket, batting down two shots and grabbing three defensive rebounds, which set up Highlander scores.”
Walton also scored eight points in this first, brief appearance on the big stage, which he would command for the next several years, at Helix, UCLA, and in the NBA.
IT’S A CRAZY GAME
–Mar Vista led visiting Coronado, 43-22, at halftime and lost, 65-64, as the Islanders took their only lead in the game on Jim Haught’s looper with 21 seconds remaining.
–Lincoln’s Jerry Powell scored 20 points, including 10 in a row and 12 in the final seven minutes, as the Hornets topped Crawford, 64-56.
–St. Augustine, 2-12, beat 12-5 Lincoln, 69-66. Hoover, 6-12, beat 14-6 Morse, 51-48. Crawford, 8-12, defeated 15-6 Lincoln, 56-53.
–Monroe Nash, despite 4 personal fouls, scored 19 points in the final 11 minutes as Morse beat San Diego, 72-70, in two overtimes.
–Madison jumped to 34-16 lead over Point Loma, but then was outscored, 50-32, and the teams deadlocked at 66, forcing overtime, which Madison dominated and won, 70-67.
–James (Bouncy) Moore broke free for a layup with two seconds to go in the second overtime as San Diego defeated Crawford, 75-73, after the teams deadlocked at 62 in regulation play and 66 in the first overtime.
–Helix trailed Monte Vista, 29-12, and then led, 56-39, before finally moving past the Monarchs, 68-65. Bob Kellison and Bill’s brother, Bruce Walton, led the Scots with 13 points each.
JUMP SHOTS
Although eliminated in the playoffs’ first round, it was a banner year for the Chula Vista Spartans, who won their third Metropolitan League championship in five seasons under coach Larry Armbrust and tied the school record for most wins…Bob Olson scored 35 points in a 77-59 win over Coronado and broke the school record of 33 set by Koichi Yamamoto in 1956-57 and equaled by Eric Martensen in ’65-’66…Clairemont’s Frank Petersen was the season’s single-game scoring leader with 48 points in an 85-51 win over first-year Bonita Vista…the 21st annual December Kiwanis Tournament expanded to three divisions…there now were 16 Unlimited entries, 16 Limited, and 8 Classified…the Oscar Foster era had ended at San Diego, but the Cavers still posted a 20-8 record with one returning starter (Orie McLemore) and four junior varsity graduates…Hilltop joined Mount Miguel in 100-point club with a 104-46 win over Bonita Vista as forward John Tschogl set a school record with 41 points…Tschogl played at the University of California at Santa Barbara and for two seasons in the National Basketball Association with the Philadelphia 76ers…3,075 persons attended the Saturday night playoff finals at Peterson Gym, bringing two-night attendance to almost 7,000….
Rick, I goofed in the pending post it wasn’t KUSI, it was channel 39 which was the first UHF channel in San Diego, as I recall. Check me on that please. Needless to say, I didn’t watch the reruns. [We thought we had them in that last game. But they made a big run, ironically, when Bill Walton and Dave Unroe subbed in. That damn press!]
I think you’re correct about Channel 39, which might have been Channel 6 back then. Not sure.
1967-68 was a really fun time to be a student at Mt. Miguel. Knew most of players growing up in Lemon Grove. Bruce was also an excellent baseball player. His older brother,Wally, was all CIF in football and went on to a great college career at Oregon St. Mike Ela went on to Oregon for a successful stay. Think Mike was a good friend of a pretty good football player,Dan Fouts! Anyway, thanks for the memories. Still not happy about the lost to SanDiego High and OscarFoster! Glenn Sommers class of 68. This is my first and last post thanks
Glenn, I’m confused. I’m trying to figure out which “Bruce” you were referring to. Anyway, I appreciate your comment about that outstanding Matadors team. Thank you.
Bruce Johnson, I believe
Thank you for your outstanding documentation of the ’67-’68 SDCIF basketball season and the great year played by the Mt. Miguel Matadors. Similar to John Woodward (who earned all-league honors the following season) in his earlier post, I was elevated from the JV squad to join up varsity during our playoff run. Here’s some further bits of information regarding Bruce Johnson/Dave Lower and the 5th starter on the team that year. Dave was the starter as Bruce suffered a significant knee injury late in the season as a member of our football team. This reversed the roles from the previous season of ’66-’67 when Bruce started and Dave came in off the bench. The team flourished with Dave in a starting role as it likely would have as well had Bruce not been injured. Dave was a magnificently conditioned, all-around athlete with an ideal basketball sense. He further went on to excel in collegiate basketball and even toured as a member of the great 70’s Athletes In Action teams. He was a leader in Mount Miguel’s swarming, vaunted zone press and was absolutely tireless – in addition to being a tremendous guy. Upon recovery from his knee injury, Bruce quickly garnered major playing minutes as 6th man. He was a very tough, savvy and talented scorer, defender, and rebounder. There was never a drop-off when Bruce entered the game and it wasn’t unusual to see Bruce on the floor or into the stands going after loose balls. Because the team had established great cohesion at season’s start with Dave in the starting lineup, looking back I believe Coach Ridgway wished to leave it intact and bring Bruce off the bench. This was a team with incredible depth !
As a footnote – the team’s reserves likely could have started at virtually any other school. Leading the way was outstanding center/power forward Randy Hamilton, and guards Mike Padgett, Mike Tyer, Mike Drew, and Tim Bagley.
Thanks for writing, Craig. It would ha e been fun to see that team against the Helix club.
As a Junior I was brought up from the Mt. Miguel JV team to help bolster the bench for the team’s CIF Championship playoff run. A few corrections and an addition. Bruce Johnson was never considered the fifth man in the teams starting lineup. Lower was their 5th man and considered by Rudgway to me a brilliant defender. Johnson was used more often than not as the team’s enforcer. Secondly, Dwight Buck Tester took over the varsity team only after Dicj Ridgway died unexpectedly. Ridgeway did not step down. And finally, I believe Miguel’s loss to San Diego by one point in the 1967 CIF finals in the Cal Western gym provided much of the input is for the 1968 team to go 32-0 and win the championship. When our 1969 Matador team finally lost a game the three season record (1967-69) was something like 54-1 – that lodd being to San Diego. Our first loss in 1969 was to the Saints. Thanks for giving me a voice here.
I believe I mentioned that Dave Lower was the fifth starter on the 1967-68 championship team and I thought Ridgway had passed away between seasons and had not retired. Do you mean that Dwight Teeter succeeded Ridgway? I’ve looked back through several narratives and don’t see my mentioning Ridgway’s stepping down. The loss to San Diego and the four returning starters made the Matadors the preseason favorites the next year but their domination was historic.
As the team statistician for 67-68, Bruce was the fifth man. We even discussed at the 50th reunion how we just couldn’t get David to shoot. This discussion included Ela and Greenman and Lower. Bruce was about the same height as David, but was much heavier. He played what would be the 4 in today’s game, the power forward. In the playoff game against Claremont, Bruce outrebounded their 6’7” forward. He outrebounded him by blocking out and standing on the guys feet. At 6’1”, Bruce could dunk the ball, although you weren’t allowed to dunk in 67-68. David was incredibly versatile off of the bench. He was fast and had great body control. We could use home to sub for anyone but Barstow. coach passed away a year or two later while I was at Rice Univ. I’ll always remember the call I got from my folks.
I saw a couple Mount Miguel games that season and I relied mostly on prep writer Bill Center’s coverage of the team in the newspaper. Going through my files, newspaper box scores usually listed the Ela-Matthews-Barstow-Lower-Greenman starting five, with Johnson, Padgett, and Drew being among the most prominent replacements. Ridgway sometimes played all 11 and and many as 9 or 10 would score. I looked through 5 or 6 box scores, including a tough game with Helix late in the season. Ridgway played six guys, Johnson being the sixth to appear in the box score. Thanks for writing, Bob.
First I’ve ever read this information. Pretty cool. Footnote: Mt. Miguel wrestling team also won CIF same year!
Mount Miguel was good in wrestling from the day the school opened in 1957. Thanks for the comment.
There are several errors in your relating the history of the 67-68 basketball season for Mount Miguel. I was the co-manager and stattician for that team.
As much as I admire Dave Lower, he was the sixth man, not a starter,
Bruce Johnson was the power forward. Mike Ela is and was 6’3″. Ken Barstow was 6’9″.
I do not recall a tight game in or out of the playoffs with Oceanside. I would have remembered that since I greww up in Cardiff. Our toughest game came in the playoffs against Sweetwater. They were a disciplined, fast, and well conditioned squad. Our strength was all the cross country and wind sprint running we did in the fall. Yes, I did them as well. The El Cajon game was 118-54. My girlfriend was a cheerleader for EC.
Saw Mike, Kenny, and Dave at the 50th reunion in September.
Bob Gilmer
PS. Bill grew 5″ after the game in 68 against us before the 68-69 season.
Thsnks for writing, Bob. That must have been a fun and memorable season. I gave up on heights. They changed often in newspaper accounts, but I obviously was off on Ela and I thought Barstow had added some inches the following season. I think I referred to a game on Jan. 27, 1968, when the starting lineup against Grossmont in a 95-37 victory listed Ela, Lower, Barstow, Greenman and Mathews, and Bill Center’s account for the Union noted that “reserve forward Bruce Johnson canned 13 with a fine game on the board.” Lower was listed as the starter in most other box scores in the newspaper, including the championship against Helix. Interestingly, in the pregame story on the CIF semifinals playoff against Madison, the starting lineup for Mount Miguel was Ela (6-4) and Lower (6-2) at forward, Barstow (6-8) at center, and Greenman (6-1) and Mathews (5-10) at guard. Oceanside had closed the score to 52-47 in that playoff game “but Mount Miguel went into a semi-stall, with Greenman hitting four free throws and Blake Mathews two in the final minute and 21 seconds.” The two scores I have against El Cajon Valley are 104-39 and 111-62. Mount Miguel defeated Point Loma, 118-54.
Bob, I went with your recall and changed the heights of Ela to 6-3 and Barstow to 6-9 in the narrative of the 1967-68 season. Thanks again.
The score against Point Loma was comparable to the result that PL had against Compton that year. Bruce started almost every game. Against Claremont in the playoffs, he was on a guy listed at 6’7”. He outrebounded him 7 to one in the first half. When I asked him how he was doing it, he said he was standing on his feet when he boxed out
The box scores in the paper, listing the starters first, usually had Lower starting. That’s what I went by. Compton beat Point Loma, 106-43.
As an opponent of Mount Miguel four times that season (Kiwanis, Grossmont league twice and the CIF championship) my recollection is that Ela, Lower and Johnson rotated, which ones starters varied. Johnson was hampered with a knee injury early in the season, but finished strong. Barstow was limited in playing time due to conditioning and size. Matthews and Greenman made the engine go. They also threw a lot of different looks in their press.
One of the cool things that happened that season was that KUSI was just beginning transmission and was hard up for content, so they played the CIF championship game over and over and over. We heard that Mt Miguel had re-run watch parties
A number of these photos show that the long-socks fashion trend launched by Bob Divine’s Helix team in 1954 soon spread to many other local schools. I’m not sure when it faded out.
Interestig observation. Most of the teams wore those short, striped stirrup socks over their white sanitary socks.
I used to babysit on game nights for Dwight “Buck” Teater who was the JV coach for Mt. Miguel during that time. He eventually took the head job when Ridgeway stepped down. I remember him telling me that their varsity team was “pretty good”!