2015: Yetta, Ray Brokaw, Early Western League Standouts

Winning Pointers, back row from left: Larry Moore, Mike Dolphin, Dick Walden, Doug Lawrence. Front: Winston Yetta, Don Sadas, reading newspaper account, and coach Hilbert Crosthwaite. — Yetta (front row, left) enjoyed reading news account of Point Loma championship with Don Sada and coach Hilbert Crosthwaite. Looking on in back are Larry Moore, Mike Dolphin, Dick Walden, and Doug Lawrence.

Winston Yetta, who led Point Loma to a Southern California basketball championship in 1959-60, and Ray Brokaw, a member of Birt Slater’s first two teams at Kearny, have passed away.

Yetta, a three-sport performer—football, basketball, and baseball—was the catalyst in the Pointers’ surprising, five-game title run in the CIF Southern Section AA division.

Point guard in coach Hilbert Crosthwaite’s weaving, pass-first offense, Yetta scored 22 points as the Pointers defeated San Marino, 52-36, in the finals at Los Angeles State to finish the season with a 17-10 record.

Brokaw and his twin brother, Jay, were two-way linemen on Slater’s 5-4, 1959 squad that won the first championship of the Western League, upsetting Point Loma, 12-7, and earning a berth in the Southern Section playoffs.

Ray is 32 in front row, next to Jay (34) lon the Kearny's 1959 Western League championship team. — Ray is 32 in front row, next to Jay (29) on the Kearny’s 1959 Western League championship team.

The twins also were important contributors to the 1960 team that posted a 5-3 record.

The Brokaws were part of an eclectic group.

The 1960 team included all-league end Bob Mosley, who was a founding member of the band Moby Grape, and television newsman Harold (Red) Greene, reportedly the inspiration for the character played by Will Farrell in the movie Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.