2016: Eldridge Cooks, Fullback on ’55 National Champs

Eldridge Cooks, the starting fullback on the 1955 San Diego High team that won the Southern California championship and was acclaimed the national high school champion for that season, was at a UCLA basketball game when he passed recently.

The 165-pound blocker and runner was a two-year varsity letterman for the Hillers, whose combined record in 1954 and ’55 was 20-2-1.

Cooks, 78, also played baseball at San Diego State and was a member of Don Coryell’s first San Diego State football teams in 1961-62.

Cooks resided in Santa Ana for many years and was an enthusiastic alumnus of San Diego High and regularly attended sporting events throughout Southern California.

BRAVES’ ORIGINAL QUARTERBACK

Bobby Contreras was El Cajon’s Valley’s first varsity football quarterback when the  school opened in 1955 and also starred for the Braves in basketball and baseball before graduation in 1957.

DRAFTED BY YANKEES

Kerry Dineen, 63, all-San Diego Section outfielder at Chula Vista in 1970, was a fourth-round draft choice of the baseball New York Yankees in 1973.

Dineen got into 16 games over parts of three seasons in the majors and had a .324 batting average. He was inducted into the University of San Diego Hall of Fame in 1997 and had a .409 collegiate career batting average.