John Saleamua took the handoff, cleared the first line of defense, and cut to the outside.
Saleamua was running free along the Montgomery sideline when he suddenly went down.
Jack Jackson, a Montgomery player, had left his bench area, came onto the field, and tackled Saleamua, short-circuiting a 79-yard touchdown run.
“I couldn’t believe it,” said the shocked Saleamua.
“I was on my head phones talking to one of our spotters upstairs in the press box, when he yelled in my ear,” Red Devils coach Al Jacobus told Jerry (Sigmund) Froide of the Evening Tribune.
Game officials huddled briefly at midfield and signaled touchdown, one of many in Sweetwater’s 44-7, first-round playoff victory.
“It was a weird play,” said Jacobus. “I guess they were frustrated over there.”
“I thought I had a touchdown for sure,” Saleamua said. “I would have been really mad if the refs hadn’t given me the touchdown.”
Longtime observers remembered the nationally televised Cotton Bowl in 1954. An Alabama player left the bench and brought down Rice’s Dickie Moegel, who was running free for a touchdown.
Game officials also ruled touchdown as Rice won, 28-6.
HELIX TAKES THE HIGH ROAD
Dominated by Grossmont in the annual carnival, beaten by the rival Foothillers in league play, overwhelmed by a Mount Miguel comeback a week later, the Helix Highlanders took a mandatory eight count, the sawdust was wiped from their gloves, and rallied to win the San Diego Section championship.
Coach Jim Arnaiz’s Scots knocked out San Pasqual, 17-10, before 8,778 persons in San Diego Stadium to capture the school’s first title and validate Arnaiz’s program as one of the area’s elite.
Casey Tiamalu, a 5-foot-8, 193-pounder rushed for 160 yards in 11 carries and scored on runs of 25 and 40 yards in the second half as the Highlanders, stung by three turnovers, rallied from a 10-3 deficit.
Tiamalu also got the Highlanders on the scoreboard in the first half with a 38-yard field goal.
Winning the championship was the last thing on Arnaiz’ mind when he made his way off the field at Helix’ Benton Hart Stadium in mid-season.
The coach would be occupied by nightmares after he put his head down on the pillow that night, following a devastating, 41-40 loss to Mount Miguel that saw Arnaiz’s team fall to 3-2.
Helix had leads of 27-0 and 34-6.
Mount Miguel coach Brian Smith admitted to being “in shock.”
“We didn’t panic or scream,” said Smith. “We just told the players to get rolling.”
A six-yard pass, John Coughlin to Jerome Weatherspoon, with 22 seconds remaining in the game clinched the Matadors’ comeback as they survived a 350-yard, five-touchdown passing effort by Jim Oxe.
Helix regrouped, set sights on the big prize, and won its last seven games.
SHOCK AND AWE IN REVERSE
John Shacklett’s Morse Tigers seemed unbeatable.
The team from the 16-year-old school at 69th Street and Skyline Drive was in beast mode.
The Tigers set a San Diego Section record with 425 points and 47.2 average in a 9-0 regular season.
”Deep, talented, quick, awesome,” wrote Steve Brand of The San Diego Union after Morse had put up 50 points a game in a 5-0 start.
But it’s a long way to the finish line.
Morse fought the fog and La Jolla in the playoffs’ opening round, leading only 6-0 at halftime.
Mark Kennedy, the County’s No. 3 rusher, gained only 25 yards in seven carries but the Tigers scored 13 points in the third quarter and pulled away from the pesky Vikings to win, 20-0.
Michael Johnson took up the slack for Kennedy, gaining 151 yards in 15 carries and scored on runs of 62 and 18 yards. Michael’s brother, Jerry, returned a punt 40 yards for another touchdown.
Shacklett told writers that he had a “good talk” with his club at halftime.
DISASTER
Crusty Bob Woodhouse’s San Pasqual Golden Eagles had a top 10 defense yet averaged at least 4 touchdowns a game less than Morse.
But the Eagles made plays.
The squad from east Escondido was wobbling late in the game, clinging to a 21-19 lead with the rallying Tigers on San Pasqual’s 25-yard line.
Allen Dale and Dave Gleason came to the rescue.
Dale stopped Billy Ervin for a five-yard loss and Gleason sacked quarterback Keith Magee on fourth down.
Ball game.
The resourceful Eagles had similarly kept Morse at a distance throughout the quarterfinals contest.
Morse’s first score didn’t come until 3:22 remained in the third quarter when Magee and John Glover connected on a 41-yard scoring pass play. San Pasqual promptly answered with a touchdown and took a 21-6 lead into the final quarter.
Ervin’s 10-yard run at 7:03 of the fourth made the score 21-12. Morse stunned the Eagles with an onside kick, Ray Anderson recovering. Magee raced 47 yards for a touchdown on the next play.
Momentum clearly was with Shacklett’s team, but San Pasqual dug in and closed the door.
The last time a 10-0 team had been so shockingly led to the exit was in 1958, when San Diego was beaten, 26-18, in the quarterfinals by eventual Southern California champion Long Beach Poly.
RUN THAT BY ME AGAIN
Morse defeated Escondido, 18-0, in a two-day preseason scrimmage.
No big deal?
Hmm, that was 18 touchdowns to none.
“Was it 18?” wondered first year Cougars coach Denny Snyder, whose team then lost its season opener to Vista, 35-7.
Bring back Chick Embrey?
Snyder admitted to being a little shook, but “if there was a lynching party, I didn’t hear about it.”
Chick Embrey stay retired and Escondido recovered, advancing all the way to the playoff semifinals before bowing to Helix, 18-16.
DON’T LOOK AHEAD
“All season I’ve been telling the kids the story of a farmer who looked so far into the forest he tripped over his hogs,” said Sweetwater coach Al Jacobus. “What irony. Now we play a team called the Hogs. That’s Spooky.”
San Pasqual defenders were known as such, cognomens that also would identify Washington Redskins Super Bowl offensive linemen in the 1980s.
Asked how he was going to approach the semifinal contest against the favored Red Devils at Southwestern College, Bob Woodhouse announced, “We’ll take the 805 South.”
Woodhouse’s glibness was nothing compared to the time he threw a defanged rattlesnake under the Oceanside bench, distracting the Pirates’ players and coaches into an upset loss.
No snakes this time, but San Pasqual reached the finals with another surprising victory, 15-12.
HILLTOP TO MOUNTAIN TOP
Residences of Chula Vista’s upscale east side didn’t know how to react.
The Hilltop Lancers won their first Metropoltan League championship since the school opened in 1959 when Mark Armbrust and David Wright collaborated on a 24-yard touchdown pass with 41 seconds remaining in the game to defeat Bonita Vista, 26-21.
The Lancers and Sweetwater each had 8-1 league records. Hilltop won for only the fifth time in 20 tries against the Red Devils but claimed the title by virtue of their 15-7, head-to-head victory after Bryan Wagner kicked field goals of 24, 22, and 21 yards.
COACHES UNHAPPY
It was one thing for the Grossmont District superintendent in 1977 to suggest a shutdown of interscholastic sports, but coaches this year, especially those who endured the long hours of football, had enough.
Area school districts enacted policies which forced coaches to begin practices after school.
For years the mentors were allowed to use the final physical education period of the school day for football practice, which would continue after school.
This procedure saved at least an hour in the teacher-coaches’ work day.
Now the coaches were being ordered to coach a full p.e. session first and then begin football exercises.
Twenty-one coaches either stepped down or transferred to other schools. Several retired or got out of coaching or found positions in two-year or four-year colleges.
| School | 1978 Coach | 1977 Coach |
| Bonita Vista | Jan Chapman | Larry Fernandez |
| Castle Park | Reldon (Bing) Dawson | Gil Warren |
| Cathedral | Dan Ramos | Paul Wargo |
| Christian | Dan Henson | Rick White |
| Chula Vista | Gary Chapman | Bob Korzep |
| El Cajon Valley | Don George | Jim Mann |
| El Capitan | Art Preston | Joe Rockhold |
| Escondido | Denny Snyder | Bob (Chick) Embrey |
| Fallbrook | Tom Pack | Chuck Lundquist |
| Granite Hills | Paul Wargo | Dan Garcia |
| Hoover | Jerry Varner | Roy Engle |
| Marian | Bill Smith | Phil Bryant |
| Monte Vista | Bob Korzep | Larry Schimpf |
| Ramona | Jack Menotti | Mike Cunningham |
| San Marcos | Kenny Broach | Ivan Seaton |
| Santana | Phil Bryant | Joe DiTomaso |
| Southwest | Bob Arciaga | Oscar Mercado |
| Sweetwater | Al Jacobus | Dave Lay |
| Torrey Pines | Darold Nogle | Cliff Kinney |
| Valhalla | Rick White | Russ Boehmke |
Coached in previous season at another San Diego Section school.
INITIAL RESULTS
Christian’s Dan Henson had the most successful season of the new coaches, posting a 9-0-1 record and defeating Army-Navy, 33-0, for the A title.
Sweetwater’s Al Jacobus continued Dave Lay’s excellence, finishing with a 10-2 record and reaching the AA semifinals. Denny Snyder was 10-2 at Escondido.
Paul Wargo (6-4), Darold Nogle (6-3), and Reldon (Bing) Dawson (5-3-1) were others with winning records.
Art Preston, who was 3-4-1 at El Capitan, had retired from coaching after leading the Vaqueros to an 8-2 record and a berth in the championship game against Kearny in 1963.
WORLD, ACCORDING TO HERB
Herb Meyer was getting philosophical in his 20th season.
“If you stick around long enough you have to win a few by osmosis,” said the El Camino coach, who started at Oceanside in 1959.
Meyer had just tied Birt Slater for second all-time among County mentors with his 132nd victory. Chick Embrey retired with 144 wins and the lead in 1977.
“Part of 132 is longevity,” said Meyer. “People got pretty excited when I won number 100, but I’m not setting goals like winning 150 or 200.”
Meyer finally pulled the pin in 2003 with a record total of 339 victories.
THE CAVERS’ YEAR?
There was optimism at San Diego High.
Stanley Murphy’s team had won 6 in a row dating to the final four games of the 1977 season and were looking forward to their first big test against Morse.
Steve Brand of The San Diego Union predicted that the game would be “interesting and probably close”.
Morse didn’t let up after leading 13-7 at the end of the first quarter, 40-7 at the half, and 53-19 after three. Tigers coach John Shacklett then began substituting and Morse put away a 69-19 victory.
San Diego, 5-3-1 under Murphy in 1977 and full of promise, fell to 3-6 and 1-6 and seventh in the Western League.
I WANT TO COACH
Four standouts were destined to become head coaches and would be active almost 40 years later.
Escondido tackle Rob Gilster would head programs at Orange Glen and Valley Center. End Sean Doyle of University became that school’s leader and stayed with the Dons when their campus moved and the school was renamed Cathedral.
Herb Meyer’s son, Joe, eventually took over at Rancho Buena Vista after other stops. And Morse running back Dino Babers went the college route, guiding Eastern Illinois, Bowling Green, and Syracuse.
AFTER THE FACT
Willie Morcillo of Mira Mesa had to wait before he was credited with a section record, 50-yard field in a 21-14 victory over La Jolla.
Morcillo originally was determined to have booted a 43-yard placement, but seven yards were added after coach Brad Griffith’s review of game film the following day showed the scrimmage line was La Jolla’s 33-yard line and that the kick was from the 40.
Morcillo bettered the record of 47 yards by Poway’s Denny Miller in 1976 but did not have a long reign at the top. David Cabral of La Jolla Country Day boomed a 51-yarder later in the season.
TRAGEDY
A small plane flying East collided with a Pacific Southwest Airlines 727 that was approaching Lindbergh Field to the West, resulting in more than 135 lives lost.
The mid-air collision, the most deadly in aeronautical history, occurred around 9 a.m. in North Park, about two miles from St. Augustine High.
Dougherty Gymnasium on the St. Augustine campus was converted into a temporary morgue.
The original intent was for the gym to serve as an emergency room as more than 75 doctors, nurses, and volunteer medical aides converged on the school site. When it was determined there were no survivors, the gym played another, tragic role.
QUICK KICKS
Add Mount Miguel to those who thought the playoff system established in 1976 created a redolent presence…after defeating Grossmont, 35-12 in the regular-season finale, the Matadors were forced to meet the Foothillers again the following week in the first round and lost, 18-17…San Diego junior Terry Turner gained 87 yards in 12 carries in the Cavers’ season-opening, 12-0 win over Lincoln…Turner had never played in a game…Patrick Henry quarterback Brent Woods is son of Jack Woods, who was “Charlie” on the popular “Charlie and Harrigan” radio show in San Diego…defending champion Lincoln flattened out to 5-4, but finished with a 4-game winning streak…Coronado made the playoffs for the first time in 17 years and La Jolla shared a piece of the Western League championship, their first since the Vikings and San Diego tied in the City Prep League in 1952…Kearny missed the playoffs for the first time since 1966 and Castle Park for the first time since 1972…the 18th annual Grossmont Carnival “featuring lots of spirit, penalties, and money,” according to Steve Brand, was played before 7,500 at Aztec Bowl as the West beat the East, 14-0…
Rick it was the San Diego Tribune we made Athlete of the week
QB. KEITH. MAGEE
RB. DINO. BABERS
RB. BILLY. ERVIN
FB. MARK. KENNEDY
I found the athlete-of-the-week article, Billy, and I’m going to put the illustration that went with the article on my blog. I’ll send you a copy of the article I found on the Central Library microfilm. Let me know your address.
My name is Billy Ervin, I was on that Morse Tiger breakaway back field 1978~79. How can I get copies of the athlete of the week our backfield, and the news article with it… I also never knew my attempt and yardage total. I was told many years later I made first team cornerback. I only played my senior year. Please help me.
Billy, didn’t you run on the mile relay at Morse with Tony Banks? Around 50-flat for the quarter? I spoke with Steve Brand, the writer for The San Diego Union, and Steve doesn’t remember an athlete of the week award for an entire backfield. The Hall of Champions in Balboa Park has a nice computerized display of the all-CIF teams back to the ‘sixties. You might try there, if that’s the information you’re seeking. I often go to the library and research things. I’ll keep your email in mind and see what I can find when I make another trip.
Thank you Rick for time…out of a hectic days
for giving me all that info. and to answer your question…….No that was not me on mile relay team
who ran with Tony Banks it was my older brother
William Ervin who also ran on the 440 relay team
Billy Ervin, William Ervin, Tony Banks , Anthony Becton……..broke 45 year old school record on dirt
William also play varsity Basketball
All th3e best, Billy. Thanks for swriting back.