One week before the 1969 football season A.J. (Art) Sisk resigned as coach at Hilltop High to pursue a career in publishing for the McGraw-Hill Company.
Sisk began selling textbooks to schools in the San Diego area, launching a publishing career that led to real estate on both coasts, and other ventures.
The graduate of Redlands High and Redlands University was 82 when he died recently at his home in Indian Wells, near Palm Springs.
Friends and family celebrated Sisk’s life with a memorial that was held at Nunu’s Bar and Grill in Hillcrest.
Sisk owned the popular “dive bar” that was known as Cosimo’s when it opened at 5th Avenue and Ivy Place in 1961 and was owned by former San Diego High and USC standout Cosimo Cutri.
Sisk was 29-24 from 1963-68 as Hilltop’s head coach in the Metropolitan League. The Lancers were 6-3 in each of the ’64 and ’67 seasons.
Was he related to Larry Sisk, a yesteryear Evening Tribune managing editor?
That should be a conversation piece Friday. I doubt it. Maybe.