We owe an apology to the starting five, Charlie Buchanan, John Walters, Bill Canning, John Schroeder, and Rick Eveleth, and coach Bill Reaves.
They were the major players for another team that posted an undefeated regular season, the 1963-64 La Jolla Vikings, who were 26-0.
We omitted the Vikings in our post last week.
Rick Eveleth, 6 foot, 3 inches, was La Jolla’s tallest player and would later return as its coach and win 398 games in an honored career. Buchanan was San Diego Section player of the year and part of a quick, swarming bunch of defenders.
They were 28-0 when the Vikings lost to Helix, 76-56, in the San Diego Section finals after a tough semifinal, 78-70 decision over Lincoln.
Torrey Pines, 26-0, and San Marcos, 24-0, joined the Vikings and four other teams, 1959-60 Hoover, 1967-68 Mount Miguel, 1969-70 Helix, and 1973-74 Kearny who did not lose.
Mount Miguel, Helix, and Kearny did what Torrey Pines and San Marcos hoped to do, finish the season undefeated.
The Falcons and Knights begin their quests Friday in first-round games of the San Diego Section Open Division playoffs. No matter what happens in the local eliminations all eight teams in the bracket will advance to the Southern California playoffs.
Final regular-season The San Diego Union-Tribune poll (some records have been updated or corrected):
| RANK | TEAM | RECORD | POINTS | LAST WEEK |
| 1. | Torrey Pines | 26-0 (13) | 130 | 1 |
| 2. | San Marcos | 24-0 | 113 | 2 |
| 3. | Cathedral | 15-2 | 107 | 3 |
| 4. | St. Augustine | 13-5 | 82 | 4 |
| 5. | El Camino | 24-4 | 79 | 5 |
| 6. | Santa Fe Christian | 17-3 | 73 | 6 |
| 7. | Carlsbad | 13-8 | 33 | 8 |
| 8. | Mission Hills | 16-7 | 20 | 7 |
| 9. | Mater Dei | 11-4 | 19 | NR |
| 10. | Coronadio | 17-5 | 18 | nr |
Others receiving votes: Orange Glen (20-5, 17 points), San Ysidro (19-5, 8), San Diego (15-13, 7), Mission Bay (15-9, 4), Valhalla (16-4, 3), Bonita Vista (11-6, 2), Madison (18-7, 1).
First-place votes in parenthesis. Points awarded on scale of 10 down to 1.
Poll voters:13 sportswriters, sportscasters from around San Diego County.
- John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune
- Aaron Burgin, fulltimehoops.com
- Terry Monahan, Steve Brand, Union-Tribune correspondents
- John Kentera, Braden Suprenant, 97.3 FM The Fan
- Bodie DeSilva, scorebooklive.com
- Ramon Scott, EastCountySports.com
- Adam Paul, ECPreps.com
- Steve Dolan Mountain Country 107.9 FM
- Christian Pedersen, San Diego Sports Association
- Rick Smith, partletonsports.com
- Brad Enright, L.A. Court Report
How others see San Diego Section’s top 10 in their California ratings*.
| TEAM | RANK | CAL-HI SPORTS | MAX PREPS |
| Torrey Pines | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| San Marcos | 2 | 20 | 11 |
| Cathedral | 3 | 16 | 12 |
| St. Augustine | 4 | NR | 27 |
| El Camino | 5 | NR | 42 |
| Santa Fe Christian | 6 | NR | 17 |
| Carlsbad | 7 | NR | 71 |
| Mission Hills | 8 | NR | 55 |
| Mater Dei | 9 | NR | 69 |
| Coronado | 10 | NR | 81 |
*Cal-Hi Sports‘ ranks only Top 25.
Didn’t the 2004-05 St. Augustine basketball team finish the regular season undefeated? I think they went all the way to the state championship game before they lost.
Another oops. Thanks to those who write, like you. They were 27-0 and went to the state finals and were beaten by Santa Cruz, 67-56. The Santa Cruz team was coached by Pete Newell, Jr., whose father was a legendary college coach at Cal-Berkeley and NBA executive. I would give Pete, Jr., a photo pass to shoot Golden State Warriors games when I was PR for the Warriors from 1972-74. I saw this Trey Kell-led Saints team win and thought it would make back-to-back state championships. Thanks for writing. Maybe there are others I also missed.