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David Grayson, who retired before the 1971 NFL season as one of the pro game’s all-time defensive backs, passed away recently at age 78. Grayson intercepted 48 passes from 1961-70 in the American Football League and NFL as a member of the Dallas Texans, Kansas City Chiefs, and Oakland Raiders. The 5-foot, 10-inch, 187-pounder with sprinter speed ...

They have been cast in the 6-foot, 11-inch shadow of Bill Walton and Helix’ 33-0 team of 1969-70. History has overlooked the Mount Miguel clubs that dominated the Grossmont League and San Diego Section in the late 1960s. The Matadors were 25-6 in 1966-67 and 32-0 this season. But coach Dick Ridgway’s squad did not embrace an intersectional ...

Who would have thought a team that started the season with a 1-8 record and finished 10-10 would be celebrated? Hats off to the Sweetwater Red Devils. An eighth loss in nine games was where coach Wells Gorman’s team stood on January 6, 1957, after a 55-50, Metropolitan League, opening-game loss at Helix. But that score against Helix, ...

Coronado paid an old debt. Hoover’s playoff advance was halted at the foul line. Merrill Douglas ended a great run at San Diego High. Lincoln showed that patience had virtue. —John Kovac was a football coach who happened to come along at the right basketball time at Coronado. The dour Kovac without prompting often recalled that he coached future professional ...

A decidedly thin year in San Diego Section track and field ended on a promising note in the 99th state meet at Clovis over the weekend. Sophomore Karson Lippert, who came into the season with a best of: 49.77 as a freshman in the 400, crashed the big stage and will be billed as one of ...

CLOVIS–11 boys and 8 girls from the San Diego Section qualified yesterday for tonight’s 99th state track and field championships at Buchanan High. Six, all-time County top 15 performances came amid gusty winds and a temperature in the high nineties when competition began at 5 p.m. The breezes eventually eased and the thermometer had gradually cooled to the low eighties ...

Football, basketball, baseball, and track and field, the majors, remained seasonal sports for the best athletes, who usually participated in at least three. Single-sport concentration and club teams were a half-century away, but a change of another kind took place in high school hoops this season. There were many more games in which the competing teams scored ...

Top performances in  seven events and 79 efforts earning 2017 top  10 distinction highlighted 11 league championships last week in San Diego Section boys’ and girls’ track and field competition. Qualifiers from those meets will meet at Mt. Carmel High Saturday in Section trials.  Finals are scheduled at the same site on May 27, followed by ...

What made this campaign one to remember: 1) Hoover’s 11-1 ride through the City Prep League and 23-win campaign which stalled after an 11-point lead in the playoffs. 2) Point Loma’s rags-to-almost-riches season that ended with a call from Uncle Sam. 3) Helix, without a gymnasium, or a campus, not playing like a first-year team. 4) Chula Vista making ...

Bud Milke was on the bench as a head coach for 500-plus basketball games in his career, more than half at Mar Vista High and Castle Park, and rolled with the deathless prose of Grantland Rice: “For when the One Great Scorer comes To write against your name, He marks—not that you won or lost—but how ...

Chula Vista High was in the midst of a legendary era in the school’s history, thanks to two gentlemen loosely described by their imaginary headwear, which bespoke of the respect they commanded and clout they carried. Joe Rindone, the sports-minded school principal and president of the CIF Southern Section executive committee, was known as the “Big ...

Matthew DeRoos of Tri-City Christian long jumped 24 feet, 4 1/4 inches in the Coastal League finals at Orange Glen and took the state lead in that event. Scripps Ranch’s Alex Barr was displaced as the state leader in the 1600-meter run.  Barr ran 4:14.51 in an early outdoor meet  and now is ninth inn that event. Sophomore ...

Norman Powell has earned a spot in the Toronto Raptors’ rotation and is making his bones on  basketball’s biggest stage. The 6-foot, 4-inch guard from Lincoln High scored a career-high 25 points in 34 minutes and shot 8 for 11 from the field to lead the Raptors to a 118-93 win over Milwaukee and put Toronto ...

The twists and turns of the season weren’t so much about the drama of last-minute shots and frenetic finishes but of quirky schedules, odd venues, and some World War II-like travel. Home games often meant hitting the road. Coronado and Chula Vista met in the Metropolitan League’s most important game…at Point Loma. It was Chula Vista’s home game, ...

With Arcadia behind them, San Diego Section track and field athletes settle into  three more weeks of dual meets, weekend invitationals, and league trials before Section trials May 20 and finals May 27 at Mt. Carmel, and the state meet in Clovis on June 2-3. Scripps Ranch’s Alex Barr ran :4:14.51 in the 1600 meters last ...

St. Augustine felt better about itself, assuaging some of the long-standing frustration from thwarted attempts to secure a league affiliation. The small, independent Catholic entity that opened its doors in North Park in 1922 enjoyed an in-your-face season and earned the first playoff berth in school history. The hard way. With a few community honchos in support and ...

Another good season of San Diego Section basketball is in the books. St. Augustine finished sixth in the final, expanded Cal-Hi Sports listing of the top 40 teams in the state and the Mission Hills girls were seventh in rankings of the top 35. The Saints (28-5) were a preseason No. 21 in the newsletter’s top 25  but rolled ...

All coach Clarence Burton and the Chula Vista Spartans needed were some fresh legs, i.e., several football players from the CIF small schools championship team needed time to get in shape. The Spartans started slowly in December while Chet DeVore’s gridders were engaged in the postseason, which concluded with a 12-6 win over Brawley. With Larry Armbrust, ...

Charles Sanford finished the perfect race. Etched in my memory: Edwards Stadium, Berkeley, 1963 state track meet, final event, 880-yard relay. San Diego High against the field at the end of the two-day program. Sanford and teammates Walter (Buddah) Blackledge, Gordon Baker, and Raymond Dixon, were considered one of the better entries coming into the meet with a best time ...

An otherwise quiet campaign shortened by war was energized in the season’s last game. Ivan Robinson, the younger brother of 1941-42 San Diego star Ermer Robinson, scored 38 points, including 25 in the second half of a 70-23, season-ending victory over Kearny. News accounts reported that no prep in the area had ever rung up that many ...