San Diego High represented one of the best football coaching jobs in the state, but was John Perry all in?

Perry ruminated that the 1925 season, which ended in a bitter, 13-6 loss to Covina in the CIF championship game, was too long, ending Dec. 12, and a reason his club had let down in the title game.

That apparently was why Perry’s started practice a week later this season and moved the start time from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., still  ending around 6.

Perry also had been delayed getting back to school because he was attending a summer football class in Los Angeles taught by USC coach Howard Jones.

Despite Perry’s seeming detachment, the Cavemen appeared ready to make another strong run.  Superstar halfback Bert Ritchey was back for his third varsity season, joined by tackle Cy West, and several other holdovers from the 10-1 team of the year before.

Albert Crosthwaite, a fullback on the 1923 squad, was back in to school after a two-year hiatus. Players were eligible as long as they hadn’t reached their 21st birthday.

Youngsters also were moving up from coach Gerald (Tex) Oliver’s B team, which defeated Huntington Park, 13-6, for the 1925 Southern California championship.

And there were incoming sophomores from Roosevelt and Memorial, teams which played for the championship of the city junior high league in ’25.                                    

After a 27-0 victory in the opening game against the San Diego State Frosh, the Hilltoppers lost sight of the end zone. They scored three touchdowns and 29 points, total, in seven Coast League contests.

The Cavemen dropped back-to-back road games at Long Beach Poly and Whittier, which knocked them out of playoff consideration, but still finished with a 6-2 record.

UNHAPPY SCRIBES

Local newspaper writers were stunned and peevish after the 15-3 defeat at the hands of the Whittier Cardinals, in their eyes at least three-touchdown underdogs.

There was a story in The San Diego Union two days before the Santa Ana trip in which Perry, despite his earlier statements concerning the long season, confirmed the report of a possible Christmas or New Year’s Day game with Phoenix Union.

That game did not materialize.

IS PERRY OUT?

Perry’s 52-14-5 achievement in seven seasons would not seem raise any doubt about his future as coach.

But the afternoon San Diego Sun  published a story Nov. 19, 1926, the day before the Hilltoppers’ last home game against South Pasadena, that declared Perry was out as coach:

“A complete rearrangement of the coaching staff at the San Diego high school has taken place, and will go into effect at once, it was made known today.

“John Perry, who heretofore coached varsity football, becomes supervisor of physical training and director of school athletics, but will have no coaching connections with the various teams.

“John Hobbs, assistant grid coach to Perry, and in direct charge of the second team, is now head coach of the Hilltop varsity football team.”

The timing of the no-attribution, no-byline article was curious, with two games remaining on the schedule.  It looked as if Perry was being removed from his position and given a highfalutin’ title of reduced significance.

NOTHING TO IT?

San Diego principal Glenn Perkins reacted with a non-denial denial the next day in the scrambling, morning The San Diego Union:

“For two years there has been serious consideration of appointing Perry physical education director in charge of all athletics and naming Hobbs mentor of the varsity football squad, but to date that has not been done and it is hardly likely that it will be affected until next fall, if at all,” said Perkins.

Perkins added that “should the position ‘director physical education’ be created Perry can have it if he chooses and undoubtedly Hobbs will be named varsity football coach.”

Perry responded with a flowery no comment and Hobbs ducked the issue.  “How could I assume control of the varsity football team now when I have called varsity basketball practice for Monday afternoon?” said Hobbs.

SUN STORY ON THE MONEY

The Sun article may have been premature but Perry did step down after the season and became a P.E. coach and head of the athletics department.  He would stay away from football until starting the program at the new Hoover High in 1930.

The Sun also was correct about the “rearrangement” of the coaching staff.

Hobbs became head football coach and remained in charge of basketball.  Dewey (Mike) Morrow began a legendary career on the hilltop, replacing Perry as baseball coach, and Glenn Broderick took over the track program.

Perkins, principal since 1923, was replaced at the end of the school year by John Aseltine, who also became a legendary figure, leading the way until his retirement in 1954.

ARE THEY ON SAME PAGE?

Despite the loss to Whittier, the Cavers still were in the Coast League title hunt when they went to Long Beach, where a controversial play prompted Perry to protest the game.

Principal Glenn Perkins a day later would say there would be no protest.

Trailing, 3-0, Perry told referee Arthur Badenoch, the head coach at Inglewood, that San Diego end Roy Schoettler, a transfer from Santa Ana, was going to “hide out” near the Cavers’ sideline on the play following the third-quarter kickoff.

Penalty flag.

Badenoch had noticed a Long Beach player offside on the kickoff, according to press reports.  The referee asked San Diego captain Eddie Moeller if the Hilltoppers wanted the penalty or the ball.

Moeller took the ball.  The stratagem worked, John Donohue teaming with Schoettler on a 65-yard scoring pass play to apparently put the visitors in front, 6-3.

Badenoch nullified the play.  The whistle had not been blown to begin play after the referee and Moeller, the San Diego captain, had discussed options.

COACH LOOKS BACK

Twenty-five years later, at a San Diego High homecoming, Perry had a different recollection.

“It worked okay, for (Schoettler) caught the ball and scored in spite of the fact that he was detected by Long Beach,” Perry told George T. Herrick of the Evening Tribune.

“However,” Perry added, “our enthusiasm was dampened when the umpire announced Long Beach had called time out.  It was the only time in my 31 years of coaching that I ever protested a game.”

The coach recalled that the Cavers tried the play again, but a Long Beach defender deflected the pass into the hands of a teammate, who ran 50 yards for a score in Poly’s 10-0 victory.

TRANSFER RED FLAGGED

Two weeks into practice, the Cavers’ stock went up when quarterback Jimmy Meeks and end Laurie Hall transferred in from Hollywood High and were reported to have moved into San Diego’s enrollment district.

Meeks had set a national record of :15.1 in the 120-yard high hurdles, finished second in the 220 lows, and anchored the Sheiks to a national record of 1:29.9 in the 880-yard relay at the state meet in Palo Alto the previous spring.

FRAT BOYS

Meeks entered the opening game in the second quarter but was benched in the second half after he was penalized for “slugging” a San Diego State  Frosh player.

Days later it was learned that Meeks and Hall had been bounced at Hollywood because they violated a state interscholastic rule by becoming members of a school fraternity.

Santa Ana, which filed a protest in 1925, claiming that Hilltopper Russ Saunders had boxed professionally, alerted Coast League bosses.

“We shall place our cards on the table and let league officials act,” said principal Perkins, who thought the rule was unfair and wasn’t sure it would hold up in a court of law.

Meeks and Hall were out.

SANTA ANA UNHAPPY

Tex Oliver, the ex-Hilltop B coach and track mentor, now was head coach at Santa Ana. The Saints still were unhappy about another protest apparently submitted by San Diego.

Santa Ana wanted Harvey Durkee reinstated. Durkee had played in a practice game in 1925 after not having completed a semester of attendance following a transfer from Huntington Beach.

The few minutes in the ’25 game was declared a full season by the Coast League after Durkee left school, then returned in February, 1926, and completed a full semester thinking he’d be eligible in the Fall.

Durkee and Santa Ana officials were told the player was out of eligibility.  Perry also claimed that Durkee transferred without changing his home address and therefore would be ineligible for a full year.

INDIRECT CRITICISM

Perry’s next-to-last game as coach and Oliver’s first against his former boss was a 9-7 success in overtime for the visiting Cavers, but there were no huzzahs from the San Diego media.

Despite the victory wrote Charles Savage of the Union:

“…Oliver’s speedy Saints team reversed the San Diegans dizzy; battered their way through the heavy San Diego line for 15 first downs, and worked the ball within the shadows of the visitors’ goal five times only to lose the ball on fumbles.”

Savage  ended with this zinger:

“The San  Diegans didn’t display any more fighting spirit here today than they have at any time this season.  In fact, their showing could not have been much worse.  And San Diego has displayed some poor football this season.”

A Southern California championship in 1922, two Coast League titles in the league’s four years, and a .768 winning percentage since 1920 apparently were not enough.

Perry couldn’t be blamed for taking a step back.

OVERTIME

San Diego and Glendale were locked in a scoreless tie at the end of regulation play.  A Coast League rule, “unique in that it’s the only one in the country,” according to a newspaper report, allowed each team 10 “alternating plays” each, the team ending up in the enemy territory being awarded the victory

The Hilltoppers were declared 2-0 winners. They had defeated Santa Ana in a similarly-formatted extra session.

STARRING RED GRANGE

The Pantages theater and The San Diego Sun newspaper invited members of the football teams of San Diego High, St. Augustine, and the Marine Corps Recruit Depot to a showing of “One Minute To Play”.

The silent movie (talkies still were a few years away) starred Harold (Red) Grange, the all-America halfback from the University of Illinois who had signed with the NFL Chicago Bears and was marketed by C.C. (Cash & Carry) Pyle.

Grange, playing the role of “Red Wade”, shook off an injury, came into the game with one minute to play, and scored the winning touchdown.

SIGN OF THE TIMES

Politics in Coronado, the allegedly sleepy community across San Diego Bay, made for angry bedfellows.

The city auditor decked the city manager, twice, in a fist fight outside City Hall and then dropped the manager again a few days later in the street in front of the building after tempers flared during a contentious meeting of the town’s honchos.

A newly appointed city marshal and said gentleman along with a trustee was sued for $25,000 for assault after expelling an angry attorney from the meeting.

All members of the fire and police departments either were fired by the Coronado board of trustees or resigned.  The fistic-proficient city auditor, was fired and the city recorder resigned.

The attorney, struggling with the two officials, claimed to have strained  ligaments in his shoulder.

Typical of the almost comic events was the firing in the morning of a police boss, who was reinstated in the afternoon…and then immediately resigned.

SUBURBS AND BACK COUNTRY

+Point Loma and Mountain Empire, which opened in 1925, joined the County League as varsity members and Oceanside, fielding its first squad, made for an eight-team circuit.

+Escondido, 5-4 under first-year coach Amner Petty, posted its first winning season since 1919 and  first league victory since 1921.  The Cougars opened with a 14-0 victory at first-year Brea-Olinda, which took students from neighboring Fullerton High, holding the Wildcats to one first down and 18 total yards.

+Sweetwater was 7-0 in County play but dropped a 13-2 decision in the first round of the playoffs at El Centro Central.

+Oceanside’s first foray into football ended with a 1-6-1 record that included losses of 47-0 and 57-0 to league powers Coronado and Sweetwater, respectively.

+Mountain Empire, 45 miles East of El Cajon in the Mountain Community of Campo, was 0-6-1.  There were 12 males on campus, 11 were on the team and the other was coach Cy Walton.

TRUE GRID

Although he was in and out of games and hampered by a back injury all season, Bert Ritchey was second-team all-Southern California, perhaps a nod from the media selectors who chose Ritchey for a third-team spot despite Bert’s leading Southern California with 25 touchdowns in 1925…captain and tackle  Cy West also earned second-team honors…378 Alhambra supporters made reservations on the steamship S.S. Ruth Alexander out of Los Angeles and arrived the morning of the Moors’ game with San Diego…Alhambra was coached by Charlie Church, who would briefly be the Hilltoppers’ boss in 1928…word from the North was that Church was scrimmaging his charges two hours a day and had taken the team on a two-week trip to the High Sierras in the summer…. Eddie Moeller kicked a field goal from the 35-yard line, on first down in the first quarter, for a 3-0 victory over visiting South Pasadena…about 8,500 persons in City Stadium watched the Hilltoppers beat Pasadena, 6-0….

John Perry was 29-10-2 with a winning percentage of .738 in four seasons as San Diego High coach.

But that wasn’t good enough for one sportswriter on San Diego’s largest daily newspaper.

A crushing midseason, 26-0 loss to Long Beach Poly was followed by a “disinterested”, 13-0 victory over Coast League doormat Whittier.

“The wreck of the Hesperus didn’t have a thing on the disaster of the Cavemen,” wrote Alan McGrew of the Poly game, taking a page from Greek mythology.

McGrew, no Damon Runyan, was The San Diego Union beat man covering the Cavemen and regularly found fault with Perry’s stewardship, very unusual for the era.

The young San Diego High graduate was especially peevish in his account of the Whittier contest:

“…the team had no fight and players seemed to take the ‘I don’t care’ attitude. Coach John Perry seemed to be as bad as any of the players.”

McGrew said the starting backfield “was like four moving dead men.”

“Coach John Perry should receive a good part of the responsibility for the poor showing,” McGrew continued. “Since the Long Beach game he has lacked enthusiasm just as much as many of the players.”

McGrew thought the Cavers should turn in their uniforms if “the high schoolers intend to finish the season in the same miserable manner they played yesterday.”

PHOENIX, BUT FIRST AN EASY ONE

Principal Glenn Perkins and Perry scheduled a postseason game for charity against the Phoenix Coyotes, billed as champions of Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of Texas.

William Richardson, the California governor, was going to attend and a large crowd was expected, proceeds going to the football fund at the Hilltop and to buy 50 uniforms for members of the band.

There would be a three-week layoff between the Whittier and Phoenix tussles, so Perry called John Nichols, his former Coronado coaching colleague, and booked a home contest against Nichols’ Oxnard squad.

The Yellowjackets reportedly had posted a 7-0 record, but the competition was against teams from small, neighboring Ventura County farming communities.

PUSHOVER?

McGrew went on the offensive again.

“Although it has been the general impression that the Oxnard Union High would be ‘pickings’ for the local high school eleven, the San Diego coach claims the northern squad will give the Hilltops plenty to worry about.”

McGrew had gotten to the point of sometimes not even referring to Perry by name.

Later:

“Perry has been inclined to blame sportswriters for his troubles.  First he did not want them to praise the work of his team, declaring that praise was bad for the players.

“Then he did not want the work of the team to be harshly criticized.  That, too, he thought was very bad.  Just what (Perry) wanted was hard to figure out.”

McGrew added that the Cavers would have been better served in 1920 had they hired a coach who had college playing experience, which Perry didn’t.

“At any rate the fact remains that all San Diego High can claim under Perry’s coaching this year is the championship of San Diego County (the Cavers defeated Sweetwater, 33-8).”

11 CONSECUTIVE PAT

Oxnard “looked like a kindergarten squad opposing eleven giants,” wrote McGrew.

The Yellowjackets were on the trampled end of a 77-0 San Diego stampede, highlighted by 11 successful points after touchdown and three touchdowns by probably the smallest varsity player in school history.

Firpo (Shorty) Bethauser, 4-feet, 4 inches, 116 pounds, if you believe the tape measure and scale, scored three touchdowns and was joined in the end zone by six other teammates.

On this day, the writer couldn’t criticize Perry’s coaching or the play of the team:

“Oxnard had no business being on the same field with the Hilltoppers, but this should not take credit away from the high schoolers. With (Coney) Galindo again calling signals. the team oozed with pep, fight, and aggressiveness.”

The season ended with a 0-0 tie against Phoenix, but despite the scoreless result, the teams’ combined 24 punts, and 120 yards in penalties, McGrew declared that “the crowd was lifted by thrilling plays and many long gains.”

NEW BOSS AT GROSSMONT

Up from Calipatria in the Imperial Valley, out of the University of Montana, came Ladimir Mashin the new athletic coach at Grossmont.

Mashin was better known as ”Jack”,  an easy cognomen for a man who was easy to know and respect.

Mashin would coach all teams and soldier through the Great Depression and World War II.

He retired from football as the winningest coach in County history after 25 seasons and a 9-1-1 campaign in 1947.

Mashin concentrated on track and field and tutored some of the finest dual meet and invitational teams in Southern California, turning out Grossmont distance runners and weight throwers who ranked among the best in the country.

Grossmont would be 4-5 this season, but championships were on the horizon.

Mashin had 17 winning seasons and finished football with a career record of 125-66-19, a .640 winning percentage.  The Foothillers won or tied 24 games in a row from 1932-34.

A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN

John Perry and principal Glenn Perkins attended a meeting the first of September in Santa Ana, where San Diego High became a member of the Tri-County League.

Other schools were Long Beach Poly, Pasadena and Whittier from Los Angeles County and Orange County entries Fullerton and Santa Ana.

A couple weeks later the CIF announced that the alignment would be known as the Coast League and, with exception of the 1941-45 period, the Coast would be San Diego’s home until the San Diego City Prep League was formed in 1950.

San Diego and Poly, which first played against each other in 1910, would be enduring members of the so-called “T.N.T. League”.

The other  schools came and went and newcomers replaced them, but the  circuit always was respected as being as strong as any in the state.

The Hilltoppers had been members of a Coast League alignment with Poly, Pasadena, Santa Monica, and Whittier in the 1920-21 school year, but, while participating in most sports, they were an independent in football.

RULES AND REGS

General admission to all Coast League games was .50.  All funds derived from advance sales were to go to the school selling the tickets.  Game expenses were to be deducted before there was a split of gate receipts.

Perpetual trophies would be offered in all sports with each school annually contributing $25 to the bauble fund.

Officers of the league were Harry J. Moore of Long Beach (also state CIF representative), president; R. O’Mara, Pasadena, vice president, and H.A. Hammond, Santa Ana, secretary and treasurer.

SWEETWATER WHO?

Coach Herb Hoskins’ Red Devils competed in the shadow of San Diego for years, but, despite a 33-8 loss to the Hilltop team in the season opener, won the County League with a 6-0 record, compiled a 7-3 mark overall, and earned a Southern California playoff bid.

Sweetwater upset Orange, 7-0, in a quarterfinals game but was beaten, 27-7, by Long Beach Poly in the semifinals.

Sweetwater often was a San Diego opponent in the first game, but Hoskins and Perry dickered over financial terms this year.

Perry, as coach of the home team, offered a $100 guarantee to the Red and Gray-colored squad from National City.  Hoskins wanted a 50-50 share of the gate receipts.

“I can get a Northern team to come to San Diego for as much as Sweetwater wants,” said Perry.  “My club’s as good as any Northern club,” countered Hoskins.

The game was played but no result of the bargaining was published.

GENERATION GAP?

Ages of San Diego High players were from 15 (Phil Winnek) to 20 (Coney Galindo, John Fox, and Howard Williams).  Al Schevings was 21 when he graduated in June, 1923.

Galindo, Fox, and Williams would have another year of eligibility in 1924.  Rules eventually would change, such that a youngster could not be 19 years of age before Sept. 1 of his senior year.

HONORS

End Barkham Garner of Sweetwater was on  the all-Southern California first team.  End Jim MacPherson of San Diego and center Otis of Sweetwater were on the second team.

SIGN OF THE TIME

Neal Anderson, automobile editor of The San Diego Union, embarked on a unique trip.  Anderson, riding in a Nash Touring car, covered the 572 miles of San Diego County roads and highways in 18 hours, leaving the Nash showroom floor at the Shaw agency at midnight and arriving back at 6 p.m that day.

TRUE GRID

San Diego’s Ed (Carburetor) Caballero intercepted 5 passes in one game and threw  five interceptions in another…Whittier’s joining the league allowed San  Diego to fill an open date late in the season…San Diego’s trip to Stanford not only was disappointing  but long…the team took the train to Los Angeles and then boarded the Lark for the 470-mile overnight ride to San Francisco…the Cavemen, who played on the dirt surface of City Stadium, complained of the slippery, grass gridiron on the Palo Alto campus, resulting in numerous fumbles and a reported nine first-half injuries…the Cavers hit the rails again for an early-morning ride to an afternoon game in Fullerton…San Diego road games usually were of two days’ duration…Hal Fitzpatrick,  Al Schevings, Eddie Ruffa, and Bob Perry, members of San Diego’s 1922 championship squad, were on the San Diego State varsity…the Montezuma Mesa school numbered only 160 boys in the entire enrollment…Schevings left and later was on the squad at USC…a midweek Sweetwater game with Fleet Air was called off because rules restricted the airmen from leaving their base on North Island….

There were no state championships, but it was a solid season in San Diego Section  basketball.

Foothills Christian, behind McDonald’s all-star T.J. Leaf, was third in the state in Cal-Hi Sports‘ final boys Top 40 rankings.

Cathedral ranked 14th and St. Augustine 23rd.

The 2015-16 finish showed marked improvement  over the 2014-15 Cal-Hi rankings, in which St. Augustine was 23rd, Torrey Pines 24th, and Foothills Christian 36th.

Foothills gained  currency when it defeated Santa Ana Mater Dei, 50-44, in the Southern California quarterfinals before bowing to Chino Hills, 82-62.

Chino Hills (35-0) won the state championship and is national champion, according to all major polls.

Foothills lost its first game to the San Bernardino County squad in December, 106-86, but came closer than any California school when it dropped an 85-83 decision to the Huskies in January.

A basket by Leaf had put the Knights ahead, 83-82, with 13.3 seconds remaining.

3 IN TOP 20

Mission Hills was seventh in the girls, followed by La Jolla Country Day at No. 10 and Bishop at No. 19.

La Jolla Country Day was 15th and Mission Hills 30th in the final 2014-15 rankings.

The last state champions were in St. Augustine boys and Horizon girls in 2013-14.

RECORD LITTLETON’S DESTINY?

A highlight of next season is expected to be The Bishop’s Destiny Littleton’s pursuit of the state career scoring record.

Littleton averaged 35.7 and scored 1,178 points this season, giving her a three-season total of 2,934.  San Diego’s Charde Houston set the California record with 3,837 from 2000 to 2004.

HOOPLA

Cathedral rose as high as 10th in the Cal-Hi poll after an 82-80, overtime win against Chatsworth Sierra Canyon, but fell following a 72-56, semifinals loss to Torrance Bishop Montgomery…St. Augustine was 17th before dropping a 68-55,  semifinals game at Encino Crespi…Charde Houston played four seasons at Connecticut and is in her ninth WNBA season as a member of the New York Mercury…despite the CIF’s desired “competitive equity,” the Southern Section dominated the  regionals…the San Diego, Los Angeles, and Central  came up short, as all 12 boys and girls division winners were from the Southern Section….

How Cal-Hi Sports viewed San Diego Section squads:

BOYS

DIVISION	TEAM	RECORD	RANK
Top 40	Foothills Christian	25-5	3
	Cathedral	21-7	14
	St. Augustine	24-8	23
	Torrey Pines	26-5	37
I	St. Augustine		8
	Torrey Pines		15
II	Mission Bay	21-9	17
	Army-Navy	21-11	19
III	Kearny	31-4	9
IV	El Camino	29-7	4
	*Grossmont	23-8
	*San Marcos	22-8
V	Bonita Vista	21-13	12
	*Mission Vista	16-13

GIRLS

DIVISION	TEAM	RECORD	RANK
Top 20	Mission Hills	29-4	7
	La Jolla Country Day	24-6	10
	The Bishop’s	25-8	19
I	The Bishop’s		6
	Torrey Pines	22-9	15
II	Mount Miguel	21-12	17
III	Eastlake	26-7	13
	*Horizon	19-13
IV	*La Costa Canyon	23-10
V	Grossmont	25-6	13
	*Escondido Adventist	23-5

*Honorable Mention.

Army-Navy had a 5-0 record.  San Diego High (4-1) had just been run off the field,  51-0 by the 5-0 Long Beach Poly Jackrabbits.

Did Army-Navy have a chance the following week against the Hilltoppers and their 24-year-old, rookie head coach, John Perry.

No.

Perry addressed a school assembly the day before his team would meet coach Paul Jones’ Cadets.

Perry said no team in the United States could beat San Diego by the score Long Beach had mustered and that was by a fluke, which the writer of the story did not reveal and which begged the question, how could a 51-point loss be determined “by a fluke”?

“Furthermore,” said Perry, “San Diego is still in the running (for the Southern California championship) and with the addition of new forms of offensive and defensive playing, we expect to take a little revenge on the innocent Army-Navy men.”

Certainly not the coach talk of later years.  If Perry actually was quoted accurately or felt some pressure and was nervously boasting to the school assembly, or the writer’s imagination was in overdrive, or both, Perry’s words rang true.

The Hilltoppers rained 19 touchdowns on their outmanned opponents.

Although a touchdown by Army-Navy’s Brick Crowell tied the game, 7-7, the score was 26-7 after one quarter, 75-7 following a 49-point second quarter, and 103-7 after three.

The final count, 130-7.

POURING IT ON?

Did Perry run up the score?

His squad numbered only 24 with just a handful of reserves. The teams played 15-minute quarters and rules of the day meant that Army-Navy kicked off after each touchdown.

San Diego’s John Hunter scored 7 touchdowns and added 15 points after for 57 points.  Nine other Cavemen scored touchdowns.

The only team in state history to score more points in one game was Santa Rosa in a 141-0 victory over St. Helena in 1924.

To prevent such runaways CIF sections decades later installed “mercy’ rules and running clocks, usually when one team was ahead by 40-45 points.

Hunter’s point total was bettered in San Diego County only by the 80 points Coronado’s Frank (Toady) Greene scored in a 108-0 victory over Sweetwater in 1929.

PRE-PRACTICE MANTRA

A story with no byline in The San Diego Union captured the youthful Perry’s approach when he addressed his football candidates in the San Diego High auditorium at their first meeting Sept. 3, 1920.

“We want to get the spirit of 1920 this season,” said the coach.  “We’ve heard too much about the spirit of 1916.  It’s getting a little old.  We must forget those victories and win others.”

Other remarks by Perry:

“At 4 p.m. next Tuesday I shall call the roll of the first squad.  Coach (A.E.) Shaver and Captain (Lawrence) Hall will do the same for the second and third squads.”

“Any man absent without  a good excuse for two successive nights will have to turn in his uniform.  We have too many out for work to bother with shirkers.

“And furthermore, you fellows keep up in your studies,  They’re the big thing as football is the big sport.  You can understand me when I say the fellow with all brawn and no brains is no football player.

“Three things you must have for football: obedience, aggression, and concentration.  With this goes about sixty per cent fight.  It’s the fellow with fight and brain who makes the great player.”

EASY DOES IT

Union headline on Sept. 24:  “Scrimmage Hard on Hilltop Boys; Five Knocked Out”.

Apparently Howard Williams, Ed Rawlings, Fred Manning, Gerald Snyder, and Harold (Hobbs)  Adams “were taken unconscious from the fray”, an intrasquad scrimmage before the season opener against Sweetwater.

Williams is reported to having returned, “but collapsed at the end of practice”, and may not play in the opener.

Hard to believe, but flimsy helmets and pads offered little protection..

NEW SCHOOL, OR NOT?

Grossmont High opened this year, located on what was known as the Riverview campus in Lakeside.

It would be two years before the school moved to the top of the Grossmont Summit in La Mesa, where it sits today overlooking the El Cajon Valley.

But was Grossmont really a new school in 1920?

On the school’s 90th anniversary in 2010, “The Fountain of Hope” was remembered in a campus publication:

“The class of 1916 donated a drinking fountain made of granite from a local quarry to the old El Cajon Valley Union High School and inscribed ‘Class of 1916’”.

The El Cajon Valley High we know today didn’t open  until  1955, when it drew much of the student population from Grossmont, which originally had been home to students from as distant as Pine Valley, 25 miles away, and further east.

The early-century “El Cajon Valley High” is not even a footnote in local prep sports history, but a team with the designation “El Cajon” played games against San Diego High in 1902, 1904, and 1907.

According to Don King, San Diego High historian and author of Caver Conquest, the 1904 game was against the El Cajon Town team.  An ensuing contest was noted as being against the community’s high school.

SWEETWATER ON SCHEDULE

Grossmont’s first graduating class numbered 37 students.  There were 11 faculty members with an enrollment of about 150 in four grades. A total of 320 students were enrolled when the new campus opened in 1922.

Green and white was chosen as school colors, but they were changed to blue and gold in 1927.

The athletic teams didn’t become known as the Foothllers until 1921, but Grossmont fielded a team this season, under coach J. Howard Becker, and didn’t score a point in four games against schools that became their County League rivals.

One of those opponents was Sweetwater, an emerging South County school Grossmont would play every season through 1960 except 1941 and ’52.

RULES MADE TO BE BROKEN?

The CIF, established in 1913, increasingly found its desired role of friendly, neighborhood cop to 90-plus schools devolving into that of a grouchy high school vice principal in charge of discipline.

The Cavemen’s game at Long Beach triggered a major dispute between the governing body and one of its members.

While 8,000 mostly Jackrabbits faithful (about 300 San Diego supporters made the 4-hour trip north) cheered as their team punctuated the victory with 28 fourth-quarter points, Poly officials received a telegram during the game inviting the team to play Englewood High of Chicago.

The ambitious Chicago squad wanted to play the coast school for what Englewood officials described as a national championship game on Christmas Day.  Poly bosses immediately wired back that they accepted.

NOT SO FAST

CIF secretary Seth Van Patten told Poly administrator Harry J. Moore that Long Beach was required to compete in the 10-team Southern California playoffs and in a possible state title contest.

According to CIF rules, teams were supposed to turn in their gear once they completed play in Southern California or on the state level.

Despite the shellacking, San Diego was a likely semifinals opponent for Long Beach, if the teams won earlier playoffs.

The CIF determined postseason invitations were for schools that had at least three wins over “representative” opponents.

CAVEMEN MEET STANDARD

San Diego had qualified for the postseason after victories over Los Angeles Franklin, Fullerton, and Orange.

The Cavers defeated Van Nuys, 81-0, in a quarterfinals contest on the same day that Long Beach Poly advanced with a 55-0 victory over Los Angeles Poly.

John Perry wanted no part of a second game in Long Beach.  Principal Harry Wise told the CIF that San Diego would play the game only at a neutral site, preferably at Pomona, a good distance from the Jackrabbits’ base.

After defeating L.A. Poly, Long Beach gave the CIF the figurative middle finger salute and pulled out of the remainder of the postseason.

The scrambling CIF then gave San Diego a day’s notice that it would play in the semifinals against L.A. Poly, despite the Mechanics’ 0-55 score against Long Beach.

San Diego led most of the game after John Hunter’s 25-yard field goal, but the Mechanics scored a touchdown in the last five minutes to win, 7-3.

L.A. Poly’s reward was a berth in  the finals, in which it lost to Santa Monica, 49-0.

HARES OFF EASY

The game with Englewood never was played, but Long Beach accepted another challenge from the high school in Everett, Washington.

The Everett Seagulls defeated the Jackrabbits, 28-7. Poly then won  the “championship” of the southwestern united States by defeating Arizona’s Phoenix Union, 102-0.

The CIF followed by announcing that Poly was being “kicked out”.  Not suspended, but “kicked out,” no longer a member of the federation.

The punishment didn’t last long.  The Jackrabbits were back in the fold for basketball season.

CAVEMEN BASEBALL OUT

But the bumbling CIF wasn’t so easy on the San Diego High baseball team, which defeated Cleveland East Tech in a two-game, “national championship series” the following spring.

The baseball Cavemen were hit with a judgment in the 1921-22 school year, barred from playing against high school teams for one season and suspended from the Southern California playoffs.

UNEVEN OFFICIATING

Local banking executive and football referee Mouney Cassar Pfeffercorn convened a meeting at the First National for representatives from high schools and service football teams.

“There are many football officials here but almost everyone has a different interpretation of a rule,” said Pfeffercorn, who noted that problems were cited by out-of-town teams, which complained that local flag throwers incorrectly interpreted.

Officiating pay generally was $10 for referee and $7.50 each for umpire and linesman.  A fourth official, on request, received $5.

Born in Austria in 1883 and a naturalized American citizen since 1908, Pfeffercorn was active on many sporting fronts in San Diego in the first half of the 20th century.

SIGNS OF THE TIME

Robert Clark and Justin Bennett of San Diego will be out of the Franklin game “unless they can dig up more credits”, reported The San Diego Union. The article also said that “Howard Williams, Chalmers McKenzie, and Harold (Hobbs) Adams also are reported  behind in their studies and will  not play Saturday.”

LARGE STUDENT BODY

Six weeks into the school year, San Diego High listed 2,370 students, making it one of the largest high schools in the country, according to the Evening Tribune.

City elementary schools reported enrollment of 9,000, although daily attendance was at least 1,000 fewer.  “An appeal is made to the parents of the city to make the attendance of every child as punctual and regular as possible,” said a City Schools statement.

ARRAY OF ACTIVITY

Football was king but not the only sport at the Grey Castle.  A class of beginners in swimming started, a chess club was in competition, and tennis was popular. Girls interscholastic basketball was due to begin.

DON’T BE SO NOSEY

Team captain Lawrence Hall sustained a broken nose before the opening of practice when he dived off the high board at a plunge in Del Mar and struck the bottom of the pool.

Hall was recuperating when he engaged in a medicine ball exercise with a teammate a week later and the ball struck Hall in the face.

Hall sustained a second, rearranged schnozz and was on  the sideline for another three weeks.

CORONADO STREAK ENDS

A 21-7 loss to Sweetwater was the first for Coronado against County League competition since a 47-0 defeat by Escondido in 1914.  The Islanders had won 16 in  a row and not been scored on by their suburban competition.

HONORS

Guard Gordon Thompson and back John Hunter of San Diego made the all-Southern California second team,  Long Beach Poly’s Jim Lawson was player of the year.

QUICK KICKS

Missing the Van Nuys playoff with wrist and shoulder injuries cost John Hunter a shot at Bryan (Pesky) Sprott’s school record of 156 points in one season, set in 1916…Hunter played only eight games but had 18 touchdowns, 24 points after, and a field goal for 135 points…Seth Van Patten, a former baseball coach at Escondido, was elected CIF Secretary…John Perry’s idea of giving his San Diego players a respite from the humdrum of practice was a 2 ½-mile “dogtrot” to and from the nearby Golden Hill Playground…Perry admonished his gridders before the Long Beach trip to “play hard but not dirty and do not bet on the game”…San Diego’s 81-0 playoff win over Van Nuys was called in the fourth quarter because of darkness… the Southern Section playoffs would include 10 teams, more than the state’s three other sections:  Central (6), North Coast (4), and Northern (4).

 

Bill Walton was 33-0 in his senior season at Helix.  T.J. Leaf was 25-5 at Foothills Christian.

Walton’s Helix team dominated the San Diego Section, but the Highlanders’ 70-56 victory over Chula Vista in the AA finals in 1970 marked the end of season. Southern California playoffs were reserved only for Southern Section squads.

Leaf’s Foothills Christian team, benefiting from the modern CIF, competed beyond the San Diego Section playoffs, most recently reaching the Southern California regional semifinals.

Walton was a 6-foot, 11-inch center who played with his back to the basket, and scored and played defense with equal abandon.

Leaf is a 6-10 power forward with a wider range of offense but did not command defense as did Walton.

If pro basketball is the correct measuring stick, basketball has evolved and improved to a point in the San Diego area that we now can claim many NBA or international players.

Before Walton you could count the number of NBA players from San Diego on one hand plus two or three fingers.

Leaf is moving on to UCLA, where Walton won two national collegiate championships and NBA titles with the Portland Trail Blazers and Boston Celtics.

Leaf is a longshot to match Walton’s  post-high school achievements but that will not diminish the mark he made at Foothills Christian.  T.J. finished his career second to his brother, Troy, as the San Diego’s Section’s career scoring leader.

Leaf was at the wheel as the small El Cajon school traveled with the big shots, playing a national schedule against teams in California and the U.S.

Thirteen of the Knights’ 30 games were against opponents outside the San Diego Section, including three against Chino Hills, the No. 1 team in the country, and another against nationally ranked Waterloo Sacred Heart of Connecticut.

Walton seldom ventured beyond the County, but his performance in December, 1969, at the prestigious Covina Tournament got him on the national stage.

Helix defeated Rancho Cucamonga Alta Loma, 90-35, Montebello, 72-48, El Monte Arroyo, 92-57, Long Beach Millikan, 71-49, and Pasadena, 110-68.

Millikan went on to win the major Southern Section championship.

Against the playoff-bound Pasadena Bullpups, Walton scored 50 points, had 34 rebounds, and made Sports Illustrated and its Faces in the Crowd feature.

The Highlanders averaged 88.2 points a game, went past 100 five times and topped 90 on 10 other occasions.  Walton scored 964 points and averaged 29.2, but he is remembered as much for his unselfish play and dominating defense.

Foothills Christian won by an average score of 71-52, had games of 97 and 96 points and bettered 80 in eight other contests.

Leaf scored 852 points and averaged 28.4 points, shot 68 per cent on field goal attempts and made 29 three-point baskets with an average of 39 per cent from behind the arc.

It was five and out for the San Diego Section in the Southern California regional semifinals last night.

Most of the road-weary locals were in their ball games at halftime but faded thereafter, memories of terrific seasons and bus rides of up to 150 miles ahead as they made their way home.

Foothills Christian (25-5) trailed, 37-30, after 16 minutes against Chino Hills but, despite 36 points from T.J. Leaf, was a well-beaten, 82-62, before a standing room only crowd of 2,800 persons at Colony High in Ontario.

Cathedral (21-7)  lagged only 46-42 in the third quarter before Torrance Bishop Montgomery began raining three-point baskets and pulled away to a 72-56 victory at El Camino College in Torrance.

El Camino (29-7) was in a 31-31 deadlock at halftime at Calabasas Viewpoint but couldn’t keep up  and was eliminated, 73-57.

St. Augustine (24-8) was outscored, 15-4, at  Encino Crespi Carmelite in  the first quarter but manfully battled back to trail only 41-39 after three.   That was the Saints’ final gesture.  They  collapsed in the fourth quarter and exited with a 68-55 loss.

The Mission Hills girls (29-4), lagging, 40-26, at the half and 55-41 at the three-quarter juncture, closed out with a 79-59 loss to West Hills Chaminade.

With apologies to the late Don Meredith of ABC’s Monday Night Football, turn out the lights, the party’s over.