There was not a track and field event in which Dick Coxe did not have expertise, but he probably preferred the grueling discipline of cross country.

Friends and former athletes will honor Coxe with their recollections of the demanding, straight-shooting and compassionate mentor in a celebration of his life on Sept. 18 from 1-4 p.m. in the Captain’s Room of Marina Village, 1936 Quivera Way, San Diego, 92109.

Coxe, who recently passed  at age 95, coached 30 years at area high schools Mar Vista, Sweetwater, and Lincoln, and at San Diego Junior College and Mesa College

“He had champions in events ranging from distance, jumps, relays, weights and sprints (as a college volunteer assistant at Hoover in 1952, Coxe even coached pole vaulters),” remembered Mesa distance runner Rich Cota.

“Dick Coxe was organized, structured, and focused,” said Cota.  “He took great pride in having well-rounded dual meet teams. To him, this proved your coaching ability.  Plus, there was a winner and a loser.”

The graduate of Hoover High and San Diego State developed, among dozens of others, 1972 Olympic long jump bronze medalist and 1976 Olympic gold medalist Arnie Robinson at Mesa, where Coxe’s  teams produced 15 state and 4 national community college champions from 1964-65 through 1981-82.

His first-year programs in 1964-65 at the school on Kearny Mesa won the Pacific Southwest Conference and state cross country championships in the fall and the conference track championship the following spring.

“I know I’m biased,” Cota said, “but I believe Coach Coxe thought his greatest accomplishment was winning the state cross-country title in ‘sixty-four, our first year.”

Included among Coxe’s  standouts were Bob Hose, who set an American community college record of 1:48.3 in the 880; Wesley Williams, and James King, who went on to become world-ranked 440-yard intermediate hurdlers.

Williams, who won the state 300 intermediate hurdles championship in 1967,  claimed  the National AAU indoor 600-yard title in 1974 and ’75 and King was the Pan American games winner in 1975.

Williams anchored the state mile relay championship quartet in 1968.  King was leadoff man in 1968 and the first runner on the title-winning 1969 foursome.

Bill Trujillo was a state individual champion in 1964 and

Mesa’s mile relay squad of Bill Millar, Jay Elbel, Wes Williams, and Harold Moore set a national community college indoor record of 3:20.9 in the inaugural 1966 San Diego Indoor Games.

A scholarship in Coxe’s name is being established at Mesa College, c/o Simone Sherrard, 7250 Mesa College Drive, San Diego, 92111.

El Camino was 58-81 through 2015 after Herb Meyer took his 339 career victories and walked into the coaching sunset in 2001.

Jerry Ralph is the Oceanside school’s fourth coach since Meyer stepped down and may have the Warriors positioned to end a run of mediocrity.

El Camino has had 4 winning seasons following Meyer, whose brilliant career started at Oceanside in 1958.

The Wildcats last week led Rancho Bernardo, the defending state Division III-A champion, 10-0, in the third quarter and 17-14 in the fourth, but a couple disastrous turnovers opened the door.

The Broncos of coach Tristan McCoy, playing at home before 5,000 blue-clad and logo-appareled loyalists, snatched the opportunity and pulled out a 28-17 victory.

HEAD COACH OF 5 TEAMS

Ralph was 16-17 in three seasons at Santana, 78-32-2 in nine at St. Augustine, 2-8 in a startup program at Del Norte, and 27-19 at long-dormant Hoover.

Can he do it at El Camino, where the tide rolled back to neighborhood rival Oceanside after the millennium?

Ralph, who holds the San Diego County record with five different head-coaching appointments, obviously learned as he moved along his coaching track.

Go where you can win.

Ralph’s best move may have been exiting Del Norte after one season (the Nighthawks have an all-time record of 24-44).

Legendary mentor Ed Burke, 243-95 at King City, Taft Union, San Dieguito, and Torrey Pines, may have said it best when he spoke with Ralph of the pain that usually accompanies a first-year school playing a varsity schedule:

“It’s something you will never forget and something you will never do again,” Burke said.

El Camino is a place where Ralph can win.

MILESTONES

Poway’s 43-19 win over Mount Miguel was the 100^th of coach Damian Gonzalez’ career.  Gonzalez is the 42^nd locally to earn that many victories.

Valley Center defeated Brawley for the 198^th victory in Rob Gilster’s coaching career.

Gilster was 63-43-3 from 1989-97 at Orange Glen, then opened Valley Center in 1998, and is 135-74-2 with the Jaguars.

Gonzalez, is 82-60-1 since 2004 at Poway, following a stint at Army-Navy, where Gonzalez was 18-22-2 from 1997-00.

Calipatria defeated visiting Maranatha for coach Mike Swearingen’s first win in 12 seasons.

Swearingen was 55-50-1 at Imperial and El Centro Southwest before going on hiatus after the 2005 campaign.

OUT OF TOWNERS, CON’T.

San Diego Section teams were 3-1 last week and are 7-6 overall in principal intersectional games.

Coronado dropped a 26-12 decision to Sun Valley Village Christian.  Cathedral topped Modesto Central Catholic, 28-25. Eastlake whipped Lake Forest El Toro, 41-21, and Helix beat Concord Clayton Valley, 13-0.

3 IN TOP 20

My weekly vote in the Union-Tribune Top 10 is different than the overall poll below, but is similar to that of  Cal-Hi Sports.

My No. 1 is Cathedral, followed by Helix, and St.Augustine.  Cal-Hi Sports  chose Cathedral No. 13 in its top 25, with Helix 19th, and St. Augustine 23rd.

Bubble teams include Rancho Bernardo, Oceanside, and Madison.

WEEK 3 TOP 10

First-place votes in parenthesis.
Points awarded on basis of 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.

Rank	Team	W-L	Points	Last Week
1.	St. Augustine (14)	2-0	249	1
2.	Helix (6)	1-1	231	2
3.	Cathedral (4)	2-0	218	3
4.	Oceanside  (2)	2-0	189	4
5.	Rancho Bernardo (1)	2-0	173	5
6.	Mission Hills	1-0	111	6
7.	Madison	1-1	95	7
8.	Mater Dei	2-0	80	9
9.	Poway	2-0	33	NR
10.	San Marcos	2-0	20	NR

Others receiving votes: Mt. Carmel (2-0, 15); Grossmont (2-0), El Camino (1-1), 11 each; La Costa Canyon (1-1, 10); Carlsbad (1-1), Eastlake (1-1), 4 each; Olympian (2-0), Valhalla (2-0), Santa Fe Christian (1-1), 1 each.

Twenty-seven sportswriters, sportscasters, and other representatives comprise the voting panel:

John Maffei, Union-Tribune. Terry Monahan, Don Norcross, Tom Saxe, Rick Hoff, Jim Lindgren,  Union-Tribune contributors. Michael Bower, Pomerado News. Lisa Lane, Fox 5 News. Montell Allen, MBA Sports-SDFNL Magazine. Brandon Stone, Rick Willis, KUSI, Channel 51. Adam Clark, Ted Mendenhall, Taylor Quellman, The Mighty 1090.Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Radio 107.9 FM. Bob Petinak, 1360 Radio. Bill Dickens, Adam Paul, Chris Davis, eastcountysports.com. Bodie DeSilva, sandiegopreps.com. Drew Smith, sdcoastalsports.com. Raymond Brown, sdfootball.net. Rick Smith, partletonsports.com. Steve Brand, San Diego Hall of Champions. Jerry Schniepp, John Labeta, CIF San Diego Section. John (Coach) Kentera, Prep Talent Evaluator.

 

 Grossmont School District superintendent Lewis Smith was one of the most ardent advocates of what could have been termed the “Free San Diego” movement in the late 1950s.

Smith and other educational and school board associates wanted out of the vast Southern Section and were instrumental in formation of the tiny, 28-school San Diego Section in 1960.

The mere mention of “Grossmont” was music to Smith’s ears.  The former Grossmont administrator naturally found no confusion in the name he selected for the league in which district schools would participate.

The circuit was known as the Grossmont League and, beginning in 1961, was the largest in the fledgling section.

EXPANDING

Two decades later the original seven-school alignment had grown to nine, having added Santana in 1965 and Valhalla in 1974.

Nine teams and eight league games were migraine-causing headaches for athletic directors and coaches charged with scheduling.

–A 10-week season allowed for only one pre-league game and one bye week.

–A mid- or late-season bye made it difficult and sometimes impossible to find opponents (Helix had to go on a long road trip to Dana Hills in the last week of the regular season).

–Grossmont basketball teams were forced to start league play ahead of the Christmas vacation, before the traditional start on the first Friday night in January.

But most nettlesome was a system that allowed the Grossmont only two berths in the San Diego Section playoffs, especially when compared to their County counterpart.

METRO REALIGNED

The Metropolitan League also had experienced growing pains, but in 1981 split into Mesa (large) and South Bay (small) leagues of five teams each under the Metropolitan Conference umbrella.

The move guaranteed the Metro four playoff berths in the 3-A and 2-A divisions, which were created to best address fluctuating school enrollment numbers and athletic performance.

The two Metros were getting 25 per cent of the 16 San Diego Section 3-A and 2-A entries. The Grossmont, competing only in 3-A, received 12.5 percent.

“We have the longest league season in the County,” said Granite Hills coach Paul Wargo.  “Every game counts. There are other schools who only have to worry about four league games.”

“We need a 2A-3A situation,” said Grossmont coach Lynn Cole on the eve of the first league game.

The Grossmont might have gone to 10 teams and separated into two, five-squad alignments had Christian joined in 1978, but a proposal did not pass.

“There are real inequities in our league (in enrollment and in athletic success),“said Helix coach Jim Arnaiz.  “But back a few years ago, when there was discussion, the straw vote always came out 5-4 against splitting. It’ll take some real concern to get the interest up again and I don’t hear that concern.”

FIRST LOSER IN POSTSEASON

The level of concern heightened for the Helix mentor and others in the Grossmont hierarchy when they saw that Bonita Vista, with a 3-7 record, but second in the Mesa League, was going to the postseason.

Something needed to be done.

Helix and Granite Hills, each with an 8-2 record, were not in the playoffs.

Mount Miguel, 9-1, and Monte Vista, 8-2 with wins over Helix and Granite  Hills, were the Grossmont representatives.

Bonita Vista meanwhile became the first losing team so anointed in the section’s 25-season history.

With cooperation of the CIF board of managers, the East County schools were able to solve the problem after addressing the issue for the first time in three years.

The nine schools divided in 1985 and managed to not change names, becoming the Grossmont 3-A and Grossmont 2-A leagues.

Lewis Smith smiled from high above.

 

 

 

 

Two things learned in Week 1:

Helix might be less and St. Augustine might be more.

The No. 1 Highlanders, ranked ninth in the state in Cal-Hi Sports’ preseason Top 25, was surprised, 28-21, by Timpview of Provo, Utah, in a home game that marked the debut of coach Robbie Owens.

Timpview is no chump, with a flock of state championships and a 115-18 record the last 10 seasons, but Helix, 102-22-2, in the last decade, figured to get the measure of a travel-weary squad that had come more than 700 miles.

The Scots are out of the top position in the San Diego Union–Tribune ratings and St. Augustine, No. 2 last week, moved to No. 1 after scoring a touchdown on every possession until taking a knee in the final minute of a running-clock, 62-13 rout of usually representative Ramona.

My only quibble with voting colleagues was their giving too much cred to Mission Hills, which defeated middling Los Angeles Crenshaw, 21-20, on the road.  The Grizzlies, perhaps living on their strong reputation, jumped from ninth to sixth.

Mission Hills’ rise bumped Madison from sixth to seventh, but the Warhawks on the road played tough Vista Murrieta, the Los Angeles’ Times‘ No. 7 team, 12-2 in 2015, to a 20-9 loss in a game tied, 6-6 at the half.

First-place votes in parenthesis.
Points awarded on basis of 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.

Rank	Team	W-L	Points	Last Week
1.	St. Augustine (11)	1-0	246	2
2.	Helix (9)	0-1	228	1
3.	Cathedral (3)	1-0	213	3
4.	Oceanside  (3)	1-0	196	4
5.	Rancho Bernardo (1)	1-0	168	5
6.	Mission Hills	1-0	98	9
7.	Madison	0-1	94	6
8.	La Costa Canyon	1-0	90	7
9.	Mater Dei	1-0	80	8
10.	Carlsbad	1-0	17	NR

Others receiving votes: Poway, 1-0, 15; 10, Grossmont, 1-0, 11; El Camino, 1-0, 8;  San Marcos, 1-0, 7; Torrey Pines, 1-0, 4;  El Capitan, 0-0, 1.

Twenty-seven sportswriters, sportscasters, and other representatives comprise the voting panel:

John Maffei, Union-Tribune. Terry Monahan, Don Norcross, Tom Saxe, Rick Hoff, Jim Lindgren,  Union-Tribune contributors. Michael Bower, Pomerado News. Lisa Lane, Fox 5 News. Montell Allen, MBA Sports-SDFNL Magazine. Brandon Stone, Rick Willis, KUSI, Channel 51. Adam Clark, Ted Mendenhall, Taylor Quellman, The Mighty 1090.Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Radio 107.9 FM. Bob Petinak, 1360 Radio. Bill Dickens, Adam Paul, Chris Davis, eastcountysports.com. Bodie DeSilva, sandiegopreps.com. Drew Smith, sdcoastalsports.com. Raymond Brown, sdfootball.net. Rick Smith, partletonsports.com. Steve Brand, San Diego Hall of Champions. Jerry Schniepp, John Labeta, CIF San Diego Section. John (Coach) Kentera, Prep Talent Evaluator.

OUT OF TOWNERS

Including the Helix and Madison defeats and Mission Hills’ victory, San Diego Section squads were 4-3 in major intersectional games.

Oceanside won, 51-42, at L.A. Times No. 25 San Clemente; La Costa Canyon topped visiting Whittier La Serna, 30-21;  Menifee Paloma Valley clobbered Rancho Buena Vista, 55-3, and Cathedral topped Nevada’s Reno Damonte, 49-12.

PLEASED TO MEET YOU

Visiting athletic directors and travel honchos may have resorted to Triple-A or a Global Positioning System last week.

Granite Hills’ 13-12, home-game victory over San Pasqual did not move the coyotes on nearby El Capitan to howl at the moon  but  provided an interesting footnote in the schools’ histories.

The game at Valley Stadium was the first between the squads, separated by 38 miles and 44 years.

Granite Hills and San Pasqual, both known as the Eagles, together had played more than 950 contests since San Pasqual first kicked off in 1972,  but they’d never met, in the regular season or playoffs.

The opening week exercise was the North County Eagles’ 496th game and the 456th in the same time frame for the East County Eagles.

OTHERS, TOO

Grossmont had never been to Morse before the Foothillers’ 31-12 victory, and they’d met only once in the previous 46 years, a 49-17 Grossmont victory in Aztec Bowl in quarterfinals of the 1970 playoffs.

La Jolla had not rolled with Montgomery since 1999 and Eastlake, around since 1993, finally played Rancho Bernardo.  Valhalla got acquainted with Scripps Ranch, which opened in 1994 and took on the Norsemen for the first time.

QUICK KICKS

Poway’s 33-14 victory over Bonita Vista marked the 99^th career victory for Titans coach Damian Gonzalez…41 area coaches have won at least 100 since Grossmont’s Jack Mashin became the first in 1947 (follow the “Football” drop down menu to “Coach 100 Wins”)…Cathedral was  23^rd and St. Augustine and Madison were teams on the bubble in Cal-Hi Sports’ Week 1 rankings….

Helix and St. Augustine are 1-2 in the first Union-Tribune football poll and that’s how they finished in 2015.

The Highlanders  and most of the rest of the San Diego Section open the season this week,  marking one the earliest starts in County history, probably preceded only by the Hawaii preseason trips that were popular a couple decades ago.

Helix, 13-1 at season ago, will waste no time getting into the thick of the intersectional spirit, taking on visiting Provo Timpview,  a Utah power that was 11-2 in 2015, and 12-2 Concord Clayton Valley at Mission Viejo in Week 2.

St. Augustine, 10-3 last year, eases in with a home game at Mesa College against Ramona (4-7).

Other Top 10 teams also have early opportunity against out-of-area opponents.

No. 3 Cathedral takes on visiting Reno Damonte (4-7).  No. 4 Oceanside visits San Clemente (11-3).  No. 6 Madison is at Vista Murrieta (12-2), and No. 7 La Costa Canyon plays host to Whittier La Serna (11-3). Los Angeles Crenshaw (9-5) goes to No. 9 Mission Hills.

MORE COACH MOVEMENT

Ar least five other San Diego Section schools have new coaches, bringing the total to 24 that have changed field bosses since the end of the 2015 season.

Mike Swearingen is back for a third stint in the Imperial Valley, taking over at Calipatria. Swearingen was 55-50-1 at Imperial from 1994-01 and El Centro Southwest from 2004-05.

Others stepping in  are Chris Bonta, Escondido Charter; Anthony Johnson, Horizon; Kyle Duggin, Maranatha, and Mark Dederian, San Pasqual Academy.

Stay tuned for possibly others.

First-place votes in parenthesis.
Points awarded on basis of 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.

Rank	Team	2015	Points	2015 Final
1.	Helix (23)	13-2	265	1
2.	St. Augustine (2)	10-3	203	2
3.	Cathedral (2)	7-5	197	8
4.	Oceanside	9-5	171	5
5.	Rancho Bernardo	13-2	164	4
6.	Madison	8-3	144	6
7.	La Costa Canyon	7-4	88	NR
8.	Master Dei	14-1	78	9
9.	Mission Hills	11-1	62	3
10.	Bonita Vista	12-3	43	7

Others receiving votes: Carlsbad (7-4, 10 points), Point Loma, 8-4, 10 points), El Camino (7-6), Grossmont (7-4), nine each; Eastlake (5-6, eight), Torrey Pines (4-8, seven), Poway (6-6, five), San Marcos (8-4, 3), Steele Canyon (8-5, two), El Capitan (2-9, one).

Twenty-seven sportswriters, sportscasters, and other representatives comprise the voting panel:

John Maffei, Union-Tribune.

Terry Monahan, Don Norcross, Tom Saxe, Rick Hoff, Jim Lindgren,  Union-Tribune contributors.

Michael Bower, Pomerado News.

Lisa Lane, Fox 5 News.

Montell Allen, MBA Sports-SDFNL Magazine.

Brandon Stone, Rick Willis, KUSI, Channel 51.

Adam Clark, Ted Mendenhall, Taylor Quellman, The Mighty 1090.

Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Radio 107.9 FM.

Bob Petinak, 1360 Radio.

Bill Dickens, Adam Paul, Chris Davis, eastcountysports.com.

Bodie DeSilva, sandiegopreps.com.

Drew Smith, sdcoastalsports.com.

Raymond Brown, sdfootball.net.

Rick Smith, partletonsports.com.

Steve Brand, San Diego Hall of Champions.

Jerry Schniepp, John Labeta, CIF San Diego Section.

John Kentera, Prep Talent Evaluator.

“City” Stadium, a horseshoe-shaped edifice with a declared  23,312 concrete seats, opened the previous spring in the back yard of San Diego High.

Coincidentally, football fortunes improved on the Hilltop.

Coach Clarence (Nibs) Price, 2-3-1 in his inaugural 1914 season, guided the school to its best record in the 23 years since the game was introduced here.

Price, from Iowa and the University of California, was more familiar with rugby when he was appointed coach but was learning fast.

The Hilltoppers finished with a 6-1-1 record, the best since 1891, and boasted a roster of underclassmen who would make 1916 one of the greatest in school history.

The stadium, built at the same time as many of the historic buildings in Balboa Park, was part of the Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1914, and gave San Diego High the advantage of playing at home.

Just not for the first game.

 

MONEY FORCES VENUE CHANGE

A San Diego-Coronado contest was scheduled, but the teams were forced to play on the island community’s polo grounds, later to become Coronado Country Club.

A dispute had arisen between the high school and the Park board, which demanded a $25 deposit and one-third of the gate receipts.

Meetings between the park entity and the school board resulted in compromise.

An agreement was made before the Hilltoppers’ next game against a Park Exposition Marine Corps team.

As reported in The San Diego Union:

“In the future the high school students will have the use of the grounds for their games by giving the park board due notice of their schedule of games. They will not be charged for use of the stadium, as (an agreement of) $60 per month will cover rental for contests where an admission fee would be charged.”

The $60 would be paid to a grounds-supervising “caretaker”, or stadium manager.

KARL’S DEED(S)

Karl Deeds, who went on to an outstanding career for the high school and played with several of his 1916 teammates at the University of California, scored the Hilltoppers’ first stadium touchdown.

The Park Exposition Marines led, 10-0, at halftime on a touchdown by an unidentified ball carrier and on a drop-kicked field goal from the 33-yard line by (no first name) Herman.

Trailing, 10-7, after Deeds’ short run for a score, San Diego pulled out the victory when George Howard policed a Marines fumble and raced 50 yards for a touchdown in the final three minutes.

BOWL GAME ATMOSPHERE

Student manager Renwick Thompson arranged for a large platform to be built in the stadium on Thanksgiving Day morning, before the game with Santa Ana.

The platform was decorated in the Hillers’ blue and white.  A program followed featuring Hawaiian music, Ragtime, syncopation, yells, cheers, and speakers that included principal Arthur Gould, coach Price, student body prez Ralph Noisat, and Thompson.

The morning festivities were only part of the Thanksgiving celebration.  As historian Don King wrote in Caver Conquest,  an “ear-splitting serpentine was formed at Sixth and B, wound its way through the downtown area, and finished up at the high school for a huge bonfire.”

More than 100 automobiles, or “machines,” as they also were called,  were part of the serpentine walk by students.

Oh, yes, the game.

“Togo” Shaw’s 35-yard field goal with about three minutes remaining gave the Hillers a 3-0 victory.

EARLY IMPRESSION NOT IMPRESSIVE

San Diego was 4-0 as it began preparation for Long Beach Poly, which had won 5 of the first 6 meetings since 1910 and had become the Hilltoppers’ main rival, along with Santa Ana.

An unnamed newspaper observer compared Price’s unbeaten squad to the group he saw before they played a game:

“Those who came out to see the first week of practice smothered an impulse to laugh and turned away with a sad shake of the head.  No chance, they said, the high school is out of the running with that bunch of hicks to defend their honor.”

Many players never had played the game before lining up for first time on a hot August afternoon.

JUPITER PLUVIUS*

*God of rain…and “rain-giver”.

The mythical figure ordered precipitation, lots of it, for two other, important games.

The Hillers boarded a 12:45 train north on Friday afternoon and received a wet and soggy greeting when they arrived in Long Beach. The field at Long Beach Poly the next day was laden with “four inches of mud,” according to one newspaper report.

Poly and San Diego fought to a 0-0 standoff.

San Diego had a choice for its first-round playoff versus Whittier: Play the game at distant L.A. High or at closer Santa Ana.

The Orange County venue was selected and the Hilltoppers and Cardinals went at it ankle deep in mud.  San Diego slipped and slid the most. Whittier won, 7-0.

(The Cardinals reward was a championship game against Pasadena, which prevailed, 50-0).

RULES AND REGULATIONS

The CIF Southern Section was created on March 29, 1913.

San Diego was a member  but, outside of local county entries Coronado, National City, Escondido, and Army-Navy, the Hilltoppers were about 90 miles from the closest possible opponent, in Orange or Riverside County.

“Machine” and train travel to Los Angeles was at least 4 hours.

Principal Gould and football manger Thompson attended a late afternoon meeting at Los Angeles High, at which officials for interscholastic games were selected and to settle dates and sites for proposed, upcoming games.

Gould and Thompson returned after learning that San Diego would not be invited to join the Southern California Football Conference.

Travel, as always, was an issue.

L.A. High had played the Hilltoppers at Bay View Park  in South San Diego on Christmas Day in each of the 1898 and 1899 seasons, but pulled out of a contest this season.

Romans officials stated that a game with the Hilltoppers was unattractive since it would not be a league encounter and that the gate wouldn’t cover expenses for an overnight trip from the Northern city.

SLOW START

The Southern Section struggled to gain traction.

Seth Van Patten, a former Escondido football and baseball coach, was the unofficial commissioner.  Van Patten worked with a budget of exactly $212.38 in the school year that ended in June.

Gaining the support of principals in the membership of 30-plus schools in five leagues was a challenge.

Van Patten and Los Angeles High principal E.W. Oliver spent much of their time trying to convince schools of the educational value of athletics and the CIF Southern Section.

Eligibility rules seemed simple, but….

In order to compete an athlete had to be 21 years or younger and passing in nine units of class work.  Post-graduates could not play and athletes had to have been at their school at least one semester.

A school caught using an ineligible player forfeited a game.

Age and transfer disputes were common…and still are, more than 100 years later.

SMACK TALK

Dean Mitchell of Coronado and George Blount of National City engaged in some unusual pregame coaching banter.

“They will be easy,” Mitchell said of the Red Devils.

“I’ll make the boys keep the score down to fifty,” said Blount.

Coronado won, 30-0.

SIGNS OF THE TIME

Holloween tomfoolery had local constables busy, according to The San Diego Union.

–An 8-year-old lad escaped after throwing a lemon through a plate-glass window of a residence at 27^th and A streets.

–Vandals leveled a row of fence posts at 16^th and M streets.

–Teenagers commandeered a large wagon and let the  vehicle loose at 16^th and C.  It drifted downhill for two blocks before the wagon tongue crashed into a house.

–A group of “colored girls” were arrested and then released after dressing up as men.

GROWING

San Diego High enrollment was almost 2,000 students in four grades.  Population within the city limits had grown from 18,000 at the turn of the century to approximately 50,000 in a decade in which there would be an 88 per cent increase.

HONORS

San Diego end Bryan (Pesky) Sprott made the all-Southern first team. Guard Lawrence Hall and back Karl Deeds made the second team.  Future major league baseball manager Fred Haney of Los Angeles Poly also was on the first squad.

TRUE GRID

Probably seeking a warm-weather trip, bosses at Butte High in Montana suggested a postseason game…the Bulldogs wanted expenses and a percentage of the gate, but the Hilltoppers declined…Pasadena was the power school…the Bullpups’ 50-0 win over Whittier in the first Southern Section championship resulted in their being named the state’s No. 1 squad…Pasadena also won the state swimming title….