Richard Morgan Hill, 62, passed away recently at Grossmont Hospital.

Few people would recognize the name.  He preferred being called Rick but was even better known to a couple generations of fans and media around here as “Red” Hill.

Helix High  coach Mike Muirhead introduced me to this Tom Sawyer-looking teenager  in 1970, when I still was covering high school track for the Evening Tribune and Rick was a fledgling journalist for the school’s Highland Fling newspaper.

Rick wasn’t cut to be a television anchor man or radio sportscaster, but that didn’t stop him from becoming an important and respected contributor on the San Diego sports beat.

“I first met Rick in ‘seventy-two,” remembered Union-Tribune writer John Maffei, then the sports information director at San Diego State. “He just came into my office and offered his services.

“I used him to get tape of coaches and players and we put it on a hot line (which people would call for updates on the Aztecs sports teams).

“One of the truly honest guys I’ve ever known,” said Maffei.  “He would do anything for you and never asked for anything in return.”

Three time zones away, in West Palm Beach, Florida, retired radio sports anchor and Chargers broadcaster John DeMott was moved to post on Facebook:

“I first met Rick in the early seventies. He was just a kid out of school. He loved sports and he worked so dilligently to become a peer of the San Diego sports media. He did anything and everything he could to find his niche.

“Rick decided he would fill the need for every thankless chore he could think of. He chased tape in locker rooms and at press conferences. He lugged equipment at remotes. He earned part-time pay from about every broadcast outlet that did sports, and for some of the teams as well.

“It got to a point where we all took Red Hill for granted, which I believe is exactly what he hoped would be the case,” DeMott wrote.  “The number of folks who Chris Binkowski tells us were at his memorial last night proves that. He was Red Hill and he was one of us. RIP, Rick.”

“The turnout for his service–Chargers, Padres, USD, San Diego State, radio, and TV people were there–can tell you how many people he touched in his life,” said Maffei.

Red traveled with the Chargers, covered  Super Bowls, and every big, San Diego-linked sports event during his time.

I used to make a simple announcement on the stadium press box microphone for many years during my time with the Chargers.  It was more like a brief page: “Red Hill.”

Although Hill was not a fan of the nickname,  he knew that we all respected him for what he worked so hard to  become, a professional.

Wither, Oceanside?

The 45-0 loss to Mission Hills last week shook the foundation of the dynastic program at the school overlooking the intersection of old U.S. 101 and Interstate 5.

It’s one thing to get blown out, but even in losses the Pirates have usually managed to score. Their dominance in  the  North County, though being challenged the last few years by onrushing Mission Hills, hasn’t been in question.

The loss marked  the Pirates’ first shutout  to a North County team in 130 games. Carlsbad blanked them, 28-0, in 2005.  No North County squad had scored that many points in 152 games.  Fallbrook ran off with  a  51-28 victory in 2003.

There have been occasional whopping defeats–El Camino routed John Carroll’s 1991 team, 63-27, for example, but the highest shutout margin had been 39-0 by Carlsbad in 1979.

Margins like 45-0 haven’t been accomplished by San Diego Section teams in 89 years. There were losses to Metropolitan League rivals Coronado, 47-0, and Sweetwater, 57-0, in 1926, the Oceanside’s first football season.

The Pirates will attempt to get their swashbuckling groove on this week against 1-5 Torrey Pines.  Mission Hills probably will run the table in the regular season if it gets past Rancho Bernardo.

Coach Chris Hauser’s Grizzlies close versus weak Del Norte, pedestrian Vista, and better-than-average San Marcos, a 28-10 loser to Oceanside in the opening game.

Mission Hills’ victory kept the Grizzlies atop the weekly Union-Tribune voting and they picked up two additional first place votes that had been held by Helix, which defeated Steele Canyon, 41-6.

Some shakeups above raised Mission Hills a notch to 14th in the Cal-Hi Sports state rankings.  Helix follows at 15th.  Cathedral, La Costa Canyon, and St. Augustine are among 30 others on the bubble.

Week 8 poll, after seven weeks of games:

Nonleague and intersectional games just about out of the way, 16 of the San Diego Section’s 19 leagues swing into action this week.

The Eastern, Metro Pacific and Metro South Bay tee up next week.

El Camino, 5-0, for the first time since 2000 in the days when Herb Meyer had the Wildcats on an 18-game winning streak, takes on La Costa Canyon, at 4-1, same as in 2014 before a 9-5 loss to El Camino signaled a flattening out to 6-6.

El Camino finished with a 10-3 record in 2000, unequaled since.  The winner of this Avocado West opener will feel pretty good about itself as it points to a late-season game with Oceanside.

The Pirates, 4-1 in their first season since 1988 without coach John Carroll holding sway, visit Mission Hills (5-0) in the annual, nonleague Battle of Highway 78.

Oceanside has come along well since a 49-13 loss to Washington power Sammamish Eastside Catholic in the season’s second game.  First-year coach Dave Rodriguez rallied the Pirates to victories over San Pasqual, Temecula Chaparral, and Rancho Buena Vista.

Westview should determine whether its contending or pretending, taking its 5-0 record  to Rancho Bernardo, which is 4-1 and the probable favorite in the Palomar circuit.

The Union-Tribiune poll this week revealed promising  matchups:   No. 1 Mission Hills and 3 Oceanside,  5 El Camino and 6 La Costa Canyon, and 7 Westview and  8 Rancho Bernardo.

DONS ON LONG TRIP

Cathedral has one more intersectional on its schedule, this week at Damonte Ranch of Reno, Nevada.

Coach Sean Doyle’s Dons are 3-3, with all losses to Cal-Hi Sports‘ state-ranked teams.

The Damonte Mustangs are 1-4, losing to Carson City Carson, 17-14;  Reno, 14-13; Placer of Auburn, California, 41-26, and Sparks Edward Reed, 58-39.  Damonte defeated Reno North Valleys, 52-6.

Week 7 poll, after six weeks of games:

Two readers of our website looked at our table showing  13 San Diego Section high school graduates in the NFL and found a couple glaring errors.

The NFL list of 1,696 players also included safety Tony Jefferson of Eastlake and kicker Jason Myers of Mater Dei, which we missed.

We also were alerted  to Larry Warford, but Warford graduated from high school in Kentucky after two years at Oceanside and was not identified as being from this area.

Two great running backs, Cathedral’s Tyler Gaffney and Escondido’s Ricky Seale, are getting paid by NFL teams, but Gaffney is on Injured Reserve with New England, and Seale was a game-day deactivation for Buffalo on opening weekend.

The annual NFL list includes the 32 teams’ 53-man active rosters on opening day.  So Gaffney and Seale, and possibly others, were not acknowledged.

The revised list with 15 names and a Partleton thanks to Greg Durrant, Richard Porter,  and Deontae Patterson:

GRIZZLIES AND HIGHLANDERS RATE

Mission Hills is 14th and Helix 15th in Division I in Cal-Hi Sports‘ weekly Top 10.

St. Augustine is sixth and Cathedral 10th in II.  Rancho Bernardo is on the bubble in II and Christian (III) and The Bishop’s (IV) are other bubble teams.

At the end of the regular season teams will be seeded for the state playoffs, possibly 1-25 from the North and 1-25 from the South.

According to commissioner Jerry Schniepp, the six division champions from San Diego will be invited from the South, along with 13 from the Southern Section and the rest from the L.A. City and Central Sections.

Section divisions will not be in play when the game pairings are formulated.

Helix is one of 12 schools in the country with at least 4 alumni players who made 2015 opening-day rosters in the NFL.

Thirteen San Diego Section graduates were active, down from the 16 of 2013, the last year we published this information from the NFL Communications Department.

Reggie Bush, Levine Loiolo, Alex Smith, and Jamar Taylor also represented Helix in the 2013 survey.

Saint Thomas Aquinas (alma mater of tennis’ Chris Evert and  all-pro receiver Michael Irvin of the Dallas Cowboys, among others) leads all U.S. high schools with 15 NFL players.

Cleveland Glenville (6), Miami Norland (6) and DeMatha Catholic of Hyattsville, Maryland (5), round out the top 4,

Calfornia’s Long Beach Poly, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, San Mateo Serra, Anaheim Servite, and Westlake Village Oaks Christian joined Helix with 4 each.

Oceanside and Mira Mesa each has 2, tying 155 schools.  There are 1,172  with 1 player.

Florida is the leading contributor with 204 players.  California was next with 203, followed by Texas (181) and Georgia (114).

Miami (31), Fort Lauderdale (20), Atlanta (16), and Houston (14) were leaders in the “hometown” category.  Los Angeles city had 10.

Alabama, with a population of 4,779,736, based on the 2010 U.S. Census, is the leader “per capita”  with one player for every 75,869 persons.

The pool of 1,668 NFL players in the U.S. population of 308,745,538 represented one player per 185,099 persons.