A couple newcomers led the shouting in a last hurrah for San Diego.

Area schools were preparing to leave the Southern Section after 47 years and embark on their own, 31 institutions forming the San Diego Section in the next school year.

Clairemont and El Capitan, numbers 30 and 31, ignored usually unsuccessful results for start-up programs.

Clairemont’s Chieftains, in their second year and without a senior class, with students and transfers from Kearny’s and Mission Bay’s enrollment districts, won the Western League track championship and bulldozed through four games in the baseball AA playoffs to another title.

El Capitan’s Vaqueros in Lakeside, sharing with another new school, Granite Hills, students from El Cajon Valley, won the Grossmont League baseball championship, finishing ahead of redoubtable Helix.

CAVERS MISS

San Diego High gained the Southern Section AAA finals in baseball, in which it had been dominant from the beginning of the CIF, but lost in its bid for a record 17^th championship when Whittier scored an 11-1 victory at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles.

Track http://1952-by-any-name-cavemen-cavers-hillers-broke-all-records/and field competition was as steady as usual, although the area was blanked in the state meet in Palo Alto.

Some 1960 highlights, baseball in regular typeface, track in italics:

2/20/60

Righthander John Lippert opened the season by pitching a no-hitter in Helix’ 1-0 victory over visiting Point Loma.

Ray Koenig’s seventh-inning home run provided the victory over the Pointers’ Ronnie Holmes, who allowed only two hits.

2/24/60

Fred Shuey hit a bases-loaded triple and Myron Morper drove in the winning run with a single in the bottom of the seventh inning as San Diego topped Point Loma, 5-4.

3/3/60

Lefthander Ronnie Holmes pitched a no-hitter and Point Loma gave the lefthander more offense than he needed in an 11-0 win over Coronado.

St. Augustine’s Dennis Shields pitched four innings of a 7-1 win over La Jolla and helped himself with three hits, two home runs and four runs batted in.

3/5/60

Darryl Nelson won three events, 120-yard high hurdles (:15.8), high jump (6-1 ½), and broad jump (20-11 ½) and would become a double or triple winner almost every week but Kearny dropped a 72-32 dual meet decision to Lincoln.

Dick Armstrong allowed three hits and drove in four runs as Hoover defeated visiting Alhambra Mark Keppel, 9-2.

Harold Peterson and Steve Simon hit home runs and San Diego erupted for six runs in the sixth inning to defeat guest San Gabriel, 14-9.

3/7/60

Dick Waisman of Mount Miguel and Dave Rebello of University pitched no-hitters and 10 losing teams in the County scored a total of 11 runs.

Waisman punched out Clairemont, 7-0.  Mountain Empire scored a run on a walk, two stolen bases, and an error but was beaten, 9-1.

3/14/60

Crawford’s Norm Marr tripled in a run in the sixth inning and drove in the winning run with a single in a 10-inning, 2-1 victory over Point Loma.

3/18/60

Point Loma’s Ron Steele was second in :49.5 in one of two, 440-yard dash heats in the 37^th Southern Counties’ Invitational at Huntington Beach. 

Steele’s time in the one-turn race, behind the :49.1 of Long Beach Poly’s Willie Martin, tied for the second fastest ever by an area runner.  San Diego’s Norman Stocks ran :49.3 in 1946 and Coronado’s John Fawcett :49.5 in 1937.
Lincoln’s Lafayette (Mackie) McIntosh was second in 1:58.3 in a large schools 880-yard run.  Point Loma’s Robert Nelson was third in the broad jump at 22-8 ¾.

Kearny’s Darryl Nelson tied for first in the small schools’ high jump at 6 feet, 3 ¼ inches and was second in the broad jump, won by Oceanside’s Rich Lazaro at 21-10 3/4.

3/25/60

A three-way tie in the pole vault was enough for Lincoln to score an upset, 53 2/3-50 1/3 victory over San Diego in the decisive Eastern League dual meet.

Lincoln trailed, 47 1/3-42 2/3, going into the final running event, the 880-yard relay.  Ed Goodman held off the Cavers’ Benny Lewis on the anchor lap for a 1:31.3 victory, but the pole vault had not been completed.

Jim Cransey and Adam Cato of Lincoln and San Diego’s Otis Doxey finally tied for first, each with the same number of misses, and the Hornets claimed 6 of the event’s nine points

Dave Morehead, who would pitch a no-hitter for the Boston Red Sox in 1965, was chased in a five-run San Diego first inning.

The Cavers went on to score two runs in the top of the seventh inning and defeat Hoover, 10-9, in a big Eastern League contest.

3/28/60

Gary (Slats) Maloy allowed five hits and went the distance in Crawford’s 7-6 victory over San Diego, which committed seven errors and fell into a first-place tie with Crawford, each at 3-1 in the East.

The loss was San Diego’s first in 10 games.

El Capitan improved to 9-0 by scoring a run in the bottom of the seventh inning to edge El Cajon Valley, 12-11.

The first-year Vaqueros were led by Danny Kern, who tripled and came home on an error for the winning run.  Kern added a single and double in four times at bat.

NO-HITTER BY CADETS

Jack Vincent and Ed Standon combined to no-hit San Miguel School in Army-Navy’s 14-0 win.

A 55-49 dual meet loss to Helix was San Diego’s third of the season, the most since the 1943 squad posted a 2-3 dual-meet record.

Helix’ Larry Aiken won both hurdles events and tied the 1957 school record of :20.0 by Gale Barsotti in the 180 lows.

4/2/60

San Diego outscored Grossmont, 50-44, with El Cajon Valley third at 38 points to win the large-school division of the sixth annual South Bay relays at Sweetwater.

Lincoln’s 53 points were enough to win the medium schools over Helix (51 1/3) and Point Loma (31 2/3). 

Mission Bay (61), Mar Vista (51), and Kearny (36) were the leading small schools.

Grossmont’s Don Clarke cleared 13-2 ½ in the pole vault, bettering by almost nine inches the record of 12-5 /12 by Escondido’s Bing Howe in 1959.

A San Diego team of Charles Dimry, Thomas Phillips, Emile Wright, and William Dentham raced the 440-yard relay in :42.7.

The Cavers’ time in the infrequently run event was the fastest in County history but was erased, along with other marks, after a survey of the Sweetwater track years later showed the oval was less than 440 yards.

4/8/60

Bill Jones cleared 6-3 ½ in the high jump to break Joe Page’s school record of 6-3, set in 1947, and Grossmont won the big meet in the foothills, 57 ½-46 ½ over Helix.

Don Hamlin :10.3, :22.2 in the 100 and 220-yard dashes, and Dennis Cradit, :51.6, 21-4 ½ in the 440 and broad jump, were double winners for the Foothillers.

Hamlin, Steve Adams, Dick Pray, and Cradit combined to run 1:32.1 to win the 880-yard relay. 

Grossmont improved to 6-0 and Helix slipped to 5-1.

4/11/60

Don Dart of Grossmont pitched a no-hitter in setting down Lincoln, 3-0, on the first day of the 10th annual Lions’ Tournament at Navy Field.

Hoover topped Escondido, 1-0, in eight innings and was the only city school of six to win an Unlimited Division game.

Kearny won its Limited Division opener, 8-3 over Coronado.

4/12/60

Tournament teams played doubleheaders on the second day of the three-day event.

Defending Unlimited Division champion San Diego shut out by El Cajon Valley, 2-0, on opening day, was bounced from the consolation bracket by St. Augustine, 3-2.

4/13/60

Sophomore George Sherrod cuffed Hoover on two hits and Helix won the Lions’ Unlimited Division title, 5-0.

El Centro Central beat Kearny, 7-2, for the Limited championship, while St. Augustine, 2-1 in eight innings over Escondido, and San Dieguito, 7-4 over Coronado, won the respective division consolation titles.

4/15/60

Competitors from San Diego to Yuma, Arizona, converged on Balboa Stadium for the first annual Easter Relays.

Mike Graves of El Cajon Valley cleared 13 feet, 6 ¼ inches in the pole vault for the day’s outstanding mark. 

Graves’ performance allowed the Braves to tie Grossmont at the three-man cumulative height of 37 feet and earn the schools the Dean C.E. Peterson perpetual trophy in honor of the late San Diego State coach.

4/20/60

Bill Froehling hurled a no-hitter as Army-Navy shut down visiting Mountain Empire, 9-0.

4/22/60

San Diego outlasted visiting Hoover, 13-12.  The Cardinals’ Dave Morehead pitched in the first inning, was removed and went to first base and then returned to pitch in the fourth inning.

4/26/60

Jim Thompson’s two-run home run was important in San Diego’s 8-7 win over Crawford, and moved the Cavers closer to the Eastern League title, its 7-1 record three games better than runner-up Hoover (4-4).

4/29/60

Favored Point Loma was shocked by first-year Clairemont, which won the 880-yard relay, the meet’s deciding event, and claimed the Western League dual meet championship, 53-51.
Lanky Jim Godfrey got up for second in the 100-yard dash, won the 220-yard dash in a County-leading :21.7, and anchored the Chiefs to a 1:31.2 victory in the battle of baton exchanges.

Clairemont’s surprising win was especially satisfying for coach Bob Kirchhoff, who had been out of the loop since being let go at Hoover after a stunning football loss to San Diego in 1954.

A City Schools administrator and parent of a Clairemont thinclad had asked the reluctant Kirchhoff to take the coaching reins as a personal favor.

Helix (9-3) walloped El Capitan (10-0), 14-6, in a Metropolitan League battle as Randy Schwartz and Ray Koenig hit home runs.

5/6/60

League finals were held at Camp Pendleton (Southern), El Cajon Valley (Metropolitan), La Jolla (Western), and Balboa Stadium (Eastern).

San Diego, despite losing leading 220-440-and-relay anchorman Benny Lewis to scholastic woes, dominated with 79 1/3 points to runner-up Lincoln’s 51. A Cavers foursome of Thomas Phillips, Emile Wright, Eddie Frost, and Bill Dentham timed 1:29.5 in the 880 relay.

Darryl Nelson set a Western League meet record of 6-3 ½ in the high jump but Clairemont won the team title with 54 5/6 points to Mission Bay’s 43 1/3.

Point Loma’s Ray Alexander ran faster than any city-wide Class C sprint ever with winning times of :10 in the 100 and :18.3 in the 180.

Grossmont, 8-0 in the dual meet season, with wins over Compton Centennial, Helix, and San Diego, outscored Helix, 41-38 for the varsity championship.

El Capitan improved to 12-2 in the Metro League with a 12-3 win over Escondido that included John  Udall’s eighth home run of the year and Al Hinkle’s 5-for-5, three doubles, a triple and single.

Point Loma clinched a tie for first for the Western League crown behind Jerry Jeli’s two-hit pitching and 6-0 win over La Jolla.

5/14/60

Athletes from the Eastern, Western, Metropolitan, Avocado, and Southern leagues met those from the Orange County Sunset, Freeway, and Orange leagues in a Southern California divisional meet in Balboa Stadium.

El Cajon Valley’s Mike Graves, the Southern California pole vault leader at 13-8 ½, dropped down to Class B and cleared the same height, breaking the record of 13-6 ¼ by a Glendale vaulter in 1957.

San Diego led with 7 varsity qualifiers.  Fullerton and Tustin had five each.

5/17/60

Clairemont, runner-up to Point Loma in the Western loop, topped Vista, 6-0, in a first-round, Southern Section AA playoff as Ron Power tripled and hit a two-run homer.

5/20/60

Dave Morehead shut out El Capitan, 9-0, in a surprising Southern Section AAA playoff result.  The Cardinals, in and out all season, rolled with Morehead’s three-hit pitching and stunned the first-year Vaqueros, who were 14-2 in the Metropolitan League.

San Diego outlasted Helix, 10-8, as Steve Simon was 3 for 4 and pitcher Larry Murillo 2 for 3.

Clairemont advanced with an 18-5 win over Torrance Bishop Montgomery in Class AA.

Riverside Ramona ousted the Southern League’s Ramona, 11-8, in Class A.

5/21/60

San Diego qualified five entries in the semifinal divisional meet at Chaffey high in Ontario, led by its relay team, which clocked a season-best 1:28.9.

Kearny’s Darryl Nelson led all high jumpers at 6-4 and San Diego’s Thomas Phillips won a 100-yard dah heat in :10 and was second in his 220 heat.

5/24/60

Clairemont earned a trip to the Southern Section AA finals with a 6-3 victory over Santa Ana Mater Dei at Anaheim.

Bill Black’s three-run homer in the fourth inning broke a 2-2 tie in the Chieftains victory.

San Diego advanced to the AAA quarterfinals with a 6-1 win at Compton as lefthander Larry Murillo and last-inning reliefer Frank Lopez set down the Tarbabes on 3 hits.

About 30 professional scouts descended on San Diego State to watch future major league pitchers Dave Morehead of Hoover and Tommy Sisk of Long Beach Poly.

Sisk and the Jackrabbits turned back the Cardinals, 3-1, on Brian McCall’s two-run home run in the fifth inning.

5/27/60

Clairemont, coached by Ernie Beck,  struck with five runs in the first inning as Mike Smith and Jay Critchley hit back-to-back home runs and lefthander Jerry Haight limited Rosemead Bosco Tech to four hits for six innings in a 9-2 win and surprising Southern Section championship.

San Diego High advanced again behind the two-hit pitching of Larry Murillo and surprised the favored and host Fullerton Indians, 11-2, in the semifinals round.

Murillo allowed two hits and first baseman Jim Thompson drove in four runs with a single, double, and triple.

5/28/60

Thomas Phillips of San Diego ran the 100 in :09.9 for third and Darryl Nelson of Kearny was third with a 6-4 1/2 high jump in the Southern Section finals at Long Beach Veterans’ Stadium.

Phillips and Nelson each qualified for the state meet at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto. 

El Capitan’s Les Cites was fourth in the shot put at 58-2 ¼.

More impressive were some lower division competitors.

Vernie King of San Diego set a Class B broad jump record of 23-10 ¾ and won the 120-yard low hurdles in :12.8. El Cajon Valley’s Mike Graves cleared 14 feet in the pole vault, bettering his record of 13-8 ½, set two weeks before.

Lincoln’s Class B 660-yard relay team of James (Preacher) Johnson, Walter Scott, Ed Goodman and Vernus Ragsdale, won in 1:07.9, off their best of 1:06.3 but also qualifying the group to run in an exhibition 660 at Palo Alto.

Ray DeBolt represented a third new County high school, Granite Hills, located about a mile east of El Cajon Valley, and won the B 660-yard run in 1:23.6.

6/4/60

Lincoln’s B 660-yard speedsters bettered the national high school record of 1:05.9, running 1:05.7 but Los Angeles Freemont won the exhibition race in 1:04.9.

Thomas Phillips of San Diego and Darryl Nelson of Kearny did not place in the 100 or high jump. 

Larry Murillo’s bid for a fourth straight playoff pitching victory and San Diego High’s attempt to win its 17^th championship since 1917 came up short.

Whittier took a 5-0 lead after two innings and cruised to an 11-1 triumph at Los Angeles’ Wrigley Field.

The Cavers, under first-year coach Jerry Dahms, posted an overall record of 23-4 and came much further than expected to this, the last competition of San Diego County teams in the Southern Section.

 

Grossmont was the  champion in baseball.  San Diego High was the champion in track and field…for three days.

San Diego lost a title after a review of film from the 440-yard race in the Southern Section finals revealed that Hal Espy had finished fifth and not fourth, taking away a point from the Cavemen and awarding the team championship to Glendale Hoover, Glendale, and Compton.

The winners tied with 15 points each, edging the stunned Cavers, who had 14 ½.

BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

Grossmont, picked below San Diego and La Jolla in early-season City Prep League forecasts and a non-factor in previous races in the Coast League, rode the strong arms of its pitching staff, headed by left-hander Ray Preston, to win the Southern Section title.

Splitting the sports with regular and italics typefaces:

3/5/51

Clyde Wetter, his eye on Hal Norris’ 1950 school record of 58-2 1/2, took the Southern California lead in the 12-pound shot when he reached 56 feet, 4 ¾ inches, in a 66-38, dual meet win over visiting Sweetwater.

3/8/51

San Diego and La Jolla tied for first in the City Prep League Relays in Balboa Stadium, each with 51 ½ points, followed by Grossmont with 45.

All marks were combined. Distances were cumulative.  Teams could enter three in each event and their performances were combined.

An individual record was set when San Diego’s Hal Espy ran the 100-yard dash in :10.0.

3/9/51

San Diego Lions Club announced it was sponsoring a three-day, first annual baseball tournament of sixteen teams, including outside teams Anaheim, Brawley, El Monte, and Norwalk Excelsior.

San Diego and La Jolla were seeded No. 1 and No. 2, followed by Excelsior and El Monte.

Metropolitan League boss Joe Rindone, principal at Chula Vista, announced a double-round robin baseball schedule, highlighted by the annual carnival April 27 at Lane Field. 

John Green was named coach at Sweetwater, replacing Bruce Clarke, called to active duty by the Marine Corps in response to the war in Korea.

Other new Metro coaches included Bob Ganger at Mar Vista and John MacDonald at Oceanside.  Bill Duncan returned at Escondido and Chet DeVore at Chula Vista.  Coronado did not field a team.

3/11/51

Coronado was awaiting the results of its “telegraphic” track meet with Balboa High of the Panama Canal Zone.

3/14/51

Clyde Wetter took the national lead in the shot put at 58 feet, 3/8 inches, as Grossmont outscored Kearny, 73-31.

“A shot putter relies on the wrist snap for great power and distance,” the 5-foot, 8-inch, 180-pound Wetter told Gene Earl of The San Diego Union, “but strong fingers are just as important, to keep the ball from slipping while being released.”

Wetter revealed that part of his exercise regimen is standing several feet from a wall and falling against it with all fingers extended and kept straight to prevent flex.

–San Diego won an early City League dual-meet showdown against La Jolla, 61 2/3-42 1/3.

The Vikings’ Joe Epps and San Diego’s Hal Espy were double winners in the 120-yard high hurdles and 180 low hurdles and 100 and 440-yard races, respectively.

Espy also anchored the Cavers to a 1:32.4 victory in the 880-yard relay and Frank Johnson won the broad jump at 22-6.

–Lincoln Lucero set a Point Loma record of :20.3 in the 180 lows, but Hoover won, 53 1/3-50 2/3.

3/16/51

San Diego and La Jolla made the Lions seeding committee look good by reaching the championship game, the Cavers 22-1 over Oceanside and 6-3 over El Monte. 

La Jolla advanced, 5-4 over Escondido and 3-2 over Grossmont.

Doug Hubacek’s 3-run homer in the last of the seventh inning ousted El Monte and Tom Tomaiko scored on Bill Whitson’s single in the 10^th inning to top Grossmont.

3/17/51

San Diego outscored Long Beach Poly, 32 4/15 to 29, to win the large-school team championship for the third consecutive year in the 30^th Southern Counties’ Invitational at Huntington Beach.

Newport Harbor won the small schools division with 30 points, followed by Covina (24) and Kearny (21 3/5).

Several running events in the crowded field included two heats.

–Walter (Red) Taylor won his heat in the 100 in :10.2, followed by Hal Espy, who also anchored the San Diego 880-yard relay squad to victory in one of three races.

–Clyde Wetter broke Hal Norris’ meet record (56-3/4) with a 57-9 ¾ effort, almost 7 feet further than Ontario Chaffey’s Don Vick, who would set a national record in 1953.

–John Rushing of Kearny won the 180 lows in :19.7 and La Jolla’s Joe Epps took a heat in the 440 in :52.

–Don Hydrick of Chula won a division of the pole vault at 12-3.

La Jolla’s Bill Whitson was tournament most-valuable player as the Vikings defeated San Diego, 5-3, for the Lions title at Lane Field.

Whitson struck out 10, walked one, allowed five hits, and profited from three double plays.

Kearny won the consolation bracket, 19-0, over St. Augustine in the morning championship at San Diego High.

3/18/51

Because of a San Diego City League ruling that no school could compete or practice during the Easter week, there would be no teams in the upcoming, Pomona 20-30 Club tournament, which San Diego High had won 7 times in the event’s 16-season- history. 

Escondido would be the County’s lone representative.

3/28/51

Oceanside won seven of 12 events and Bob Penrod took the 100 in :10.1 and set a school record of :22 seconds in the 220, but Chula Vista claimed the Metropolitan League dual, 55-49.

3/30/51

John Rushing of Kearny ignored blustery weather and won three events and anchored the relay team to victory in the meet’s final event as the Komets edged Point Loma, 54-49.

The 1:35.4 victory in the two-lap exchange of batons broke a 49-49 tie.  Rushing also won the 100 in :10.4, 180 lows in :20.6, and broad Jump at 21-2 ½.

Bill Whitson struck out 16 and didn’t allow a hit and La Jolla won its CPL opener, 11-0, over Point Loma.

Pointers base runners were by a walk and two errors.

–Charlie Powell hit a 400-foot home run and Eddie Boyle doubled in two runs in the sixth inning as San Diego topped Kearny, 5-4. 

San Diego sophomore Bob Borovicka came on in the sixth and struck out 10 of the 15 batters he faced, allowed three hits and two walks, and tagged out a Kearny runner at the plate for the final out of the game.

4/3/51

Kearny beat La Jolla, 5-4, but the Vikings’ Bill Whitson, in a three-inning relief appearance, faced the minimum 9 batters and struck out 5. 

–Grossmont outscored San Diego, 7-2, in what was inaccurately described as an upset.

Grossmont coach John Hancock’s signature pitcher, Ray Preston, set down the Hillers on seven hits and drove in a run with a third-inning single.

–San Diego’s junior varsity defeated Grossmont’s JV, 22-0.

4/12/51

Grossmont (4-0) was pulling away in the CPL baseball race, routing challenger Kearny (2-2), 14-4. 

Ray Preston, the Foothillers’ pitching ace, moved over to first base and collected four hits, including two home runs, a double and single.

4/14/51

Grossmont walloped La Jolla, 11-0, as Ray Preston struck out 18 and allowed two singles to Vikings shortstop Art Luppino.

The Foothillers finished the first half of the CPL race with a 5-0 record. San Diego was 4-1 and Lions tournament champion La Jolla was 1-4.

–La Jolla’s Joe Epps and Bill Lawrence posted CPL season highs in the Vikings’ 67-37 win over Point Loma.  Epps cleared the 120 high hurdles in :15.0 and Lawrence traversed the mile in 4:46.6.

–John Parker led the way with a 22-6 broad jump and San Diego teammates Alex Hudson and Frank Johnson also spanned at least 22 feet in an 87-16 win over Kearny.

–Kearny high jumper Danny Bain became the first in the City League to clear 6 feet.

4/20/51

Sweetwater claimed the Metropolitan League dual meet championship, 66 ½-37 ½, at Chula Vista.

The Red Devils won 9 of 11 events and John Palhegyi tied a school record of :22.2 in the 220 on the Chula Vista straightaway.

–No score was reported, only that San Diego topped Point Loma for a 5-0 dual meet record.

–Coach Bill Patten’s Cavers had won 22 consecutive dual meets, dating to a 57-47 loss to Grossmont in the opening dual of the 1948 season.

4/20/51

Art Webber of La Jolla no-hit Point Loma, 6-2, overcoming seven bases on balls and four Vikings errors.

4/24/51

Grossmont closed in on the CPL baseball title, 5-0, at San Diego.  The Foothillers were 7-0, Cavemen 5-2.

4/27/51

San Diego, as expected, cruised to the City Prep League team championship with 73 ½ points, followed by Grossmont (34 3/4) and La Jolla (33 ½) before about 1,000 persons in Balboa Stadium.

–Joe Epps of La Jolla was a double winner in the high hurdles (:15.3) and 440 (:52).

–San Diego finished 1-2-3 in the broad jump, led by Alex Hudson’s 21-10 ½.

–Clyde Wetter won the shot put at 57- ¾, but had some competition from San Diego’s dual-sport star Charlie Powell, second at 55-11 ¾.

–Bernie Nelson, a Class B performer at Hoover, took the area lead in the high jump when he cleared 6-1 13/16.

A crowd of 2,000 attended the Metro League carnival at Lane Field and saw San Dieguito, Oceanside, and Sweetwater emerge as winners.  . 

–Teams played three innings each.  Mar Vista, Escondido, and Chula Vista were losers.

–Sweetwater’s Dick Walker pitched two hitless innings, and struck out five as the Red Devils beat Chula Vista, 1-0 in the final three innings.

–San Dieguito, borrowed from the Southern Prep League, was a 4-0 winner over Mar Vista and Oceanside beat Escondido, 4-3

4/28/51

Postponed twice, the Metropolitan loop trials at Chula Vista were dominated by Sweetwater with 17 qualifiers, followed by Escondido, 12, and Chula Vista, 9.

–The weather again was cold and blustery but did not hinder Mar Vista hurdler John Poole, who ran :15.3 in the 120 highs.  Dave Binney of Chula Vista recorded a 4:45.6 mile.

4/30/51

San Dieguito ran away with the Southern Prep League title with 103 ½ points, but Bob Knapp of Army-Navy set the only meet record with a 49-foot shot put.

5/1/51

Sweetwater won five events and scored 56 ½ points to win the Metropolitan championship.  Chula Vista was second with 31 ½, followed by Escondido, 29.

Sweetwater’s Jim Seebold won the 440 in :53.4 and was second in the 100.  Teammate Ted Granger was first in the 180 low hurdles (:21) and second to Mar Vista’s John Poole, who won the high hurdles in :15.3.

Oceanside’s Bob Penrod doubled in the sprints with a :10.4 100 and :22.4 220.

No meet records were broken but Sweetwater set a school record with its 1:34.4 victory in the 880 relay and Chula Vista’s Don Hydrick cleared 12-5 1/8 in the pole vault.

5/4/51

Ray Preston pitched a 3-1 victory over La Jolla as Grossmont (8-0) clinched the CPL title..

San Diego dropped a 10-inning, 4-3 decision to Hoover on Dick Pomeroy’s single after the Hillers’ Carl Lutz tied the score in the ninth with a two-run home run.

5/5/51

John Parker broad jumped 23-9½ to take the state lead and break Bob Logan’s 1938 school record of 23-6 3/4 as San Diego High led with 11 qualifiers at the Huntington Beach divisional meet.

Three-hundred athletes competed from San Diego’s three leagues, City, Metro, and Southern Prep, along with qualifiers from the Orange and Sunset circuits.

Hal Espy doubled with wins in the 100 (:10) and 440 (:51.9).  Haldon Grey and Walter Taylor were disqualified for false starts in the 100 and the relay team was bumped for a lane violation. Grey recovered to win his heat in :22 in the 220.

–Oceanside’s Bob Penrod won a 220 heat in:22.1 and John Rushing of Kearny doubled in the Class B hurdles with times of :09.1 in the 70-yard highs and :13.1 in 120 lows.

–Forty-eight of the 108 San Diego County entries from league finals qualified to move on to the divisional semifinals at Ontario Chaffey.

5/8/51

Ray Preston struck out 19 batters and didn’t allow a hit in a 21-0 rout of Point Loma.  The Foothillers were 9-1 in league play, San Diego 7-3.

–This was the 35^th and final season the Cavers played home games in Balboa Stadium. They would move to the upper practice field north of the Stadium in 1952.

–Chula Vista shut out Sweetwater, 8-0, as Chuck Phinney pitched a no-hitter.  Escondido claimed the Metro championship with a 5-2 record.

5/12/51

Twenty-two athletes from San Diego’s 3 leagues qualified in semifinals at Chaffey.

San Diego led with six advancers in three events.  Hal Espy won his heat in the 440 in :50.4, off the school record of :49.3 by Norman Stocks in 1946 but unofficially the fifth fastest in area history.

More significant was Clyde Wetter’s losing his first competition of the season, beaten by the Cavers’ Charlie Powell, who had turned in his baseball uniform only four days earlier.

Powell’s winning toss was 56-3 to Wetter’s 56 feet.

5/19/51

San Diego thought it had won the team championship with 15 ½ points.  Glendale Hoover, Glendale, and Compton had 15 each.

The Cavers scored their points early and held on.

John Parker won the  broad jump at 23-3, followed by Compton’s Rollin Garrison, 23-2 ¼, and Parker’s teammates, Frank Johnson, third at 22-1 ¾ and Alex Hudson, tied for fourth at 22-1. When Espy was awarded fourth in the 440 more than half the meet remained.

–Wetter won the shot put with a school-record 58-4 7/8 and Powell was runner-up with 57-9 ¼, topping the school mark of 55-2 ¼ by Bob Van Doren in 1948.

–Others included Joe Epps of La Jolla, fourth in the 120 high hurdles; Bob Penrod of Oceanside 4^th in the 220, and Don Hydrick, Chula Vista, tied for fifth in the pole vault vault at 12 feet.

–Kearny’s John Rushing tied the Class B record of :08.9 in the 70 hurdles and won the 120 lows in :13.2.

Grossmont opened the Southern Section playoffs with a 5-2 win at Santa Ana.  Ray Preston stopped the Saints on 3 hits and 14 strikeouts to improve his record to 8-0.  Preston also singled, doubled twice, and hit a home run.

5/23/51

Grossmont won its semifinal playoff versus visiting El Monte, 9-4, as Preston allowed five hits and struck out seven and his battery mate, Bob Rand, and Bill Harris homered.

5/25/51

Escondido, having beaten Wildomar Elsinore and Holtville, was three outs away from the Southern Section minor division crown, leading 6-4, but bowed to Bonita, 7-6, at Fullerton.

5/26/51

Clyde Wetter was second to Leon Patterson of Taft with a best of 57-8 ½ to Patterson’s 59-2 ½ in the state meet in Berkeley.  Charlie Powell was fourth in the shot put at 54-7 ½ and John Parker fifth in the broad jump at 21-4 1/4.

5/26/51

Ray Preston (10-0) struck out 16 and allowed 2 hits as Grossmont won the Southern Section major division, 5-0, over Compton, before about 1,000 persons at Lane Field. 

Preston, finishing his season with a 10-0 record, beat future major leaguer Benny Daniels, who struck out eight and walked eight.

The Foothillers’ Bill Harris, 2 for 3, and sophomore Ernie Merk, 2 for 4, backed Preston.

STRIKES AND SPIKES

San Diego sprinter Hal Espy entered the Air Force after graduation and then enrolled at Idaho State, where he became a national collegiate boxing champion…Point Loma’s coach was Bennie Edens, later one of the County’s all-time winningest football mentors…Metropolitan League principals, at a meeting at Coronado, announced that ticket prices for football and basketball in the 1951-52 school year, would be increased to 80 cents for adults, while students still would pay 30 cents…Jim Hunt was an all-around contributor at Hoover, scoring in the high jump, 880-yard run, and hurdles…his son, Thom, was one of the nation’s top milers a generation later at Patrick Henry…shot putter Clyde Wetter was one of five brothers and two sisters of a La Mesa family whose father was a grocery store butcher…Ray Preston and Bob Rand were all-Southern California first-team selections….

Next month, on Feb. 14 [2017], will mark the seventh year since we undertook a challenge.

I wanted to write the history of San Diego County high school football.

That’s where my career started and where it will end.

Well, I didn’t write the history (that is almost infinite), but I gave it a shot.

I attempted to write a narrative about each season. More than 100.

I just counted.

The number includes all seasons from 1914 forward.  I combined the years 1891 to 1913.

Almost all of the narratives are broken into short subjects, vignettes and photographs (pictures mostly from rustic and ragged microfilm at several Southern California sources).

Some years, like 1955, include multiple entries and, starting in 2013, football was covered on a week-to-week basis.

Most seasons usually required an average of about 2,000 words, although there are some with less and many with more.

My superstar writing friend Dave Kindred told me, “It wouldn’t sell and it would be too long,” when I suggested to David that maybe I’d write a book about this parochial subject.

He was right on both counts. But thanks to Henrik Jonson, my cyber guru, we put together a web site:  Partletonsports.com.

Partleton was the name on my father’s birth certificate when he was born in Barbados, “Little England” as it was known.

Dad changed his last name to Smith after he entered the United States following service in the Canadian army in World War I.

I asked him often why he hadn’t been more inventive. He could have changed his name to Jones.

I’m going to continue looking for nuggets of information in football, basketball, track and field, and probably baseball.

It’s a labor of love and in retirement you have to have interests.  I’ve got season tickets to San Diego State basketball and I catch a prep football or basketball game every week.

That and trying to keep Susie happy and watching our 4 grandsons grow up.

Paul Douglas (Pete) Jernigan, one of the San Diego area’s most accomplished athletes and coaches, passed away recently at his home in Hereford, Arizona.

Jernigan, 75, played 10 seasons of professional baseball and later coached successful high school and Under 18 softball teams.

He was named “Mr. Youth Sports” by the El Cajon Parks and Recreation Department in 1984 for his contributions to girls’ athletics.

Jernigan’s teams at Santana and El Capitan posted a combined record of 118-41-4.  Santana won the San Diego Section championship in 1984 and El Capitan was runner-up in 1987.

Jernigan was a standout in football, wrestling, and baseball at Mount Miguel High, class of 1959.

After a season at San Diego Junior College, Jernigan signed with the Boston Red Sox in 1960, and was one of the Red prize minor league prospects.

Jernigan hit .342 with 19 home runs and 77 RBI in 62 games for Alpine in the Sophomore League in 1960.

His average was a combined .347 at Waterloo in the Midwest League and Johnstown in the Eastern League in 1961.

Jernigan played most of his career with Seattle and Phoenix in the AAA Pacific Coast League.

He hit .303 in 115 games with 10 home runs and 56 runs batted in for the Phoenix Giants in 1967 and retired after the 1969 season..

 

Lewis Edward Sanclemente, 92, passed away  recently, leaving behind a multitude of friends and admirers and memories of a lifetime spent in or around baseball.

Ed Sanclemente grew up near the University Heights playground, where he shagged baseballs for young slugger Ted Williams and honed a game that would take Sanclemente to national championships on two levels.

Sanclemente played for coach Mike Morrow at San  Diego High and was the starting third baseman on Morrow’s 1941 Post 6 American Legion squad that swept Berwyn, Illinois, in a three-game series at Lane Field in San Diego.

After playing third base and shortstop at the University of California in 1943-44, Sanclemente served in the U.S. Navy and then returned to Cal and was the Bears’ third baseman on the 1947 team that won the first College World Series.

Sanclemente batted .369 during the 1947 regular season and was 4 for 10 with 4 runs batted in as California swept Yale in a two-game series for the national championship.

Sanclemente played two seasons of professional baseball. He taught and served in administrative capacities at South San Francisco High and for the San Francisco Olympic Club before returning to San  Diego and coaching baseball at La Jolla High in 1956.

Mike Morrow appointed Sanclemente to the coaching staff at San Diego Junior College in 1957.  Sanclemente  succeeded Morrow as head coach  in  1958, when Morrow started the University of San Diego program.

Ed’s success on the two-year college level included conference championships at San Diego J.C., later known as San Diego City, and at Mesa College, where Sanclemente was the Olympians’ first coach when the school opened in  1964.

Dozens of Sanclemente’s players signed professional contracts, some reached the major leagues, and many became coaches and athletic administrators.

Groups of 10-15 former players honored Sanclemente every Thursday for years.  They were his hosts for breakfast at D.Z. Akins restaurant on Alvarado Road.

SWUNG A MEAN RACQUET

Ed Sanclemente made a name for himself on the tennis courts at University Heights and throughout the city before he turned  his attention to baseball.

Newspaper accounts from as far back as 1933 reported that “72-pound Edward San Clemente won the first of a series of tennis tournaments for children of grammar school age.”

According to tournament coordinator Wilbur Folsom,  Sanclemente’s 6-4, 10-12, 6-4 victory over Dick Brink in the finals of the  event at University Heights was after a “three-hour struggle that saw several rallies for crucial points last as long as five minutes.”

Sanclemente won numerous tournaments in the area and became one of the city’s top junior players.

 

 

 

Joe Schloss, who  operated a North Park sporting goods business for 69 years and coached the same Little League team for 59 seasons, passed away  at age 88.

Schloss, a 1944 graduate of San Diego High, coached a legion of youngsters for the North Park Little League and both of his sons spent many years in sports.

“Joe instilled in us many of the values we carry today,” said Bob Cluck, a professional baseball lifer and 10-season major league coach who played on Schloss’ first North Park LL team in 1957 (Schloss also had coached a Jewish Community Center team for three seasons).

“He taught us ‘way more than baseball,” said Cluck.  “He taught us how to act and how to compete.”

Rick Schloss was a public relations representative for the San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos and has been a prominent sports public relations practitioner in San  Diego for the last 30 years.

Gregg Schloss was a member of the Chargers’ athletic training department and worked side-by-side with his father at  A & B Sporting Goods, located near the corner of 30th Street and University Avenue.

MARONE, WILLIAMSON, MARTINEZ

All graduated from high school in 1963.

LOU MARONE

Lincoln’s  flame-throwing lefthanded pitcher, Marone was all-Eastern League and one of the aces in a circuit that was turning out professional players every season.

Lou went on to San Diego City College and then helped coach Ed San Clemente start the Mesa College program.  He was signed out of Mesa by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1965.

Marone had a 2.55 earned run average and 2-1 record  out of the bullpen in 34 innings for the Pirates in 1969 and was with the team in 1970.

JOHN WILLIAMSON

A 6-foot, 7-inch center who scored 351 points points for the  23-6 Mission Bay Buccaneers  in 1962-63.

Williamson was a strong offensive presence as he  and his teammates reached the semifinals of the San  Diego Section basketball playoffs before bowing to eventual champion Crawford, 48-44.

KENNY MARTINEZ

Starred in football and baseball at Point Loma and played for coach Ed San Clemente at San Diego City College.