More Gear Donated for EuroBall Teams

Monday, December 2, 2024

I received a call from Mark Servé, the Head Football Coach at La Salle H.S. in Pasadena, a few weeks ago. He had some shoulder pads to donate for our never ending EuroBall Improvement Project.

It should be noted that a couple of years ago when Mark was the Head Football Coach at Westlake H.S. he donated literally hundreds of game jerseys and game pants to our project.

Thus I headed to the hub of the magical San Gabriel Valley today to pick up his generous donation.

I got down to the Crown City a bit early, so I stopped off at my favorite independently owned coffee shop in South Pasadena to pass the time.

Kaldi Coffee and Tea is found in this

rustic building just across the street from

the South Pasadena Public Library

Kaldi has a warm and intimate

vibe that I thoroughly enjoy

My cappuccino was excellent and so was the book that

I brought with me to while away the time.

One thing that Kaldi does not have is a restroom, but I learned long ago that the library across the street does.

This nice sculpture greeted

my entrance to the library

An AWESOME find in this

combination library/museum!

It was empty of course but before the advent of the internet as a college student long ago, all researching of any topic started in front of one of these classic card catalogue cabinets.

I would love to own one of these when I grow up.

A series of Wizard of Oz related

nutcrackers were on display

The Cowardly Lion looked regal

A representative of the

Lollipop Guild was even in the mix

Time to go. I still had about 20 minutes of crosstown traffic to navigate before picking up the promised shoulder pads.

I was at the right spot

The La Salle Lancers were my

St. Francis Golden Knights' archrivals

in high school basketball 60+ years ago

Inside La Salle's cozy gym

Seeing this gym after so many years conjured up the need for a side story.

As a student/athlete at Pasadena's St. Phillip the Apostle School in the 6th-8th grades in 1958-61 our school's basketball team participated in numerous games in this gym. These games were, I'm sure, a part of the Lancers' scheme to attract future students to the all-boys school.

It worked, as most of my classmates entered La Salle as Freshmen in the Fall of 1961. I would have as well until I realized that I had a question to ask.

We were always at La Salle for basketball related reasons.

How about there football program?

That's when I was informed that La Salle did not field a football team.

Good-bye classmates, hello St. Francis!

Much has changed at La Salle

since the early 1960s

Amongst other things, the Lancers finally added a football program in the 1970s and the school is now co-educational.

How times have changed, for the better I'm sure.

Time to load up Laurie's new car, a.k.a., The Blueberry. 

Lots of good shoulder pads,

now to find them a home

When we got them home, we had

24 shoulder pads to ship

Left to Right: 10 Smalls, 7 Mediums, 5 Larges and 2 X-Larges

The recently sold, ancestral home

in San Marino of the Contreras Clan

Before heading to Camarillo with our donations, I swung by to see what the new owners were doing with our home of 66 years.

Although we hoped that the new owners would have deep enough pockets to do several much needed renovations, we thought that they would tear it down and rebuild anew.

I was more than a little excited to see workman busy doing renovations. It made me glad to know that the old homestead will still be standing for a few more years.

Tomorrow is Taco Tuesday after all

Reading Is FUNdamental!

So many great behind the scenes

insights into the day-to-day life

in London during The Blitz

This highly informative read is the result of this blog's two stalwart readers, Paul Sabolić and Michael D'Antuono.

Paul often reminds me that I need to read more historical books and less action packed mystery novels.

Michael is my recommending librarian who has gotten me started in oh so many different writers over the many years. He got me re-started on Erik Larson when he recommended his American Civil War non-fiction book, The Demon of Unrest.

It was a corker, so I headed to the Camarillo Public Library last week to pick up another of Larson's riveting historical non-fiction tomes packed with all sorts of deep researched tidbits.

I'm sure that Larson spent untold hours in front of a card catalogue cabinet researching this great read.

Thank you, Paul and Michael, for expanding my reading horizons.

Now to find a home overseas for these shoulder pads.

Our Fun, Extended Thanksgiving Weekend

Wed., Nov. 27 - Sun., Dec. 1, 2024

The past five days were all good ones filled with wonderful doses of family, football, food and fellowship.

Of course, Thanksgiving Thursday

was the impetus for all of our joy

Son Andrew and his fiancée Jill

joined us from Las Vegas

Their wedding ceremony is set for the weekend before Christmas in Las Vegas.

Laurie set this Thanksgiving table

for Andrew, Jill, Michael, Vanessa

and the two of us

Cousins Kevin, Jacob and Mary had

their own seating arrangements

Can you guess which one of these chairs has been dubbed as being Mary's Chair?

Kevin and Jacob comparing

their height with a successful

Mary photo bombing raid

Dishing out the ice cream to the grandkids

The orders of chocolate for Kevin and Mary, and vanilla for Jacob was no surprise to any of us.

Left to Right: Kevin (13), George,

Mary (9), Laurie and Jacob (12)

A goofy pose

A goofier pose with a mortified Jacob

Having these three with us

together is always a treat

It was a Happy Thanksgiving indeed!

Quick thought from the net . . .

It happens

Thanks to the generosity of avid

blog follower Michael D'Antuono,

we got a special treat on Saturday

With Andrew, Jill and Kevin heading back to Las Vegas on Saturday morning and Laurie wanting to stay home to start the Casa Contreras shift from the Thanksgiving motif to the even more joyous Christmas vibe, we invited UCLA alum Brian FitzGerald to join us for the trip to the Rose Bowl to see the final game of the year for his Bruins.

Brian, Michael, Jacob and

yours truly posing with the iconic

Rose Bowl sign in the background

Just outside the Rose Bowl's Entrance Gate A

Here you will find a courtyard bearing specific areas for each of the old Big-10 and PAC-12 universities that, back in the day, created most of the lore that made the annual New Year's Day Rose Bowl game "The Granddaddy of Them All!"

We are seen here in the University of Washington section of this courtyard pointing to . . .

. . . the three bricks that include the

Sabolic, D'Antuono and Contreras families

On to the Fan Zone!

Go Bruins GO!

Just throw the ball through the

small hole in the target and

win a huge prize

Three attempts but no cigar for Jacob.

Same for Michael

We watched about ten people try this before Jacob and Michael got their turns, no one  won a prize but at least it was free to try.

The band warming up

Jacob with some interesting

looking Bruins

Our seats were in the posh

Terry Donahue Pavilion

Terry Donahue

UCLA Head Football Coach

1976-1995

151 Wins - 74 Losses - 8 Ties

Donahue, a UCLA alumni, presided over easily the greatest two decades in Bruin football history.

I loved these Rose Bowl game

replica tickets above the escalators

on the way to our seats

The Terry Donahue Pavilion walls are chock full of interesting Rose Bowl memorabilia.

Notre Dame's famed backfield

"The Four Horsemen" played in the

1925 Rose Bowl  defeating Stanford 27-10

The highly esteemed sportswriter, Grantland Rice, had this to say about the 10-0 Fighting Irish's backfield after they handed Army their only loss of the 1924 season, 13-7, on October 18, 1924.

"Outlined against a blue-gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. Their real names are: Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden."

The following week Notre Dame's Student Publicity Aide, George Strickler, had the bright idea to have the four Fighting Irish backs pose astride horses in their football uniforms.

The legend of The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame had begun.

After playing in the 1925 Rose Bowl, Notre Dame opted to not play in any bowl game again until accepting the bid to play #1 ranked Texas (11-0) in the 1970 Cotton Bowl. Notre Dame (8-2-1) lost this game, 21-17.

I believe that is NFL Hall of Fame

Chicago Bears owner/coach George Halas

Halas was named the MVP of the 1919 Rose Bowl Game in leading the Great Lakes Navy Bluejackets (7-0-2) to a 17-0 win over the Mare Island Marines (10-1-0).

Both teams were independents playing in the World War I era. The Great War as it was known, had only ended about six weeks before this Fifth Annual Rose Bowl Game.

Nice Stances

Now, THAT'S a face mask!

Our initial view of the stadium

The signature script UCLA

We first raided the Terry Donahue

Pavilion's dining area before heading

to our AWESOME seats

I ate sensibly for once

Jacob eschewed the cheese in order to create

this plate of "Gummy Nachos" for dessert

Mandatory pre-game photo of Jacob

in his Camarillo Stingers game jersey

As I said, AWESOME seats!

It was a BEAUTIFUL day for

American football!

The announced crowd of only 35,000

in the 89,702 seat stadium was

a tad disheartening

This was a non-conference game with the Mountain West Conference's Fresno State Bulldogs (6-5, 4-4 MWC) taking on the Big-10's UCLA Bruins (4-7, 3-6 Big 10).

The eight game series between these two California universities was tied at four wins apiece.

UCLA won the first four meetings in 1987, 1995, 1999 and 2000.

Fresno State took the measure of the Bruins the next four games in the series with wins in 2003, 2008, 2018 and 2021.

The series tie would be broken today.

Michael and a cameraman

surveying the field

Points would be hard to come by

That's a BIG Bruin with the ball

This block may be illegal

UCLA came back from a 10-6

Halftime deficit to win the game

THANK YOU, Michael D'Antuono. We all had a great time at the game!

 

While we were at the UCLA game, unranked

Michigan (7-5) beat #2 Ohio State (10-2)

for the fourth straight year

This huge 13-10 upset victory made Wolverine fan Debi Murphy more than a little happy.

Saturday night in Eugene,

#1 Oregon (12-0) humiliated

unranked Washington (6-6)

The Final Score favored the Ducks, 49-21.

The game wasn't as close as the score indicated.

Saturday night, Mike Moon's

Pacifica H.S. Tritons won the

C.I.F.-Southern Section's

Division 4 Championship

Pacifica (10-4) defeated the St. Bonaventure Seraphs (9-5), 27-20.

Up next for the Tritons is a home California State 2-AA Southern California Regional playoff game against the C.I.F.-Los Angeles City Section's Open Division Champion Narbonne Gauchos (7-6).

The winner of this game will play the winner of the Northern California Regional 2-AA game at Saddleback College in two weeks.

The Northern California Regional game sees the C.I.F.-Sac-Joaquin Section's Division 2 Champion Grant Pacers (10-3) on the road against the C.I.F.-Central Coast Section's Division 1 Champion St. Francis Lancers (10-3) of Mountain View.

Newbury Park H.S. won the

C.I.F.-Southern Section Division 2

Championship on Saturday night

The Panthers improved their record to 14-0 with a road win versus the Murietta Valley Nighthawks (11-3), 31-28.

Newbury Park will now travel to Chula Vista's Southwestern College to play the C.I.F.-San Diego Section's Open Division Champion Lincoln Hornets (10-2) in a Southern California 1-AA Regional game.

The winner of this game will also play at Saddleback College in two weeks for the California 1-AA State Championship agianst the winner of the Northern California 1-AA Regional game.

The Northern California 1-AA Regional game pits the C.I.F.-Sac-Joaquin Section's Division 1 Champion Folsom Bulldogs (12-1) against the Pittsburgh Pirates (11-2), Champions of the C.I.F.-North Coast Section's Division 1.

On the flip side of all of these high quality games we have the California State 4-A Southern California Regional game.

Representing the C.I.F.-Southern Section in this game is their Division 8 Champion, St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy Warriors. The Warriors in these "competitive equity" days that we live in, made the sectional playoffs despite going 1-9 in the regular season! They are now 5-9 after winning the Division 8 playoffs.

The other team in this California State 4-A Southern California Regional classic is the C.I.F.-San Diego Section's Division III Champion, the St. Augustine Saints.

The Saints were 0-10 in the regular season. How they made the playoffs is beyond me but the Saints also got on a playoff role and are now 4-10.

Having a 5-9 team playing a 4-10 team for the right to play in a state championship game seems a bit odd to me.

The winner awaits the winner of the of the C.I.F.-Central Section's Division III Champion Kerman Lions (12-2) versus the C.I.F.-Sac-Joaquin Section's Division 6 Champion Sonora Wildcats (11-2) at Long Beach City College on December 14th.

More from the net . . .

Cuban auto makers response

to the Tesla lines

True

Sunday was NFL day as usual but . . .

. . . I had to pitch in to start the

Christmas decorating

Once all of our UW ornaments,

thanks to Paul Sabolić's generosity,

were in place, I felt good

On Sunday afternoon, Laurie and

I had a date to see a play at the cozy

Santa Paula Theater Center

The play was a well acted and well

produced comedy parody of the

Sherlock Holmes mystery,

The Hound of the Baskerville

All the action took place on this small

stage with a packed house of about

85 souls all enjoying the play

GREAT FUN!

Dinner in Santa Paula at this

Mexican cantina was a MUST!

Rams won to improve to 6-6,

while New Orleans dropped to 4-8

Our last word from the net . . .

Good to know

We were truly blessed on

many levels over the

past five days!