Tuesday - Sunday,
September 15-20, 2020
This week would mark my first departure in a long time outside of Ventura County.
Of course, it would be American football related.
Mike Regan, on the left,
with Bob Richards
Mike is a former Thousand Oaks H.S. player who is now a teacher/coach at Pioneer Valley H.S. in Santa Maria, California about a two hour drive north of Camarillo.
Bob was Thousand Oaks Head Football coach when Mike was a player. Bob is currently the highly respected, veteran Offensive Line Coach at Simi Valley H.S. here in Ventura County.
There will be more on Bob and Thousand Oaks H.S. American football later in this blog post.
Mike called me about two weeks ago to simply check in to see how I was doing and to talk American football.
During our discussion he mentioned that the Head Coach at Pioneer Valley wanted to install the Delaware Wing-T which was our base offense for 20 seasons. Would I be willing to meet with their staff to clinic them up a tad on the Wing-T?
Absolutely!
John Beck
Head Football Coach of the . . .
. . . Pioneer Valley H.S. Panthers
The lure of a famed Santa Maria BBQ Tri-Tip sandwich for lunch before we started our clinic on Thursday was all that I needed to hear in John's sales pitch for meeting.
Also, a long drive in a car just sounded good to me.
The Los Olivos General Store
is about 2/3s of the way to PVHS
I had made good time driving, so I stopped at this quaint village in the heart of California's Central Coast wine country.
I needed to pick up a couple of bottles of wine to bring home to Laurie.
Happy wife, happy life you know.
Los Olivos' funky garden shop
I picked up a couple of trinkets for Laurie as well.
After our delicious BBQ Tri-Tip sandwich, I spent about three hours in a classroom with John and two of his socially distanced assistant coaches going over the basics of the Wing-T and answering questions.
We had ourselves a good session I believe.
Friday's lunch had literally a bit of
Italian flavor to it
GREAT point!
After that lunch on Friday,
I tended to agree
Now, back to Coach Bob Richards and Thousand Oaks H.S. American football . . .
The 1970 Thousand Oaks H.S. JV Lancers
7 Wins - 2 Losses
We were a big, bruising group as
our roster weights would indicate
The reason I bring this team up is that on September 19, 1970, exactly 50 years ago this past Saturday, I helped coach this team in what was my first ever game as an American football coach.
We would win that Saturday morning game at home over the Simi Valley Pioneers by a final tally of 22-0.
I would go on to coach a few more games after that as it turned out.
That's Bob Richards and me in
the 1970 TOHS Homecoming program
Bob was the squad's Head Coach and I was the Defensive Coordinator. That was it, just a two man coaching staff and 38 players. We had 37 Sophomores and one Freshman on that team.
For me, it was a magical season.
A special thank you to Bob for teaching me so many things about coaching that first year.
Damn, I had a lot more hair back then and a lot less body mass.
Saturday marked the end of a long serial on TV at long last . . .
This 1940 Serial was based on
Milton Caniff's popular comic
strip of the day
As it turned out, friend Mike D'Antuono and I both spent the better part of the last four months watching the action packed 15 episodes of this critically acclaimed, high-tech serial.
We were treated to one new episode each Saturday morning on the Turner Classic Movies channel.
Heroes Pat Ryan and Terry Lee
These two can escape any dangerous situation through a combination of skill and incredible luck against their sinister foe Fang.
How did they do it week after week?
Maybe these two should be put in charge of the CDC's response to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Terry and the Pirates
confirmed this completely!
I believe in Science too
Princess Mary was at
the house on Saturday
Jacob and Mike came with her to make for a fun day to say the least.
On Sunday, it was time for
the NFL version of American football
The Los Angeles Rams (1-0) were on the road taking on the Philadelphia Eagles (0-1).
It was a chance for the Rams to avenge
their 14-0 loss to the Eagles in the
1949 NFL Championship Game
In 1949, the Western Conference Champion Rams (8-2-2) hosted the eastern Conference's best club.
The Eagles (11-1) entered the game as a seven point favorite in the first NFL title game played in the western United States.
Philadelphia coach Earle "Greasy" Neale did not like to fly so the entire Eagles squad was forced to take the long, 2,700 mile train trip to the game.
Even today on Amtrak, that trip would take a minimum of 70 hours!
The lure of playing the game in the Los Angeles Coliseum was that the Rams were drawing huge crowds and an expected 70,000 fans would buy their way into the game.
Tickets were sold in two tiers that year. For $5.00 you purchased a reserved seat between the goal lines. All other seats sold for $3.60 a piece.
This was huge for the players as their reward for playing was a guaranteed percentage of the tickets sold.
One problem . . .
Sunny southern California's
mythical sunshine weather was
just that on game day . . .
MYTHICAL!
The weather gods did not cooperate and it rained heavily leading up to the game turning the Coliseum into a quagmire.
Note the lack of fans in the stands in this picture.
Not good for the players' bankbooks.
Instead of the expected 70,000 fans, only 22,245 actually showed up in the rain although 27,980 tickets were sold.
Due to this crowd being only about 1/3 of what was expected, the Champion Eagles only earned $1,090 per player. Each Rams share of the gate for their efforts that day was $789.
The 2020 NFL Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs earned $124,000 for beating the San Francisco 49ers 31-20. The 49ers earned $62,000 for their loss on that Sunday back in February.
NFL economics have changed a bit over the years.
Hall-of-Fame Eagles RB
Steve Van Buren (#15) came
up big on that long ago day
Although he did not score either Philadelphia TD that day, he did tote the rock 31 times in the mud for 196 yards for the Eagles.
In about 2010, the Rio Mesa H.S. football program sold concessions for one week at the annual Dallas Cowboys training camp in Oxnard, California.
During that time, I worked this snack bar just one time and had the absolutely random opportunity of meeting this Hall-of-Famer who simply wanted to buy a Gatorade.
We started talking about American football (what else) and he never referred to himself in any way, he was just a man purchasing a beverage to help out a local high school football program while watching an NFL practice.
It was his daughter who proudly clued me in to this nice gentleman's name, Steve Van Buren.
I was flabbergasted to find out that I had been in the presence of greatness.
She gave me an autographed football card of her father that she carried in her purse.
I still have it, he was nice, humble, down to earth man.
Steve Van Buren
He passed away in 2012 at the age of 91.
As for the Rams today . . .
The 2-0 Rams avenged that loss
from 71 years ago at last!
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