Strange Doings

Tues.-Thurs., January 24-26, 2023

 My Mother's condition continues to fluctuate from good to not so good on a day-to-day basis.

These almost daily trips to Pasadena took a slightly different tack on Wednesday as my sister Linda encouraged me to take off for home sooner than normal.

In the skilled nursing facility's parking lot, I saw a parked car with . . . 

. . . this 1950's cult classic movie inspired

decal of the Creature from the Black

Lagoon eating a slice of pizza

It looked like a slice pepperoni pizza to me.

Crazy.

But it inspired me to do something crazy as well on the way home.

 

I visited Glendale Community College

I attended Glendale as a college Freshman during the 1965-66 school year while playing Center, Defensive End and Outside Linebacker for the Vaqueros.

It was an interesting experience which led to my earning a football scholarship at the University of Washington for the Fall of 1966.

The Vaqueros were 7-2 in 1965 by the way. Our Offensive Line Coach that year was Jim Hanifan. He left Glendale after the 1965 season to embark on a seven year stint coaching the OL at Utah, California and San Diego State.

The NFL came calling for Coach Hanifan's skillful teaching of OL fundamentals. He earned the reputation of being one of the NFL's best OL coaches during his 30 year pro career while coaching with the St. Louis Cardinals, San Diego Chargers, Atlanta Falcons, Washington Redskins and St. Louis Rams. He was the Cardinals Head Coach from 1980-1985 and was the Falcons Interim Head Coach in 1989.

I feel fortunate, having learned from three great line coaches in my playing days, Dick Landreau and Jim Yang at St. Francis H.S. and, obviously, Jim Hanifan at Glendale College. All three were excellent teachers who were task masters demanding that we worked on the detailed fundamentals of the game day after day after day.

I was lucky.

Our niece Lauren played basketball

for Glendale in the late 1990s

Watching her play a game in the Vaqueros gym was, before this week, my only on-campus visit to Glendale since leaving there in June of 1966.

As was predictable, there had been a ton of improvements and construction over the last 57 years.

One of those improvements was

an on-campus football stadium

Jim Sartoris Field

Jim Sartoris was a couple of years older than me. He played football at both Glendale and Washington. He returned to Glendale and had a distinguished career as a coach and athletic administrator at Glendale for many, many years.

The sign under the scoreboard reads:

"GENEROUSLY DONATED BY

THE ANDY REID FAMILY"

Yes, that Andy Reid!

The current Kansas City Chiefs Head Coach is bit younger than myself, he also played at Glendale back in the day.

The Field Turf at Sartoris Field

was immaculate!

Back in 1965, this was a natural grass surface and it was our practice home and track facility only.

We played our games that year at the only football stadium in the city located on the campus of Glendale H.S., home of the Dynamiters. At the time, that stadium was also the "home" field of the Glendale Hoover H.S. Tornadoes and the Crescenta Valley H.S. Falcons. Scheduling games for these four schools must have been a nightmare.

Is Dynamiters even remotely P.C. enough today in our ever softening times?

Reading Is FUNdamental!

Classic crime solving

from the 1930s

Felony and mayhem always work for me.