Thursday, August 28, 2025
As I may have stated before, one of my goals this football season is to attend high school games at sites of interest that I have not previously seen.
With that in mind, I drove into the heart of Los Angeles to attend not one but two games thanks to a scheduling quirk.
These would be the fifth and sixth football games that I've attended this year.
The first one would start at 4:00 p.m. in the Mid-Wilshire district at the oldest public high school in Southern California, Los Angeles H.S., established in 1873.
The second contest would kickoff at 7:00 p.m. on the eastern side of the Los Angeles megalopolis in the Boyle Heights district at Theodore Roosevelt H.S. about a 25 minute drive from the first game.
The timing would be tight, but with some luck I could make it.
I arrived in the Mid-Wilshire district with surprisingly little traffic to battle which was perfect as I had a new spot to try out for a pre-game meal.
But there is a backstory.
When I coached the Bron-Villeurbanne Falcons in Lyon, France during the 2012-13 season, I stumbled upon a somewhat unique French/Islamic cuisine known colloquially as "French tacos."
The area where we lived had a strong Islamic population so naturally there were several restaurants serving Halal meals. Halal is an Arabic word that refers to Islamic dietary rules, especially when it comes to slaughtered meats.
In 2012, I tried my first French taco
at this restaurant near our home
I found it to be a cross between a regular taco, a burrito and a panini. It was crunchy goodness to be sure and it would not be my last French taco by any means that season, but what I remember the most from that first one was chasing it down with a tiny, tiny demitasse of Turkish coffee like all the other men in the restaurant.
As it turned out, Turkish coffee is closer to rocket fuel than coffee. I didn't sleep for three days.
There on the lower right were
my French taco choices 13 years ago
If memory serves, I opted for the one filled with steak, delicious cheese sauce and, to my wonderment, French fries too.
I had recently read that a man who owns 11 of these French taco shops in Lyon had recently opened his first one in the USA.
As luck would have it, it was located just 2.8 miles West of Los Angeles High School.
GAME ON!
235 S. La Cienega Blvd.
Beverly Hills, CA
Thanks to the Waze App, I found it easily.
A parking spot, NOT SO MUCH!
Parking would be an issue at Los Angeles H.S. and Roosevelt H.S. too later in the day.
The Pizz Alif chain has been around
since 2003 in the greater Lyon megalopolis
True, true . . .
But not as crazy as their "convenient" touch screen ordering system.
It started interestingly asking Eat In or To Go in English.
I was eating in so I touched the appropriate tab and was whisked to the menu where from now on everything was written in French.
Quite authentic to be sure but my French was a tad rusty.
It took awhile but eventually I ordered a French taco with halal approved marinated chicken, blue cheese, honey, tangy BBQ sauce and, what else, tasty shoe lace thick French fries.
It was as good as I recalled but
I washed it down with a Diet Coke
as Turkish coffee was not on the
menu in any language
I asked the two chefs if they were, by chance, from Lyon and they informed that while the owner is indeed from Lyon they were both from other parts of France.
They asked if I had ever been to Lyon and I explained my American football connection to that wonderful city.
One of the chefs told me that his brother used to play American football for a team in France. When I asked him, "Which one?"
he said, "Ask him, my brother Yousef is sitting at that table behind you."
Yousef
Arabic meaning "God Increases"
Former QB/DB
Dreux Monarchs
The town of Dreux, population 31,000, is located about 50 miles west of Paris.
Yousef and I had a nice but much too brief visit.
The small world of EuroBall never ceases to amaze me.
On to the opening game of my twi-night doubleheader.
U.S. Grant H.S. Lancers (0-1)
Founded in 1959
Enrollment 1,798
at
Los Angeles H.S. Romans (0-0)
Founded in 1873
Enrollment 1,043
I found out on-line that L.A.H.S. at its peak had an incredible 10,800 students on campus.
Yes, TEN-THOUSAND-EIGHT-HUNDRED hormonal teenagers all in one place for approximately eight hours a day.
In the early part of the 21st-Century, the opening of West Adams H.S., redrawing of school boundary lines that gave Fairfax H.S. a large chunk of former Romans and the growth of private schools in the area all conspired to eventually bring Los Angeles H.S. down to about 1/10th of its former truly unmanageable size.
If you look on-line for photos of the Romans' campus, you will find several like the following postcard.
LAHS moved to its current campus site
in 1917 and was architecturally
SPECTACULAR!
In 1971, the Sylmar earthquake caused considerable damage to the venerable old school but it was deemed salvageable much to the dismay for some reason of some of the local folks.
No matter, a fire of mysterious origins burned down this main building soon after the retrofit arguments.
Everything on campus was torn down and rebuilt using . . .
. . . the finest Soviet Bloc architects
for cutting edge building techniques
At least blue is the Romans' school color.
A bit more about Los Angeles H.S.
The Romans' football teams have won nine C.I.F.-L.A. City Section Championships in 1912, 1923, 1924, 1926, 1929, 1932, 1938, 1965 and 2014. Interestingly, these nine championship clubs had nine different head coaches.
The list of distinguished L.A.H.S. alumni includes:
1955 Nobel Prize in Physics winner, Willis Lamb
Charles Richter, the inventor of the Richter Scale
Eighteen well known actors and actresses such as two time Oscar winner Dustin Hoffman, one time Oscar winner Anne Baxter, singer-actor Mel Tormé and Star Trek's George Takei
Oscar winning director Chloé Zhao and Oscar winner for screenwriting, Budd Schulberg
The first African-American elected to the California State Senate, Frederick Madison Roberts
The first female Deputy Sheriff in the USA, Margaret Q. Adams
The four term Mayor of Los Angeles, Fletcher Bowron
Famed science-fiction writer, Ray Bradbury
Explorer John M. Goddard
Seven Olympic athletes who brought home four Gold and two Silver medals
Five Major League Baseball players including Mel Almada, MLB's first Mexican-American player
Eight NFL players including CB Larry Brown the MVP of Super Bowl XXX
College Football Hall of Fame inductee Tad Wieman who was the Head Coach at both Michigan and Princeton
After 152 years of being in the education business, Los Angeles H.S. has many, many more ex-Romans of note but I'm starting to get hungry and the list goes on and on.
Are there lines on the field?
The grass was high, a couple of times when the ref set the ball down, it would sink deep into the natural turf the ball disappeared from sight.
They also stopped play on two occasions for the groundskeeper to pour dirt into holes on the field in the name of player safety.
Apparently, the huge stands were closed
Romans fans would have to sit in these small bleachers atop the Romans' state-of-the-art Olympic sized dirt track.
All of those students in blue heading to the home bleachers were members of the Romans' Band.
I decided to sit in the visiting bleachers for the sake of peace and quiet.
On my walk to the Grant HS side
I noted the manicured track
up close and personal
No lights at LAHS
No restrooms inside the stadium fences nor were there any open snack bar or souvenir stands. There were restrooms available outside of the stadium in the gymnasium.
Being an Olympic track means that the game field is a long ways from the stands.
Those of us in the stands were informed that three of the referees were running late, so the game wound up starting at 4:30 p.m. instead of the scheduled 4:00 p.m.
This would create a problem for my travel time between games.
The Lancers suited out 23 players
The home team Romans had but
19 players on the roster
This match-up had all the earmarkings of an Instant Classic on ESPN.
Still, it was a BEAUTIFUL day
for American football!
The Romans kicking off in a
less than packed stadium
Here come the Lancers who would
vastly control the First Half
Lancers on the March
Romans responding
All of the Romans subs were worried
HALFTIME SCORE
Grant - 24
Los Angeles - 12
The Lancers were excited to start
the Second Half
Unfortunately, the Romans exploded by returning the Kickoff for a TD.
Los Angeles' two point PAT attempt . . .
. . . was successful
Open field blocking by a Grant
player on the ensuing Kickoff
Watching in the shady End Zone
bleachers was HEAVENLY!
At this point I made the decision to leave the game at the end of the Third Quarter in order to get to my second game.
Uh-oh
Grant, now leading 30-20 as the Fourth Quarter started, had to Punt right in front of me out of their End Zone as I walked to my car.
Rule #1 of Special Teams coaching, ALWAYS have an athlete as your Punter!
Grant's big. old #78 may have a booming leg but having watched him play DT, he was definitely not athletic.
Punting out of his own End Zone
he muffed a good snap . . .
. . . and got physically abused by
a phalanx of Romans for a Safety
Apparently, the Lancers' bubble burst after this Safety.
FINAL SCORE
Los Angeles (1-0) - 38
Grant (0-2) - 30
It took me about 25 minutes to get to my destination and almost as long to find a parking space about five blocks from the stadium.
It was time for the nightcap of my daily double.
Lawndale H.S. Cardinals (1-0)
Founded in 1959, closed in 1982,
reopened in 1998
Enrollment 1,660
at
Theodore Roosevely H.S. Rough Riders (0-1)
Founded in 1922
Enrollment 1,626
The Rough Riders have won three C.I.F.-L.A. City Football Championships over the years in 1938, 1984 and 1985. Just like Los Angeles H.S., no Roosevelt coach has won two of them with the Rough Riders.
Roosevelt's most famous alumni is, in my opinion, RB Mike Garrett. "Iron Mike," as he was known, was the 1961 L.A. City Player of the Year and in 1965, as USC's star tailback, won the Heisman Trophy. He would go on to play for the Kansas City Chiefs and San Diego ChargersNFL. He scored on the famed 65 Toss Power Trap play in Super Bowl IV, the Chiefs 23-7 victory over the Minnesota Vikings.
As opposed to L.A.H.S., the re-built
Roosevelt H.S. campus was visually pleasing
It was hard to believe that the two campuses and communities are in the same school district.
The Roosevelt stands were PACKED!
Great run -through tunnel
The track was not an Olympic one, but it wasn't a dirt track either.
Same school district?
The grass and the lines were
both pristine
Roosevelt operates out of the run
heavy Double-Wing Offense
Punting on a fake sweep
The visiting snack bar in the distance
There was an even bigger one on the home side. Both of these buildings had spacious restrooms as well.
I even bought a Roosevelt t-shirt at the souvenir stand for only $10.
Go Rough Riders!
Go Dia de los Muertos!
Same school district?
The First Half had little action,
the only score came while I was
trying to find a parking spot
HALFTIME SCORE
Lawndale - 6
Roosevelt - 0
I switched to the Lawndale side
for the Second Half
The wheels were about to come
off of the Rough Riders' Offense
The Cardinals' Defense changed the
tenor of the game QUICKLY!
On consecutive Roosevelt Offense plays, Lawndale's Defense came up with a 60 yard Scoop and Score TD and then a 40 yard Pick Six.
By the end of the Third Quarter, Lawndale led 28-0. I had a long drive home and there was no sign that Roosevelt's methodical style of play could get them back in the game in the final 12 minutes of play.
I opted to beat the crowd back to my car.
FINAL SCORE
Lawndale (2-0) - 49
Roosevelt (0-2) - 7
On the corner of the Boyle Heights intersection of Fourth Street and Soto Street, just a block from my car I spied . . .
. . . this perfectly lovely street taco stand,
WHAT THE HELL, WHY NOT!
It was Taco Thursday and I'd already had devoured a French taco for lunch, why not a Mexican taco or two in East L.A. before the ride home?
Two Al Pastor tacos for my
post-games meal
My day was complete.
