Friday, October 17, 2025
If you are a follower of this blog, you know that this football season has been dedicated to seeing games in offbeat and somewhat unusual circumstances and settings.
With that in mind, here is the background to tonight's choice for our game.
In December of 1969, I graduated from the University of Washington with a B.A. Degree.
I moved back to Southern California, sharing an apartment in Santa Monica with a high school friend Bill Wade who was going to Law School at UCLA while I was starting my Masters Degree program at UCLA as well.
I was also looking for my first teaching job at the time and via the UCLA Education Department's high tech Jobs Search Bulletin Board, I found one.
It was in the Los Angeles Unified School District at George Washington H.S. in South Los Angeles.
Apparently, one of the school's Health Education teachers had suffered a heart attack and they needed a long term substitute to take over for him for at least the Second Semester of that 1969-1970 school year.
After an interview with the high school's Principal, Richard Ragus, I got the job and away I went.
I really enjoyed my time there with some outstanding students, a good cafeteria that served amazing chicken fried steaks at lunch every Friday, and some fun TGIFs with welcoming teaching colleagues.
At the end of the my semester with the Generals, I had an exit interview with the Principal where he said he was happy to have me on the staff and I expressed my desire to return to the Washington H.S. Generals' family.
Unfortunately for me, they could not offer me a permanent job at the time because, if the ailing teacher opted to return, the job was still his.
I therefore started looking for a job that Summer while still taking classes at UCLA and, once again, the UCLA Education Department's Jobs Search Bulletin Board came through.
An index card pinned to that fateful cork bulletin board declared, "Wanted, Physical Education and Health Education Teacher, must coach Football and Baseball. Contact Tom Rosser, Principal, Thousand Oaks H.S."
I did, set up an appointment to meet with him in faraway Thousand Oaks, and another pair of successful interviews with Mr. Rosser and Head Football Coach Joe Howell.
I cannot imagine a better Head Coach to work with as a rookie coach than Joe Howell. He was simply a good coach, teacher and a great role model.
Eventually, the school year started at T.O.H.S. and life proceeded as expected.
Then, on Monday of our second week of school, I got a phone call from the Principal at Washington H.S.
That was their first day of school and the teacher who'd had the heart attack back in January had finally decided to announce his retirement that morning. The reason for the call was to find out if I would like to come back to accept a full time teaching position at Washington H.S.?
Too late, my answer had to be, "No."
Thus, my life's arc was changed forever.
Tonight, joined by son Michael, we returned to my old stomping grounds to see the Generals play a football game.
It should be noted that the school was now known as George Washington Preparatory High School .
Founded in 1926, GWP boasts several interesting and notable alumni including:
Art Laboe, L.A. Disc Jockey
Barbara Billingsley, TV and Film Actress
Dick Dale, Surf Guitarist
Gil Garcetti, L.A. County District Attorney
Ice Cube, Rapper and Actor
Esther Williams, Actress
Ernie Shelton, NCAA High Jump Champion
Hugh McElhenny, NFL Hall of Fame
James Lofton, NFL Hall of Fame
Besides, McElhenny and Lofton, at least eight other for Generals have spent time on NFL rosters.
Then there were two other famous (infamous) Generals who were actually G.W.H.S. students when I taught there, although I did not have either of them in any of my classes.
I refer to:
Raymond Washington, Co-Founder of the Crips
and
Stanley Williams, Co-Founder of the Crips
Raymond Williams would die in 1979, the victim of a drive by shooting in South Central Los Angeles.
Stanley "Tookie" Williams would be executed via lethal injection in 2005 in California's San Quentin Prison as a result of his conviction for four murders in 1979.
There can be such interesting connections as one marches along in life.
But I digress, on to the night's activities and the return to my teaching roots 55 years ago . . .
After a solid New York steak, rare, and a fully loaded baked potato, we were headed to our final destination.
And it was Homecoming to boot, how fitting for yours truly.
Looking at the matchup, Washington Prep had the tougher Strength of Schedule as their six opponents had a combined record of 21-23 as compared to Maywood CES's seven opponents 11-38 mark.
They also had two common opponents to toss into the mix. The Generals had beaten both Diego Rivera 40-16 and Roybal 20-8.
In turn, the Wolfpack clobbered Diego Rivera 60-0 but lost to Roybal 19-13.
The sports book at the nearby Hollywood Park Casino took all of this information into account before installing the Washington Prep Generals as prohibitive 7 1/2 point favorites at home.
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