From the sidelines

Don Cantrell

A number of old mates from Harbor High days drove out to San

Jacinto Thursday to pay their last respects to the late Harold Van De

Walker, a versatile athlete during the mid-1940s.

Van De Walker, Class of ‘45, was a long-time friend of gridders Horace

Silva and Joe Muniz and a firm defender of George Yardley, who advanced

to become an All-American and an NBA Hall of Famer, in prep basketball

days.

Yardley only stood about six-feet tall in his junior and senior years

in basketball and was not a heavyweight. Rivals knew that and some would

take advantage of it be bullying him around on the court.

One of the worst offenders was a Santa Ana guard named Chuck Daniels,

who also starred on the 1945 CIF champ football team. He had a habit of

running down the floor against Newport and suddenly shouldering Yardley

roughly on or off the floor.

One day it inflamed Van De Walker and he took off after Daniels and

did the same thing, only rougher. That amused him and he thought it would

pass.

Unfortunately, the last hit was severe and didn’t escape Tars Coach

Ralph Reed, who called Van De Walker aside and ordered him to visit the

Santa Ana bench and apologize to Daniels. He did reluctantly and his pals

laughed about it, while he fumed.

Van De Walker, a landscaper who died of Lou Gehrig’s disease, is

survived by his widow Delores, and their two sons, Grant and Glenn.

Although Van De Walker was talented in basketball, he was also skilled

in football and track.

Van De Walker entered the Navy in 1945.

Reflecting back on the 1942 All-CIF football team, it is interesting

to note that Harbor High’s first-string fullback, Harold Sheflin, was on

the first string along with Glenn Davis, Bonita, who later became an

All-American at West Point and blocking back Norman Veeh of Tustin.

The only other Newport player on the CIF squad was Manuel Muniz,

second-team tackle.

Two other members of the champ ’42 team blocking back Lorrie Langmade

and Dick Freeman, tackle, were named to the CIF squad, second team, in

1943 and 1944.

The only other Harbor High gridder to make All-CIF was Bob Thompson,

second-team, an end on the 1948 football team.

Prior to the All-CIF slate, there was an All-Southern California

program. Two Tars were named to that program, second team, in 1939 and

they were quarterback George Micklewait and end Frank Sheflin.

It is fair to mention that Harold Sheflin, Frank’s brother, was also

named to the third-team All-CIF squad in 1941 and was first string

All-Sunset League all four years of high school.

It wasn’t an astonishing shock in the recent past, but it surprised

some modern-day wave scooters when they discovered that the Hawaiian king

of surf, Duke Kanamoku and been named “Surfer of the Century” by Surfer

Magazine.

Kanamoku once surfed the Balboa waves with Newport’s Al Irwin in the

early 1930s. Irwin once said he was one of the “greatest I have ever

seen.”

In addition, Jack Bell, who made All-CIF in diving for Newport in

1950, also extended high praise for Kanamoku. He also had known him, but

in a different way. Bell met him in Hawaii once when he was racing with

some American outriggers, and with great success.

Bell said that’s when he came to meet the great surfer on the beach

resting under a tree. Although he was up there in years, Bell said he was

a wonderful man with ample modesty. “We talked for a long time and I

really enjoyed it.”

Many old-timers remember the late Stan Kenton as a great musician who

wrote progressive jazz and recorded songs that sold into the millions. He

was a big name in the days of Balboa Rendezvous, especially in the 1940s.

He spent a lot of summers in Balboa, but he exercised many of the days

playing softball with youngsters and showing them a good time. During

that time it was learned by some that he used to be quite a baseball

player himself at Bell High School.