Joe Muniz

Don Cantrell

Joe Muniz, 74, still maintains a hobby of raising and racing

horses, both quarterhorses and thoroughbreds, but “Chicks Benuino,” which

means “unruly man” in English, still ranks as one of his highest marks

over the years on the tracks.

“I was sky-high about that horse,” Muniz said. “He won a lot of races

and earned a half-million. There were so many write-ups. He raced as a

two-year-old and a three-year-old.”

Before the horse turned up with an injury as a three-year-old in 1986,

the gray colt scored his third straight victory in as many starts in the

34th running of the Bay Meadows Futurity.

Muniz, a major Southern California pipeline construction firm owner,

and a member of the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame, celebrating the

millennium, owns the colt with his son, Rory, and his son-in-law, John

Bobenreith.

A native of Costa Mesa, Muniz also owns a 22-acre ranch near Lompoc,

where Chicks Beuino was raised. The ranch is called Rancho Nuestro

Ensueno, which means “ranch of our dreams.”

The gray colt is now standing in Romoland and has bred more than 250

offspring. “He has done very well for us,” said Joe’s wife, Jerri.

One of the biggest thrills in their life was when Chicks Beduino was

named the 1986 state champion in California.

Muniz also gave a worthy account of himself in high school as a boxer

and as a stout member of the 1943-44 football teams as a guard and a

blocking back.

One of his sparring partners in the ring in high school days was the

late athletic director, Ralph Reed. Reed was quite a boxer in his time,

Muniz said.

Muniz was pleased with the ’44 grid team’s success and recalled it had

won four games in a row before World War II drew away several top stars,

including Muniz and tackle Dick Freeman.

Muniz subsequently wound up going on to the South Pacific with the

Navy and became one of the first to visit Nagasaki, Japan, after it had

been struck by an atomic bomb.

He was elated over the bright fortunes of his brothers, Manuel and Al,

in football. Manuel became an All-CIF tackle for Harbor High on the

championship team of ‘42, then advanced to Arizona State where he also

won Little All-America honors. The New York Giants bid for his talents,

but he turned them down due to serious knee injuries.

Al was an outstanding guard at 250 pounds at Newport Harbor, then

shifted to Orange Coast College where he was named to the All-Eastern

Conference team in the early ‘50s.