SIDELINES: Harbor’s history in the stands

Don Cantrell

Old and familiar boosters of Newport Harbor High football, 1949

linebacker Ed Mayer, 1989 Newport walk-on assistant coach Mike White and

former Sailor grid chief Mike Giddings were cheering the Tars on at

Saturday night’s CIF semifinal clash against La Mirada at Davidson Field.

The big hope now is that Harbor Coach Jeff Brinkley and his

hard-working Tars, after defeating La Mirada, 35-16, can find good

fortune in tonight’s final clash against powerful Irvine, which beat the

Sailors in the Sea View League opener, 19-14.

Mayer said he is impressed by the strong Tars’ weight program and

lauds the overwhelming rushing game of tailback Chris Manderino and the

offensive line.

He added that he was also impressed by the study and observations of

the game by White, who once delivered a flow of valued offensive

information to Brinkley years ago.

White was the assistant to former St. Louis Rams head coach Dick

Vermeil who ended his post last year after winning the Super Bowl. White,

who now lives on Balboa Island, retired with a handsome payoff contract

by the Rams this year.

Although La Mirada had scored 12 straight victories this year,

Giddings was a bit dubious about the caliber of talent it had faced after

losing to the Sailors.

Mayer, who helped lead Orange Coast College to its first conference

championship in 1951, learned a great deal of defense under Coach Ray

Rosso at OCC before advancing to San Jose State University in 1952.

Both White and Giddings wound up playing football at UC Berkeley.

This corner still recalls some distant past years of growing up in

summertime with Giddings on Balboa Island. It produced rich humor.

On one occasion, Giddings, then about 14, urged this corner to jump on

his Snipe sailboat near the Balboa Yacht Club and serve as a crewman. He

was entered in a big race that was almost scheduled to start and his

prior crewman hadn’t shown up.

We declined and told him we had little experience on such sleek boats

as a Snipe.

He was desperate and told us he would make it as easy as he could. We

finally gave in and suddenly found the swift craft racing into the

channel over rough water near the jetties.

In time, Giddings was yelling for us to hang out, which we understood.

Trouble is, we slipped overboard and fell out of the sailboat while we

were leading in the race.

Giddings was quite upset, but demonstrated a fine skill in swinging

the boat around and returning to recover his crewman.

Unfortunately, this corner’s tumbling over cost us the No. 1 position.

But, Giddings kept up his sailing finesse and got us into fifth before

the race ended.

With a smile, we later assumed he was pleased to drop us off at the

shoreline.

Friends of White had nothing but kind words for the Rams management in

its bidding farewell to White. White’s friends also recalled the sour

treatment by Raider owner Al Davis who fired White on Christmas Eve years

back. White apparently chose to pass the issue since he never brought it

up with the media.

Mayer, a teammate of Bill Walsh at San Jose State, continues

communication with the former San Francisco grid mentor up north.