Sidlines column: Remembering Bucs of 1951

Don Cantrell

Although a 50-year reunion for the 1951 Orange Coast College

champion football team may not materialize this year, the team members

created a bright spot for former coach Ray Rosso and themselves by phone

and through letters recently.

The rounds of dialogue were sparked by the Daily Pilot’s publication

of a 50-year salute to the club on May 29.

Coach Rosso, now 85, wrote to say he was amazed at the responses he

received. To him, it was a marvelous happening after all those years. He

remains extremely proud of the team’s honorable conduct and respect for

each other.

The good cheer and inspiration was always there. All-conference guard

Fred Owens was a sterling example. He often added color when something

Irish was in the air. He would don a green derby and furl a long green

wrap around his neck to celebrate and draw support. In time, Owens became

an administrator at Golden West College.

One noted tackle, Bob Woodhouse, advanced to become a “Hall of Famer”

in San Diego County after leading two San Diego high schools to CIF

gridiron championships.

Ed Mayer, owner of the noted T-shirt firm called Designs Alive in

Orange, eventually appeared as a top tackle at San Jose State, where his

teammate and roommate Bill Walsh, who became head coach of the San

Francisco 49ers for a period of time and won Super Bowl titles with

quarterback Joe Montana.

Although a fine defensive lineman named Al Muniz made his mark earlier

for OCC, Rosso has labeled him one of the finest lineman he ever had.

Muniz, a former 250-pound guard for the ’48 Harbor High grid team,

coached by Al Irwin, impressed many when he first showed up at Orange

Coast in 1949.

Rosso, even now, looks back with regret over a dismal happening in the

old days. He still recalls a time when he had to cut Muniz off the travel

list to Yuba City Junior College one autumn.

The coach had no problems with Muniz relative to any travel plans, but

he remembers a high-ranking administrator approaching him with orders to

pull Muniz from the plane flight.

As Muniz recalled once years back, he said it was due to the sketchy

report that he was observed to be smoking a cigarette. The rules were

intense in the old days with some administrators.

A couple Italian connects from the past prompt a correction from this

corner.

We once said Rosso was born and raised in Lafayette, Calif. But we

learned, in time, through a phone call from Mrs. Rosso, that he was born

in Italy before the family moved to Northern California.

This recently amused Coach Rosso, who said his wife used to call him

“our little immigrant.” He still laughs over that comment.

He was actually born in a place called Turin, Italy, which is located

to the north.

Another error arose in the past when this corner said Gino Boero, a

fine 240-pound guard for Harbor High (1949-51 under Al Irwin) was born in

Italy. Not true.

We learned, in time, that he was born and reared in Orange County. His

father, “Papa” Gino, was born in Italy, in fact, up in the northern part

of the country.

Both men became exquisite masters of Italian dishes, bread and

pastries in the classy restaurants.

One of the great amusements that came out of the ’51 OCC football team

surfaced one night at the Lido Theater. Defensive halfbacks Mel Smalley

and Charley Black showed up at the side of the door to the theater. It

was Smalley’s idea.

He told Black that they might have a fair chance of getting in free if

they knocked on the door. He felt someone would open the door and they

could slip in quietly.

The reality found a guard opening the door, then leading both players

off to the main office, belonging to owner Mason Siler.

Siler entered the office and displayed disappointment. He said, “Mel,

you didn’t have to do that. I would have let you in for free.”

Smalley smiled, then said, “I know that, Mason, but then it wouldn’t

have been fun.”