Hall of Fame: Bill Greschner (Newport Harbor)

Richard Dunn

The tougher the competition, the more Bill Greschner liked it,

whether it was football, basketball, track and field, tennis or

engineering.

Greschner, one of Newport Harbor High’s first and finest all-around

athletes, played quarterback on the Sailors’ varsity football team for

three years under legendary former coach Ralph Reed, after his freshman

year on the Cee team.

An excellent runner with out-of-reach leaping ability, Greschner

played at Newport Harbor with players like Al Irwin and Dave Phoenix in

the single-wing formation days, then starred at Santa Ana College in the

Dons’ original glory years under Coach Bill Cook in 1936-37.

“We won our conference both years at Santa Ana,” said Greschner, who

“played quarterback on running plays and played wide receiver on pass

plays. It worked out very good. We had a fullback who was an excellent

passer, and that’s what happened. And we scored a lot of points.”

Greschner, who later played at Cal as the backup quarterback to 1938

All-American Vic Bottari, said Cook “was the greatest coach I’ve ever

seen. He started the spread formations and everything else. He was way

ahead of everyone else. We just killed everybody.”

The Dons finished 10-1 in 1936 and captured the Eastern Conference

title with a 6-0 mark, then won a conference co-championship in ’37 and

ended 10-0-2 overall.

As the quarterback, Greschner was given the green light by Cook to

change the plays at the line of scrimmage if he spotted a hole in the

defense, and Greschner obliged with savvy and fearlessness.

When Greschner arrived at UC Berkeley, however, he once changed a play

during an intrasquad game and scored on a long touchdown run, but Golden

Bears Coach Stub Allison vehemently “wanted to know who was running the

wrong play.”

Greschner raised his hand and pleaded his case to Allison, but it

escalated into a fight. Next thing Greschner knew, he was sent down to

“the goose squad.”

It wasn’t long thereafter when Greschner decided to quit playing

football and focus on academics.

“(Allison) had a couple of wonder teams there, but you had to play the

way he wanted you to play, and that’s all there was to it,” Greschner

said. “Sometimes you can see something on the field, the way the defense

is. You can see (an opening), so you change (the play) and make a

touchdown. That’s the way we did it at Santa Ana. It didn’t take a genius

to find an open spot, but sometimes coaches can’t see it from the

sidelines. Only you can. But they’ve got their playbook. (Allison and I)

just didn’t get along.”

At Newport Harbor, Greschner was one of only 17 grid players his

sophomore year in the fall of 1932, the school’s second year of varsity

football competition. In 1934, the Sailors finished 3-3-2, their first

non-losing season, and 5-5 the following year.

“We weren’t great, but we kind of held our own,” said Greschner, who

was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, and moved to Long Beach with his family

when he was 5, before settling in the Newport-Mesa community a few years

later.

An excellent track man at Newport, Greschner was a blue-ribbon

performer in the long jump, high jump, pole vault and shot put, as well

as the relays.

The 5-foot-10, 155-pounder also played center in basketball and twice

led the Orange League in scoring. “I could jump, so I did pretty well,”

said Greschner, who was also a three-year letterman in tennis.

“I love sports. I love competition. The harder the competition, the

better I like it.”

William D. Greschner retired from private business about 20 years ago,

but still maintains an upstairs office at Gresco Corporation, the

successful construction engineering company he started and now operated

by his son, William F.

Greschner, a “young man of only 84,” is the latest honoree in the

Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame. He lives in Tustin with his wife,

Eloise. They also have a daughter, Patricia, and five grandchildren.