Sidelines: The summer, and fall, of ’42

Don Cantrell

What major local events arose 60 years ago? One featured government

trucks and buses coming to Costa Mesa to load Japanese-Americans,

including two 1941 Newport Harbor High varsity footballers Johnny Ikeda

and George Matoba, for shipment to internment camps in Arizona by order

of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the spring of ’42.

The President feared for their safety, but also feared possible

sabotage. Despite such World War II fears, U.S. scholars never discovered

any evidence of threats by Japanese-Americans.

An estimated 120,000 Japanese-Americans on the West Coast would be

transported to inland locations. Ironically, many of the dedicated

Japanese-Amercians, in time, would volunteer to join an Army division

that would become one of the most honored divisions in World War II after

fighting in Italy and France.

Many of the friends of Ikeda and Matoba would express sorrow over the

developments, but would continue on in high spirits to build a

championship football team at Harbor High.

Quarterback Ikeda and guard Matoba experienced the pleasure of playing

with fullback Harold Sheflin, who would become a No. 1 CIF selection in

‘42 after leading Newport to the league title and a CIF small schools

playoff final against Bonita. The Tars lost, 39-6.

They also became stout friends with quarterback Vernon Fitzpatrick,

who later lost his life while parachuting over Leyte, Philippines when

Japanese fighter pilots machine-gunned him in mid-air.

Joe Muniz, a ’44 blocking back, who lived near the Ikeda family in

west Costa Mesa, once said, “I’ll say this: When it came to football,

Fitzpatrick and Ikeda were about nip and tuck for guts.”

After the homes were seized and the farms were vacated, the

government, according to former Newport Mayor Ruthelyn Plummer, a Newport

student and song leader in the early 40s.

“Rotating buses would come once a week to take the boys and girls in

gym teams out to harvest the crops,” Plummer said. “Our high school

became a source of labor. I remember picking strawberries. And it was

backbreaking work. I’ll never forget it. I don’t know whose idea it was,

but it was an ingenious one to save all those valued crops.”

She often dated Fitzpatrick before he left to join the paratroopers in

Georgia for training.

The ’42 coach, Wendell Pickens, made certain he could visit with Ikeda

before he left for Parker, Ariz. Ikeda said he always valued the

compassionate gestures.

Was there a premonition about a superb year in early September of ‘42?

“Yes,” tailback Ed Miller said. “I think we felt we were better, but

not that we weren’t apprehensive. Yet there was something about that

whole experience I could never forget, made even more odd because war had

started. A lot left school (after the Bonita loss) to join the service.”

Somberly, Miller concluded, “It was almost unsaid that this football

season was our one last hurrah.”

With one of the toughest lines in the Southland, Newport hammered all

rivals into the turf, save for Santa Ana and Long Beach Jordan.

The Tars won those two, 7-0.

There were only 23 players on the ’42 varsity, but the second unit was

strong enough to hold its own if called upon.

Six rivals were held scoreless. During the regular season, Fullerton

scored 12 points while Excelsior and Huntington Beach could only score

seven each. The ’42 Tars scored 327 points in 10 games.

Newport placed five on the first All-Sunset League team, including

Sheflin, Fitzpatrick, Manuel Muniz, Bob Gaynor and Don Tripp. Four were

named to the second unit, including Carl Oberto, Paul Myrehn, Lorrie

Langmade and Tom McCorkell.

Sheflin was named to the CIF first team, while Muniz earned second

team recognition.

Pickens once said Fitzpatrick always made Newport two touchdowns

stronger.

Another lineman, Bill Neth, who ran a 10-4 100-yard dash, later made

the first team All-California squad in the junior college ranks while

playing for the Santa Ana College Dons. His brother, Roger, was a second

team tackle on the 42 Newport team. Later, he played first team with his

brother at Santa Ana.

Muniz would be named to one All-America team at Arizona State and

drafted by the New York Giants. However, he later rejected the Giants

because of injured knees.

A number of colleges had been interested in Sheflin, including USC,

but he would have to back away due to a lung injury from WWII before he

was blown off the deck of a ship. He had served as a deck gunner.

But they all made their marks in ’42.