Daily Pilot Hall of Fame: Boyd Horrell

Don Cantrell

Boyd “Bogey” Horrell, a versatile athlete whose star shined for six

solid years at Newport Harbor High and Orange Coast College, 1944-50, has

traveled all over the globe, but finally settled down on a farm in

Somerton, Ariz.

Horrell’s sports interest has held tight over the years. Even now he

forges on with fan membership with Arizona Western College in Yuma.

Horrell, the biggest hitter for the 1948 Harbor High championship

baseball team, was also, “Tar of the Year,” his senior year and was a

veteran in football and basketball. He had four monograms in basketball.

He was outstanding at Orange Coast College, made the All-Eastern

Conference squads and some all-opponent teams.

His first trip to the Orient was as a BAR (Browning Automatic Rifle)

Army sergeant during the Korean war.

Horrell, who played Tar football under the late Les Miller (1944-45),

the late Wendell Pickens (1946-47 and OCC mentor Ray Rosso (1948-49), has

always spoken highly and respectfully of his coaches and past teammates.

His baseball ties with Pickens started in the spring of ’45 after Pickens

was discharged from the Navy and returned to Newport. Horrell helped pace

the ’48 Tars to the Sunset title and a berth in the CIF playoffs.

Then he and former Tar Bill “Dutch” Van Horn helped guide OCC to its

first-ever baseball championship in 1949. Harbor High’s ’48 baseball

title remains the school’s only baseball title in almost 70 years.

Horrell also helped Pickens lay out and construct the first Pirate

baseball backstop and diamond.

OCC grid memories linger because Horrell was one of the originals in

‘48 and also kicked the first-ever conversion point for the Pirates.

The first Buc team finished 3-5-1, but his second season found the

Pirates flowing at the end with an 8-2 mark. Coast also had bowl bid, but

it was rejected by the players since injuries had taken a severe toll.

Horrell has enjoyed the recent years of farming near Yuma, but he has

reached a point where he can do without the summer desert heat.

“I can manage 90 degrees,” he said. “But when it gets over 100, then I

start thinking of visits back to the harbor area.

One friend recently said, “Bogey has been thinking of a future move to

San Diego to stay cool.”

One of his highlights some years back was when he was invited to the

50th wedding anniversary for Wendell and Kay Pickens, along with the late

legendary fullback Harold Sheflin. He and Sheflin became friends as the

years passed.

“That was quite an honor to be invited along with Harold,” Horrell

said.