Sidelines: Nolan, true to the T

Don Cantrell

One of the most successful middleweight football coaches at Newport

Harbor High in the early years was a tall, lean-framed art instructor

named John “Jack” Nolan.

In fact, he was only at Newport for three years, but the Galleon

yearbook staff dedicated the 1946 yearbook to him. Hence, his popularity

was wide spread. He made friends easily.

Nolan’s ’44 Bee team was unbeaten. It tied three games and won four,

but missed the title. His ’45 team downed all rivals by wide margins save

for Anaheim in the final, a 13-0 loss. The Tars were favored until star

quarterback Ronnie Rima was injured before the game and did not play.

Bill Gustafson, a ’48 varsity halfback, indicated the ’46 Nolan-led

Bees got past Garden Grove and Orange, but lost five others.

One of the impressive things to Nolan’s ’44 right halfback Horace

Silva was Nolan’s installation of the T-formation. Many oldtimers think

the T-formation first came from varsity coach Al Irwin in ’48.

But Les Miller, 1943-45, did experiment with it briefly. Silva said

the team moved well with the T-formation offense and that Harold Van de

Walker was the quarterback before Rima in ’45.

He said the Bees in ‘43, under chemistry teacher Kingery Whiteneck,

were operating out of the old short punt formation, which was used by

Wendell Pickens in 1940-42 and again in 1946-47 after he returned from

military service during WWII.

Whiteneck later served as an assistant to Pickens in the fall of ’46.

Silva said Nolan, “was a real good guy and was not strict.”

“(Nolan) was a quiet man with a good sense of humor,” Silva said. “He

was compassionate with his players and was strong on the fundamentals of

blocking and tackling.”

With some amusement, Silva said, “I also had Nolan running the study

halls I attended and he often invited me up to his table so that I could

give him my thoughts about T-formation plays he was diagraming.”

“I think he came here from northern California and I think he went to

Yosemite when he left Newport after the war ended,” Silva added. “He used

to go to Yosemite every summer and serve as a ranger. He loved the great

outdoors and helping people. I dropped by once and the rangers told me he

was in the mountains looking for lost parties, so I just chose to leave a

message.”

Boyd Horrell, a top ’47 gridder, said, “Nolan was my art teacher and

he was a super guy.”

Nolan’s ’45 season started on a high note with the war ending.

Eighty-seven players turned out for the Bee team and he wound up with a

fast, scrappy and tough squad with great balance. There were no Cees

during the war. Les Miller took charge of the Cees in ’46.

One ’45 Bee player, Roy Ward, advanced to the varsity, then went on to

Cal Berkeley, where he became a first-string end under the famed “Pappy”

Waldorf and went to the Rose Bowl.

Another ’45 ace was halfback Bob Watts, Class of ‘50, who helped the

‘49 varsity to an 8-1 record as the club scored 323 points during the

season. Watts was also on the ’51 champ team at Orange Coast College.

Numerous ’45 players also advanced to the varsity of ‘46, a team that

tied the defending CIF champion Santa Ana Saints at the Santa Ana Bowl

during a wild dust storm, 13-13.

The noted players were Louis Mello, Roger Hillhouse, Ed Hanson, Bill

Roberts, Armando Monoco, Ronnie Othmer, Bill Brownie, Don Scott and Buzz

Chambers.

Bob Berry began his Newport football playing days as a freshman on the

‘45 Bee team, then skipped a year to work on a Costa Mesa farm before

returning to football after encouragement from the Hanson brothers, Fritz

and Ed “Doc.”

Berry became a major star in the Sunset League in ’47 and repeated his

sterling performances in 1948 and ’49. The CIF co-champions of ‘48, St.

Anthony High’s Saints, honored him after the ’48 season by placing him on

their all-opponent team, along with Tar end Bob Thompson, a second-team

All-CIF selection.

Fullerton High, the champions of the Sunset League in ‘47, lost to

Newport, 7-0, as Berry impressed Coach Dick Spaulding.

“Bob Berry is one of the finest sophomore back I have ever seen,”

Spaulding said.

Efforts to locate Nolan or to bring his story up to date, regretfully,

have found no answers. In summation, Nolan definitely had the talent and

good cheer, but his first two Bee teams were loaded with skills and fine

potential on the field.

Although Buzz Chambers was a fine runner for the ’45 Bees and a good

passer on the ’46 varsity squad, his career at Willamette University

found him confined to merely handling the punting chores for the

Bearcats.