Hall of Fame: Jules Gage (Newport Harbor)

Richard Dunn

Jules Gage just turned 80 years old and is “still living a good

life.”

In fact, Gage, the former Newport Harbor High athletic director and

basketball coach at Newport Harbor and Costa Mesa in the 1950s and ‘60s,

couldn’t ask for anything more in his golden years.

With four children, nine grandchildren and four great grandchildren

all living in California, Gage said there are “a lot of reunions, a lot

of get-togethers, a lot of parties, and they’re all just great kids ...

there are no divorces in the family and no drugs. We’ve been very

fortunate.”

Gage, the latest honoree in the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame, lives

in Carlsbad with his wife of 59 years, Helen, and enjoys retirement to

the hilt.

Jules and Helen both graduated from Hollywood High in 1940, then

attended Santa Barbara State Teachers College (later to become UC Santa

Barbara).

Gage transferred to BYU, then World War II broke out and he spent the

next 4 1/2 years in the U.S. Navy, mostly as a chief pharmacist. For 2

1/2 years, Gage was stationed in Brisbane, Australia, where he helped

build a mobile hospital.

After WWII, Gage returned to school and earned his teaching credential

at UCSB, received his master’s degree at Claremont Graduate School, then

landed his first teaching and coaching job in 1949 at Newport Harbor.

For the next three decades, the athletic landscape in the Newport-Mesa

School District would not be the same.

Gage started as an assistant football coach under Al Irwin, then

replaced legendary former Harbor basketball coach Ralph Reed in 1952.

Gage guided the Sailors to five straight winning seasons and Sunset

League championships in 1954, ’56 and ’57. The ’57 squad set a school

record for victories in season (19).

When Costa Mesa opened for business in the late 1950s, Gage moved over

from Newport Harbor to become the Mustangs’ first basketball coach and

athletic director.

In Mesa’s second year of varsity basketball, Gage coached the 1962

Mustangs to the CIF Southern Section 2-A semifinals, in which they won

their last four Freeway League games to earn a playoff berth, then began

a Cinderella run through the playoffs with three more victories, before

losing to eventual 2-A champion Bell Gardens.

Gage, who eventually launched an innovative physical education program

at Costa Mesa with the late Don Burns, enjoyed his finest season at Mesa

in 1966, when a team led by Bruce Chapman, Craig Falconer, Bart Carrido

and the Mancebo brothers, Rick and Larry.

Those Mustangs finished 18-8 and faced top-seeded Long Beach Poly in

the opening round of the playoffs, losing 109-81 before a packed house at

Orange Coast College. Poly, the two-time defending CIF champion, was so

good in ‘66, the Jackrabbits “could have beat the Lakers that year,”

Chapman said.

But Gage suffered a heart attack after that season and never returned

to the bench.

Gage went back to Newport Harbor and served as athletic director until

1980, when he retired from the district.

Gage’s popular P.E. program, which included rope climbing and various

military-type obstacle courses, ranks at the top of his proudest

achievements in his career.

(The Costa Mesa High Class of 1962 has invited Gage to its 40-year

reunion later this year.)

“(The P.E. program) wasn’t our idea. We stole it from somebody else.

But it was great,” Gage said, referring to a three-day trip with Burns to

Redwood City, where the two Mesa coaches jotted down as many notes as

possible to share with their colleagues and students.

“I played for 30 years. That’s all it was. Just playtime,” Gage said

of his Newport-Mesa career.

In one final career stop, Gage served for 16 years as a branch manager

of the Navy Marine Corps Relief Society in Camp Pendleton, a Washington,

D.C.-based organization that helps military personnel with myriad

problems, including financial consulting and marriage counseling.

“For young Marines right out of high school and living in an expensive

area with the military pay not the greatest, you could have some hard

times,” Gage said. “I’m a flag twirler. I’m very pro-American. I just

fell right into (the job). I’m the kind of guy who gets goose pimples

every time you play the Star-Spangled Banner ... with my background, it

was easy for me. I talk to people easily. It doesn’t bother me.”

These days, Gage and his wife enjoy dancing, golf and tennis.