Monday Night chatter

The new face on Monday Night Football -- John Madden -- brought

rousing cheers from many old fans Aug. 5 at Canton, Ohio for the

annual Pro Hall of Fame game.

The list included one of his old college mates from Cal Poly, San

Luis Obispo, by the name of Ted Trompeter, who once served as a

sterling tackle at Newport Harbor High on the 8-1 ’49 grid team.

Trompeter, Class of ’50 at Newport, dislocated his shoulder in

football at Cal Poly and faded from the turf, but angled on with his

skills as a light heavyweight boxer and subsequently won the Pacific

College championship as a senior.

Reflecting on Madden’s Monday Night debut, Trompeter said, “I

thought he was great. He was just himself. And he really knows how to

explain the game.”

Madden had been an announcer on two other TV channels with Pat

Summeral for years, but the latter’s retirement plans last year left

Madden open for another opportunity. ABC-TV’s ratings had been

dropping for years and it felt an old pro like Madden could change

the picture.

Trompeter and his daughter, Jeannette, the anchor for TV-Channel 8

in Des Moines, Iowa, who is also a Cal Poly grad, worked one big fund

rally at San Luis Obispo with Madden to raise money for the Cal Poly

sports program.

Trompeter truly enjoyed himself with Madden several years ago at

the central coast campus. In fact, he laughed to joke that he finally

made the All-Madden Team. “Not as a player,” he explained, “but

serving as the hose man when we had to wash John’s big touring bus.”

Trompeter also drew another big surprise last week because

Jeannette and St. Louis Rams quarterback Kurt Warner had their

picture taken together “and she’ll send dad a copy to Paso Robles.”

She and Warner were working together on a big charity golf

tournament that will benefit crippled children. The pro-am tournament

was staged in Des Moines.

With amusement, he feels the photograph may well help he celebrate

his 70th birthday on Aug. 26.

On another note, one of his ’49 grid mates from Newport, Gino

Boero, a 240-pound tackle as a sophomore, and one who was seen once

as Harbor High’s “Refrigerator” on the line, has joined a new team of

late.

Boero is excited about the new venture, serving as a member of the

volunteer’s unit at Hoag Hospital every Tuesday. He rolls a cart

around, serving coffee to the patients and their guests.

He is also looking forward to volunteer plans for greeters and

said, “It sounds like more fun.”

He and his late father, “Papa Gino,” always favored making time

and space to help other people. Both once owned popular Italian

restaurants in the harbor area.

Boero, a Pilot Sports Hall of Famer, still has “wonderful recalls”

of the ’49 grid team, which racked up 323 points in those eight

victories during the regular season. He also played for teams under

Al Irwin in ’50 and ’51.

While researching for information on a versatile Harbor High

athlete, the late tom McCorkell, Class of ‘44, we came across another

versatile sort in Glynn Boies, Class of ’45.

Born in Mangham, La., Boies and his family, prompted by Costa Mesa

relatives, chose to leave the South and head for the harbor area in

the mid-’30s.

The noted relatives included a chap named Bud Attridge, who would,

in time, lead Newport to the league basketball championship and

become known as an All-CIF star.

And the three Nettles brothers, Bob, the late Jim, and Armand, who

would also become an All-Sunset League choice and a member of the

All-CIF basketball team.

Both Attridge and Armand would become Pilot Sports Hall of Famers.

Boies was not only a polished football player at end for Newport

in ’43 and ‘44, but also played on the championship ’44 basketball

team and served as a superb pitcher for the ’44 baseball team.

Coach Les Miller was so impressed with Boies that he named him the

team signal caller in ’44.

Boies was once hospitalized after a face injury in high school,

then injured again in the face during a college game and chose to

depart the sport.

He felt that “was the smart thing to do.”