He couldn’t pull one over Coach Miller

Although the 1944 Newport Harbor High football team started with a

fair nucleus of solid gridders, it would also be losing several

sterling players to the military in World War II before the season

ended.

It would mark the second season for Les Miller, who was hired in

‘43 as a teacher and a coach.

The signal caller, a rugged end named Glynn Boies from Louisiana,

said, in reflecting back, “Les was not really a coach at Newport

Harbor, but we all liked Les. He was very fair and he knew football

pretty well.”

“We grew up with Coach Wendell Pickens and the war had changed

things,” Boies added. “It was difficult. Les basically had us running

out of the short-punt formation, but he did run some spread.”

Boies had little recall of Miller’s introduction of any

T-formation.

Miller had coached football and baseball at one junior college in

Iowa before Newport, but the grid experience was only with six-man

football. Still, it won a title.

Actually, Miller had planned on entering the Navy Preflight

program after the war opened, but lost out after medics learned that

he had an eye disorder. He was a Phi Beta Kappa from Baker College

and well-qualified to teach.

Boies said the basic team featured tackles Dick Freeman and Jim

Douglas, guards Rod Gould and Gene Lee, quarterback Don Miller,

halfbacks Al Bishop and Joe Muniz, end Rod MacMillian and fullback

Ralph “Frog” Freitag.

“Without Frog we would have been very limited,” Boies said. “He

had such impact. I hit him head on in practice once at the knees and

I swear he must have dragged me 15 feet.”

Freitag was a 6-foot, 200-pound fullback. He was also

exceptionally fast in track.

“He was fine runner and could sharp short passes,” Boies recalled,

calling Miller, a triple-threat quarterback.

Miller was brother to the ’42 champion halfback Ed Miller, who was

a 10.2 sprinter in high school.

The ’44 team started with a 12-6 win over Laguna Beach, then

blanked the next three rivals, Tustin, 7-0; Anaheim, 7-0; and

Huntington Beach, 13-0.

The Laguna result probably should have found the Sailors winning

by many points, but Miller was, by his own admission to Muniz years

later, easing up on Laguna since it had threatened to cut the Tars

off the schedule if they had won big, as the ’42 Tars did, 50-0.

Muniz, the signal caller when Boies was out, was aware that

something was amiss during the game and tried to get a response from

Miller to no avail.

“Les bumped into me at the bank once after the war had ended and

explained what had happened,” Muniz said.

The thundering game of the year in ’44 found Newport traveling to

a packed Santa Ana Bowl to face its toughest Sunset League foe, Santa

Ana, before 6,500 fans. The Saints had sizzling threats in the

backfield with two runners named Duffy and Daniels.

“It was tooth and nail all the way,” said Boies, who applauded the

Sailors for an impressive performance.

However, the decider came after Newport’s 6-foot-7 center, Don

Vaughn, tried to kick an extra point. It failed and the Saints won,

7-6. Boies had a picture of Vaughn’s kick missing the uprights,

though many Sailor fans swear the ball went through the goal posts.

With amusement, Boies even recalls a shouting match in the stands

between Costa Mesa pharmacist A.L. Pinkley, a future mayor, and a

Santa Ana fan.

“Pinkley was one of our team’s biggest boosters,” Boies said.

Pinkley, over the years, would be a constant supporter of all the

harbor area schools in all sports, especially football and

basketball.

After the Santa Ana game, Newport would lose Muniz and Freeman to

the Navy. Later, Freeman would be named All-CIF second-team tackle,

while Muniz would be named to the all-league squad. Muniz would be

shipped to the South Pacific.

Another letdown came in the next game against visiting Orange in a

driving rainstorm. Miller feuded with the Orange coach throughout

since he wanted to end the game because of the weather.

Miller refused each time.

The Tars led, 7-0, until the end when Orange cut loose with a

trick pass play and scored. Newport’s efforts to block the PAT

failed. Final score: 7-7.

Then Newport Harbor lost the final to Fullerton, 12-6, giving the Sailors a 4-2-1 record for the season.