It wasn’t the sod ... it was the ice plants!

One of the bristling sports stadium issues from yesteryear emerged

after the opening of the Orange Coast College football stadium in

1955.

In time, it closed on a note of amusement, but if flashed with

degrees of mixed emotions for a short spell.

Ralph Reed, the Newport Harbor High athletic director, had been

confronted with a scheduling conflict at Newport’s Davidson Field one

autumn day in ‘55, but he smiled and thought OCC officials would ease

the problem by granting one free evening at their brand new stadium.

After all, he figured, on a diplomatic note, that both Newport and

Huntington Beach high schools had willingly granted the use of their

football fields to OCC for seven years.

No problem, right?

Wrong, he soon discovered on a glum sign.

Dr. Basil Peterson, the OCC president, informed him the request

could not be granted because he feared an extra contest would “team

up the sod.”

Apparently, he sensed nothing disturbing about his response.

Wrong. Reed and many others on the prep side of the fence

reflected on the fact that taxpayers in both districts had paid for

the stadium and, actually, the entire college facility, not to

mention use of their own facilities for years.

And one local newspaper ran a sharp editorial, noting that a

reasonable explanation would have been acceptable, “but tearing up

the sod” prompted a wide round of guffaws.

It was assumed that Peterson finally sensed that he best resolve

the matter soonest and retire to his study.

Without any explanation of the turf concern, he chose to grant

Reed his request.

The future would find more such requests heading for OCC, but it

became a peaceful scenario for years to come.

The old issue did arrive one night years later when this corner

was discussing it with the late Les Miller, a Newport grid coach in

1943-45 and a long-time Lions Club member.

Through the Lions, he came to know another member, Peterson, and

shared compassion over numerous college matters. It once featured

commentary on the stadium hassle.

Miller laughed to recall “tearing up the sod,” and said, “It

wasn’t the sod, it was the ice plants ‘Pete” had workers plant on the

sloped ground of the stadium’s south side. He feared an overflow

crowd would damage the area.”

Amusingly, that would be the projection in 1956 because the huge

crowds would come with the college’s own games on Saturday nights.

The prep games did not feature such crowds for Newport and

Huntington Beach, unless powerful Anaheim, with star Mickey Flynn,

was on the calendar.

*

A recent interview with Virgil Pinkley, son of the late Alvin

Pinkley, a one-time mayor for Costa Mesa, produced many fond notes

out of the past.

Virgil recalled the great fun his dad used to have staging free

malt and ice cream feeds via his drugstone in past years for Newport

athletes.

He laughed to recall a period when “Pink” would freeze bottles of

pop for the kids, but he had to check them now and then or they would

pop and blow up.

With amusement, Virgil remembered a yarn about “Pink” from his

young days. He said, “He would trap gophers and sell their tails.”

Basketball days brought fond memories for Virgil. He recalled “how

he used to grab the back of shorts to slow other players down.”

Virgil and George Yardley, a ’46 Newport grad and a member of the

Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., shared the same

basketball fun during World War II at the Santa Ana Army Air Base

hustling out to watch a great air base cage squad, which included two

sterling players, Jack Hupp and Jack Hanson.

In fact, Virgil recalled a night when the air base team confronted

the Harlem Globetrotters and defeated the visitors.

Yardley played on the ’46 Newport team while Virgil performed with

skill and polish on the ’48 Tar team.