Mid-1930s Sailor graduates to reunite

DON CANTRELL

Newport Harbor High alumni are prepared to establish another rare

class reunion event this summer as plans have been announced for the

69- and 70-year reunions of the Classes of 1935 and ‘34, according to

spokeman Woodrow Hadley (Class of ‘34).

Hadley and wife Berenice are charting a potato salad bar lunch at

11:30 a.m. Satureday at their Costa Mesa home -- 345 Broadway.

Hadley said they have already received 14 personal responses and

that the list could approach about 30 before Tuesday’s reservation

deadline.

Hadley, a Navy veteran and a former Newport gridder in the

mid-1930s, can be reached at (949) 548-5288.

Harbor High opened in 1930 with no senior class and did not field

a varsity football team until the fall of 1931. The first varsity

unit was coached by Ralph Reed, the school’s first athletic director.

Reed coached football for seven years before Dick Spaulding took

charge in 1938-39. He was followed by Wendell Pickens in 1940-42 and

again in 1946-47. Pickens’ 1942 team won the school’s first football

championship.

Hadley was delighted to disclose that at least 11 former gridders

from the early ‘30s, and two from the early ‘40s, are expected to

attend.

The list reveals some proud names from the early days, like Al

Irwin (Class of ‘36), who returned to coach varsity football at

Newport from 1948 through 1955, before advancing to Orange Coast

College in 1956 and leading the Pirates to the conference

championship.

In addition, the list features the McClellan brothers, Rollo and

Sparks. Rollo, who set the school’s 100-yard dash record at 10.2

seconds in 1938, was the star fullback for the 1937 varsity team,

while Sparks was the center for the 1939 grid club.

Other notable gridders were Malchom Reid, Jerry Keithley, Howard

Grebe, Bryon Marshall, Jack McNally, Charles Buckland and varsity

manager Daren McGavren, who was also a star pole vaulter.

Also expected is Reid’s son, Broug, who played on the 1956 Sailor

grid team.

The McClellan brothers later played ball at Fullerton Junior

College, before they were prompted to leave for military service

during World War II.

Irwin and Keithley linked up again at the College of the Pacific

in Stockton and were later joined by Newport’s fine 1936 wingman Walt

Kelly.

Buckland, a stout defensive player on the 1939 team, later established sterling marks in work for the Los Angeles Police

Department.

*

This corner wishes to correct an error in the May 31 tribute to

one World War II veteran from Newport. His name is Glenn O. Thompson,

the 1937 quarterback. We erred by listing his first name as George.

Thompson, who died a few years back, advanced to rear admiral in

the Coast Guard during WWII.

Incidentally, a few top names were overlooked in the WWII tribute

on May 31. It should have included Pickens, a Navy officer who

drilled midshipmen on physical training.

Also omitted were: John Owens, a one-time line coach at Orange

Coast College, who had served in the SeaBees; Paul Myrehn, who

starred on the 1942 championship team and was an Army officer; Ralph

Irwin, a top Newport lineman in the mid-1930s, who served in the

Coast Guard; and Zeller Robertson, a 1940 Tar gridder, who later

became a captain and labored with the Army foreign language

assignment at Fort Ord.

*

Interesting to note that “Woody” Hadley can still remember his two

Bee grid coaches in 1933. They were Bill Brown and Ken Crane. Brown

may have been a former Newport athlete of note.

If Hadley had still been around in 1936, he could have joined

Rollo McClellan and Glenn O. Thompson on a championship Bee football

team. It marked Newport’s first grid title and the team was coached

by Lee Trine, a former grid chief at the University of Redlands.

Hadley served four years in the Navy and would have continued on

into World War II, but he developed lung trouble in 1939 and had to

retire from the Navy.