By Ed Piper
A 1951 alumnus of La Jolla High, whom I'll call "Jorge", tells a hilarious story of outdoor showers by the football field.
"I've seen the new buildings by the track. They're incredible," Jorge told me over the weekend, Oct. 4-5. "There was no stadium back then--just a field."
The 6'4" giant, who is now 86 and still lives in the La Jolla area, says that football games were played elsewhere than the LJHS campus, because there were no stands for spectators to sit in.
We're coming to the funny part: "There were no showers for P.E. like there are now," says Jorge, whose children attended Christian High in El Cajon. "So they rigged up impromptu showers outside next to the field. They put up a tarp to give the guys privacy.
"Over the course of the year, the tarp took wear. Later in the year, it would have holes in it. So people could stand on the track and see us showering through the tarp. They were laughing."
La Jolla had some strong football teams back then. Jorge ran cross country, but he could not recall the name of his coach on the Viking team.
I said, "With your height, the basketball program must have been dying to have you on the team."
Jorge: "I was 6'3", 195 pounds. They weren't dying for me to be on the team. I wasn't that tall."
I countered, "But some height would be better than none. A 5'8" player can't do what a 6'3" player can," or something like that.
He wasn't buying.
He grew up in Pacific Beach. La Jolla High had the "PB kids", and the "La Jolla kids". Everybody knew who lived where, who was in each group.
His son was 7'2". Can you imagine if LJHS had been able to have him on its squad? Instead, he played for Christian High.
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