Football at Santa Paula High School has brought many memories to the athletes and fans over the past nine decades.
For reasons I can’t begin to explain, Cardinal football has left a lasting impression on me.
My uncle, Jack L. Smith, was the varsity football coach at Ventura High School during the 50s and 60s. As a young boy, I would stay at my uncle’s home on Friday nights and my cousin Jack and I would attend the Cougars’ games. I remember being in awe of all the excitement and activity on the sidelines during the games.
Years later, I would learn that my father and his brothers played football at Santa Paula High School. My father, Anthony, was a sophomore when football was introduced at Santa Paula in 1924. I can remember him telling me how nobody knew how to hold the odd shaped ball on the first day of practice. His football career was short-lived due to an injury.
The coach had the players run the “gauntlet” to see how they could run and how long they could stay on their feet without being tackled. My father made it through the “gauntlet” on his first attempt without being knocked off his feet. Unbelieving, the coach had him do it again. On his second attempt, one defender stood between my father and his second successful run. The defender dove and caught my father’s shoestring and my father went down, breaking his collarbone. Since my father lived on a ranch, his father felt it was more important for him to work on the ranch than get injured playing some game.
My father’s brothers Edward, Gracion and Bob fared better playing football in the late 20s and early 30s. Uncle Gracion had the best story. He recalled one Saturday when Santa Paula was scheduled to play an afternoon football game against Santa Barbara. Before he could go to the game he had to deliver a load of hay to Saticoy. He passed the Santa Barbara bus on Telegraph Road, near Olive Road, heading for Santa Paula as he was driving his truckload of hay towards Saticoy.
After unloading the hay he drove directly to Santa Paula. He arrived at the game midway through the second quarter. The coach was mad at him and didn’t let him play. During the fourth quarter the coach relented and allowed him to play. My uncle was able to score a touchdown in the last minutes of the game.
I can still remember many of my experiences when I played football at Santa Paula High School. Some of the experiences seem to revolve around situations where I was faced with certain challenges and how I met the challenges. When Santa Paula had the single wing formation in the late 50s I played quarterback. The quarterback in the single wing was a blocking back and served the purpose as an additional pulling guard.
One game I remember is when we played East Bakersfield. What I remember most are the two tackles I was assigned to block. They each weighed approximately 245 pounds, outweighing me by 100 pounds. One was about six feet four and solid as a brick wall. The other was about six feet one and flabby. In those days you could block below the knees and that’s all I could do to stop them or slow them down. On one occasion I went in too high when I was blocking the “brick wall” and he gave me a forearm under the chin. I don’t think I’ve seen stars brighter than I did on that occasion. After that, I never forgot to go in as low as possible.
The second game that stands out in my mind was against Santa Barbara the following year. It was Joe Zeno’s first year as coach at Santa Paula High School. We had lost our only game of the season two weeks before to Ventura, 13-0, but we still were in the hunt for the league title. I remember walking on the field at Peabody Stadium before the game and looking at the Dons standing shoulder-to-shoulder from goal line to goal line. The Santa Barbara coach must have put uniforms on half the school to impress us with a show of strength.
During our first series of plays our starting, all-league halfback, Loyd Coppenger, suffered a dislocated elbow. His injury took some wind out of our sails but we hung in there, with the score at halftime 0-0. During the second half the larger Santa Barbara team started chipping away and wearing us down.
I remember one “chip” that occurred in the middle of the third quarter. Our tackle, Mike Jones, who had been the anchor of the line the entire game, was kicked out of the game for slugging one of the opposing team members. It seems the other player had punched him in the groin and Mike had retaliated. They were both kicked out of the game. I still remember Mike, whose uniform was black from head to toe with dirt and grass stains, walking towards our bench and the Santa Barbara player walking towards his bench in his sparkling clean uniform. They won the game, 34-7, and we joined the ranks of all the other Cardinal teams that could never defeat the Dons. (The 1959 Cardinal team is the only Santa Paula team that ever defeated Santa Barbara.)
When you are watching your child on the field the game takes on another perspective. I had the opportunity to watch my son, Joseph, put on the Cardinal Red & White and face the challenges the gridiron affords individuals. What I remember most is the pride my father had in watching his grandson running the “gauntlets” under the Friday night lights.
I announced the football games for the Cardinals for 25 years. One thing that stands out in my mind is that every year, no matter how successful the Cardinals were in the won-loss column, there was at least one game during the season where the team seemed to have an aura surrounding them and each player played the game of their career. It was usually against a highly favored team and the Cardinals were hopeless underdogs. The players reached deep inside themselves and displayed the determination you knew they had all along to meet the challenge. In this game they played their hearts out and, win or lose, they created memories for a lifetime.
The California Oil Museum is looking to get great stories of memorable football games, family history stories (i.e. like generations of players like grandpas, sons, brothers, and grandsons who have all played for the high school), great prank stories, and who the coaches and players think were some of the best players to come out of the Santa Paula Football program. If you have any information, contact the California Oil Museum at 933-0076 Ext 291.
