Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Highschool Football in Santa Ana, 1960s

Anonymous shares some good memories of living in Santa Ana during the 1960s, revolving mainly around school and football games...

Oh my gosh....I have no idea how I found your website but I love it! In the past few moments, I feel as though my life has flashed before me.

We lived on St. Andrews, across from Lukens Dairy, right at the dead end. Our house was a "hang out" for Mater Dei football players since my brothers played on the team. And later I attended John Adams, Smedley and finally Valley. In the summer, I "lived" at Memorial Park and worked at the swimming pool. Does anyone remember the Warrens and the slide that we climbed to go to all the late night baseball games? We used to call the radio station every Friday night after football games and go to Me & Ed's for pizza. Who could forget Newport Bal Week in the 60's. I'm pretty sure Soupy Sales did an assembly at Smedley. Steve Martin was our Guest Speaker at Senior Breakfast, Disneyland Hotel. I'm sure I could keep gliding down memory lane but for now I will stop. Thanks for such a positive in our negative world. Keep up the good work!! Hello to the Class of 66 from Valley High!

Now living in Santa Rosa wine country.

15 comments:

  1. Soupy Sales ~ ~ that's a name I had nearly forgotten. And the Righteous Brothers who were so popular. And the Lloyd Thaxton show. And Dick Dale - I could go on forever.

    Thanks for the memories.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We're trying to get you some more comments over at the OJ blog:

    http://orangejuiceblog.com/2009/06/ocmemories-santa-ana-high-school-football-in-the-1960s-valley-high-school/

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thats funny, I lived closed to St Andrews and also attended Adams and Valley, class of 90.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Going to church during school time as a class, at St. Annes School, and listening to the alligatoe clickers in their hand to tell us to behave. You know you can't talk in church. Ice cream was only 6 cents during lunch period.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I lived on St. Anne PL. on the east side of Bristol. Played football and baseball in the street at the end of the cul-de-sac. Went to St. Anne's on Main. Got in more mischief walking to and from school. Summer swimming at the pool at Memorial Park. Moved to Tustin in '68. great times.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My older sister and her family lived on St. Anne in the 60's. I spent a lot of time at their house.

      Delete
  6. Does anyone remember the dances at the American Legion with the Rhythm Rockers?

    ReplyDelete
  7. OMG the memories! I was at the Soupy Sales 'concert' at Smedley with my older brother. My Mother hated him and thought he was an idiot but to her credit she let us go. My brother too went to Mater Dei. I went to St Annes but later went to Marywood. Remember 'black claw' and 'white fang'?

    ReplyDelete
  8. I remember the Rythem Rockers at the Legion - I think I was still in Jr. High, or maybe a sophmore at SAHS - I can't remember if we went of Friday or Saturday nights, it seems to me it was one or the other - never both. Who was the lead singer? My Friend Barbara really had a crush on him! Was the Leigon located near the "Old Man's Park"? What about Reggie Soto? Does anyone remember him? I recall his amazing smile & he was always dancing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I remember walking home from the Broadway Theater with my girlfriends through the "Old Man's Park". We thought for sure the "boogie man" would get us. What fun memories of Santa Ana in the middle 50's and early 60's.

      Delete
  9. OMG I went to Diamond Elementary, then to Smedley and then on to Santa Ana Valley HG. I left Valley in the middle of my Jr. year which was in 1968. But going to the "plunge" Memorial pool, dances after school in the gym. I lived on Borchard street which was right behind Diamond Elementary. Oh, and the Orange Julius on Flower and Edinger. Yum! My boyfriend, then fiance, now husband for 40 years and I used to love to get their chili dogs and orange julius. This site is awesome. And yes, I do remember the name Reggie Soto, but it is just a memory in the back of my mind. I can't wait to hear more! OH! and the stink of Lukens Dairy :-(

    ReplyDelete
  10. I went to Diamond and then to Lathrop for 1 1/2 years, then Smedley was ready, first graduating class from Smedley. I went to SAHS and our soph. year we got to vote if we wanted to go to Valley or SAHS, we chose SAHS. My son now teaches at Valley, I am retired but still sub at Diamond. I graduated in 1960.

    ReplyDelete
  11. HI,
    Does anyone remember the "Saintly Falcon" trophy from 1963-65 football era between Santa Ana Valley and SAHS? It was a stuffed falcon donated by Jack Lynch, then head zookeeper at the SA,Zoo. The idea came from Bob Brewer, then SA city councilman, as a perpetual trophy to be awarded to the winner of the cross-town football contests. There only were one or two times that the two schools played each other back then so what happened to the bird? Anyone??

    ReplyDelete
  12. What a cool site. anyone remember the AW ROOT BEER stand on mater dei grounds? Ih, them were the days....memorial park, thrifty drug 10cent ice cream, and mac donalds 18cent burgers

    We did st. Anns, mater dei, and everything around it. AND I REMEMBER THE 6cent ice cream at st. Anns. I was only allowed to have one on wednesday, hot dog day.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I graduated from SAHS in 67. I remember playing the fo,lloing teams in varsity football in 1966: Long Beach Poly, Mater Dei and Anaheim. Mater Dei and anahiem played in the CIF finals that year.We played mater Dei on a Thursday night at the Santa Ana stadium, it was a sell out crowd.Both Santa Ana and Mater Dei had several players who went ont to play Division 1 football. The Saints had Karl Francis and Jack Meyer go to USC, Dennis Edwards, Larry Brumsey and Issac Critis to Cal Berkley, John Conover to ASU, Rick Deckard to Miam Hurricanes, Steve Hill to Univ. Hawaii, and Eddie Steward to San Diego State. Issac Curtis went on to play for the Cincinatti Bengals for over 10 years and played in a Super Bowl with the Bengals. I coached high school varsity football for 35 years in Santa Barbara County after college and I can assure anyone who reads this item that the "66" team was one of the best in the history of the SAHS and one if not the best I was ever associated with.

    ReplyDelete

Custom Search