Newport’s grid squads of ’73 and ’74 shined

ROGER CARLSON

Newport Harbor High’s football team of 2004 swept to the Sea View

League championship and appeared in the CIF Division VI playoffs

before finally bowing out with a sterling 12-1-1 record. Sound

familiar? It should.

The Sailors have been racking up plum seasons for a long time now,

and a case can be made for any number of them as “The All-Time Best.”

There wasn’t much doubt in 1942 when Hal Sheflin & Co. rumbled to

a 9-0 regular season record and the Sunset League championship before

bowing out in the CIF Small Schools Final to the Glenn Davis-led

Bonita Bearcats. Over the next 18 years only Al Irwin’s ’49 team,

which went 8-1, and Ernie Johnson’s 8-2 Sunset League co-champions

gave rise to speculation.

And for the past 19 years Coach Jeff Brinkley’s Sailors have been

pounding away with a steady procession of “Teams to Remember,” as in

the 11-3 team of ‘92; the perfect ’94 (14-0); the explosive ’96

(12-2) and ’99 (13-0-1) teams, which rolled up over 35 and 31 points

a game, respectively, with ’99 claiming the CIF crown; the 10-3

outfit of ‘97; and the back-to-back double-digit winners of ’00 and

‘01 (11-3 and 10-2-1).

There is one other group, and the one which I’d like to focus on.

Don Lent’s last team and Bill Pizzica’s first in a storied era of

1973 and ’74 when the Sailors racked up back-to-back Sunset League

championships with records of 9-2 and 10-2.

What sets this group apart from the rest? The sheer number of

players who would go on to play in college circles.

No two teams have ever produced in terms of talent as did these

two when you consider the rosters.

Lent’s coaching staff included Sid Shue, Larry Doyle, Hank

Cochrane, Jud Brown, Rocky Ford, Jim Bratten and Pizzica; and

Pizzica’s coaching staff consisted of Doyle, Bratten, Ford and

Cochrane.

A competent staff?

“I played under Dennis Green, Bill Walsh and Rod Dowhower at

Stanford,” said ’73 and ’74 starter Vinnie Mulroy, “and I didn’t

learn one thing from them that I hadn’t already learned from Hank

Cochrane.”

Quarterbacks Steve Bukich and Gordon Adams went to UCLA and USC.

Bukich was betrayed when the Bruins failed to live up to an expected

drop-back attack; Adams, a walk-on who was never considered for even

a second-team all-league berth in high school, blossomed into a

starter, leading the Trojans to Rose Bowl glory.

Mulroy was a standout receiver at Stanford, and placekicker Art

Sorce, with CIF record-breaking efforts, appeared to be headed for

big things before falling out of grace at USC.

Brian Theriot, a trigger in the Tars’ running game at tailback,

accepted a full ride at UCLA with a track and field scholarship and

became a world-class middle distance runner. And Gavin Hedrick, a

defensive end, was one of the nation’s best punters at Washington

State.

Another headed for Washington State, lineman John Gust, was killed

in an auto accident when the car he was driving skidded off an icy

patch of Highway 395 near Lone Pine a few weeks after the ’73 season,

a tragic sequence which will be focused on in Part III of this

tribute to an unforgettable band of brothers.

The list of players who would go on to play seems endless, and

I’ve probably missed a couple of them.

I remember Erik Escher’s appearance on the gridiron as a Bruin

when UCLA tangled with USC at the Coliseum.

Bill Mockett went to Nebraska, and Pete Brown played at Harvard.

Steve Foley and George Norris went to Stanford, and Tim Brown went

to Redlands.

Pat Millican, a standout tackle, went to Miami after starting out

at Orange Coast College.

Lineman Scott Reid was a starter at UCLA and Dave Simmons went to

Menlo College.

In one Pac-10 football game between Stanford and UCLA there were

six Sailors in the mix ... Mulroy, Foley and Norris with Stanford,

Bukich, Reid and Escher with the Bruins. Jeff Kravitz and Ken

Newberry went to Humboldt State and Mark Duffy went to Chico State.

Tom Formica and Skip Franklin went to Principia University.

OCC’s national championship team of 1975 included Newport Harbor

products Ron Lamerton, John Phipps, Pete Brown, Newberry, Pete

McCowen, Steve Richardson, Joe Castorena, Don Valdez, and Burdick

Ray.

The most unsung of all was Lamerton, who did not play his junior

season because of a conflict of personalities with Lent.

And, because of his size, 5-foot-8, 168 pounds, he was not

recruited. But pound-for-pound, Lamerton was in a class by himself.

Lamerton’s two first-half interceptions set the pace for Orange

Coast’s Pirates, who raced to a 31-6 halftime lead en route to a

38-14 victory over Rio Hondo at the 1975 Avocado Bowl at Cerritos

College.

Coast’s coach was Dick Tucker. The quarterback? Dave White,

Edison’s longtime successor to Coach Bill Workman.

Size is a funny thing about these two Newport Harbor teams.

Neither had much in terms of height or weight and pale in

comparison to today’s standards.

Hedrick, at 6-3, 190, was the tallest in ‘73, Millican checked in

at 6-1, 220, and Newberry was 6-1, 207. Kravitz (208), Gust (215),

Tom Formica (212) and Bukich, the quarterback (6-1, 200) were the “heavyweights.”

The ’74 team was smaller. Dave Helfrich (209), Reid (200) and

Sorce (210) were the big ‘ens on a team which laced Long Beach Poly

in the CIF playoffs, 25-14, when the Jackrabbits were led by the

celebrated Gene Washington.

Newport’s “All-Time Best,” is simply in the eyes of the beholder,

as evidenced by the exploits of the most recent version.

Hedrick was with the San Diego Chargers for a while and was last

known to be on an oil rig in Alaska.

Bukich is in construction.

Duffy is now a high school principal.

Tim Brown, a tight end and quarterback at Redlands, has for a long

time been known as the “surf doctor,” handling duties on the beach

volleyball and surfing circuits.

Ray, who went to UCLA and Pepperdine Law School after OCC, is an

attorney specializing in defending doctors against medical practice.

Millican is in interstate trucking. Lamerton is in local

construction.

McCowen has his own construction company in Austin, Texas, and

Phipps is in the mortgage business in Riverside.

Peter Brown runs a publishing company in Madison, Wis.

Peter Helfrich ended up at Harvard after a tour at Orange Coast.

Theriot? He’s the vice president of BuzzBrand Entertainment when

he’s able to get off the subject of his son, senior tailback Trevor

Theriot.

I’ll have some more on these two teams and their exploits,

including the pulsating 20-17 victory over Loara in 1973, over the

next couple of weeks.

* ROGER CARLSON is the former sports editor for the Daily Pilot.

He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].