Irwin offered relief

DON CANTRELL

This summer’s intense heat has prompted a fond recall of September of

1948, when the new coach at Newport Harbor High, Al Irwin, stopped

football practice one afternoon and waved his players off the field

and into the stands.

He chose an area heavily shadowed by eucalyptus trees and invited

the sweating players to sit down and relax, which drew heavy sighs of

relief.

Irwin, a former local gridder himself in the early 1930s,

understood the conditions and knew it was wise to cool his troops for

an hour to avoid heat problems.

Many coaches don’t have a habit of doing that, but Irwin often

demonstrated the compassion he had for players under difficult

pressures.

His players were always impressed and maintained high regard for

him for years to come.

One such player was Al Muniz, a 250-pound guard for Irwin in 1948,

who once said he would not forget that one hot afternoon when Irwin

gave the team a breather in the shade.

“He was the kind of man you always wanted to play your heart out

for,” Muniz said.

However, Irwin, 32 at the time, kept the mood of football strong

in their minds as he chose to relate stimulating tales about his days

in college football.

His stories always tied in with practice lessons.

*

The summer of 1949 was unique and interesting for members of two

top Southern California prep grid teams and that was South Pasadena

and Harbor High at Davidson Field.

Six players from each team had agreed to scrimmage each other

every day at least two weeks in August. There was no gear and

tackling was ruled out.

A few interesting things would, in due time, develop out of the

1949 summer event. One would find a tough South Pasadena guard named

Mike Giddings due for a future in both college and pro coaching. By

1981, Giddings chose to take charge of the Harbor High football team

for five years, which became a fun hobby.

An additional South Pasadena note was that two of its players

would subsequently wind up at Stanford and draw attention from

All-American selection committees. They were passing ace Bob Garrett

and end Sam Morley.

Two of the Newport players, Mel Smalley and fullback Bob Berry

didn’t expect super things for Harbor High. Fair to say they were

astonished when Newport finally came down to a CIF “game of the week”

against invading Fullerton near Halloween. Newport lost the

championship struggle in the final minutes, 43-27.

In all, Newport wound up with an 8-1 record at the time. Four of

the six Tars in the summer scrimmage would earn high spots on the

All-Sunset League squad at season’s end.

South Pasadena finished strong in the CIF playoffs that fall, but

the final championship trophy went to Compton High.

*

The Costa Mesa element, including Smalley, later helped direct

Orange Coast College to he school’s first grid title in 1951.

Some of the Costa Mesa players who had served the ’49 Harbor High

team with a winning spirit were tackle Bob Woodhouse, tackle Ed

Mayer, center Keith Burch and end Morrie Langdale.

The OCC coach was Ray Rosso, who still expresses his regard and

admiration for the 1951 Pirates.

*

Incidentally, an old friend of Giddings named Mike White became a

walk-on assistant coach for Jeff Brinkley at Newport in the fall of

1989 while he was between coaching jobs.

White loved the challenge as a receivers coach and enjoyed

watching one son play on the 1989 Sailors.

In time, White, a former head coach at the University of Illinois

and Cal, was hired to coach the Los Angeles Raiders before the

organization shifted back to Oakland.

Although his coaching friends felt White had done a superior job

for the Raiders over a two-year period, he was fired on Christmas

eve.

White later helped Coach Dick Vermeil guide the St. Louis Rams to

a Super Bowl triumph. He and Vermeil are now coaching for the Kansas

City Chiefs.