Name: Bob Reagan ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Nov 8, 2006, 2:35 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1962
City & State: Redding,CA
E-mail
Message: I also took Spanish from Miss Ames. She told me that football was the cruelest sport on earth. She being from Spain thought that Bull fighting on the other hand was the greatest sport of "Man Over Beast". I of course just had to debate the fact that they had a padded and blindfolded horse with a rider who had a big sharp pole in his hand so that when the bull would keep running into the horse he would jab the pole into the neck and shoulder area to weaken the animal. When they felt that he was weakened enough they would send in guys with sharpened sticks to stick in the bulls shoulder area further weakening the animal, then some scrawny guy in tights would enter the arena carrying a red cape and a sword to fight this already half dead beast. He would wave his red cape at the animal to get it to charge him so he could side step it time and again until the animal was just about to drop dead, then he would get his sword and as the bull is practically kneeling in front of him he then takes his sword and plunges it into the area that has already been poked and stabbed repeatedly to finally put the beast out of his misery. The scrawny guy in tights then wants you to think that he is the ultimate "Man Over Beast" I told her that if the the guy in tights was any good he wouldn't need all that extra assistance, by that time she was so mad that she kicked me out of class. At least football players in tights don't carry red capes or swords

Name: Bob Melendrez ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Nov 8, 2006, 2:26 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1971
City & State: Hawthorne, CA
E-mail
Message: El Rojo, I'm with you buddy! Some pretty tough hombres came out of R.H. Dana. And lest we forget, some of Dana's guys got "shanghaied" off to Lawndale... (Once a Dolphin, forever a Cougar...) 8^)

Name: Keith D. Jones ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Nov 8, 2006, 2:26 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1976
City & State: Kona, HI
E-mail
Message: Clark, Dana would kill in Baseball. Maybe not so good in football but not bad. We had some good basketball players in the neighborhood too. I always remember the National and American rivalry and the Dana and Intermediate rivalry. I remember at Cabrillo, Peter Burnett and Don Smith we had School Olympics. We should have had one between Dana and Intermediate. That pic is from the last Middle League season in existence. The team combined both the Hawthorne American and Hawthorne National teams. We ended up winning the World Series that year with a 10 and 1 record. Mr. Duvall was the president. I just so happen to hit 10 home runs in 10 games.

Name: Sharon Branigan ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Nov 8, 2006, 2:20 pm - HHS Time
Maiden: Bierman
Class: 1976
City & State: Thousand Oaks, CA
E-mail
Message: The elusive Keith Jones back row 2nd from right...

Name: Teri Hoenig ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Nov 8, 2006, 1:02 pm - HHS Time
Maiden: Klein
Class: 1973
City & State: Paradise. Ca
E-mail
Message: For those of you that are interested... There will be a service held for BOB KLEIN on November 14th @ 10:00 am At Congregation Emanuel, 3512 N.E. Street, San Bernardino, Ca. 92405 (909)886-4618

Name: Dennis Kilroy ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Nov 8, 2006, 12:30 pm - HHS Time
Maiden: hhs77.com
Class: 1977
City & State: OC CA
E-mail
Message: OK John I hope all is good with you. This group of Ball Players I can name a bunch. I could name probably everyone in this picture but it would hurt what little brain cells I have left. But, I will try a few names: Mike Love Steve Miranda Tracey Turner, Mike Castro, Scott Burlingame..........The reason I know everyone so well in this picture is they all hit home runs off me (Yes I was an excellent Batting Practice Pitcher for them all at some point LOL !) but at least I was good at something!

Name: Dean Morris ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Nov 8, 2006, 10:57 am - HHS Time
Class: 1972
City & State: NorCal
E-mail
Message: Before you pass judgment on De La Salle football and their great coach Bob Ladoceur, read about why they are so successful. Of course, this is a well funded Catholic School in Concord CA, but the attraction goes beyond money and perks. Catholics from around the region want to go to DeLaSalle the same way others find Notre Dame attractive at the collegiate level. But when you read the history of the program, you will find that this is one coach who, like John Wooden, Dean Smith and others, begins with a strong spiritual grounding and teaches kids about life as much as football. There are good coaches out there who succeed within the rules and he is one of them... Check out some references:
1) Reference 1
2) Reference 2
3) Reference 3

Name: Dan Johnson ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Nov 8, 2006, 10:23 am - HHS Time
Class: 1977
City & State: Sherman Oaks
No E-mail
Message: When Hawthorne was excellent in track and football in the late 80s and early 90s, there were a lot of kids coming from the LAUSD areas to the east to run for Kye Courtney. When they put a stop to it, the programs declined. Although HHS did score 6 and only gave up 68 last week.
Plans for 30 year reunion for '77 are coming along nicely. Please email me your suggestions for songs to include on the playlist. They must have been on the airwaves during the 75-77 time frame and released before June '77

Name: Clark Millman ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Nov 8, 2006, 10:19 am - HHS Time
Class: 1976
City & State: Torrance, CA
E-mail
Message: John B: I'm with you! The Dana guys can name the time and place and the H.I.S. guys will gladly kick the spoiled rich kids around! I'll bring my USC officials to guarantee the victory. We all know the kids from Holly Glen were cheaters! Back in the late sixties when we had "park" basketball teams playing at the Eucalyptus gym every saturday, everyone knew that Holly Glen cheated and had "ringers" playing! We're losing focus here though. We were all Cougars and that should be where our loyalties and the discussions focus!

Name: Gary Bickers ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Nov 8, 2006, 10:15 am - HHS Time
Class: 1963
City & State: pve cal
E-mail
Message: A word about Football and easy grades; if you think that happened at HHS you never took Spanish from Miss Imes. I remember the first day of class she asked all the football players to standup. She announced to the class we all would fail her class. She was pretty close to correct. I worked hard and got a D.

Name: Teri Hoenig ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Nov 8, 2006, 9:13 am - HHS Time
Maiden: KLEIN
Class: 1973
City & State: Paradise, California
E-mail
Message: For all of you that knew my father, Bob Klein, aka "THORN", he passed away today in his sleep. There were so many lives that my father had touched, be it through the Hawthorne Parks department, Hawthorne Youth Camp, Leuzinger High, Key club, and so much more. Because my father was instrumental in the creation of Hawthorne Youth Camp and he loved it so much, his faimly will plan for a memorial service at the camp sometime in the Spring. He will be missed.

Name: EL ROJO ~~~~~~~~~~ Tue-Nov 7, 2006, 6:55 pm - HHS Time
Maiden: Wewerestraight
Class: 1960
City & State: Kuna, ID
E-mail
Message: Jeez guys and gals who thought up this idea of homes and meals and grades thing? I got lucky my JR year because it was a semester system. Grades...not very well. But you have to look at this school called De La Salle in Concord, or thereabouts. 151 games in a row? I've read stories. Moving parents for jobs, housing, etc. I don't believe that could have ever taken place at HHS! The first thing is the Dana kids would have stomped H.I.'s collective -ss. Proved it more than once if they came over. Bruce Johnson, Al Geverink and the other "big guys", West, Lutz, Whitlock, would have made you toast!!! :-)) So how does a school, no matter who they are have a 151 game winning streak? Poly should have done that. But 150 +? Tell me how in Hawthorne terms that this can happen. It just doesn't make sense. John likes that. MAY THE COUGAR BE WITH YOU! Jake N Jude.

Name: Stephanie Brito ~~~~~~~~~~ Tue-Nov 7, 2006, 6:00 pm - HHS Time
Maiden: Hall
Class: 1961
City & State: RPV, CA
E-mail
Message: Thank you, John, for making the History of Hawthorne available to us all. What a remarkable find. Am I going to have to copy it page by page (I also type 24 wpm)?

Name: Paul Wisman ~~~~~~~~~~ Tue-Nov 7, 2006, 3:03 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1961
City & State: Torrance, Ca
E-mail
Message: Hey John, I just finished browsing through ?History of Hawthorne? and found it to be most interesting. I will read it more thoroughly later. Thanks to you, Bob and Linda for taking the time and effort to bring it to the pages of Cougartown. I love our city man!

Name: Carl Rilling ~~~~~~~~~~ Tue-Nov 7, 2006, 2:58 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1959
City & State: Oregon City, Ore
E-mail
Message: Thank You to everyone that put the History of Hawthorne together to be shared. It is a great read.

Name: Wade Greasby ~~~~~~~~~~ Tue-Nov 7, 2006, 12:41 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1973
City & State: Surf City, Ca
E-mail
Message: Fellow students, I was one of many student/athletes who came in on an inner district transfer. I was to attend Leuzinger. I went to Dan Nelson and he informed me that the only way I could come to Hawthorne was to take a class not offered at LHS. So I submitted my paper work and took Photography. During my Junior year I had Photo fifth period, I was out "taking pictures" at lunch, without Mr Hall's approval, and when I returned to the classroom he kicked me out of the class. I still remember his words, "have fun at Leuzinger". My family was in the process of buying "The Laven"s house on 130th St. and Mr Nelson said since I was at HHS for 2 1/2 years and had good grades I could stay. My family ended up buying the house and all was well. When I was a sophomore, I played Varsity Football, I was only 14. This caused some problems because a player needed to be 15 years old to play Varsity Football. My birthday didn't fall until the season was over and there wasn't any parent consent form letter to fill out back then. We had to forfeit the first five games of the season due to my participation. I never knew of the rule, and the coaches assumed I was old enough. In my Senior year the CIF issued a rule stating football players need to wear a mouth piece. I hadn't worn one at all. Six years of Pop Warner/Junior All American and four of high school. That year I chewed Beech Nut. When the ref came to check if I had a mouth piece in our first game a showed him the chaw a he let it go. Some rules work, some don't. Thanks for the Beech Nut Bill, (Sloey).

Name: John Baker ~~~~~~~~~~ Tue-Nov 7, 2006, 12:21 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1962
City & State: Lomita, CA
E-mail
Message: For anyone interested in the History of Hawthorne, it's been added to Cougartown. Very interesting document written in 1972 by Robert S. Hartman for the Golden Anniversary of the city.
Thanks to Bob Fraser(HHS60) for the document itself and to Linda Jones Reynolds(HHS62) for transcribing it.
Enjoy....

Name: Jim Peppers ~~~~~~~~~~ Tue-Nov 7, 2006, 9:48 am - HHS Time
Class: 1961
City & State: Athens, Greece
E-mail
Message: Cougars Rule! Moving to be in a school district. As Frank Romano well knows, that's exactly what my family did so that I could attend HHS instead of Leuzinger. I lived across the street from the dividing line i.e the wrong side of 138th St. We moved a few blocks over to 136th street south of Inglewood Ave. close to where Paco lived, I believe. Some great kids went to Leuzinger, too e.g. Sharon Ketterer! May El Rojo be with you all.

Name: Loretta Cuiper ~~~~~~~~~~ Tue-Nov 7, 2006, 8:15 am - HHS Time
Maiden: Morelli
Class: 1962
City & State: Hawthorne, Ca
E-mail
Message: Yes, there were things going on back then in the 80's. Alot of out of the district students, not only tract, there was the football dept. I have to agree, this did not hurt anyone. They did enforce the rule that you had to carrie a C average or you did not play. Also, there was alot of tutoring going on to bring up those grades so these kids could play. I don't think any of that was wrong. There was alot of excitment going on in the late 80's with all the sports departments. Some great events. I have say the girls department too!

Name: Jerry Miles ~~~~~~~~~~ Tue-Nov 7, 2006, 7:38 am - HHS Time
Class: 1966
City & State: Fair Oaks, CA
E-mail
Message: Sharon, I know when I played the coach set me up with my own apartment and my choice of a new car. But I was only second string. The starters received the really good stuff. I?m only joking of course. At the time, I remember the CIF rules being very strict as to players living in the proper area. Transfer students were not allowed to play sports at all. This did not stop some parents from moving into certain high school districts that they wanted their children to participate in sports but this was not illegal or even controllable. I know it did happen. To my knowledge no one was given any financial or academic advantages for participating on a team. I can show you my old report cards and prove that. Besides we were all proud to play for Hawthorne High and didn?t need any other inducements.

Name: Shannon Keys ~~~~~~~~~~ Tue-Nov 7, 2006, 7:06 am - HHS Time
Class: 1981
City & State: Colorado Springs
No E-mail
Message: Clark/Sharon - I shamefully admit "attending" more than one TA (Teachers Assistant) class my later years as a Cougar. If I was there more than twice a week, it was a good week. I know many other Cougs "assisted" coaches in the classrooms as well. Keith, I remember many a day helping put up those darned decrepit fishnet outfield fences at Aviation LL. As a youngster I was probably harming the effort more than assisting.