History coach quiz.

[Cannon]

My track coach at Tustin High School in southern California also ended up coaching at Golden West College.

My first college coach at Fullerton Jr. College ended his career as head coach at the University of Houston.

And my final head track coach at BYU competed in the 1948 Olympics in the 5000m and had 9 children and 41 grandchildren.

Who can name my 3 track coaches?

[jc203]

I can, but I have inside information !!! :-)

[thedoorknobbroke]

I can, but I have inside information !!! :-)

are you one of the coaches? Even I know the 2nd: Tom Tellez

[DoubleRBar]

Your coach at BYU had to be Clarence Robison. I believe the track at BYU is named for him.

[Cannon]

I can, but I have inside information !!! :-)

Yes you do, Joe C.

[Cannon]

Yes, Tom Tellez and Clarence Robison for coach 2 and 3 are correct.

And jc203 ( his HJ PR of 2.03) was a teammate of mine at Tustin H.S. and may be the only who can come up with coach #1.

[midwestfan]

Nothing to do for an hour or two, after winter storm hit the Midwest last night with sleet ice and snow. Doing a little research into Tustin HS, I found two coaches which may have crossed over Cannon's and jc203's time there which I judged to be around mid 1970's?
Pete Peterson was at Tustin for about 20 years and was a very good coach with field events, I believe. He left in 1974 and Tom Coffey came on as new head coach in 1974.
That is all I know about Tustin High although they hold/held record for most NFL players who were playing in the NFL in one year recently.
Let me know if I was close on your ages being born near 1957?

[jc203]

Midwestfan is always amazingly well-informed @ high school minutiae, and he very nearly hits the mark here.
Cannon and I overlapped a bit with Coach Pete Peterson (a great man and an outstanding coach) but when he transferred to another high school the new coach in that Cannon refers to took over.
I'll offer another hint: After our coach went on to Golden West JC in 1974 one of his best runners was Bob Messina. And Messina later became the coach of a very high profile national HS record holder at nearby University HS.

[midwestfan]

jc203 and Cannon:
Only Tustin HS track coaches I can see from 1950's through 1980's were Pete Peterson and Tom Coffey. One of them should have been your high school track coach when you were both at Tustin HS. jc203 remembers April 22, 1978 at Tustin Relays very well under Tom Coffey.
Messina coached at University High until 1982 and was the coach of National High School Mile record holder Polly Plumber who ran 4:35.24 on 5/16/1982. A mark that stood until Mary Cain came along some 30 years later.
Cannon, you must have been a sprinter as your nickname implies at Tustin??

[jc203]

MidWest: There was another Tustin coach beginning in 1961 when Mr. Peterson left to open the a new high school in the same district and ending some time in the early 1970's, probably when Tom Coffey took over the job.

It's Cannon's thread so I won't reveal our coach's name. But the topic set me to thinking about our him.
He was a young Tustin alum, son of a career Marine Corps officer. His normal gait was to jut his big, square jaw forward and swagger along like he was looking for a fight. He sometimes showed up at school looking as if he HAD been in a fight, the result of playing smash-mouth club rugby.
Beyond being a coach, most of us regarded him as a trusted friend and mentor, albeit a friend who could sometimes scare you shitless.
On one occasion the Clyde Beatty Circus took over the HS football stadium for a weekend. Coach heard that a number of patients from the Fariview mental hospital would be bussed over to see the show. Coach called a team meeting and said he would be at each the shows and that if he saw any of us behaving inappropriately toward people who were "different" he would "personally kick your ass!" None of us doubted him for even a moment.

Coach was forward leaning for the times. He invited whatever field event guys wanted to show up to lift weights 3-days a week at 6AM, then breakfast on cold cereal and milk kept in an old refrigerator in the freezing-ass locker room beneath the stadium. After eats we would race to our period 1 classes. He also published a yearly track magazine with summaries of the season, school and class records, PRs for returning athletes, even including PE class records for track events. Older coaches were critical, implying he was working us too hard or gaining unfair advantages. His athletes appreciated what he was doing.
And his progressive attitudes worked. In 1965 Al Sanford set a school record of @ 4:14 and Sam Francis (Cannon's cousin) was only a couple of seconds behind. Unusual in those times for one high school to have two high quality milers. Their distance medley team won at Mt. Sac and stayed on the meet HS top ten list for many years.

Last time I spoke to our HS coach he had retired after decades at Golden West JC but was helping out at as a walk on at a different JC. When I asked if he were still making trouble he said he was unhappy with the team attitudes, to wit: "They seem to think a track meet is some kind of picnic, I think it should me more like a fucking war!"
I loved that crusty old school dude, as did a lot of other former athletes who showed up at his wake a few years ago.

[midwestfan]

Found the mean looking coach. It appears he only coached track at Tustin HS for about four years before moving on to Golden West College in 1965 for another 40 year career. (So says his obituary picturing his drill-sergeant features). That makes you guys much older than I figured if you at Tustin HS with Coach Tom Noon.
I believe that a tough discipline high school coach can bring out the best in track runners but that was only allowed in the 40's to 60's.

I too owe my future to one of the toughest high school coaches in the Midwest in the 60's and his record shows he made men out of boys on and off the track. You did not kid or mess around with my coach in the classroom or on the track and he carried a large paddle if you stepped out of line. All of my alumni sing praises of him for making them better student and athlete than they would ever had been if they attended another high school.

This was a great thread and I learned about another "silent" hero and high school where for a short time he made an impact on so many lives.

Great memories

[Cannon]

Found the mean looking coach. It appears he only coached track at Tustin HS for about four years before moving on to Golden West College in 1965 for another 40 year career. (So says his obituary picturing his drill-sergeant features). That makes you guys much older than I figured if you at Tustin HS with Coach Tom Noon.
I believe that a tough discipline high school coach can bring out the best in track runners but that was only allowed in the 40's to 60's.

I too owe my future to one of the toughest high school coaches in the Midwest in the 60's and his record shows he made men out of boys on and off the track. You did not kid or mess around with my coach in the classroom or on the track and he carried a large paddle if you stepped out of line. All of my alumni sing praises of him for making them better student and athlete than they would ever had been if they attended another high school.

This was a great thread and I learned about another "silent" hero and high school where for a short time he made an impact on so many lives.

Great memories

You got it, midwestfan...Tom Noon is the man. He wasn't just tough on us (for the good) but also on himself. And yeah, jc203 and I are old...I'm 75.

I only had Coach Noon for my senior year at Tustin H.S. 1962-63, his first year. Then I moved on to Coach Tellez at Fullerton Jr. College and transferred to BYU from there with Coach Sherald James (cross-country, distance runners in track) and Coach Robison, head track and field coach. I've had some of the best coaches ever.

[jc203]

Hey, Cannon... you still use that email account from several years ago? Your first and last names with an f inserted in between?
If so I will send you copies of some stuff from TUHS track.

[Cannon]

Hey, Cannon... you still use that email account from several years ago? Your first and last names with an f inserted in between?
If so I will send you copies of some stuff from TUHS track.

Yes, it's still my e mail address. Love to see what you've got.