The photo below was taken at the San Diego Union office at their old location downtown.  Coach Sams is reading some of the many articles written about our team that season.  We were 28-5, won the annual Kiwanis holiday tournament and came in second in the holiday Covina Tournament. We lost to the host team, which sent two players on to UCLA. We played the SDSU frosh to a 52-52 tie at Peterson Gym. The game was called because the Aztec varsity was ready to start their scheduled home game. Our Larry Blum set the county scoring record and was named co-CIF Player of the year. (left to right) Ron Kroepel, John Kramer behind him, Dave Greer, Dick Woodson, Joe Hasenauer, Tom Ault, Dave Miller (Jr) behind Tom, Larry Blum, unknown -- one of the managers, Tom Christensen, and Bill Center. How fitting, because Bill ended up doing better than becoming the sports statistician he aspired to be in the yearbook.

The unknown below is Dan Riley. I played Pony League baseball and intramural basketball with him.  He's listed in the Class of ’64 Obituary Page. I was a bench warmer on the 1964 team as a Senior, after trying out every year.  We made it to the CIF semis played at CalWestern and got beat by Helix.  I finally got in the game because all my intramural buddies were yelling "We want Watson", although Coach Sams probably wanted everyone to get a chance to play in a championship game.  I got a chance at a free throw in the final minutes and looked forward to getting my name in the paper for the first time. Dave Miller, one of my best friends at Crawford, stepped over the line,negating my point, so no paper. Bummer! -- Nick Watson ’64