Ho Truong, Millennium Hall of Fame

Fear motivated Ho Truong to try tackle football for the first time,

as the words from his brother, “they’re looking for you,” caused him to

tremble.

Truong’s older brother, Long, told the Newport Harbor High football

coaches that Ho was a good athlete and planned to go out for football.

But, on the first day of summer practice, Ho Truong was a no-show,

opting instead for basketball. “That day, when my brother got home, he

said ‘Where were you? They’re looking for you,”’ Truong recalled. “You

know, that can shake you up when somebody says they’re looking for you,

so I figured I better show up the next day.”

Truong did show up, then tried to hide. “I thought I’d just hang out

and mingle, and then disappear,” Truong said, “and I figured they

wouldn’t notice.”

That first day, however, “wasn’t so bad.” In fact, Truong started

liking it. Next thing Truong knew, he was starting at defensive back and

“loved it.”

Though it was his first year of organized football, Truong was a

natural.

By the time Truong was a junior in the fall of 1983, he earned

second-team All-Sea View League as a defensive back. But the following

spring, the Sailors were short on receivers and Coach Mike Giddings

beckoned Truong to give offense a try.

Content with playing defensive back and special teams, Truong wasn’t

crazy about the idea of catching balls over the middle and getting

whacked.

When he told Giddings he wasn’t interested, well, the invitation

became a direct order.

But, once again, Truong discovered talents he never knew he had and

became the favorite target of junior quarterback Shane Foley (USC).

“He was great,” Foley said of Truong, who, in his only year as a

receiver, caught a school single-season record 11 touchdown passes in

1984.

“It was an amazing year, we had a good team and everything fell into

place,” said Truong, who finished with 58 receptions for 929 yards, an

average of 16 yards per catch, as Newport Harbor (9-1-2) won its second

straight Sea View League championship, before losing to Sunny Hills,

28-22, in the CIF Southern Section Central Conference quarterfinals.

“It was unfortunate we didn’t go farther than we did,” added Truong, a

first-team all-league wide receiver, the league’s Offensive Player of the

Year by the Daily Pilot and one of three Tars to earn All-CIF that season

(along with Foley and lineman Mike Beech).

That season, Truong caught passes for over 100 yards in five games.

Against Saddleback in Week 6, a 26-26 tie, Truong caught 10 passes for

159 yards, and against Laguna Beach in Week 8, a 35-6 victory for the

Tars, he hauled in seven passes for 147 yards and four touchdowns.

“Every time (Foley) threw the ball to me (against Laguna Beach), I

felt like I was close to breaking it,” Truong said. “Everything happened

so fast in that game. It was like a dream. That was kind of a weird game.

(The Artists) couldn’t stop us. They tried to stop the running game (and

tailback Fritz Howser), but that was a big mistake.”

Truong, who was one-on-one that game with a Laguna Beach cornerback,

also had an interception from his defensive back position and was named

Daily Pilot Player of the Week.

“I was just happy to be a part of that great team with all those

players,” said Truong, who also played alongside all-league performers

Chris Parks, Joey James, Tom Kitchens, Andy Stoneman, Joe Johnson, John

Spangler and Sterling Coberly.

On defense that year, Truong had 39 tackles, four interceptions, broke

up four passes and graded out the highest among Sailors in the secondary.

Truong seemed to make up for lost time, considering what he went

through his sophomore year. Though Giddings had him on the varsity in

1982, Truong was 14 and too young to compete in varsity action. So, in

blowout victories, his sophomore buddies got to play “during scrub time,”

while he continued to stand on the sidelines.

The defensive MVP of the junior varsity that season, Truong played on

the Newport Harbor scout team, going up against standouts such as Dave

Cadigan, Steve Brazas and Brett Kacura.

“I was supposed to go up against them every day in practice, and I was

getting killed,” said Truong, who added that it was “a very tough year”

not playing in varsity games.

After his record-setting year in ‘84, Truong played one year at

Saddleback College as the Gauchos went 12-0 and captured the JC national

championship in 1985 under Coach Ken Swearingen.

But Truong wasn’t comfortable there and eventually transferred to

Orange Coast, where he sat out during the 1986 season, then played for

OCC Coach Bill Workman in 1987 on a star-studded team that included

Junior Tagaloa and Bart Recktenwald.

After that season, Truong had enough of football and transferred to

Humboldt State, where he earned his degree in forestry.

Truong, a member of the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame, celebrating

the millennium, is now a park ranger in the National Recreation Area of

the Santa Monica Mountains and lives in Agoura Hills.

Truong, who turns 32 on Jan. 2, is single and loves the outdoors. His

parents, Peter and Hoan, still live in Costa Mesa.