Tales from the Herald

There were many hilarious steps when we entered the front door of a

Costa Mesa newspaper called the Globe-Herald, a one-story operation

on Broadway.

The first amusement came after we wrote a heated letter to the

editor about a controversial U.S. senator. The editor, Tom Keevil,

called us in to discuss the letter and he assumed we were on the

college faculty.

We explained our status as students near graduation, but it

prompted him to convey a standing offer to join his staff after

fading from college. He felt the letter to the editor showcased a

journalistic talent relative to our interest, which was sports at the

time.

There had never been a sports editor before, but Keevil had one

under consideration prior to our appearance. We sensed some humor and

asked about that scenario.

Keevil explained briefly that the prospect was highly talented in

the realm of asking for things from the colleges and pro athletic

organizations, which generally featured requests for free tickets

every weekend, even though the paper rarely ever mentioned big city

sports events.

“We soon projected that this person was not closely connected to

local sports,” the editor said.

The Globe-Herald would remain until publisher Walter Burroughs

bought the Pilot from Seal Beach. In time, Burroughs combined the two

papers, but when daily status arrived, it subsequently became known

as the Daily Pilot.

At any rate, we discovered initially that the Globe-Herald had no

sports photographer. Hence, we were shocked at one of our first

needs: photographs of the new Orange Coast College football stadium

when it opened in September of 1955.

“Hold on,” Keevil said.

He turned away and then returned minutes later to announce his

decision with good cheer.

“Reporter Bill Williams and I will both take cameras out and do

the job for you. Could anything make you happier?”

We grinned and exclaimed, “No, that is a wonderful surprise.”

After the game, we returned to the new Globe-Herald building on

Bay Avenue to write the story, all smiles.

However, it is fair to say the smiles disappeared after Keevil and

Williams came out of the dark room with laughs and a shaking of

heads.

“Guess what,” Keevil said. “We didn’t get anything. Not one shot

came out. I don’t know what happened.”

Then, he laughed and offered a suggestion.

“Well, the best we can do is go out and have a few beers,” he

said.

In time, we made friends with a new news photographer and drew him

into shooting some sports for us. With a diplomatic air, all we had

to do was offer him a Scrabble game once a week.

One day Keevil leaned our way and tossed us a letter to the

editor.

“Time to learn about the public,” he said, grinning.

The envelope read, “Editor, Globe-Herald.”

A letter fell out and it started, “Dear Mr. Herald ...”

Another day a friendly man of public relations, who had

appreciated our occasional blurbs about his sports fishing trips,

shuffled through a back door and said he had a gift for us outside

and disappeared.

Another party slid through the door and exclaimed, “Hey, sports

editor, you better get out here fast and clean up this mess.”

Stunned, we rushed to the door and quickly noticed a ton of wet

fish on the sidewalk, which the fishermen had unloaded from the trunk

of his big car. That meant running through the building to encourage

all to gather before 5 p.m., and pick up a large share of fish for

dinner.

We were blessed when we found that many employees responded

happily to the so-called gift.

*

Harbor area sports had ample glitter on the local and county

level, but the national news would start breaking as the old

Globe-Herald was beginning to fade on the horizon.

Astonishing news came in the spring of ’56 when Harbor High miler

Tod White broke the national mile record at the California prep state

finale in 4:20.

Then came ’58 when Balboa Island basketball star George Yardley

broke the single-season scoring record with 2,001 points for the Fort

Wayne Pistons in NBA basketball.

Harbor High’s superb basketball ace Dennis Fitzpatrick helped lead

the California Bears to the Final Four title in 1959.

And, another highlight arrived at the turn of the 60s when Orange

Coast College’s ’49 grid champ Cliff Livingston became a stout

linebacker for the New York Giants under defensive coach Tom Landry.

The Pilot was braced for bigger happenings.