Sailors recall foe

ROGER CARLSON

The recent passing of Glenn Davis, Mr. Inside for the fabled college

football giant of the mid-1940s, Army, rekindled memories of a

November afternoon in 1942. On that day, Bonita High, led by Davis,

sent Newport Harbor High’s Sailors home with a 39-6 loss in the CIF

Small Schools Division final, the “playoffs” amounting to one game.

What an afternoon that was as Davis & Co. rallied from a 6-0

deficit with superstar Hal Sheflin sidelined with a late

second-quarter injury.

Two of Newport’s blue chips, the Neth brothers, look back with

fond memories of trying to stop a runaway “Will of the Wisp.”

“We had heard a lot about him,” recalled Bill Neth, a senior

two-way tackle for the Sailors. “Some of the guys were a little

afraid. He was like a jackrabbit.

“You couldn’t get a hold of him and that field (at Bonita High)

was full of gopher holes.

“I think that’s how Hal Sheflin got hurt.”

Sheflin, at linebacker in a basic 7-2-2 defense, was bigger,

stronger and nearly as quick as Davis up front defensively. And he

had shut the Bonita speedster down through the first half as Newport

led, 6-0, before a late Bonita TD gave the Bearcats a 7-6 halftime

lead.

Sheflin suffered an ankle/heel injury late in the second quarter

and never returned. Also missing in the second half was Manuel Muniz

because of injury.

The 17-year-old Davis took advantage in the second half and

Newport’s hopes were dashed.

“I tackled him (Davis) just once,” recalled Bill, who was

6-foot-1, 185 pounds as a senior. “I had hold of him a couple of

other times, but he just wiggled away. He was something else.”

Davis, a three-year first-team All-American and Heisman Trophy

winner, would later say that Sheflin was the greatest player he ever

faced. Little did he know he was running up against a 19-year-old

four-year starter for the Sailors.

Two other Sailors on that 23-man roster were 19 at the time,

Vernon Fitzpatrick and Muniz.

Davis had some help, too, although Bill insists Bonita “couldn’t

have beaten anyone without Glenn Davis. He was just one of a kind.”

Also on the Bonita team was Glenn Davis’ twin brother, an end who

would toss the shot put 52 feet behind just a 5-foot-9, 170-pound

frame, and a fullback named Duane Whitehead, who would go on to play

for USC.

Davis found another fullback to team up with at West Point named

Felix “Doc” Blanchard, and the two would combine to form the most

famous 1-2 punch of all time in college football.

Bill, a Costa Mesa resident, went up against Davis on just one

other occasion, at the Brea Relays. Bill was Newport’s anchor in the

4 x 100-yard relay, which he labeled as a “joke,” recalling the

speedy Davis quickly pulling away for victory.

Almost every college football fan of those days would follow the

exploits of Army’s Davis (59 touchdowns and a team record of 27 wins

and one scoreless tie with Notre Dame) by way of the radio, where

Bill Stern would mesmerize his listeners.

Bill Neth would go on to play and coach as an assistant at Santa

Ana College after turning down several college football scholarship

offers before embarking on a 41-year career with the Los Angeles

Times.

On occasion, he would run into Davis, who accepted a post in The

Times’ special events department following his military service and a

couple of disappointing years with the Los Angeles Rams.

“Glenn Davis was something beyond ordinary, that’s for sure,” said

Bill. He was so fast and shifty, and he played safety on defense.”

The passing of Davis wasn’t a complete surprise for Bill, who saw

a television segment on Davis just a few weeks earlier and the

80-year-old Davis appeared very vulnerable while using a walker as

prostate cancer took its toll.

Davis, who won 13 varsity letters at Bonita, would never be

remembered for his work in the classroom, while Blanchard would go on

to become a colonel in the Army.

In his later years, he would return to Bonita High and he gave his

Heisman Trophy to the school.

Bill’s younger brother, Roger Neth, is best remembered for his 37

years with the Costa Mesa Police Department, retiring in 1987 as the

Chief of Police.

He was a 5-11 1/2 junior reserve tackle behind Bob Gaynor that

November afternoon and, to this day, still remembers those gopher

holes.

Too big for Bee or Cee football as a freshman and sophomore, and

too young for varsity, he did not play football until Coach Wendell

Pickens talked him into coming out for the varsity as a 15-year-old

junior in the fall of 1942.

Roger saw considerable action in the second half in the losing

cause.

“There has been a lot of controversy over the years about the

halftime score,” said Roger, a 45-year resident of Costa Mesa. “But

Davis scored late in the second quarter and we were behind, 7-6, not

ahead, 6-0.”

Davis and some of the Sailors of ’42 met some five years ago when

Paul Salata brought Davis to a monthly meeting of the Amigos Viejo

Club.

“We had quite a talk,” said Roger of the usually tight-lipped

All-American. “Glenn Davis said lightheartedly, ‘You hotshots from

Newport Beach came up and thought you were going to [whip] us, but it

didn’t turn out that way.’ ”

The Sailors were in the game for nearly two quarters, “But when we

lost Sheflin and Muniz, that turned the tide and [Davis] ran wild,”

said Roger.

Upon learning of the death of Davis, Roger’s reaction was “Well,

there goes a little bit more of sports history.”

Roger also had the opportunity to face former USC star Frank

Gifford when Gifford was at Bakersfield JC in 1948 and Roger was

enjoying a four-year tour at Santa Ana JC.

From another angle comes memories from Sparks McClellan, whose

senior season was in 1940.

A Navy Hellcat pilot in World War II, he was on leave from cadet

school and attended the Sailors’ duel with Davis & Co.

“Harold (Sheflin) made a special effort to leap over a Bonita

player on an out-of-bounds play when he twisted his ankle,” said

McClellan, an 83-year-old Newport Beach resident.

“It was really pretty even and exciting until then. The second

half was a different game.”

The game in those days dictated that if you came out of the game

for any reason you could not return until the start of the next

quarter, and a substitute couldn’t even talk to his quarterback when

entering.

Seasons come and go, and generations arrive without a clue to the

endeavors of an era which lives in libraries these days. But the

sands of time, I don’t believe, will ever bury those moments of 1942.

* ROGER CARLSON is the former sports editor for the Daily Pilot.

He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].