Bob Ferraro, Millennium Hall of Fame

With only two seasons over .500 and no CIF playoff appearances in

the school’s first nine years of varsity football, Corona del Mar High

entered the 1971 campaign eager to change its reputation.

To make matters tougher, CdM opened the season against Back Bay rival

Newport Harbor, which won seven of the first eight meetings, including

six in a row.

But Coach Dave Holland’s Sea Kings were loaded with senior weapons in

the backfield, keyed by running back Bob Ferraro, still considered one of

the finest ballcarriers in school history.

Quarterback Reed Johnson ran the option and running back John Miles

contributed regularly to the potent ground attack, but it was Ferraro who

paved the way for Corona del Mar to win its first league championship and

earn its inaugural postseason berth with 1,000 rushing yards in 171

carries.

Ferraro, a bulldozing runner who almost never fumbled, was voted the

Irvine League’s Offensive Back of the Year and made third-team All-CIF

Southern Section 4-A. CdM at the time played in the same division as

powerhouses Bishop Amat, El Rancho and St. Paul, and faced teams like

Edison, Fountain Valley and Los Alamitos.

The team’s MVP, Ferraro was a third-year varsity performer and two-way

starter (also playing linebacker) when the Sea Kings finished the regular

season 7-2 and beat all three Newport-Mesa District schools, including

Newport Harbor in the opener, 7-0.

“We hadn’t beaten Harbor (since 1964), but we finally got that monkey

off our back,” said Ferraro, who carried 27 times for 205 yards and the

game’s only touchdown.

“We had good teams when I was a sophomore (in 1969) and junior, and we

were probably capable of beating Newport Harbor, but the team didn’t

believe it could win. Finally, in our senior year, Holland had us

believing. It was hard, because (CdM) had so many losing years in a row

-- sort of like Laguna Beach, a program that has had a tough time for so

many years and now has players believing in themselves.”

Ferraro, currently an assistant coach at Laguna Beach with Holland,

went on to coach at CdM for several years, following a successful

collegiate career at Golden West College and University of the Pacific.

Tonight at 7 o’clock, Ferraro will return to the sidelines to face the

Sea Kings for the first time in his coaching career, a Pacific Coast

League game at Newport Harbor High.

“Anybody who takes Corona del Mar (0-5) lightly is going to be very

disappointed when they show up to play them,” Ferraro said, choosing his

words carefully, while trying not to provide CdM with motivational

bulletin board material.

Ferraro, 45, said Johnson was the best option quarterback he ever

played with -- including his stints at UOP and Golden West -- and Miles,

Matt Cox, Carlo Tosti and Joe Tosti were some of the fastest players

around.

“We probably had the fastest team in Orange County, because (Cox,

Miles and the Tosti brothers) formed our 440-yard relay team (in track),”

Ferraro said.

CdM was considered a heavy underdog to Westminster in the first round

of the CIF 4-A playoffs in ‘71, and lost a heartbreaker, 28-26.

Ferraro rushed for 124 yards in 15 carries against Westminster, the

third time in his last four contests he picked up more than 120 yards in

a game.

At Golden West, Ferraro was a team captain and JC All-American

honorable mention in 1973, averaging 7.5 yards per carry and meriting a

scholarship to UOP.

“I remember scoring my first Division I college touchdown on my

birthday (on Sept. 21, 1974) against Long Beach State (at UOP),” Ferraro

said. “I had to dive in the end zone to catch it.”

From that point on, UOP coaches had confidence in Ferraro coming out

of the backfield to catch passes.

In his senior year, Ferraro was the Pacific Coast Athletic

Association’s leading rusher after four games, but then he was struck by

an unknown illness that zapped him of energy and forced him to stand on

the sidelines.

“Basically, they got whatever they could get out of me the rest of the

(‘75) season,” said Ferraro, who was voted Most Inspirational Player and

Most Loyal Player by his UOP teammates his senior year.

Ferraro earned his degree in pre-law in 1976, four years after

graduating from Corona del Mar, then started his coaching career at

Walnut Creek as a volunteer JV coach. In 1978, Ferraro returned to CdM

and joined Dick Morris’ staff, one which included Dick Freeman, Jerry

Jelnick and Rex Snyder.

Ferraro left after one season, then came back when Holland took over

as CdM head coach for a second term in 1983. He has coached under Holland

in part-time or full-time capacities almost every year since.

Ferraro, who is single and lives in Aliso Viejo, is the latest honoree

of the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame, celebrating the millennium.