Emil Neeme, Millennium Hall of Fame

On Veterans Day, former U.S. Navy Ensign Emil Neeme thought a lot

about the 90 men he supervised in the gunnery aboard the USS St. Louis, a

cruiser in the South Pacific that eventually helped the Allies capture

Okinawa toward the end of World War II.

If ever there was a moment to interview a member of the Daily Pilot

Sports Hall of Fame, it was Neeme on a day America saluted its war

veterans, a day Neeme -- later a Newport Harbor High teacher and coach --

had earlier replayed his life’s experiences during a morning bike ride in

Newport Heights, only to be pleasantly surprised a few hours later by a

reporter’s phone call.

“I’m very, very fortunate,” said the 78-year-old Neeme, who watched no

fewer than 50 Japanese suicide pilots crash into U.S. battleships,

including some of the first kamikazes of WWII that almost destroyed the

USS St. Louis.

“You have no idea how close I came to biting the bullet,” added Neeme.

“I was five feet from where my roommate was blown to bits and pieces and

had to be picked up in a bucket.”

Neeme, who witnessed a heavy kamikaze assault on the USS Franklin that

killed an estimated 1,200 men, spent close to five years in the service

and about three years fighting overseas. He originally enlisted in the

Marine Corps, then was transferred to the U.S. Navy.

After graduating from Midshipmen School at Northwestern University,

Neeme was assigned to the USS St. Louis in San Francisco, where the crew

was promised a few days of rest, but instead was sent out the next

morning to Long Beach and then headed for the South Pacific.

In the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the USS St. Louis, in her first

assignment, was ripped into three times by suicidal Japanese pilots and

later “abandoned” by the U.S. fleet, he said. The cruiser “limped” home

with only a destroyer as an escort to Honolulu, then back to California.

When the USS St. Louis returned to the Pacific, however, she was

instrumental in the taking of Okinawa, a key island on the way to victory

over Japan.

“We really annihilated that island,” Neeme said. “It was continual

bombing for eight straight days of the island ... it seemed like there

were fireworks going on all day and all night long. We had to protect the

queen (the aircraft carrier, highest on the pecking order in the navy’s

fleet).”

Neeme underwent an emergency appendectomy at sea and contracted

tuberculosis after the U.S. secured Okinawa and was moved to a hospital

ship for a transfer home. “They called me a fast healer; I only had a

small cavity (in my lung from the TB),” he said.

A 1939 Gross Point High graduate outside of Detroit, and later a

190-pound guard on the football team at Butler University, Neeme has

lived every day of his life very thankful for it.

“We were proud to be servicemen,” he said. “There was no such thing as

a draft dodger. That never would’ve entered our minds.”

After WWII, Neeme moved to California with his wife, Mimi, and earned

his teaching credential at UCLA, where he became acquainted with

legendary former Bruin basketball coach John Wooden through Ed Powell, an

assistant coach. Neeme’s first job was at Lone Pine, where he coached

basketball for two years and traveled the long circuit from the Sierras

to the desert.

In the fall of 1951, Neeme landed at Newport Harbor, where he remained

for 30 years as a teacher. He coached football and basketball there

through 1964, and later coached basketball at Mater Dei, Costa Mesa and

Anaheim.

At Anaheim, Jimmy Fassell, head coach of the New York football Giants,

was an assistant under Neeme, whose style of full-court trapping and

fastbreaking was unique in those days, but the Tars were sold on the idea

went 27-17 in 1963 and ‘64, his only seasons at head basketball coach,

after serving as a B football coach.

Neeme was originally told he’d be the basketball coach by Athletic

Director Ralph Reed when he was hired in ‘51, but Jules Gage wound up the

head coach.

When he finally became head coach, Neeme was let go two years later

amid much controversy, despite his success and popularity. Neeme, one of

the all-time nice guys, was beloved by his players, but politics forced

him out and he became head coach at Mater Dei.

In 1969, he landed at Costa Mesa, where he survived for three seasons,

before taking over at Anaheim. He was a walk-on coach there, but the

commute from Newport Harbor every day began to wear on him and Neeme

eventually threw in the towel.

“My favorite highlights are the kids I had, and I had some really

great kids,” said Neeme, the latest honoree in the Daily Pilot Sports

Hall of Fame, celebrating the millennium.

Emil and Mimi have been married for 53 years. They have two grown

adopted children, Colleen and Timothy.