Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame: Carleton Mears

Don Cantrell

Carleton (Bud) Mears was a versatile athlete all through his years

at Newport Harbor High and was voted “Tar of the Year” in 1949, his

senior year.

But the classiest honor that lives on for Mears and his 1948 teammates

was the Sunset League baseball championship. The league title remains the

only varsity baseball championship to have ever been won by the Sailors.

The team was coached by the late Wendell Pickens, who went on to lead

Orange Coast College to many baseball titles.

Mears was one of the crack infielders for the Tars on the ’48 baseball

club.

He and a number of players often did magnificent work, but

consistently claimed their basic job was simply to back up ace hurler

Frank Hamilton and catcher Bill Weatherwax.

Mears was humble in looking at the situation.

“(Hamilton and Weatherwax) were the team,” Mears said.

Hamilton struck out 177 batters in ’48 and only lost two games to two

San Diego teams.

Mears, born in North Carolina, came west with his family in 1945 and

enrolled at Newport Beach Grammar School.

He was so popular that his classmates voted him student body

president. He assumed his new title gave him ample power to declare a

holiday because of VE Day (Victory in Europe) of World War II. He told

the kids they could go to the beach. Amusingly, Mears was impeached the

next day by the principal.

Mears also helped lead the ’49 track team to a Sunset League title

with his strength in the 120-yard high hurdles and the pole vault.

He also shined at T-formation quarterback for new coach Al Irwin in

1948. The season opener was an astonishing game by Harbor High, which

almost defeated St. Anthony, the club that went on to share the CIF crown

with Santa Barbara High, 7-7.

Mears played football four years and proved to be a stout and able

quarterback. He was an excellent tackler and a smart ball handler.

He was always smooth in basketball all four years at guard and matched

up well with the club’s ace forward, Bob Yardley, kid brother to George

Yardley, who went on to become a member in the National Basketball

Association’s Hall of Fame.

Mears grew up with other skills and sports, including ocean surfing,

skiing and piloting gliders.