In the beginning ...(or) Back when Newport Harbor was new

Don Cantrell

Almost 72 years ago, a new high school named Newport Harbor opened

its doors in Newport Heights and welcomed students who had been attending

Santa Ana, Huntington Beach and Tustin high schools.

The principal, Sidney Davidson, who had been serving on the staff at

Huntington Beach High, expected a few hundred students. Enrollment

reached about 500 by 1942.

Davidson, a one-time prep basketball coach at Morgan Hill in

California, chose to first hire an athletic director named Ralph Reed,

who had served twice as principal at two high schools in Ohio. Reed would

be coming from Excelsior High.

Few old-timers recall that Davidson is the one who, noting the lack of

funds to develop a football field in 1930, organized a math project for

his students. He became the surveyor while the students carried chains

and helped mark off the field.

“And that’s how it became known as Davidson Field,” said the late Judd

Sutherland, who played tackle on the Harbor varsity grid team from

1931-34.

“Allen Phoenix, father of Newport football players Dave and Craig,

planted all the grass,” Sutherland said as he reflected back on the

football field.

Unfortunately for the footballers, the grass would be thin for a year

or two and they would not be allowed to practice on it. Grid coach Reed

had his players practice on the hard ground behind the basketball gym. It

was not uncommon to find scattered rock, gravel and construction debris

around the area, which drew a frequent flow of complaints from the

students.

It is fair to say the athletic equipment at Harbor, as it was for many

schools of the day, was not always satisfactory.

Prior to 1935, it was not compulsory to wear helmets, Sutherland once

explained, but added, “Those leather helmets didn’t do a helluva lot of

good. We only had 12 of them. We’d start out wearing them at kickoff

time, but some of us would finally toss them off to the sidelines.”

Size was another matter of concern. Sutherland said, “We only had 16

players in 1931 and I remember one game -- I think it was Tustin -- where

we were down to 10 men on the field, due to four or five injuries. So,

Coach Reed got together with the other coach and they agreed to cut the

time in the last quarter.”

He said it was the same in 1932 -- just 16 players.

The ’34 team captain stressed that it was a day of iron man football

with such small squads. Not only did players go both ways, Sutherland

said, “We also had to know how to play more than one position.”

Newport was not in a league during the 1931-32 seasons, but did play

six games each season. It was 2-4 in ’31 and 0-6 in ’32. Lack of manpower

and experience was a handicap.

The picture changed by ‘33, when Newport joined the Orange League.

“And we won a third of our games,” Sutherland said. “There was not a lot

of experience, but as we progressed, the other league schools found the

going tougher with Newport. We pulled some upsets. In fact, we tied San

Diego County champion Escondido, 13-13, and it was a big school.”

Sutherland said the ’34 season, his senior year, brightened up with a

5-5 record, but he recalled one note of amusement to him in ’34.

He said it featured quarterback Charles Langmade writing the plays on

his pants. He was known as the brains of the team and became a respected

physician. Still, Sutherland said he had a hard time remembering his

plays “and Coach Reed didn’t seem to mind.”

He recalled one very muddy game when Langmade needed help in the

huddle to have teammates clean the mud off his uniform so he could read

the plays.”

Years later upon his retirement, Langmade told the Pilot that

Sutherland got the story wrong, or made it up for humor. “I wasn’t dumb,”

Langmade said. “It is closer to say it was the numbers of some plays, not

diagrams.”

The one rain storm that turned Davidson Field into a “Puddle Bowl”

could have been a record for rainfall.

Sutherland recalled, “Both teams argued with the refs all afternoon as

to where the ball should be placed following a tackle. The ball carriers

would get hit, then slide 15-20 yards across the mud.”

He was not high on Reed as a football coach, though he always liked

him. He said, “He wanted to give local football fans a run for their

money, so he’d run all this razzle-dazzle stuff like the Statue of

Liberty and the swing-out plays.”