La Cañada History: Malik leads Spartans basketball to a record season
Ten Years Ago
Coach Tom Hofman’s 19-member Spartan varsity basketball team had a record season, finishing 30-4. Their final game was a loss in the CIF Southern California Division III final played at Pauley Pavilion to the No. 1 team, Artesia, during which La Cañada star player Adam Malik led his team in scoring.
Twenty Years Ago
“Garden Impressions” was the theme of the 1997 Festival of Flowers at La Cañada’s famed Descanso Gardens. Lectures, Easter egg hunts, plant sales and other activities were incorporated into the March 22 through April 13 event.
Join the conversation on Facebook >>
Thirty Years Ago
A 42-year-old Vista Cañada Place resident was arrested on charges of stealing $4.5 million from 36 individuals. The man allegedly told his clients, primarily physicians and dentists, that he was setting up pension trust accounts, educational trusts and retirement plans for them. Instead, according to investigators, he used the money received from his clients to finance gambling sprees in Las Vegas.
Forty Years Ago
City planners learned that La Cañada Valley Beautiful was prepared to gift the new city of La Cañada Flintridge with a large redwood hand-carved sign to serve as an entrance marker. Arrangements had been made to install it on property belonging to St. Francis High School at the start of the westbound 210 Freeway’s off-ramp leading to Foothill Boulevard.
Fifty Years Ago
The La Cañada school board voted unanimously to sell to the state La Cañada Elementary School, which then faced Foothill Boulevard, to make way for the construction of the 210 Freeway. The deal gave $857,500 to the district, along with an easement of land over the freeway. During the same meeting, the school board learned the state had revised upward from 501 to 551 the number of La Cañada homes that would have to be removed from the freeway’s path.
Sixty Years Ago
There was a new place to shop in town: The Assistance League of Flintridge opened the Bargain Box, featuring low-priced, gently used clothing and other items. Originally located adjacent to the Youth House on Chevy Chase Drive (today known as the Community Center) the thrift store in its early years was operated specifically to raise funds in support of the facility.
Compiled from the Valley Sun archives by Carol Cormaci
