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Heisman winner Huarte helping kids get fit

Los Angeles Times staff writer Ben Bolch
By Ben Bolch
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Former Mater Dei quarterback John Huarte and his wife, Eileen, will attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. Tuesday to celebrate the opening of the John and Eileen Huarte Fitness Center at Grant High.

The Huartes donated $50,000 to help fund the center, part of a comprehensive physical fitness program established by Bill and Cindy Simon’s Sound Body Sound Mind foundation in 1999 to promote healthy lifestyle choices among high school students in the greater Los Angeles area.

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John Huarte, the 1964 Heisman trophy winner at Notre Dame, and his wife chose Grant High as a tribute to former Fighting Irish Coach Ara Parseghian because the school has a high percentage of Armenian students.

-- Ben Bolch

Varsity Times Insider
Ben Bolch

Ben Bolch has been a Los Angeles Times staff writer since 1999. He is serving his second stint as the UCLA beat writer, which seems fitting since he has covered almost every sports beat except hockey and horse racing. Bolch is also the author of the recently released book “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.” He previously covered UCLA basketball from 2010-11 before going on to cover the NBA and the Clippers for five years. He happily traded in gobs of hotel points and airline miles to return to cover UCLA basketball and football in the summer of 2016. Bolch was once selected by NBA TV’s “The Starters” as the “Worst of the Week” after questioning their celebrity journalism-style questions at an NBA All-Star game and considers it one of his finer moments.

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