Preps : No Matter Who Wins, Game Is Always a Draw

The world came to a stop in East Los Angeles for the 51st time last Friday night as Garfield and Roosevelt high schools held their annual football get-together, before about 22,000 of their closest friends.

Roosevelt, the defending City 2-A champion, went in with a 2-1 record and a 25-18-7 advantage in the series. Garfield, the 1981 champion, was 1-2. The records may change from year to year, but one of the reasons this game is so special remains a constant: East L.A. College filled to the brim.

And somehow, it always is special. In 1961, for instance, a Roosevelt running back named Mike Garrett scored six touchdowns. In the mid-60s, when Garfield won in a big upset, its fans in the stands and on the field chanted in unison, “ Que paso, Roosevelt?” In 1980, when the teams had a combined 5-12-1 record, fans still were turned away because there weren’t enough seats.

It was special Friday, too. Francisco Vasquez became a hero when he kicked a 17-yard field goal with 59 seconds left, giving Roosevelt a 3-0 victory.

Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy, with Milton Berle, Frank Sinatra and Adlai Stevenson at his side, drew 40,000 to the stadium for a last-minute political rally in November of 1960, but nothing since has been able to outdraw Garfield-Roosevelt. The East L.A. Classic, as organizers like to call it, is their Camelot.

The game used to bring in 25,000 fans, some, according to legend, from as far away as the Southwest United States and Mexico. Fire department crackdowns on people sitting in the aisles and the embankment behind the end zones brought capacity down to approximately 22,000, which isn’t too bad considering that the stadium is only supposed to hold 21,500.

There has been talk in recent years of moving the game to the Rose Bowl, but that remains to be seen.

But why worry about the future now, when there’s so much of the past to remember. This, after all, is a game built on tradition that has produced such memories as:

--The B game easily out-drawing more than 99% of the varsity games in Southern California, with about 13,000 fans.

--The teams almost always entering and leaving the field together, thus eliminating easy targets for eggs and bottles.

--Vic Loya coaching Garfield, while his wife, a Roosevelt grad, sat on the Roosevelt side, rooting against him.

--NFL running back Lynn Cain and former Dodger outfielder Willie Davis among the past participants.

--Coaches for both sides saying they want to win, but not run up the score out of respect for their compadres--close friends--on the other side, and Garrett agreeing, but adding: “We did want to beat the (bleep) out of them.”

In other words, it is a game unlike any other.

“I went on to ‘SC, and we played UCLA and Notre Dame,” Garrett said. “And those weren’t real hard to get up for. I’d been practicing for games like those once a year for three years in high school. . . . When they said rivals I didn’t have to hear anything more.”

Added Al Padilla, now an assistant coach at East L.A. College who has the distinction of having coached at both schools: “It’s the most amazing thing. The most fuddy-duddy teachers, who never came out to any of the games, came out for Garfield-Roosevelt.”

Now, life will return to normal for both schools, Roosevelt playing host to Los Angeles in the Eastern League and Franklin playing at Garfield in a Freeway League game in this week’s action.

Somehow, it just won’t be the same. Until next year.

Prep Notes James Moses, who averaged 17 points a game last season as a 15-year-old at Alemany and figured to be one of the top sophomores in the country this year, has been ruled ineligible for varsity basketball competition this season after transferring to Gardena Serra. Moses did not move, but he filed a hardship waiver, claiming that he had no viable means of transportation between his home in Carson and Alemany in Mission Hills, about 40 miles away. The Southern Section turned him down, saying it did not fit into the hardship category, and that Moses, who is appealing to the Southern Section executive board, will have to play on the junior varsity team. . . . Crenshaw guard Stevie Thompson and point guard Dwayne Bryant of New Orleans De La Salle, who played so well together in a summer tournament in Las Vegas, have scheduled visits to USC this week. Bryant is also considering Villanova, Georgetown and LSU. Thompson reportedly is still looking at Duke, Syracuse, Oklahoma and Georgetown, besides the Trojans. . . . Star running back Brian Brown of Gardena did not suit up for the Mohicans’ game last week against Granada Hills, a 7-6 loss, because of a bad ankle bruise. Brown was injured against Huntington Beach Ocean View in the second game of the season, then aggravated the injury the next week against Cleveland when he was kicked. . . . The Carson basketball team will compete in the King of the Bluegrass Tournament in mid-December in Fairdale, Ky. Organizers are hoping that 6-10 senior Clifford Allen will still be with the team since they are hyping a possible matchup between him and 7-1 Felton Spencer of Louisville (Ky.) Eastern. In all, 16 teams from four states and Washington, D.C., will be competing. Allen, one of the nation’s top seniors, is a former reform school student and may recently have violated his parole. A hearing is scheduled. . . . Spencer has had to rearrange his recruiting schedule because he came down with mononucleosis, but the talk continues that he is already set on the University of Louisville. . . . Cleveland forward Trevor Wilson has narrowed his list to UCLA, Arizona, New Mexico, Wisconsin and Syracuse. His half-brother, former Van Nuys star Hunter Green, is at New Mexico now.

Give L.A. Banning Coach Chris Ferragamo credit for not ducking reporters after his team’s poor and frustrating showing against Long Beach Poly and then for making a gamble pay off in Friday’s game against Granada Hills Kennedy. Ferragamo moved one of his best defensive players, Earl Saunders, to tailback in hopes of finding a running back who could hold on to the ball. Saunders responded with 176 yards and 2 touchdowns in 18 carries as the Pilots won, 49-6. . . . One rumor has lineman Tim Ryan, 6 feet 5 inches and 245 pounds, having already decided to sign with USC, but Ed Buller, his coach at San Jose Oak Grove, said that is not true. Ryan is leaning toward USC, UCLA and Washington, with most other Pacific 10 schools still in the running, but the only thing that seems certain now is that he will wait until the season is over to make his trips and that he will stay on the West Coast. “One of the coaches from Stanford came out to practice today and said, ‘He could play for us tomorrow,’ ” Buller said. “That’s what everyone who sees him play seems to say.” . . . Guard Marcus Williams, who figured to start for the Washington basketball team this season, has transfered to Crenshaw, giving Cougar Coach Willie West 23 players. West plans to get down to 17 or 18 in another four or five weeks and go with that figure this season. . . . Lots of people shared the pain when Cleveland’s Albert Fann broke his ankle in a recent game. Fann had been the Cavaliers’ starting tailback in his first season out for football, but he also would have started for Coach Bob Braswell on the basketball team. Now, Braswell said, Fann hopes to make it back by the start of league play. . . . L.A. Loyola did a good job of containing La Habra running back Chuck Weatherspoon, but most everybody at Glendale High Saturday night was impressed with the 5-8, 190-pounder. The colleges like him as a defensive back, but there is also talk he will sign a professional baseball contract.