Yesterday’s Stars--Some Still Shine, Others Have Faded Away

Where are the Westside prep football stars of yesteryear? Some are playing in the NFL, and some played or are playing at universities and community colleges. Others are ordinary people living ordinary lives.

Since The Times began picking All-Westside teams in the late 1960s, Santa Monica High School has produced three players who are currently in the NFL, three others who reportedly have been injured and aren’t playing at present and another, defensive back Ricky Williams, who was recently released by the Los Angeles Raiders.

Dennis Thurman is a veteran defensive back with the Dallas Cowboys. Dennis Smith, a defensive back with the Denver Broncos, intercepted three Raiders’ passes last Sunday. Mel Kaufman is a Washington Redskins linebacker.

Three former Santa Monica High players were reportedly injured and aren’t playing at present, but they were drafted by NFL teams. They are tight end Damone Johnson of the Los Angeles Rams, tight end Chris Kolodziejski of the Pittsburgh Steelers and wide receiver Larry Willis of the Denver Broncos.

Many Attend USC

In college, Thurman and Smith starred at USC, Kaufman and Johnson at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Kolodziejski at Wyoming, Willis at Fresno State and Williams at Langston University in Oklahoma.

Four Santa Monica alumni are on this season’s USC team: linebackers Keith Davis and Sam Ano and defensive backs Aaron Brown and Junior Thurman, brother of Dennis. Santa Monica defensive back Lawrence Crayton was a redshirt freshman at Cal State Long Beach this year.

Probably the best-known players from Palisades High School are Jay Schroeder, Albert Bell, Darryl Castile and Steve Stapler.

Schroeder is starting at quarterback for the Washington Redskins after playing at UCLA and then spending a few years in minor league baseball after signing a contract with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Bell, who spent his senior year at Crenshaw after playing with Palisades, received a scholarship to Purdue and wound up at Alabama, where he is a star wide receiver for the Crimson Tide. Castile played at Santa Monica College and Minnesota, and Stapler was at West Los Angeles College, San Diego State, in the Canadian Football League and tried out with the Redskins a year or two ago.

Moon Played for Hamilton

Hamilton High stars in the pros are Houston Oilers’ quarterback Warren Moon, who had an illustrious career at the University of Washington and in the Canadian Football League before he went to the NFL, and Raiders’ linebacker Rod Martin, who played at USC.

Billy Yancy, a former Hamilton quarterback, went on to play at Fresno State and then started a five-year odyssey in which he either played or tried out as a defensive back with 10 professional teams in the CFL, NFL and the United States Football League.

From last year’s Hamilton team, quarterback Phillip Vinson and running back Anthony Singleton were redshirt freshmen at New Mexico State this year, center Robbie Anderson is at Brigham Young and guard-linebacker Larry Jones was a redshirt freshman at the University of Hawaii, where defensive back Robert Walker, who played at Hamilton at couple of years ago, is on the varsity.

Another former Hamilton quarterback, Ricky Greene, played recently at Oregon.

‘77 Venice Stars

Dana McLemore, San Francisco 49ers’ defensive back and punt returner, starred as a senior on the 1977 Venice High team that was 8-0-1 and won a Western League championship. Running back Keyvan Jenkins was a junior on that team, and he and his younger brother Kinyon later played for Nevada Las Vegas. Kinyon finished up at San Diego State, and Keyvan was a top runner in the CFL this past season with the British Columbia Lions.

Other players from that ’77 Venice team who played more football were quarterback Angelo Gasca and linemen Jeff Pew, Tom Woods and Darryl Moore.

Moore was a lineman for the Trojans and tried out with the Dallas Cowboys and the Cleveland Browns, but he decided that pro football was not for him. This year he served as a volunteer assistant coach at Venice.

Gasca, another volunteer assistant at Venice, was a top quarterback at Santa Monica College and Cal State Long Beach and tried out for the Los Angeles Express in that team’s first year in the USFL. Pew played at SMC and at Oregon and Woods at SMC and Cal State Long Beach.

Watts With Trojans

Venice defensive back Elbert Watts, who graduated in 1981, started out at Oklahoma and is on this year’s USC team.

Kevin Fidel, a tight end and defensive tackle at Venice in the early ‘70s, was with the Washington State, SMC and San Diego State teams and was drafted by the Cleveland Browns. But he contracted a virus, lost weight as a result of the illness and was unable to play pro ball. Among Venice players from more recent years, quarterback Mike Sanders was at Cal Lutheran this year, quarterback Pat Guthrie played for West Los Angeles College and this season at Occidental, Joe Taylor was a linebacker this season at the University of the Pacific, and center Glen Neal was a UCLA crew member.

Fairfax High graduates who played in college include running back Dexter Tisby at San Diego State, linebacker Neil Hope who played at USC and with the Los Angeles Express and is now a member of the USFL’s Denver Gold, lineman Sidney Dodd at Oklahoma and lineman Jamil Hershewe is a Valley College sophomore who was recently named to the All-Southern California Conference team.

‘The Bullet’ With Bucs

St. Monica High graduates who are known to have been playing recently include Phil Freeman, who was known as “The Bullet” as a high-school running back, and Pete McMahon.

Freeman played college ball at Arizona and has been a kickoff returner this season for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. McMahon, who spent his freshman year at Pacific University in Oregon, was last spied playing linebacker last year at the University of San Diego.

Offensive lineman Pat Hauser was a member of the 1978 Culver City High team that had a 13-0 record and won the CIF-Southern Section Northwestern Conference championship. Hauser won All-American recognition at Cal State Northridge and reported to the Oklahoma Outlaws of the USFL for a tryout. That was a couple of years ago, and he quit the Outlaws and was trying to catch on with an NFL team at last report.

Among other players from that 13-0 team, linebacker Kerry Ford played at San Jose State and tried out for the Los Angeles Rams a couple of years ago. Running back John Garner started out at Cal, was at Santa Monica College for a year and most recently was working for a local sporting goods firm and helping his older brother Curtis, defensive coordinator for the El Segundo High football team. Curtis is also a teacher at El Segundo.

McKay Coaches at Culver

Mike McKay, a volunteer assistant coach at Culver High, was the quarterback when John Garner was the top runner. McKay later starred at Santa Monica College and Tulane and tried out with the New Orleans Saints but did not make that team.

Luis Lichtl, a lineman on that same Culver team, teaches physical education at his old high school and also coaches the offensive and defensive lines for the football team. Lichtl graduated from Cal State Long Beach.

Another Culver High graduate, Jack Reilly, was an All-American quarterback at Cal State Long Beach and was The Times’ Westside coach of the year with one of his more successful teams at Beverly Hills High School. Reilly moved on to become head coach at El Camino College and is now offensive coordinator at Utah. Steve Newell, who played with Reilly at Culver and at Long Beach, also was a wide receiver with the San Diego Chargers.

Culver graduate Carnell Lake, a star running back and linebacker at his high school last year, this year has played a lot of minutes at linebacker and on the special teams at UCLA, which is headed for the Rose Bowl.

Beverly Hills Stars

Erik Harp, a lineman for Beverly Hills High School two years ago, went to Texas A&M; on a scholarship but reportedly left that school. Patrick Cunningham, a Normans’ lineman from last year, was a redshirt freshman at Oregon this year, and Steve Nikzad, another star Beverly lineman last year, was at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Derek Graham, a Beverly wide receiver in 1980, became a star at Princeton and tried out with the San Diego Chargers last summer. Hosea Fortune, a top wide receiver who preceded Graham at Beverly Hills, broke his leg returning a kickoff in the annual Shrine All-Star Classic. But Fortune went on to San Jose State, transferred to Rice and played a little with the San Diego Chargers.

Chris Williams, who was Westside back of the year last year for the Normans, was on the freshman team at Harvard this fall.

Dean Cain, a top receiver and defensive back at Santa Monica High a couple of years ago, reportedly intercepted three passes for Princeton this season against Cornell. Donell Hatcher, another Santa Monica star defensive back, was on this year’s Hawaii varsity.

Some Turned to Baseball

Santa Monica lineman David Ruggles played for Taft College this year, and lineman Jeff Shafer, who played at Santa Monica High and SMC, was on the University of the Pacific team this season.

Santa Monica High football players who turned to baseball include Tony Walczuk at USC, David Montanari at UCLA, and former Vikings Roderick Allen and Stanley Younger are in professional baseball.

Another football star who chose baseball was Damon Farmar, a star quarterback at University High School, who played baseball for West Los Angeles College and was in the minor leagues last summer.

Andre Holland, a Santa Monica High defensive back, went to Cal State Fullerton and reportedly will play baseball at Oregon University next season.

Mark Hill, a star receiver at Santa Monica High last year, redshirted at Cal State Fullerton this year.

Rafeedie Played at Penn

Fred Rafeedie and Yale Keckin, Santa Monica High quarterbacks, played college football, Rafeedie at Penn and Keckin at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Tony Phillips, a Santa Monica linebacker, is a UCLA senior who has been out with an injury.