The Generation Game : The 7 Healys: Fall Tradition With Foothill

It has been a numbers game for Martin and Patricia Healy and fortunately for them, they rolled a Lucky Seven.

And it’s been fortunate, too, for Foothill High School that the Lucky Seven have turned out to be named Marty, Mike, Chris, Matt, John, Brian, and Danny, football players all for the Knights.

The Healy sons have provided their parents with a number of thrills playing football through the years, including in 1981 when John was a member of the Knight team that beat rival El Modena not only in a Century League game, but then in a triple-overtime game for the Southern Section Southern Conference championship.

“It doesn’t get more exciting than that,” Patricia Healy said. “That game at Anaheim Stadium had to be the most exciting one we’ve seen in all the years we’ve been watching the boys play.”

That goes back a ways, too--ever since 1969, when their eldest son, Marty Jr., first began Junior All-American football. Since 1972, a Healy son has played either freshman, sophomore or varsity football for the Knights.

Just keeping track of which son was playing where could have required a computer. At one point in the early 1980s, Martin and Patricia had their Thursday afternoons through Saturday nights booked watching their sons play: Mike at San Diego State, Chris at Saddleback College, Matt for the Foothill varsity, John for the Foothill freshmen and Brian with a Junior All-American team.

“I would go to the home games and he’d go to the away games,” Patricia said. “We’d be unconscious from all the fresh air we were getting.”

Said Martin: “I’m really more a cheerleader than a critic when it comes to watching them play--they get enough criticism from the coaches. She’s the one who wears the cap and whistle.”

Martin played football for Cardinal Hayes High School in New York City in the late 1940s, when the all-boys Catholic school had about 7,000 students and “just making the team was an accomplishment,” said Martin, who would later serve as a Marine Corps rifle company commander in Korea, where he fought alongside Iowa football Coach Hayden Fry.

With four of their seven children living at home, Patricia has to plan ahead when buying food.

“When the last one graduates, maybe they’ll dedicate a wing of the school to us,” Martin said. “Or better yet, the cafeteria.”

Martin Healy runs a financial advisory services company in Santa Ana, which he might someday consult to try to figure out the family food bill.

“I wouldn’t wish my food bill on my worst enemy,” Healy said. “It’s astronomical.”

So too were the odds that all seven Healy children would be boys.

“After Danny (their last son) was born, a friend of mine in mathematics figured out the odds against that and it turned out to be something like over a million to one,” Healy said.

Having had their sons play against rival El Modena for so long, the Healys are friends with the Bauer family, four of whom have played football for the Vanguards.

Tonight, Brian, a senior lineman, will try to help the Knights beat El Modena and tailback Ross Bauer on Northrup Field in Tustin.

“Brian has played against Ross since they were about 8 years old,” Patricia said. “Ross’ teams always seemed to win, though.”

Mike Healy, who played for Foothill from 1973-77 and is now a stockbroker, recalled the support of his parents, saying his mother treated his brothers and him “like seven kings.”

And seven kings makes for a full house at the Healy residence in Santa Ana.

The Healys

Name Age Years at Foothill Marty 28 1972-76 Mike 27 1973-77 Chris 25 1975-79 Matt 24 1976-80 John 22 1979-83 Brian 17 1983-87 Danny 15 1985-89

Name Current Status Marty Real estate consultant in Portland, Ore. Mike Stockbroker with Dean Witter in Newport Beach Chris Production manager, Huntington Beach lumber yard Matt Marketing for Geneva Companies John Student at Cal State Fullerton Brian Senior at Foothill Danny Sophomore at Foothill