‘Cap’ Sheue Dies: Pillar of Sports in Huntington Beach

Harry M. (Cap) Sheue, legendary former athletics director and coach at Huntington Beach High School, has died at the Long Beach Veterans Administration Hospital, family members said Tuesday. He was 91.

Death came Friday after a brief illness, they said. They added that funeral services will be private, in accordance with Sheue’s wishes.

Sheue, who had no children, is survived by his wife, Edna Mary. The couple had made their home in the Huntington Harbour area.

Sheue’s many honors and awards included being inducted into the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame on Feb. 16. The event was Sheue’s last public appearance, according to family members.

But until infirmities of age slowed him a few years ago, Sheue never really retired from athletics, his friends said. Sheue’s official retirement was in 1964, after 39 years at Huntington Beach High; but he felt such close links to the school that for 20 years afterward he addressed the new freshman class every September.

Students Enraptured

“Last fall, Cap gave the main talk at the Huntington Beach High football pep rally,” Jim Stangeland, longtime friend and former Cal State Long Beach football coach said Tuesday. “You could have heard a pin drop. It was amazing how those young students listened to him and respected him.”

Sheue had said he simply liked being with students. In a 1985 interview, he cited that as the secret of his success as a coach and teacher.

“Kids have to like you,” he said. “You can’t teach a boy or girl until you’ve convinced them that you’re interested in them. Then you’ve got it made.”

Sheue began his career at Huntington Beach High in 1925, where he was a coach, athletics director, teacher and counselor.

As Chris Dufresne, a Times sportswriter, noted in a 1985 story, Sheue was “as much a part of school lore as the old tower” that is Huntington Beach High School’s symbol.

In 1967, the high school renamed the campus football stadium as “Sheue Field” in his honor. Many of his former students corresponded with him; Sheue kept the letters in a box in his home.

“When I get them out and read them, it makes me feel like it was all worthwhile,” he said earlier this year.

Sheue was born Aug. 22, 1895, on a homestead in Peoria, Iowa. In 1903, his family moved to Iola, Kan., where Sheue lettered in football, basketball and track and field at Iola High School. He was captain of the Iola High basketball team that won the Kansas state championship in 1915. He said the nickname “Cap” stuck with him ever after.

He served in the Army in World War I and saw battlefront duty in France.

Sheue came to Southern California in 1924, enrolling at USC to work on his master’s degree. He coached one year at Lompoc High before coming to Huntington Beach High in 1925, when the school’s enrollment was 323. There are more than 3,000 students attending Huntington Beach High now.

Among the outstanding athletes Sheue coached was Claire VanHoorebeke. VanHoorebeke played football for Sheue, and it was Sheue who recommended him for the job as head football coach at Anaheim High. VanHoorebeke went on to become Orange County’s most successful football coach, winning 17 Sunset League titles and 2 Southern Section championships.

Founded Track Meet

Sheue was the founder of the Southern Counties Track and Field Meet. Former Cal State Long Beach Football Coach Stangeland, who played football at Huntington Beach High under Sheue, said: “Cap was a very, very well organized coach. He had plans for everything, A to Z. I learned a lot from him.”

Stangeland, who frequently visited Sheue, said that in recent months that his mentor’s physical health had declined, “but his mind was always very sharp, right to the end.”

Roy Miller, current basketball coach at Huntington Beach High and a student there in 1967-69, was among those expressing grief Tuesday upon learning of Sheue’s death.

“I guess every place has its pillars, and he was Huntington Beach’s,” he said. “He was an institution. He never did lose interest in Huntington Beach. It was an annual event to have him come and talk to the incoming freshman.”

Darrell Stillwagon, Huntington Beach High activities director since 1966, said: “I think he had something charismatic about him. He seemed to be all of the things any of the kids wanted to remember about the school. Never heard Cap say a bad word about a student. He just thought they were wonderful.

“Until three or four years ago he would come and talk to the freshmen in the fall. He would capture them; they knew him by reputation. He would tell them how proud they should be to be at Huntington Beach.

“We plan to make a formal announcement (today) to the student body. We’ll fly the flag at half (staff), and if his wife approves, we’re thinking of starting a memorial scholarship in his honor.”

Times staff writer Steve Kresal contributed to this story.