A Classic Mismatch: Brea’s 75-0 Trouncing of Capistrano 28 Years Ago : Football: Champions-to-be at Brea-Olinda outscored opponents, 409-38, in 1961; Capistrano Union closed in 1964.

It was one of the worst mismatches in six decades of Orange County football.

Brea-Olinda High School, six-time defending Orange League football champion, was a team destined to win the Southern Section small schools championship, finishing 12-0 and outscoring its opponents, 409-38, in the fall of 1961.

Capistrano Union had 575 students, depending on the surfing conditions, and would win only three games that season. Two of the victories came against Santiago and Lowell, new schools that had yet to graduate a senior class.

Brea and Capistrano, schools geographically and sociologically miles apart, were grouped in the eight-team Orange League. Brea-Olinda’s program was second only to Clare VanHoorbeke’s powerhouses at Anaheim in terms of success.

Brea won an average of 82% of its games under Coach Dick Tucker from 1955 to 1961 before he resigned to accept the coaching position at Orange Coast College.

Quarterback Gary Holman (’59 and ‘60) and running backs Adrian Ledbetter (‘56) and Steve Ledbetter (‘61) were selected as the Southern Section small schools’ players of the year in their senior seasons.

Many of Capistrano’s best athletes skipped football, opting for jobs as lifeguards in San Clemente and Laguna Beach. The team’s best player of the era, Mike McKray, was injured before his senior season and never played a down.

Capistrano, at best, would have been hard-pressed to beat Brea’s Bee team in 1961. Few gave Capistrano a chance when the teams met 28 years ago in the opening week of Orange League play, but fewer could have predicted the final score: Brea 75, Capistrano 0.

Some believe Capistrano was partially to blame for the lopsided score. A year earlier, one of the team’s linebackers, Ricky Miller, did everything he could to disrupt Brea quarterback Gary Holman’s attempts to call the signals.

Brea’s offense used a first-sound system. Miller cleverly emulated Holman’s signals, causing Brea to jump offsides 15 times in the first half. Tucker felt Miller’s tactics were unethical and unprofessional, and he complained to Capistrano Coach Larry Nugent following a 36-14 victory.

Many figured Tucker wanted revenge for Miller’s questionable tactics when the teams met the next season. The first half certainly justified the notion; Brea, a well-disciplined team featuring Steve Ledbetter, a 190-pound fullback, opened a 40-0 lead.

Twenty-eight years later, Tucker says there were several misconceptions by Capistrano fans that were never cleared up.

“I never received as many negative letters for winning a game in my 32 years of coaching,” Tucker said. “I didn’t enjoy that game, I was embarrassed. It’s true, I was upset with the kid jamming our signals. But there were several factors that led to that score and some bad feelings that night.”

Tucker insists Ledbetter played sparingly in the game, and Capistrano fans were confused when the game announcer repeatedly reported Ledbetter had run for another touchdown in the second half. It was actually Ledbetter’s younger cousin, Allan, who was running with the ball.

Secondly, Brea’s second-string quarterback was as good as any starting quarterback in the league. When Tucker’s third-string quarterback injured his ankle in the second half, he reinserted his second-string quarterback. The second-stringer threw three touchdown passes in the third quarter.

Finally, Capistrano opened the second half with a passing attack and kept on passing for the remainder of the game.

“They must have thrown four or five interceptions in the second half, and we returned a couple of them for touchdowns,” Tucker said. “I never intended to pour it on. I got reprimand letters for pouring it on a little school like Capistrano, but that wasn’t the case.”

Allan Seymour, a reserve senior linebacker at Capistrano, recalled the long bus trip to Brea as going to “Death Valley.”

“They were men playing against boys,” said Seymour, who still resides in Capistrano Beach. “I don’t know if we made a first down. We were awful.”

Steve Ledbetter, now a forklift operator residing in Santa Fe Springs, said his team could have beaten Capistrano by 150 points if Tucker had left the starters in for the entire game.

“I didn’t play a half,” he said. “In fact, I played more my sophomore year than I did my senior year because we got ahead so early. That team could play with a lot of teams today.”

While the Brea-Capistrano game was a mismatch, Ledbetter says it wasn’t the most one-sided game of his prep career.

“We beat Costa Mesa, 80-0, in my freshman year on the Bee team,” he said.

Coaches often lament about long bus rides after a tough loss. Try to imagine a team bus weaving through the countless orange groves along surface streets for 90 minutes en route to San Juan Capistrano following the second-worst loss in county history.

The loss paled in comparison to Anaheim’s 109-0 loss to Fullerton in 1920, but who’s counting after 50? After all, no team has matched a 75-point victory in the past three decades, although Whittier Christian came close this season with a 74-0 victory over Brethren.

Student editors of Capistrano Union’s yearbook, “Chimes,” sympathized for the 27 players with a headline that read: “Whether winning or losing, they’re always fighting for their team and their school.”

Nugent, a former captain in the Marines, told his team, “This was a moral victory that we will use as a stepping stone to future victories.” But the school, located near the San Juan Capistrano Mission, closed three years later when San Clemente High opened in 1964.

At Orange Coast College, Tucker would win a national championship two years later.

An excerpt from Brea-Olinda’s yearbook, “Gusher,” gives tribute to Brea’s championship team with the following: “Other teams can never surpass this year’s perfect record and CIF championship. They can do no better than tie it.”

And for 28 years, no team has surpassed Brea’s 75-0 victory over Capistrano.