Sherbeck Packing for Farewell : Football: Assistant coaches, former players saying fond goodbys to retiring coach who won three national titles in 31 years at Fullerton College.

Hal Sherbeck is working away in his office every day at Fullerton College without a thought of slowing down.

Except for an empty box here or there, there isn’t a hint that he’s less than two weeks away from his final day of employment at the college after 31 years as football coach.

Sherbeck is spending his time working as athletic director and division dean for the physical education department. He is also helping with the football program, which is holding practices a few days a week.

Plus, he is putting in extra time at night and on weekends packing papers and memories for his move with his wife Dona to Montana on July 6.

There is also the matter of helping to select his successor, whose name the college hopes to announce before Sherbeck, 62, departs.

“I went home the other night and told Dona that I would like to apply for the job,” Sherbeck said. “I think if I was serious, she would have shot me.”

Sherbeck ended about two years of speculation when he announced his retirement in a March 17 staff meeting. Since then, he has been honored by the college, the athletic department and other groups.

Tonight, the Fullerton College Quarterback Club will hold a party in Sherbeck’s honor at 6 p.m. at the Fullerton Holiday Inn.

Friends, supporters of the program and many former players--Sherbeck still calls them “fine young men”--will gather in honor of the man considered by many to be the finest coach in the history of community college football.

Sherbeck, in typical fashion, is embarrassed by all the attention.

“I really wish they wouldn’t have this party,” he said. “The best part is that so many players are going to be able to get together and renew that feeling of being in the Hornet family. That’s what I’m most looking forward to.”

It’s no surprise that a long line of folks have come forward to pay tribute to Sherbeck, the man from Big Sandy, Mont., who took over at Fullerton in 1961 after being an assistant at Montana.

Sherbeck’s Fullerton teams accomplished much in his 31 years. He leaves with a 241-71-8 record, making him the all-time winningest community college football coach in the nation.

Under Sherbeck, Fullerton won three national titles and 16 conference titles, and had only one losing season.

From 1964 to 1968, his teams went 47 games without losing.

More than 600 of his players have gone on to play at four-year colleges.

Over the years, Sherbeck put together an outstanding coaching staff that he often credits for much of his success.

Al Feola spent 31 years with Sherbeck as an assistant and developed 17 All-American defensive backs along the way.

“I am really going to miss the guy,” Feola said. “We have been meeting here at 4 a.m. to work out together for the last 25 years. I’m going to be lonesome now in the morning. He held things together, but we will go on. It was a dynasty he created and we all feel a part of it and want to keep it going.”

For 30 seasons, Bill Chambers has been with Sherbeck as Fullerton’s trainer and resident insult artist.

“He’s lost a lot of his hair, but other than that nothing has changed,” Chambers said. “His work ethic has always been the same. And by what he demanded of his staff, he made us better professionals. It’s really going to be strange on Saturday nights this fall without him there. I always told my assistants to just stay out of his way during games. He was like some kind of mad lion roaming the sidelines.”

Sherbeck and Marv Sampson, the Hornet offensive coordinator, were together for 29 seasons. This fall will mark the first at Fullerton that Sampson won’t be speaking to Sherbeck on the headset during games.

“I just feel really good about the opportunity to have been with him,” Sampson said. “It was a great experience. I learned to deal with each player as an individual and learn their qualities. That is so much the key to how he coaches. I looked at this as my chance in a lifetime, and some people never get that chance.”

Glenn Thomas, who coaches the offensive linemen, has spent the past 19 seasons with Sherbeck.

“Hal always tied up all the loose ends, and we just went out and coached,” Thomas said. “This is the end of a very special era, but it’s a real challenge to continue the excellence he built. In Hal, you have the whole package, a great football mind, a wonderful humanitarian and a good friend.”

Jeff Jespersen, Fullerton’s defensive coordinator, is the youngster of the core of the coaching staff, but even he has been at Fullerton the last 12 seasons.

“A lot of people will never know how much he did here,” Jespersen said. “He’s really worked hard at making sure the program continues on. He’s asked us (the coaching staff) to stay together and not segment. I hate to see him go, but I’m happy to see a man that has accomplished so much in his life able to retire with his health and ready to move on.”

For the past 31 years, Hank Ives has run the J.C. Grid-Wire, a weekly in-season publication that offers national rankings and news.

“I’m going to miss Hal a great deal,” Ives said. “I always felt his teams were awfully good. His ’65 team was maybe the best I’ve seen. It would rank right up there with any of them.”

The 1965 Hornet team went 10-0 in winning Sherbeck’s first national title, outscoring its opponents, 379-61.

Two members of that team are coaching at community colleges in Orange County.

Dave Ogas has been at Rancho Santiago for the last 16 years, 10 as the head coach. Ogas was an an offensive tackle in 1965 and went on to San Diego State. He also played with the Raiders and Buffalo Bills.

“He was the first football coach to have a real impact on me,” Ogas said. “He really cared about his players and really worked hard at everything. I was very lucky when I was there.

“We lost the first two games of my freshman year, then won the next eight and then went 10-0 the next season and won the national title. But I don’t think of it in terms of the wins and loses. I think in terms of the people I played with and him.”

Dennis Dixon, who has been the offensive line coach at Golden West for 15 years, was a tight end at Fullerton in 1965 and went on to play at Alabama for Paul (Bear) Bryant.

“It’s too bad he’s leaving when you think of the tradition and all the things he has done for fine young men,” Dixon said. “I had no clue about life when I went to Fullerton, but I learned the values that carried me to Alabama and through life. I learned the values that I teach my players--good work habits and self-discipline. I learned the kind of things we want to teach our sons.”

Sherbeck’s final season didn’t bring a national championship like the ones in ‘65, ’67 and ‘83, but it did have its own brand of magic.

The Hornets went 7-3 in the regular season, finishing second to Saddleback in the Mission Conference Central Division. But when bowl bids were passed out, the Potato Shrine Bowl in Bakersfield offered Fullerton a chance to play Santa Barbara, which was 9-1.

Santa Barbara’s run-and-shoot offense was supposed to be too much for Fullerton’s defense. But on the misty afternoon of Dec. 7, Fullerton played its finest game of the season and routed Santa Barbara, 45-13.

Sherbeck’s career at Fullerton had started 31 seasons before on the same field with a 50-0 loss to the Renegades.

“It really was a nice way to end it,” Sherbeck said. “You don’t plan these things, but ending one’s career where it started was kind of ironic.”

But now Sherbeck is only days from a new challenge, building a house. He and Dona are going to spend the summer helping construct a house that will sit beside Flathead Lake. Sherbeck’s lot has 119 feet of shoreline.

Once the winter sets in, Sherbeck plans to start going through his files to put together a history of what his teams accomplished.

“I checked up there to see if our phone line is in,” Sherbeck said. “So who knows, we may just have a tent and phone, but we will be up there.”

Hal Sherbeck at Fullerton College

Year W L T Conference Nation* Postseason 1961 6 4 0 Third Unranked Orange Show Bowl (lost) 1962 6 2 1 Third 24th None 1963 3 5 1 Sixth (tie) Unranked None 1964 8 2 0 First Fourth Potato Bowl (won) 1965 10 0 0 First First Junior Rose Bowl (won) 1966 9 0 1 First Third Potato Bowl (won) 1967 12 0 0 First First State playoffs (won) 1968 8 1 0 Second Ninth None 1969 10 2 0 First (tie) Sixth State playoffs (lost final) 1970 11 1 0 First Second State playoffs (lost final) 1971 5 4 0 Third Unranked None 1972 4 4 1 Fourth Unranked None 1973 10 1 0 First Third State playoffs (lost semifinal) 1974 5 3 1 First (tie) Unranked None 1975 7 2 0 Second 19th None 1976 9 2 0 First Sixth Avocado Bowl (won) 1977 10 1 0 First Second Avocado Bowl (lost) 1978 6 4 0 Third (tie) Unranked None 1979 7 3 0 Second 19th None 1980 7 4 0 First (tie) Unranked Avocado Bowl (lost) 1981 9 1 0 First (tie) Fifth None 1982 9 2 0 Second Ninth Pony Bowl (won) 1983 10 0 1 First First Potato Bowl (won) 1984 10 1 0 First Third Pony Bowl (won) 1985 8 3 0 First 27th Pony Bowl (lost) 1986 6 4 0 Second 25th None 1987 5 3 2 Second Unranked None 1988 10 1 0 First Third Potato Bowl (lost) 1989 6 4 0 Fourth Unranked None 1990 7 3 0 Third (tie) 23rd None 1991 8 3 0 Second (tie) 21st Potato Bowl (won)

*--National ranking according to J.C. Grid-Wire