Guyer Remains a Legend : O.C. Hall of Fame: Relentless and precise, Laguna Beach’s athletic history never could have happened without him.

They called Maurice (Red) Guyer the Laguna Legend, mainly because that’s what he was. The name fit and so it stuck.

Not that Guyer, who will be inducted Sunday into the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame, ever noticed such things. He was too busy being the Laguna Legend to stop and think about what it meant.

To pause to reflect would have shown a lack of commitment, a sign of weakness Guyer simply couldn’t afford. Forget how it would look to others. Guyer couldn’t look himself in the mirror if he ever slowed so much as a step.

He began teaching and coaching at Laguna Beach High in 1934, fresh from a brilliant sprinting career at Santa Ana College (now Rancho Santiago) and USC. He ran 100 yards in 9.6 seconds, just off the world record of 9.4, and 220 yards in 21.0.

He was an alternate on the U.S. Olympic 400-meter relay team in 1932 and ran the third leg of the Trojans’ world record-setting 440-yard relay team, which did 40.8 in the ’32 West Coast Relays in Fresno.

Guyer ran just as hard at Laguna Beach, getting the new high school’s athletic programs off the ground.

He was the athletic department at first, and later, when he had help, he was still thought of as the driving force behind the school’s teams. In the early years, Laguna Beach had so few students that one season couldn’t begin until the previous one ended.

Football, basketball, baseball, track and field--Guyer coached them all, many times during the same school year. In the first year, there were 225 students and only one senior boy.

If he minded, he never let on.

Guyer’s drive was rooted in success, or at least the hope of success.

Laguna Beach’s football teams won eight Orange League championships and a Southern Section title in 1946. He coached the basketball team for five seasons and won a league title.

“He liked coaching football the most,” said Don Guyer, Red’s son.

But he saved his greatest passion for track and field.

Laguna Beach track teams won 15 league championships from 1934-69 and had a 100-47-8 dual meet record.

When Guyer retired from coaching in the mid-1970s, he turned his attention to officiating track and field meets. He had a reputation as one of the best starters around and was in demand by meet directors on all levels.

“I allow two seconds between the order ‘set’ and the firing of the gun,” Guyer once said. “I used to count in my head--set, one thousand, two thousand--and then fire, but I don’t anymore. The count is fixed mentally after years of starting races.”

It didn’t matter if he was starting a local high school meet, the Mt. San Antonio College Relays, or the Big Sky Conference finals when they were held near his retirement home in Montana, runners could always count on Guyer. He was consistent and fair.

When Guyer died in September, 1989, at 80, his starter’s pistol finally fell silent.

His legacy extends beyond the football stadium that bears his name, beyond the records and championships. Fact is, none of Laguna Beach’s athletic history could have happened without him.

After his retirement, Laguna Beach’s athletic teams, particularly football, basketball and baseball, struggled. The Artists excelled in such sports as tennis and volleyball, but never regained their power in the other sports.

Even Guyer’s favorite track meet fell on hard times after he left.

“The Laguna Beach trophy meet was a real popular small-school meet,” said Don Guyer, a track and cross-country runner at Laguna Beach. “But the school district, after he retired, let it go to pot.”

Red let his disgust be known in a 1985 Times article on the state of the school’s athletics.

“Since I left, they’ve had I don’t know how many athletic directors and I don’t think they fired any of them. They all quit because they weren’t able to accomplish what they wanted to do.

“Maybe the administration, the school board and the superintendent just don’t share the goals of the athletic department anymore.

“Maybe they say, ‘So what? We want our kids to be scientists,’ and they don’t realize how much value a school gets from a good athletic program. It can’t be beat.”

Going halfway was never in Guyer’s game plan.

He grew up in Chillicothe, Ill., a small town near Peoria, but he wanted more. He wanted to attend USC.

After graduating from high school, he moved to Santa Ana to live with his grandmother.

Guyer was a standout in football and track at Santa Ana College, earning a scholarship to USC. He was only 150 pounds, too small for the Trojan football team but fast enough to shine on the track.

After college, Guyer settled in Laguna Beach, a frequent vacation destination while he was at USC. He taught elementary school first, then got a job at the high school when it opened in 1934.

High school-age students went to Tustin at that time, and Guyer’s first battle was getting the older kids to stay home instead of finishing their diplomas at Tustin. He wasn’t all that successful at first, but the younger athletes fared better than expected and he was pleased.

“Back then, coaching was our whole life,” Guyer said in 1985. “It was all we wanted to do. You couldn’t wait for fall to come along. I know there are still a lot of coaches like that today, but it seems like there aren’t enough.”

When school wasn’t in session, he helped start the city’s recreation department and a locals-only surfing contest. Not that Guyer was particularly fond of surfers, but he recognized their need for competition.

In 1976, he was elected to the California Coaches Hall of Fame and didn’t slow down until his death in 1989.

“He was real healthy,” Don Guyer said. “He ran. He worked out until the cancer got him. He ran a couple of miles every other day. He had his favorite courses and knew how far they were.”

That was Guyer in a nutshell--precise, passionate and relentless when it came to athletics.

Hall of Fame Induction Facts

What: 13th Orange County Hall of Fame induction ceremony

Where: Gate 6, Anaheim Stadium

When: 11 a.m. Sunday

Highlights: Ceremony inducting Bert Blyleven, Gary Carter, Maurice (Red) Guyer, Hal Sherbeck, Jerry Shipkey and Ray Willsey will take place outside Anaheim Stadium. The public can then gain admission to the newly opened Hall of Fame for $3.