Huntington Beach High School inducts first Hall of Fame class
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Huntington Beach High School was established in 1906 — three years before the city was incorporated — and many notable alumni have walked through those doors on Main Street throughout its storied history.
Now they have a place to be honored.
The school inducted its first Hall of Fame class in a ceremony on campus on Thursday, honoring each of the 10 inductees with a plaque unveiled in the quad.
The criteria for induction is to recognize graduates, staff and community members “who achieve significant accomplishments and provide current students with positive role models in their own lives.”
Kathy Doyle, Le Anne Karasik, the 1922 track team, Eddie Morris, Harry ‘Cap’ Sheue, Darrell Stillwagon, Buddy Belshe, Art Worthy, Tony Gonzalez and Brett Simpson are the initial inductees.
Doyle was a girls’ basketball star for the Oilers in the 1970s, leading the team to back-to-back CIF 4-A titles in 1977 and ’78. She was a two-time Sunset League MVP and two-time All-American, who later became the Oilers’ coach.
Karasik was starring for the Oilers at the same time in a different sport, gymnastics, helping the Oilers win back-to-back CIF titles in 1977 and ’78. She was also a two-time CIF Southern Section All-Around champion in 1976 and ’78 and won multiple individual event titles.
The 1922 track team, coached by Ray “Feet” Walker, was the state champion and took second place at the national meet in Chicago. Team members included Bud Nash, Milt Nash, Charley Bickmore, team captain Bill Kerr, Virgil Elliott and Ross Nichols.
Morris, known as the “world’s fastest schoolboy” and the “Huntington Beach bullet,” was a celebrated track athlete at Huntington Beach in the 1930s and ‘40s. He won state championships in the 100- and 220-yard dashes in 1940, with his 220 time of 20.7 seconds tying the national high school record set by Jesse Owens in 1933.
Morris was considered a prospect for the 1940 Olympics, before they were canceled due to World War II. He went on to earn Purple Hearts in that war as well as the Korean War.
The football field on campus at Huntington Beach is named for Sheue, who was a coach, teacher and athletic director for the Oilers before he died in 1987.
Stillwagon was best known as the Oilers’ activities director, holding that role for about 30 years, though he was also a teacher, coach and athletic director. In 2000, HBHS renamed its historic auditorium and bell tower in his honor.
Belshe was an All-American swimmer for Huntington Beach in 1952 and ‘53, going on to star at Orange Coast College and the University of Denver. He was also a longtime lifeguard in Newport Beach and a founding member of the U.S. Lifesaving Assn.
Worthy was a basketball legend in the high school’s early years. He scored 58 points in a game for the Oilers in 1910, a longtime Orange County record before it was broken by Tes Whitlock of Loara in 1990. He continued to excel at Stanford University, where he was the team captain, student body president and yearbook editor.
A football star, Gonzalez was selected as a first-team All-American at both tight end and linebacker during his time with the Oilers in the early 1990s. He also played basketball at both HBHS and Cal, but went on to become a 14-time Pro Bowl selection at tight end and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Gonzalez, 49, is the NFL’s all-time leader in receptions (1,325) and receiving yards (15,127) by a tight end.
Simpson, 40, was a team captain on the Oilers surf team, going on to become a two-time U.S. Open of Surfing champion. He also was the first U.S. Olympic surf coach at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
