Pacific Grove High School: Freshman 1963-1964

The summer of 1963 included working out for Freshman football as football practice would begin in August. I was 5-8 and 105 pounds wet. The high school would still be playing at the Junior High football field but the practice were on practice field at the high school below the basketball courts.

We were about to enter high school with three classes above us. We were at the bottom of the food chain at this point. Most of us expected to be picked on and chastised. Of course if you had a brother who was a Senior and a sister who was a Junior chances are you were not going to be messed around with much.

Freshman learned rather quickly about school traditions, such as the Senior Lawn located on the hill outside the Multi-Purpose building. If you ventured on that holy ground by mistake and not at a school rally you were the subject of wrath by any Senior. You learned quickly to stay out of the path and radar of upper classmen.

I took Latin my Freshman year, I have no idea why and what, if anything, you could possibly due with Latin later in life. Here I was in a class that I had no idea what I was doing. If not for a new teacher and the assistance of a very smart classmate I would have never made it through.


There was also the dreaded Algebra class in which the teacher would keep reminding you that you would need this class later on in life. I still to this day have never had any usage for this subject. One good thing though was my class was in the afternoon and on Fridays and on away games we had to leave early for the bus ride and I got out this class several times.

I remember the rally on the Senior lawn on Fridays. The classes would all gather around and who could forget Coach LeBeck and his “EEEYA” cheer. It was a school tradition. At home games we had to march in full uniform over to the Junior High school football through the streets of Pacific Grove. We had a great Freshman team that went undefeated. I had a really good seat for each game.

The Varsity team lost to Carmel that year 14-12 played at the Junior High field. Shortly after that, November 22, 1963, while in my science class, we received the news about the shooting of President Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. In our next class we were told there would be no classwork. We laid our heads on our tables and within that hour we were told that President Kennedy had died. Everyone was released from school and I went home to spend the weekend watching the coverage on television. I don’t think that there are very many of us who will ever forget where we were on that day.

As basketball seasons approached, we were about to use our new gym. Tryouts were at the Junior High gym. As the season approached the high school finally had its’ own gymnasium,

1964 started with, what else, the introduction of the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. The Beatles changed the course of music in this country.The next few years, as far as I’m concerned, were the best in music history.

Our freshman year ended without much fanfare, all in all in was a very good year. Looking forward to my Sophomore year.