Games People Play: Los Angeles High vs. Lick High (San Francisco) for the California State High School Football Championship, 17 December 1904

by Paul R. Spitzzeri

Last weekend, the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) State Championship football games were held and Southern California teams won several divisional titles. Not surprisingly, the Open Division matchup once again included Catholic school powerhouses Concord De La Salle and Santa Ana Mater Dei, with the Monarchs completing a perfect 13-0 season by prevailing, 37-15 and likely claiming a national championship.

In Division 1-A, Huntington Beach Edison scored with just seconds on the clock and defeated Fresno Central, 21-14, for its first state title. Palos Verdes easily outpaced Lincoln Twelve Bridges, 55-19, to take the Division 2-A crown. At the 3-A level, however, Arcadia’s Rio Hondo Prep managed to score against Vanden High of Fairfield in overtime, but was unable to complete a two-point conversion and heartbreakingly fell 42-41.

Palmdale got into the highest scoring contest of the title games in its 5-A matchup against American Canyon, but was outgunned, 68-47. Irvine Portola also made it to overtime in its 6-A contest against Arcata, but the Humboldt County squad prevailed, 27-21. Whittier Pioneer saw its state title dreams dashed by San Francisco Balboa, 55-27.

The CIF was formed 110 years ago, but prior to that there was no official organized association to oversee such matters as state titles in high school athletics, including football. A prior post here covered the 1903 interscholastic state title, informal as that was, which was captured by Los Angeles High, 11-6, over its counterpart from Berkeley. Notably, Belmont, from the peninsula south of San Francisco, claimed that, because of its 23-0 shutout of Berkeley earlier in the season, there was no way the LA High could claim a state title.

For this post, we highlight, from the Homestead’s collection, a ribbon for the assistant chief usher of the contest between Los Angeles and Lick High of San Francisco, now the Lick-Wilmerding High School, which is private. Whereas the prior year’s game was held at Prager Park on Washington Boulevard between Main Street and Grand Avenue, the 1904 title matchup was played at Fiesta Park, situated in the block between Grand and Hope and 12th and 13th streets, the latter now Pico Boulevard, and so named because it was a staging ground for the springtime Fiesta de Los Angeles that was held for about a quarter century from the 1890s to the 1910s.

The prior day was the final one for the fall term, as “the most dignified senior and the veriest toddler of the kindergarten made common cause” in readying for the holidays. The Los Angeles Record of the 16th reported that,

At the Los Angeles “High” there was a different holiday spirit manifested [than at the State Normal School for teacher education]. Inasmuch as most of the students are residents of the city, they took advantage of the last school day of 1904 to make the old building on the hill ring with cheer. Perfunctory class recitations, the kind that always signify something of a “school treat,” were held in the morning, and the afternoon was devoted to one of the popular Star and Crescent gatherings. All sorts of Christmas songs and sayings afforded simple amusement for a “standing room only” crowd of happy students.

The prior day’s edition of the paper observed that the day before “the students of the Los Angeles High school were called out in the yard for a fire drill and football rally,” that being a strange combination, to be sure. Principal William H. Housh, who held that position for three decades, “urged all the pupils to attend the championship game” and others spoke including the “speedy little coach,” Clarence A. Roesch, who was a senior student.

The account added that “the high school team is in the best of condition and has been working hard for the past week. It was added that Lick had a quick squad and was slightly older and heavier than the locals, but it was concluded that the LAHS squad was “confident of winning and a good game is expected.” The visitors, after a week’s preparation in their home town, arrived on the 15th so they could get in two days of practice at Fiesta Park and it should be noted that the Lick roster comprised all of 14 students, while the Romans fielded just one more.

An advertisement appearing in the Los Angeles Times of the 15th stated that the contest, starting at 2:30 p.m., included reserved seats with pricing at 50 and 75 cents, as well as a dollar, while box seats could be had for $1.50. Tickets could be purchased at Hoegee’s sporting goods store, located on Main Street, just south of First. A photo from the Museum’s holdings shows both the store in the foreground, and, in the distance, the distinctive clock tower of the high school at the center.

The day before the matchup, the Times provided a somewhat detailed preview, and commented that,

As the time draws near, football enthusiasts are awakening to the importance of this game, and a good-sized crowd is expected Saturday in consequence. The tussle promises to be as hard-fought as any gridiron battle of the present season, and the winner will certainly know that a match has been played when the last half is ended.

The locals were lacking a halfback who was sick, while another player was questionable, “but the locals expect to put up a strong front nevertheless.” Walter Hempel, coach of the Pomona College team and later of St. Vincent’s College, the forerunner to today’s Loyola Marymount University, as well as a promoter of early auto and aviation shows in Los Angeles, “made the High School boys a handsome present yesterday when he gave them a dozen and a half of the finest sweaters obtainable.” The piece concluded that “the local lads have done considerable work for the championship trial, and feel that they are quite fit to render a good account of themselves tomorrow.”

In its issue of the day of the game, the Times noted that while Lick claimed the northern California title, “the local High has defeated everything hereabouts,” and a strange element of the visitors’ uniforms was mentioned: “The team uses an innovation in the shape of straps fastened to the belts of the back-field men, with the object of assisting the team mates to help their men along.” Not only would this be obviously banned today, but the paper wondered “what will happen when a local boy takes hold of one strap and a Lick man of the other.”

It was also remarked that the Lick coach insisted on two 35-minute halves “as this is a championship game” and this was a regulation duration, which was thought to be of benefit to the invaders. It was also asserted that the San Francisco squad was expecting to prevail “basing their claims on more experienced, older men, and eastern football methods.

The advantage for the home team, of course, included having hundreds of fellow students “to shout them on to victory.” Coach Roesch, meanwhile, told the paper,

We’ll show them that we also know a little eastern football, and send them home with just such a beating as we gave Berkeley High School last year.

When the contest was undertaken, the Times stated that “one of the finest football games ever played on a southern gridiron was pulled off” the day before “and the spectators received their money’s worth in the exciting struggle.” The piece painted a picture of blue and white (the LAHS colors) banners, while some of Lick’s gold and black was also displayed and it was also observed that,

Fair maids yelled themselves hoarse, and blended their shrill cries with the heavy bass roar of the sturdier supporters, who grasped their seats almost in a frenzy or jumped to their feet and went wild, as the swaying teams worked forth and back on the field of battle.

It was reported that the locals were a bit intimidated by the appearance of the Lick team and it was also clear after a few minutes of play that “the hopes of the local boys winning by any great score were quickly dispelled from the minds of the oversanguine supporters in the bleachers.” The account claimed that “everybody came to the game” included mothers who showed their anxiety as “their stalwart sons were ground down beneath the struggling mass of arms and legs.”

Also observed was that “everybody forgot their manners amidst the pandemonium that reigned throughout the three hours of the game,” this including time to make arrangements for how the game was to be managed “and in the choosing of officials,” including Umpire William I. Traeger, who coached football at Pomona College, Occidental College, Los Angeles High (in 1906) and, after a period as a federal marshal, at the University of Southern California in 1908, but who went on to be a lawyer, state Supreme Court clerk, Los Angeles County Sheriff from 1921 to 1932 and a member of Congress for two years before his death in 1935.

The Times commented that Lick got the better of their foes during the first half, including touchdown runs of 70 and 60 yards, but, with five minutes left in the contest and the visitors in the lead, 16-11, after a field goal was blocked and the kicker snapped up the ball and ran almost uncontested into the end zone, the locals began a march down field, including a 25-yard scamper that took Los Angeles to Lick’s 10-yard line. After two more short runs, half the distance to the goal was covered, but the invaders managed to stiffen their defense and prevented the home team from scoring.

As darkness descended, however, the referee remarked that it was “third down, and one foot to gain” while the visitors protested “we have held them for downs, and the ball is ours.” Referee Edward Merrill, coach at Occidental College, ruled that it was third down for Los Angeles and the furious Lick squad left the field in protest, as the home team lined up and ran in for a 1-yard touchdown, making the score 17-16.

At this point, Merrill declared the game a forfeit, due to the visitors leaving the gridiron, and the score was officially reported to be 6-0. Thus, “the game for the championship of the State ended in a miserable dispute, wherein the head linesman for the High School and one of the Lick players almost came to blows, so fierce became the argument.” It was added that “the game which will go down to history as one of the best every played on a local gridiron was marred by the unpleasant misunderstanding.”

As with the 1903 game, moreover, another team challenged the notion of the battle being a state championship. The Pomona Review of Christmas Eve noted that a contest between the local high school and Los Angeles ended in a tie and, despite efforts by Pomona to secure a rematch, this was rebuffed with the Angel City team “claiming that no date was available.” The paper went on to observe,

Taking that for what it is worth, our local lads feel and with good reason considering their splendid past record, that if another game had been played they would have won from Los Angeles.

This feeling will never be dispelled until the Los Angeles boys agree to meet Pomona on the gridiron. Hence local pigskin enthusiasts claim that the Los Angeles boys cannot rightly herald themselves as state interscholastic champions with the tie Pomona game still undecided . . . [therefore] the reputation of the Los Angeles lads for honest competition is hardly what it should be.

Obviously, more formal oversight of high school football was needed, though it was another decade before the CIF was established. Whatever one made of the LAHS-Lick game, especially because of its controversial ending, the contest was clearly viewed as a landmark of sorts for the sport.

Notably, the earliest located report of football in the Angel City is from May 1877, when the Los Angeles Express reported that “the boys of the High School have got a foot-ball and they fairly make Rome howl when they get to thumping it about in the rear of our office.” In spring 1888, the Alliance Football Club, largely made up of players from LAHS, was formed, with a Southern California Football League soon established, but that might make for an apt future “Games People Play” post.