THAT LONG-GONE PLOT OF GRASS WAS ONCE A FABLED FIELD. Now a parking lot and a post office sit where well-trod turf once filled the area with the aroma of Benicia High School football.

There were some baseball, softball, and flag football games played there over the years, too, and of course thousands of high school physical education classes were conducted on its green blades. But to most of those who remember, it was Sanborn Field, our Benicia High football field.

The gridiron was named in 1952 in honor of Dr. Lewis H. Sanborn, who died that year at the age of 57. Dr. Sanborn was a graduate of Benicia High, a long-time institution in Benicia and a faithful attendee at all of the Panther football games.

In its infancy, the field was simply the activity field for the high school. The seasonal grasses and weeds that grew between patches of dirt and rock were the only greenery. Turf was planted in 1944. Lights were installed in time for the first game of the 1945 season, a 7-0 victory over the Pittsburg Ramblers. By the start of the 1946 campaign, the field had been fenced.

Coach Phil Goettel arrived for the 1947 season and coached the team to a 4-4 record. But the 1948 season saw the appearance of Barney Corrigan and George Drolette as assistant coaches, and the “Golden Era” of Benicia High School football had begun.

That era would last for 13 seasons and include nine varsity championships and two junior varsity titles. During that span the varsity team roared to a record of 86-20-2.

For all except one of those seasons, when illness forced him to the sidelines, Corrigan was part of the coaching triumvirate. Drolette was a member of the threesome for all but the last two championships. It was an outstanding record for any group of coaches, not only for victories but for longevity as a staff.

Junior varsity football at Benicia High started in the 1948 season, and that first team went undefeated. For years, both varsity and the junior varsity were coached by the same three coaches. Thus, Coach Goettel was head coach of nine varsity championship teams and one junior varsity team in 13 seasons — a record of achievement no Benicia High head football coach since has come close to matching.

Drolette was the head coach of the second undefeated junior varsity championship team, but each of the triumvirate was still involved at each level of play in some manner.

Mr. Goettel, Coach Goettel, Phil, ended his football coaching career with an overall varsity record of 105-45-2. The man could coach — but there never would have been a Golden Era of Benicia football without the combination of Goettel, Corrigan and Drolette. Their strength was their unity within their individualism.

The routine

Obviously, not every game each season was played on Sanborn Field. Typically, five games were played on Sanborn turf, and four away, each year.

For every game played, the team had an average of five practice days, as well as the two weeks of practice before the school year began. Most of the boys on the field were “home grown,” unlike a parochial or private school where players are drawn from a number of surrounding communities.

Some of the boys had gone to school together since kindergarten. Others became classmates when they entered one of the elementary schools; still others became part of the group when they entered grammar school, which is now the site of the Benicia Unified School District offices and Liberty High School. The last arrived in Benicia later and joined during their high school years. Occasionally a Benicia High student lived in Vallejo for a year or two.

Because of school finances, the same practice and game uniforms were worn for many years. At the end of the practice week, the players took their practice uniforms home to be laundered. For a number of years, after each practice those white uniforms hung on racks in the drying room of the “new” gym complex.

For those first two weeks of practice, during “Double Days,” those uniforms were still wet with perspiration for the afternoon practice sessions. By the end of any week of practice they were more than a little “ripe.” When they did dry out, they were usually slightly stiff from the dried sweat — but they soon softened up. There wasn’t any standing around at practice.

Looking at a photograph of the starting team from 1957, my freshman year at Benicia High School, I see only one player with a face “mask.” That mask is only a single bar.

Prior to that there were two face masks worn on the junior varsity squad. They were of clear plastic, attached to the helmets by four leather straps with snaps. They resembled the face protectors on suits of armor of knights of old.

Over the next three years, most players wore either a one- or two-bar mask. There were no big face mask cages like you see today. There were also no wrist bands or game socks; the socks on the feet of the players were their gym socks.

The jerseys weren’t purchased by the players and didn’t have players’ names on the back. They didn’t need to: Many loyal local fans knew the jerseys by sight, because they or someone they knew had worn that exact jersey in the past. Many boys grew up looking forward to the day they would wear the blue-and-gold uniform of Benicia High. Older brothers, friends and neighbors had done the same.

If anyone looks at photographs of the teams during those Golden Era years they can see the same uniform on a player for more than one season. A fan could look at the player and say “So-and-so wore that same jersey,” and state the previous season it had been worn.

Sometimes the player who wore the jersey had been a “star,” sometimes he “would be a star,” and other times he was a “contributor” to the success of the team.

After games, players piled the uniforms on the locker room floor — jerseys in one pile, pants in another. A local business picked them up and laundered them. The uniforms were re-issued when the players arrived to put them on for a home game or pack them in duffel bags with the remainder of their gear for an away game. They weren’t worn around campus, as is often seen today.

Stage center

Entering Sanborn Field to play a game was a unique experience. The space from the locker room to the field was dimly lit. Outside the fenced perimeter of the field, the area was dark except for a few street and house lights, making Sanborn appear like an arena oblivious to anything outside its borders. The field basked in the glow of one big spotlight.

Slowly walking in single file over the asphalt in that dimly lit environ, we heard a rumbling sound that grew as we approached the field. When the captains for that evening’s game stepped on the field, followed by the remainder of the team, the rumbling slowly diminished until it was left behind as each player finally stepped on the turf to the sound of fans cheering. It was like entering a play from stage center.

The combined aroma of the grass and damp soil and the feel of the cleats pushing into the turf was a sensory statement no one on those teams ever forgot. The statement was: “We’re on Sanborn Field — our field.”

The smell of hot dogs and coffee wafted across the team entrance site from the “Bent Barn,” and on each side of that line of players were fans, young and old, waiting for the first glimpse of their local heroes. The Bent Barn is now gone except in memory and photographs, but once it was new. The attached hand-operated scoreboard, which had long been in decay, has been removed. The snack shack, restrooms and meeting room, antiquated by today’s standards, once were the best that could be had for a small high school in a small town, our Benicia.

Whatever happened to those gray-painted bleachers that were installed before the start of each season, then taken down and stored each year, I have no idea. I wonder the same about the announcer’s tower that stood at the 50-yard line behind the home bleachers, on the L Street side. The chalk lines that held their place for weeks following each season are long gone, for decades covered with asphalt. And while the brick building at the west end of Sanborn Field remains, it now houses the City Council chambers. Its windows look out on what once was a setting that hosted countless colorful and exciting scenes.

Great players, moments

There were many great games and great team and individual performances on that field. I did not see all of them. But I saw a great many and played in some, too. We, the Panthers, always expected to win, and we usually did.

Three great seasons immediately come to mind. One is the undefeated team of 1953 that went 8-0, the only undefeated varsity football squad in Benicia High history. The team scored 270 points and allowed only 48. Harry Shoup scored 120 of those points and Bob Hathaway contributed 69 more. Stan McHann, at 6 feet, 2 inches and 243 pounds, and Dick Lawton, at 6-0, 232, were two of the leading linemen. Many yards were gained behind those two great players.

The 1959 season stands out, too. Years later, Coach Goettel would say that he didn’t think we would win the championship that season; he expected to win the following year. He may have felt that because the team’s record in 1958 had been 4-5. But we surprised him, and though five of us starters that season were sophomores our only loss was by seven points. The outstanding linemen, in my opinion, were guard Jerry Miller and tackle Steve Flick. By far the best back was Charles Kimble. Other key contributors in the backfield were Willie Castillo, Gordon McGuirk, Dean Croney and Fred Haderman.

Finally, there was the 1960 team. We won our opening game handily but then lost to St. Vincent’s of Vallejo — which went on to have an undefeated season — 19-12. We rebounded to have an 8-1 season, win the league championship, win three Homecoming games and defeat two teams that wound up winning the championship of their own league. It was the last varsity football championship at Benicia High for 21 seasons.

Following the leadership of the coaching, the key to our success was the combination of the core players: Mike Connell, Croney, Flick, myself, Haderman, David Littlefield, Mike Wentworth and Jim Wilson. But the most notable players from that great 1960 campaign were Kimble, Flick and Croney. For the third year in a row, Kimble was named Most Valuable Player.

In fact, as a freshman he’d been named the captain of the junior varsity team; no Most Valuable Player was named on that team, so really, Kimble was the MVP for four consecutive years. No player in the history of Benicia High has ever achieved that distinction.

Kimble received a number of other awards. He was an All-League player three consecutive seasons, and as a senior was named to the All Inland Empire first team by the San Francisco Chronicle, the All Superior California team by the Sacramento Bee, All Northern California Honorable Mention, the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame, and to both the Shriner’s All-Star game in Los Angeles and the Elks Valley All-Star game in Lodi.

Among the great individual moments at Sanborn, one of the two greatest was a six-touchdown effort by senior Rolland Van Blaricom on his birthday in a 40-7 victory over St. Vincent’s in 1956. Van Blaricom averaged 7.5 yards per carry that season, and he was unstoppable in that game.

The other greatest individual effort, in my opinion, came from Kimble in a 44-20 victory over Davis High School in 1960. Playing fullback, Kimble made a lead block at the right end for halfback Jim Wilson, then got to his feet and made the last block down the field, allowing Wilson to complete an 86-yard touchdown run. It was an amazing display.

Gone, but remembered

At the Garrett home, in a plastic container, rests a chunk of long-dried turf from that fabled field, our field, Sanborn Field. To some, it is probably just a chunk of dirt. To others, perhaps, it is capsule of memories of times loved, times past that helped form many boys into young men.

Sanborn Field is gone but, for some, its memory lingers. It was a fabled field.

That Grass Was Once Mine
Tread lightly now, for where you walk,
The grass that grows was once mine.
Where footsteps fall, and soft winds blow,
In seasons foul, or fine.
The field now with new grown grass,
Shining green in the sun.
Where once before the sound that came,
Told of fame, and brave deeds done.
The tree that stands at the edge,
With birds its branches adorning,
Was younger many years ago,
On a bright and lovely morning.
A fleeting moment, come and gone,
Of glory and life-long quest.
Sit and feel the soft ground live,
As you take a mid-day’s rest.
Where now you sit I too did sit.
With youth and friends of mine I sat.
We laughed, and cried, and even died,
It was another time we were at.
Sky over all as on that day,
Though sounds are softer still.
I hear them now and others too,
And know I always will.
Please visit now before traveling on.
The blades you bend are mine.
Nurtured by my heart and blood,
Which fed them like red wine.
It was good so long ago,
When maids and glory were mine.
In fields of grass, with birds that sing,
And, oh, those days were fine.

James M. Garrett has lived in Benicia for more than 60 years. His poem, “That Grass Was Once Mine,” was awarded second place at the 2009 Solano County Fair in the category “Unpublished Poetry.” Contact him at Jgstoriesnpoetry@aol.com.