ANOTHER HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL SEASON IS ALMOST UPON US. The thought brings to mind the athlete I believe to be the best all-around football player to wear the blue-and-gold uniform of the Panthers during “The Golden Era” of Benicia High School football, the 1948 through 1960 seasons when the varsity team had a record of 86-20-2 and won seven championships and two co-championships. For that matter, I think the player to whom I refer is the best to ever play football for Benicia High School, up to the present.

He is Charles E. Kimble.

“Chuck” and I met at Benicia Grammar School. He was a classmate of mine from then through our graduation with the Benicia High Class of 1961.

There have been many fine football players at Benicia High over the decades, but I know of none who met the standard set by Charles.

***

The source of the following excerpts is Kenneth Knight Jr., editor and publisher of The Benicia Herald, in an article on page 2 of the Thursday, June 22, 1961 edition.

“High School Principal Lawrence H. Hamann describes him as being ‘without reservation’ one of the finest students he has known during his more than 30 years here. That his fellow classmates share this estimate was amply demonstrated by the ringing applause he received graduation night.”

And …

“This is no small compliment when one realizes the full scope of Kimble’s accomplishments. He has been the High School’s top scholar, top athlete and probably its most popular student as well. We can truly ‘let the record speak for itself.’”

And …

“Teachers and students alike get enthusiastic when asked to comment on Kimble, partly because he never does so himself. ‘It’s pretty easy to say nice things about Charles,’ agrees Principal Lawrence Hamann. ‘He’s a good citizen, student, athlete and leader and he carries his winning gracefully. I don’t think we’ve had another student who’s hit the jackpot as he has.’”

And …

“(Teacher/coach Phil Goettel) calls Kimble ‘a terrific all-around athlete and all-around leader, destined for success whatever he does.’”

And …

“We think any school and any community could justly feel proud of a student like Kimble. In recent years we have read so many stories of the resistance of Southern schools to integration of Negro and white students. Knowing what Kimble’s presence has done to enhance the academic and athletic reputation of Benicia High School, it strikes us with particular force that prejudice is far too costly when it can deprive a community and a nation of Negroes like Charles Kimble.

“In that sense we feel the students and parents at Benicia High School owe Kimble a special vote of thanks for his years here. No one who has known a student like Kimble can easily fall victim to the stereotyped notions of Negroes as stupid or lazy. Prejudice is a dangerous disease, nourished in ignorance; contact with outstanding human beings like Kimble is an invaluable inoculation.

“But in wishing Kimble well in the years ahead it is not as a Negro, but as an individual, one whom we have been glad to know even briefly. We understand he will enroll at the University of California this fall as a student of engineering …”

***

“Truly an outstanding high school football player; the best at Benicia High School in the last 10 years. A team player above all else, his quiet leadership has been the driving force behind our team for the last three seasons.” — Source: Herald front page, Dec. 1, 1960.

The 10-year period of which Goettel spoke was from the 1951 season through the 1960 season. Harry Shoup and Rolland Van Blaricom, each a fine athlete, played in that period. If anyone was an authority on the best football player during that period it had to be Coach Goettel.

From everything I have read, and from what I have been told by his coaches and members of his peer group, Harry Shoup was an outstanding all-around athlete. For many years he was the standard in this small community for a football player, and the best all-around high school athlete. For many he undoubtedly remains so, and for good reason. Harry Shoup was very good.

I believe Shoup’s greatest skills in athletics were demonstrated as a football player. He lettered on the varsity football team as a freshman in 1951, as a sophomore in 1952 and as a junior in 1953. Shoup and Bob Gow were the only freshmen on the varsity team for the 1951 season. The 1953 team was undefeated at 8-0, the only undefeated varsity football team in the history of Benicia High.

The rules on eligibility changed so Shoup could not play on the team his senior year, 1954. That was something he could not control. Instead he played at Vallejo Junior College in what would have been his senior year in high school.

Shoup was awarded the honor of being named the Most Valuable Player of the varsity football team two consecutive years, as a sophomore and as a junior. I think he would have been a star on any team in the history of Benicia High football up through the present day.

As a sophomore, Shoup scored 92 points on a team that scored 178 points. As a junior he scored 120 points on a team which scored 270 points.

Harry Shoup may have been a better all-around athlete than Charles Kimble, having played basketball, baseball and football and run track, as well. We’ll never know. I do know Charles was a competitor in any activity in physical education classes, including basketball and softball. And I believe, still, that Kimble was the better all-around football player. It was his game.

Kimble played football and ran track, but did not play basketball or baseball. I think his days and nights were pretty well filled with the two sports and all his academics and involvement. At the league track meet his senior year, 1961, he tied for first place in the high jump and anchored the 880 relay team that finished fourth. In an earlier meet he placed second in the shotput along with competing in other events. Those are impressive accomplishments for a lad who played fullback and linebacker in football.

Eligibility rules changed during the decade of the 1950s. I have nothing against any of the athletes for whom fate decreed they would be 18 or 19 years of age their junior or senior year, or who did not play because of circumstances.

Rolland Van Blaricom only had two years on the varsity team. As a junior he scored 13 points, and I’ve never seen it recorded that he was a starter. However, he blossomed as a senior, scoring 97 points, rushing for 832 yards, passing for 737 yards and catching three passes for 42 yards. On his 17th birthday, as a 135-pound back, he scored six touchdowns in a 40-7 victory over St. Vincent’s of Vallejo. That season he was one of the leading rushers/passers/scorers in Northern California.

Kimble could play any position on the football field on offense, defense or special teams, and play it better than anyone else on the team. He was intelligent, big, strong, fast, and brought an intensity to his game that is rarely seen. In the offensive backfield and at linebacker he was like the sun. Everything revolved around him.

Charles was a starter on the junior varsity football team as a freshman. He was a starter on the varsity the next three years.

Kimble was 17 years old at the start of his senior year. Shoup would have been 19. A two-year advantage is simply huge in high school competition. I think it is unfair, and illogical, to compare the athletic ability and performance of a 16-year-old junior to that of an 18-year-old junior, for example. Any good athlete, barring injury, is obviously better at age 18 than they were at age 16. That is simple logic.

In one game program Harry Shoup is listed as being a 6-foot, 0-inch, 165-pound junior. As a junior, Kimble was listed in a game program at 5 feet, 11 inches and 184 pounds. He was taller and heavier than that as a senior.

In his sophomore year Charles played offensive and defensive end. He was mainly a blocker, but caught one pass for a touchdown and scored a point-after-touchdown on a pass reception. For the last game of that season he was named one of three co-captains. Big things were obviously expected from him in the future — and he came through big.

In only six games as a junior (he missed the first three games of the season with an injured wrist), Kimble scored 60 points as a backfield player on an 8-1 championship team that scored 207 points. He rushed for 708 yards that season for a 7.5-yard-per-carry average.

Charles only rushed for 454 yards as a senior, but it was for a 4.5-yard-per-carry average. Most of the time when he wasn’t carrying the ball, he was the lead blocker for halfbacks who gained 1,075 yards. He scored 42 points.

Perhaps his best single play came as a senior in a 44-20 victory over Davis High School. Charles led the blocking around the right end, taking out the defender. Then he got up off the turf and ran down field to make the last block on Jim Wilson’s 85-yard touchdown run. Jim was the only other black player on the team, and a fine all-around athlete.

Honors and participation

1. Nearly a straight “A” student

2. President of his sophomore and senior classes

3. Active in all school affairs

4. Awarded a national Science Foundation Summer Institute Scholarship to the University of California for the summer between his junior and senior year

5. Named to Boys’ State between his junior and senior year

6. One of three top winners at the annual Bay Area Engineers’ Week competition (Feb. 24, 1961 at the Sheraton-Palace Hotel in San Francisco; he won a $700 scholarship to the college of his choice, a $70 slide rule and a trophy)

7. Senior winner of the annual Kiwanis Citizenship Award

8. Captain of the junior varsity football team as a freshman (there was no Most Valuable Player, thus Kimble was the MVP)

9. Most Valuable Player on the varsity football team as a sophomore, junior and senior, an accomplishment never matched by any other football player in Benicia High School history; thus, in effect, he was MVP of his team each of the four years he played football at Benicia High

10. Holder of the Bausch and Lomb honorary science award

11. Bank of America award for outstanding scholarship

12. Benicia Teachers’ Association scholarship

13. Member of the BHS Honor Society

14. Editor of the Honor Society’s first literary magazine

15. Honorable Mention All-League Defense in football as a sophomore

16. All-League Offense and Defense in football as a junior on an 8-1 championship team

17. All-League in football as a senior on an 8-1 championship team which was ranked ninth in Northern California (there was no separate listing for offense and defense, just the one overall listing)

18. Benicia Herald All-Mid Valley Conference team in football as a senior

19. First Team Regional all-star team in the 16th annual All-Northern California high school selections

20. First Team All-Inland Empire team as a senior

21. All Superior California team by the Sacramento Bee as a senior

22. All-Northern California Honorable Mention as a senior (Benicia High School, at the time, had an enrollment of 390. This selection shows, again, how good Charles was as a football player)

23. Nominated for the Shriner’s All-Star Game in Los Angeles and the Elks Valley Classic in Lodi (Charles declined the invitations because of other summer duties)

24. As a senior, Charles was honored by being selected, at the end of the 1960 season, as one of 16 recipients from the eight Bay Area counties to receive the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame Award. (The presentation was held at the Marine Memorial Club in San Francisco. Stanford football coach Jack Curtis was master of ceremonies, and University of California coach Marv Levy introduced the players).

Those are all the honors and awards I have located at this time. It is a very impressive list.

***

“Several familiar faces will be missing when Goettel makes his first roll-call. Most notable of these will be Charlie Kimble, ace ball carrier and defensive standout for the last three seasons, Steve Flick, Jim Garrett, Dean Croney and Dave Littlefield. This fivesome were first-string performers for three seasons.” —The Benician, sports page article, Aug. 25, 1961.

Chuck was head and shoulders above his classmates, his teammates.

Long after the time we played football together, I learned that Chuck had been heavily recruited to play for a number of prestigious universities. He never played football in college.

I have nothing to gain by praising Charles Kimble. I simply do not want the history of him as a person, and his accomplishments on the football field for Benicia High School, to be forgotten.

I will always believe that Charles Kimble was not a football god, but that he was, and is, first and foremost, a fine person. He was loyal to his schoolmates, his teachers and his coaches. He made the correct decision for what he wanted and needed in life.

Charles “Chuck” Kimble became Dr. Charles E. Kimble. He is a scientist still searching for a cure for Alzheimer’s disease.

James M. Garrett has lived in Benicia his entire life. He retired after a career of teaching at Benicia High School. He is the author of “Benicia and Letters of Love” and “The Mansion Stories,” and the compiler of “The Golden Era,” a history of Benicia High School football from the 1948 through 1960 seasons. Contact him at Jgstoriesnpoetry@aol.com.