Foshay Junior High School is located in Los Angeles near the corner of Western and Exposition Blvd. I did my first paid teaching assignment there. I loved Foshay. Teaching is what I was trained to do and I felt that I was well prepared for the job. I was a Physical Education Major at UCLA. The Instructors at UCLA were very interested in the reputation of their (UCLA) Physical Education graduates. They wanted and prepared their Physical Education Students to be the best Physical Education Teachers that they could be. They discussed the above with their students on many occasions.
I worked at Foshay Junior High School for three years. I loved the students and the school. We had a principal who backed the Physical Education Departments. We had a very strong Boys and Girls Physical Education Department. I loved the students and my job. Some of the students would sit by them selves during the lunch hour. They didn’t have money to purchase a lunch. All of the students had to wear the same type of Gym Clothes. Some of the students couldn’t afford gym clothing.
Evelyn Hemsley (girl’s Physical Education Teacher) and I attempted to obtain jobs in the cafeteria for the students who couldn’t afford a lunch. We also supplied gym clothes to the students who couldn’t afford them. Evelyn and I were both (black) Department Chairpersons at Foshay at that time. That was a big deal to both of us at that time. We were both proud of that. Mr. Venable, a very nice head counselor, talked me into becoming a Seventh Grade Counselor at Foshay. I enjoyed being a counselor but it wasn’t what I wanted to do.
As a counselor I spent many of my weekends calling students at their homes and asking them about their next semester’s classes. I wanted to become a coach. I resigned my position as a counselor after the second year as a counselor. After leaving Foshay, I was fortunate to get a job teaching and coaching at Los Angeles University High School in West Los Angeles.
The Department Chairman at University High School was Dick Kampman. I met Dick when I was playing football at UCLA and Dick was the department chairman of the Boys Physical Education Department at Gompers Junior High School. Bobby Pounds a former UCLA Basketball Player was a teacher at Gompers Junior High School. He invited Pete Ogarro and me to come to Gompers Junior High School and talk to some of the students. I met Dick Kampmann Gompers Physical Education Department Chairman while I was there. Dick was a professional and good guy. Dick later hired me to teach and coach at University High School.
University High School is in West Los Angeles in the vicinity of UCLA. I taught Physical Education and I coached B & C Basketball my first year at University High School. That was my first coaching assignment. I loved it! The kids were great. I don’t think that we won too many basketball games. It was a lot of fun. A year later I coached University High School's B Football Team. I was the B Football Coach for three years.
Many of University’s students were well off financially and socially in those days. There were a few Asians and Latinos Students at University High when I was there. There were only two black male students at University High School when I was a teacher and coach there. Some individuals might have thought that University High School's Student Athletes were not interested in sports. My students worked hard at football fundamentals. That is they worked hard at blocking and tackling. In my opinion blocking and tackling is football.
My first year as University’s B Football Coach, we had a bout 12 or more offensive plays. We only won one game my first year as University’s B Football Coach. My second year as University’s B Football coach we won the Western League B Football Championship. That year we only had about four or five offensive plays. I enjoyed my three years at University. When a University High School student asked me how my weekend was they usually really wanted to know. I loved the students, the teachers, and the principal at University High School.
The principal at University High was my principal at Foshay Junior High School. Some of University High School’s B Football players and I used to visit a local Italian Restaurant after each football game. I bought each member of my football team a medal after we won the Western League Football Championship. My department chairman Dick Kampman saw to it that I got the money back that I spent on the medals. It didn’t matter if I received the money back or not. I loved those kids! Some times my eyes become wet when I think about those youngsters. I am sorry that I haven’t been able to keep in touch with many of them. After three years at University High School, I became Crenshaw High School’s first football and track coach.
I taught and coached football and track at Crenshaw High School for a year and a half. Crenshaw was my school! We had a new-gated football stadium. We had all new uniforms and football equipment. Crenshaw was my school! Again I loved the kids. They were hard workers. Most of them went to class and most of them stayed out of trouble.
My first year as Crenshaw High School’s Football Coach, I asked all of my football players to cut their hair. I said to them, “If you have to ask me if your hair is short enough, then it probably isn’t”. I never checked to see if my player’s hair was short. I didn’t really care about their hair. I just wanted to know how badly they wanted to play football.
Crenshaw won the Western League’s varsity football championship the second year that I was at Crenshaw. Crenshaw also won the Western League’s Track Championship the first and only season that I was Crenshaw’s track coach. I taught the youngsters that they could win a lot of football games by being in the best physical condition possible. I stated earlier that I believed in teaching the players the basic football fundamentals, which are blocking and tackling.
We spent many hours on both. I also stressed to my football team that a large part of coaching is getting the most out of the material that you have. I feel that we won those championships at University High School and Crenshaw High School because we had a lot of good athletes.
I am sure that I got the most out of my athletes by getting them into top physical condition and by working on blocking and tackling every day, that’s right every day. After a year and a half at Crenshaw High, I was offered and accepted a teaching and coaching assignment at West Los Angeles Community College. Community Colleges were called Junior Colleges in those days.
I taught Health and Physical Education at West Los Angeles College. I was an assistant football coach for the first two years that I at West Los Angeles College. I also coached the Track and the Cross-Country team for three years. We didn’t have a lot of Cross Country Runners so I used much of the Cross Country Season to prepare my athletes for the up coming track season. It was impossible for a coach to have a good track team in the up coming track season if the team didn’t work out in the fall. We won the Western States Conference Track Championship two years out of the five years that I was the track coach at West Los Angeles College. One of the conference coaches (College of the Canyons) told me that we probably would have won the track championship three years in a row. He stated that one of the coaches (Glendale) talked a majority of the coaches in the conference in to adding the hammer throw and the steeplechase to the track events. He supposedly told the coaches that West Los Angeles College and Compton College had mostly sprinters and jumpers. Sprinters and jumpers usually are good athletes and they can usually score points in more than one event. We didn’t have many distance runners (no steeple chase runners) and we had no hammer throwers or facilities for hammer throwers at that time. It was said that West Los Angeles or Compton College would win the conference track championship every year if events like the Hammer Throw and the Steeple Chase were not added to the Western States Conference Championship Meet. That is amazing! We didn’t participate in the hammer throw or steeplechase during the season, but we did during the conference championship meet.The conference added the Steeple Chase and the Hammer Throw to the conference track championship meet. I retired from coaching track and cross-country because there weren’t enough recruits available for West Los Angeles College to have a competitive track team. Recruiting athletes was many times disappointing. Recruiting athletes took the enjoyment out of coaching, but if you wanted to have a chance to have a good track team you had to recruit. The coaches at South West College, Trade Tech College, East Los Angeles College and some of the coaches at the Valley schools were recruiting the same athletes that I was recruiting. I like to win championships but a coach can’t win a championship if the recruits are not available. I retired from track and football. I later taught Health and Tennis and I coached West Los Angeles College’s Tennis Team. I retired from coaching Tennis for the same reasons that I retired from coaching the Cross Country and Track Teams. The schools that I recruited Tennis Players from didn’t have very good tennis programs. When I went to certain high schools to recruit tennis players I observed many tennis players on the tennis courts in street clothes. Some times the coach was there and sometimes they weren’t. There weren’t enough tennis players available for me to recruit and have a tennis team. I had problems recruiting enough players to have a team regardless of their skills. Naturally I resigned from coaching tennis. I worked as the AFT Grievance Representative for the West Los Angeles College Faculty for five years. It was very interesting for a while. Union members could only win most grievances depending upon what was in the Union Contract. When I first became the grievance representative, I told one of the grievant that they couldn’t win the grievance because of what the contracts said about the grievance. The grievant was UN happy about my statement and asked me whose side I was on. After that I never told a grievant what their chances of winning a grievance was unless they asked me. I retired from teaching in June of 1999. I now work out three days a week and I play golf three days a week. I don’t think that I could ever teach or coach again. I think that a parent or student would shoot me if I ever coached or taught again. I have the greatest son in the world. He doesn't live with me but he comes by to see me two or three days a week. I love him to death. He has graduated from University of California at Irvine. He has now earned a couple of advanced degrees. He has written several children’s books and he is continuing to write more. He is selling his books to various school districts and bookstores. His mother and I are divorced but he loves us both. He lived with me most of his life. I never talked negatively to him about his mother. I taught him to call his mother every holiday and sometimes sooner. I also have a very nice niece who came from Detroit to live with me during her last year of high school. She has since graduated from college and is now teaching school. She is also doing very well economically and socially. She loves her mother and she sends her mother money periodically. She is about to get married. I hope that things work out well for her. I don’t feel good about this union but I am not the one making that decision. I have three nephews who came from to Detroit, Michigan to live with me and go to college. They all went to college and are all doing well now! One of my nephews John Hollaway, lives in Carson, California. Charles and Kevin live in Texas. My nephew Cozy lived with me a short time after he finished college at Kentucky State. Cozy is now living in Detroit, Michigan.
I still go back to Detroit every summer and I usually stay about a month. I think that my trips to Detroit will be cut to about three weeks or less in the future. I usually travel to Detroit by train. It takes three days to travel to Detroit on the train and it takes three days to return to Los Angeles by train. Most of my friends are either deceased or have moved out of the city. It is very hot in Detroit during the summer months. I still have family and friends in Detroit. I used to play a lot of softball in Detroit during the summer. Naturally I don’t play softball in any more. I have a good friend Dr. Robert Simms who I play golf with when I visit Detroit. Dr. Sims visit Los Angeles or Las Vegas once or twice every year or so. We usually get together and play a round of golf when he comes out west.
Elbert Richmond a very dear high school friend (Eastern High School) and I usually attend church together when I visit Detroit. Some times we take a short walk (exercise) at one of Detroit’s famous parks (Belle Isle) and we later have a nice lunch after this short exercise session. Another very good athlete and former high school teammate of mine, William Bill Christy usually invites Jerry Phillip (my high school and Junior College teammate) and me to his house for a very lovely dinner with his lovely wife and him.
My ex high school girl friend Ima Jean Simpson usually accompanies me to Bill’s house for dinner. Jerry Phillip usually brings his wife and former high school girl friend Jo Ann. I enjoy visiting a facility where some of Detroit’s former high school old timers meet. Charlie Primas, Bobby Hall, Charles Boyd, Ollie Banks, and Jackie Jackson are usually there. I am able to gain knowledge about many old Detroiters at this meeting. Elbert Richmond usually sees to it that he and I visit this facility before I leave Detroit. I also take pride in visiting with Christine Mobley and her daughter Dorothy when I visit Detroit.