Jim Helfrich, Millennium Hall of Fame

Richard Dunn

Time doesn’t stop and wait for anybody, especially when you

consider the vivid memories of your first varsity football game at

Newport Harbor High, lining up against two future USC standouts from

Fullerton and coming out on top on a warm September night.

“It’s amazing, when you look back on it, how time flies,” former Newport

Harbor defensive end Jim Helfrich said. “It seems like yesterday we were

ready to run out for the Fullerton game.”

Helfrich, the third of six children in his family who competed in

athletics for Newport in the 1970s, reflects on his achievements of

yesteryear from his house on the water in Belvedere, a small harbor town

just north of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Among Helfrich’s highlights were defeating highly touted Fullerton, 17-0,

in the 1974 season opener, and playing alongside his brother, Dave,

throughout the campaign, a year in which Newport Harbor captured the

Sunset League championship and advanced to the CIF Southern Section 4-A

quarterfinals at a time when the section’s largest division had 32 teams.

“Being able to play with my brother, and having success that year -- it

was my junior year and his senior year -- is what comes to mind when I

look back 25 years,” said Helfrich, who also played center. “That and

beating Corona del Mar. That never goes away.”

A real estate developer who owns a company with offices in Washington

D.C., New York, Seattle, Las Vegas, Portland and San Francisco (his

headquarters), Helfrich has been in the Bay area for 15 years.

But the images of those seasons under Newport Harbor Coach Bill Pizzica,

especially the ’74 team featuring Gordon Adams, Steve Foley, Art Sorce,

Bucko Shaw, Pete McCowen and Vinnie Mulroy, are treasured moments for

Helfrich.

“We had a great mix of players,” said Helfrich, who’ll never forget the

season-opening victory over Fullerton, which had future USC All-American

tackle Keith Van Horne and All-Pac 10 Conference tight end Hoby Brenner.

“I remember lining up across from those two guys,” Helfrich said. “(The

Indians) were THE team in the preseason, and they had a huge fullback, as

well, the coach’s son, and Van Horne and Brenner were big.

“I’d probably remember more had my brains not been scrambled throughout

the game. Obviously they were a huge team, but we kept banging the ball

in and we beat them. There wasn’t a lot of speed or finesse in that

game.”

In Week 2 of that season, the Tars went through Corona del Mar, 16-6,

then lost their only non-playoff game of the season against Westminster

in the third week.

They defeated Edison, Los Alamitos, Marina, Fountain Valley, Loara and

Western, then knocked off Long Beach Poly, 25-14, and ripped Pioneer,

37-0, in the CIF 4-A playoffs. The dream season ended, however, with a

24-0 loss to West Torrance, as the Tars finished 10-2, the winningest

season in school history (until 1992).

Helfrich returned for his star-studded senior year, along with Adams and

Foley, but the Sailors struggled at 4-5 in the fall of ’75. They beat CdM

again in Week 2, 33-13, for the school’s third straight win over its Back

Bay rival.

Helfrich’s siblings Peter, Paul, Dave, Claire and Karin all made their

athletic strides in the long gray line at Newport Harbor. They were all

one year apart.

“It was fun at the time,” said the latest member of the Daily Pilot

Sports Hall of Fame. “When I was a freshman, Claire and David were there,

and when I was a junior, David and Paul were there, then when I was a

senior, Paul and Karin were there. People in my family were always

around.”

Helfrich, who also wrestled at Newport Harbor in the 191-pound and

heavyweight divisions, was 6-foot-1, 195 pounds and went on to UCLA and

became an intramural sports star, while majoring in economics.

He and his wife, Cindy, have been married for 12 years and have three

children: Jack, 11, Carly, 9, and Ted, 8.