Sidelines: The Well-rounded Woodhouse
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Don Cantrell
Bob Woodhouse, 68, a Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Famer, will make an
effort to attend Saturday’s 50th anniversary of Orange Coast College’s
first championship football team, but needs to work out a schedule with
his doctor relative to back treatment.
Now a resident of Cottonwood, Ariz., Woodhouse has been struggling of
late to move around physically. He is even pondering the prospects of a
new hip.
A native of Costa Mesa and a member of the Newport Harbor High Class
of 1951, Woodhouse made sterling marks in football at Harbor High, Orange
Coast and Long Beach State over a period of eight years. He also, as a
half-miler, led the Tars to a track title in 1951.
He may be the only ’51 OCC gridder who advanced into the field of
coaching where he achieved outstanding records and drew a flow of honors
during his grid career.
He always had a good sense of humor and honored all his teammates down
through the years.
After his retirement to Arizona some years back, he said, “I spend my
days now involved in off-road exploring, pistol shooting, tennis and
square dancing. I know it doesn’t sound near as exciting as the capers we
used to pull, but I enjoy it anyway.”
On one of his last trips to California, he ventured by car to San
Diego, where he was honored by that county’s prep world for his
remarkable coaching record at San Marcos and San Pasqual high schools. He
coached 30 years combined at the two schools and won his share of
championships.
Reflecting back to coaching, he once said his biggest influence came
from former Anaheim High coach Clare Van Hoorebeke and former Harbor High
grid tutor Ernie Johnson.
In fact, some years ago the CIF honored Woodhouse with the Van
Hoorebeke Award for excellent contributions to prep coaching in Southern
California.
“They both had high standards. And I value what I was able to draw
from them,” he said.
Woodhouse, who coached his first five years as an assistant to Bob
Lampshire at Rancho Alamitos High, compiled a 160-68-5 record during his
30 seasons at the two San Diego schools.
Essentially, his coaching methods were similar to that of his OCC
coach, Ray Rosso.
“I always tried to play everybody,” Woodhouse said. “Very few were
ever left on the bench.’
The two San Diego schools never had a home stadium, so his clubs
always traveled by bus. In fact, Woodhouse drove the bus the first batch
of years, but later his late wife, Sandra Cullen, drove the team bus for
years. She eventually earned a driver award from the Pioneer Corp. in New
Mexico, which featured a national program.
The Woodhouse couple always had the big bus parked in front of their
home and gave it proper care.
His first wife died in 1994. He later came to marry Lynda Hansen,
whose son had played for him before being drafted by the Chicago Bears.
Sadly, she passed away in 1997.
An All-Eastern Conference lineman at OCC, Woodhouse reflecting back,
once said, “I always admired the line coach Johnny Owens. He helped keep
our spirits up.” Owens was a former grid coach at Orange High.
Woodhouse also enjoyed the humor that often came from Owens. He said
Owens used to run along the sidelines and yell, “Ineligible receiver
downfield.” Owens would hope for a penalty, but the referees generally
ignored his antics.
One night in a “fog bowl” game against Chaffey, Owens could have sworn
the Chaffey coach was on the field standing in the huddle. Owens raced
across the field only to discover that he had erred and left the field a
bit red-faced.
Woodhouse grew up with Mel Smalley on Costa Mesa’s Westside and they
played together on the 8-1 Harbor High team of ’49 and the 7-3 OCC team
of ’51. Smalley was the ’49 team’s leading scorer with 104 points as a
halfback.
Woodhouse won a small schools CIF championship in 1996 and he was
voted Coach of the Year in San Diego County in 1973. In 1975-76, he
served as president of the California Athletic Directors.
Woodhouse was also named to the National Football Foundation’s Hall of
Fame and earned its Most Inspirational Award.
Although he’s fairly well-removed from the old home town, he sometimes
finds locals dropping by to visit. The last visits, he said, came from
Smalley and Armand Nettles, the one-time CIF basketeer from Newport in
the early 50s.
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