After Johnny Carson, Tom Tunnicliffe may have been the most popular man in Burbank in the late 70's
Good Evening!
Hey! Its Smudge Pot Week!
Did you know San Dimas and Bonita have met 38 times, with Saints leading 21-16-1 all time?
…But they’ve only met 37 times for the Smudge Pot.
Brett Favre facing Green Bay as quarterback for Minnesota has to bring to mind a similar shift to those who know Burbank football.
In 1978 Burbank quarterback Tom Tunnicliffe leads the long suffering Bulldogs and first year head coach Tony Zarrillo to a second place finish in the Foothill League and a playoff appearance. B-Bank loses to Burroughs 28-16 in the annual city battle.
Flash forward to 1979 and Burroughs races to a perfect 10-0 regular season after beating Burbank 33-7, they win the first round of CIF 35-23 against West Torrance, and they are ranked number one in the state before they fall to Lompoc 17-14.
The starting quarterback for the Indians in 1979? Tom Tunnicliffe. Tunnicliffe would go on to star at the University of Arizona (Passing for 7,618 yards from 1980-83. He holds the record for most career TD passes, with 46) but his name and transfer is still talked about in B-Bank circles. The quarterback’s parents separated between school years and Tunnicliffe went to live with his father in the Burroughs zone.
What came next was investigations, nasty phone calls, and the windows of his car being shot out with BB guns. But no regrets. “Burbank was very unstable in the administration and the coaching staff,” Tunnicliffe told the L.A. Times in 1991. “They’d had five head coaches in five years. Burroughs was a consistent winner.”
Normally I’m always anti-dome in baseball, but I am rooting for the Twins tomorrow against Detroit.
I feel really good about Randy Wolf starting the Dodgers playoff opener against the Cardinals Chris Carpenter on Wednesday…Yeah, and I liked Georgia’s chances against the Soviets—oops—I mean the Russians when they duked it out last year.
On this date in 1990 San Marino rolled San Gabriel 42-7 thanks in large part to Peter Hsu’s 22-yard fumble return for a touchdown, which he followed with a 32-yard interception return for another score. All in the first quarter. Current Titan HC D.R. Moreland scored on a 27-yard pass from Eric Walcha. The Mats scored late on a three-yard run by Eddie Sanchez.
The two teams meet Friday night at SG.
What’s the name of the renovated field and stadium at San Gabriel? Instead of “Keith Jones Field at John Scanlan Stadium”…I think they should go out of the box and call it “Stadium ’03” in homage to the 2003 Matador team that made a miraculous run to the CIF Finals. They may not have won the title against South Hills, but they did change forever the culture of football at SG.
“Stadium ’03”…yeah, that’s alright.
Stay thirsty my friends…
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