James Tomlin

Through 2027

Head Varsity Track Coach 1977-1989 99-6-5 Nine Varsity League Championships, 5 CIF Top 5s

Also coached football, soccer & basketball

Taught social studies, and advanced placement US history. Program grew from 22 in 1992-3 to 125 in 2006 with 90% passing rate.

BA University of Redlands '65
MA University of Redlands '66
MA University of Connecticutt 1970

Las Flores Elementary
Marengo Elementary
South Pasadena Junior High

South Pasadena 1947-1965
Redlands, 1961-65
Hemet, 1965-1969
Willamantic, Con 1969-1970
Costa Mesa 1970-1973
Irvine 1973-2024

My parents separated in 1946, moved to SP to live with aunt and uncle in 1947. Went through SP Schools K-12. My lucky life not to have grown up in Philadelphia

Andrew and Sheila Gafvert

Marty Gafvert, Bill Little, Kent Warner, Dave Moore, Mary Gill, Felix Gutierrez, Tom Bernard 60', Jeff Howe, Rob Feder, Dolores Brown, Al Kinser, Roger Clark 60', Ray Solari, Ken Swift, Craig Brewerton, Marjorie Buck, John Ludlow 59', Jan Newcomer 62', Bill Purves, Dick Maryatt, Patty Fish, Sue Cowper

Homecoming Dance 1958, dancing with a princess. Some great teachers who really cared about me. The best coaches in CIF. Ditching a class for the first time and my mom sent my lunch, which was delivered to that class. Watching Al Kinser steel pole vault over 12 something and land in about 3 inches of wet sawdust. Thinking how he could have been the top guy in any event, running or jumping, why would he want to vault? Watching 5'6" Frank Z run perfectly over 39" hurdles knocking wood chips off the top, and in competition winning most of the races aided by perfect form and two tight jockstraps. Beating Harriman in the 220 at league, [I've got the photo] and having the judge call it the other way. Thanks Mr Green for arguing for me. Never wanting to race John Kovak in a 440, and succeeding. Watching Kinser do bear crawls like a cheeta as he passed me going the other way on a BIG 3. Two interceptions in the Eisenhower game. Tackling Matt Hudson twice on kickoffs. Bounce pass, Temple City 40-41. Moore to Canfield with almost no time on the clock, SWISH San Marino 61. Catching Dave Dickson in an American Legion baseball game when Donnie hurt his thumb and having a sore hand for the rest of the summer. The cold fear when Donnie handed me his glove and asked if I was wearing a cup. The warm unconditional friendship of Marty Gafvert, Bill Little, Kent Warner, Chuck Hubbard and Dave Moore. Tackling Donnie, well OK, having him run over me and trip on my body. Playing varsity quarterback and completing 6 straight passes. OK, two were to Bell Gardens guys, but hey, they were open? Finally being tall enough to dance with 61' girls. Setting the school record in the relay with Todd, Paul and soph Bill Patrick, thanks Coach Swift for making us believe we could do it, the record was 10 years old. A crush on a 61 girl since 1955. Having Jeff Howe help me learn to play safety after he was hurt. Beating San Marino 1960 in the relay with senior teammates, Randy Wilson, Micky Furtado and Ed Loosli... who made me run last. Not understanding chemistry, physics or Trig despite the best efforts of Mr Gruhn. Having Coach Solari say, "We're counting on you," and being really worried about that. Actually being with Weikel during some of his more tame adventures. Having Miss Spellicy tell me I was smart. Seeing Reece beat the crap out of the scumbag who stole my wallet. The hell with the 4 dollars, it had a picture of ...... in it. Did she even know I had it? Forgive the person who put hot rub [not me, but he knows who he is] on Skeeter's jockstrap. Beating SM in football, basketball & baseball, but not track :( Being able to say I was a teammate of Dickson, Johnson, Curry, Forster, Ritchko, Reece, Clement, Kinser, Brem, Moore, Kovac, Paris, Wilson 60', Loosli 60', Furtado 60' Brem, and Little. Seeing Toby attired in a cape in Garfield Park in 1951. Looking under the hood of my car in 1960 having no idea what anything did. Taking an eye exam and reading the letters

S Z E R D A H E L Y I.

Then thinking, "READ IT, HELL I know HIM." Spending high school having no idea what I wanted to do with my life, but enjoying the fact that the pool of available females increased each year.

Moon River

Moon River, wider than a mile,
I'm crossin' you in style, some day.
Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker,
Wherever you're goin', I'm goin' your way.
Two drifters off to see the world;
There's such a lot of world to see.
We're after the same rainbow's end;
Waitin' 'round the bend;
My huckleberry friend,
Moon River and me.

In fall of 1961, after graduating from South Pasadena High School, I was about to leave for college at the University of Redlands. Some of us had actually been together since kindergarten. It seemed there had never been enough time, so many things had been left undone and unsaid, and now all the time was used up. I can recall wandering around on the football field after the graduation ceremony looking for the mortarboard I had launched into the air, a new altitude record for hand-based headgear. I was thinking about our last day at school, that it had been over too fast, and that people I wanted to say goodbye to were vanishing, heading to their own graduation celebrations with family, vanishing like a wisp of smoke in the wind. Our world was changing, and I had never in my life wanted so much for it to stay the same. Once our days had stretched out before us seemingly as numerous as the grains of sand upon the beach, if we wasted some of them carelessly, how could we know?
As I prepared to leave childhood behind, I remember thinking that nothing would ever be the same, and I would no longer be able to postpone the inevitable. Real life loomed ahead, away from our somewhat sheltered existence in “Our Town,” South Pasadena, and so I spent a Friday night, three days before I was to leave, with a girl I had known well and sometimes dated the last year of high school. She was going to be a senior, and so did not share the weight of the rite of passage that loomed before me the final days before departure. Nevertheless, she understood and was in tune with the moment, and it was great to be able to share it with someone who understood.
We went to the carnival that had always visited South Pasadena the week before the beginning of the public schools, cruised Henry’s Drive-In for a burger and then went back to her house for a last goodbye. She had a new record, and we played it over and over while we held each other and danced.
"Moon River" is a song composed by Johnny Mercer (lyrics) and Henry Mancini (music) that very year. It won that year's Academy Award for Best Original Song in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's. Although it has been performed by many artists, notably Andy Williams, nothing can match the magnificence and the beauty of the original score by Henry Mancini.
The power of Mercer’s lyrics, combined with the music of Henry Mancini, exactly captured the feelings of romance, nostalgia and optimistic anticipation that thousands of about-to-be freshman felt in the fall of 1961. We wondered what was “waitin round the bend,” and so we clung to each other and slow danced till the magic hour of 12:00, our curfew in those simpler days.
The experience was so compelling I bought the 45rpm record and repeated the experience again the next night with a different girl.

Boys League. Didn't everyone? Well not the girls. Varsity Football, Basketball & Track. I think I might have been in the Spanish Club photo.

Retired 2006 after 41 years teaching/coaching high school.

Photography

Writing 2 books and some short stories of high school memories

Enjoying grandkids and camping/hiking/backpacking/boogieboarding

Sometimes nothing, and there's not enough time not to do it and it's hard to tell when you're done.
Sports photography of the 9 varsity athletes that have grown up on our 200 yard street in Irvine

Kingston Trio
Celtic Women, Celtic Thunder
Toby Keith, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Enya, Alison Krauss
Chris Wall, RIP who I coached with at Corona del Mar HS

Enjoy my library, including the book I'm coloring in right now

Travel, writing, grandkids, working on my daughter's new home as chief landscape architect [gardner]

Thanks for this website it's great to have a way to reconnect with old friends, and to make new ones based on the shared experiences of life's early journey. I once wrote about Coach Solari, "If you played for Coach Solari you're a teammate even if you've never met."

Things you probably don't know about me: I was a trash collector summer 1969; I picked fruit summer 65; I worked in a gas station summer 61, 62, 63, 64