Chiefs give former Tar gridder Mayer the royal treatment

Ed Mayer, a 1949 linebacker at Newport Harbor High who helped lead

Orange Coast College to a title in 1951, was recently issued an

annual pass that would take him anywhere inside the Kansas City

Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium.

It was early December before the pro grid season was ending for

the Chiefs. Mayer and his lovely wife, Jewel, got the royal salute

from the KC staff and owner Lamar Hunt.

Mayer, an old friend of head coach Dick Vermeil and his assistant,

Mike White, a former Harbor assistant coach to Jeff Brinkley and

former coach at Cal and Illinois, welcomed the Mayers with the red

carpet treatment.

Mayer was astonished later when he was welcomed into the big

stadium box utilized by Hunt at all games. Said Mayer: “Both Hunt and

his wife took the time during this one game to serve us all coffee

and cookies. They are the most down-to-earth people.”

Added Mayer: “I later learned that Hunt has a four-bedroom home

located above his stadium box. He stays there when he comes up from

Texas to watch his team in action. The stadium home becomes his

office when he’s up from Texas.”

Mayer said he was impressed with the job Vermeil and White have

done for the Chiefs. “The team really holds together in a sensitive

and caring way,” said Mayer, noting that he didn’t observe that in a

later visit to the San Francisco 49ers’ locker room while chatting

with Bill Walsh. He and Walsh were college teammates at San Jose

State in 1953-54. “(The 49ers) were too individualistic from my

observation.”

Vermeil once coached the Philadelphia Eagles and the St. Louis

Rams to Super Bowl victories, while Walsh did the same thing for the

49ers several times.

White, a one-time Oakland Raider head coach, still owns a home on

Balboa Island.

Another special surprise came Mayer’s way from the Chiefs. “They

delivered a handsome Chief jacket to me while I was there,” he said.

Added Mayer: “Mike and I used to have some grand times attending

Brinkley’s Newport teams when football didn’t have him tied down.”

Mayer once played football with the Orange County Rhinos, a

semipro team, back in the mid-50s. He recalls the team once beating

the Seal Beach Navy, 69-0, and that former Harbor High kicker Don

Vaughn, a 6-foot-7 athlete, was kicking field goals for the Rhinos.

“They’re still around, you know,” Mayer said. “I still seen

mention of their games and scores in the paper.”

There was amusement when asked how much the Rhinos used to pay him

for a game. “They paid me five bucks a game and we practiced at La

Palma Stadium in Anaheim,” Mayer said. “Well, the money helped pay

for my gas to come down from Los Angeles to play.” Mayer now lives in

Irvine.

The biggest holiday season surprise came Dec. 31, when one of his

two daughters, Kelly, gave birth to twin boys, Logan and Grady

O’Keefe. His other grandson is older brother Conner Edward.

*

One interesting thing to reflect back on is that two future

All-American gridders came to play on Davidson Field against Newport

Harbor in 1948.

One was fullback Johnny Olszewski of St. Anthony and the other was

giant end Donn Moomaw of Santa Ana High. The St. Anthony ace went on

to star for the California Bears, while Moomaw advanced to UCLA.

The Saints barely edged Newport, 14-12, and came close to losing

as the Tars led until the final four minutes of play and Santa Ana

won, 14-0, with a much bigger team against the very young Sailors. It

was Al Irwin’s first season as head coach. The St. Anthony coach,

Jacque Grenier, said “We were lucky to get out of Newport alive.” His

team went on to tie for the CIF championship with Santa Barbara, 7-7.

Another All-American was on Davidson Field in the mid-1940s. His

name was Elroy (Crazylegs) Hirsch, once a star at Baldwin-Wallace.

Newport coach Les Miller had invited him and another star gridder,

Bob Dove, over from the El Toro Marine Base to help coach the Tars

one afternoon.

Added to that is the remembrance of still another future

All-American who came to the local field one summer to practice. And

that was a sterling quarterback named Bob Garrett from South Pasadena

High.