Stories from the Past

50 years ago

At the request of the Imperial Chamber of Commerce, the board of directors of the El Centro Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday agreed to request the Imperial County Board of Supervisors to “bring about the earliest possible construction of a new Imperial County Airport administration and passenger terminal building and parking lot.”

Two resolutions from Imperial — from the Chamber of Commerce and Imperial City Council — were presented to the El Centro board.

The resolutions stated:

1) That the development of the county airport would benefit the citizens and taxpayers of Imperial as well as those of the entire county;

2) That the master plan for the Imperial County Airport was approved by the supervisors on July 5, 1966, and calls for the construction of the new administration and passenger terminal building.

40 years ago

Coach Ron Smart pulled another rabbit from his top hat Tuesday night and the Imperial Tigers remain alive in the SCIF Class A Basketball Playoffs.

“This is the best team I’ve ever coached,” Smart said as his Tigers defeated Leuzinger High School, 67-61, in the second round of the 1978 cage finals.

Leuzinger had everything going its way. The Olympians were playing at home and came in representing a school with 1,950 students. Imperial’s enrollment is less than 500.

The Olympians and their fans didn’t count on one thing. Since midway through the season, the Tigers have forgotten the meaning of the words surrender and failure.

Imperial opened the playoffs Friday with a shocking 60-47 victory over Brethren. Very few people outside Tiger Country expected the Tigers to win their opening game.

30 years ago

The Central Spartans opened the Southern Section 2A soccer playoffs with a 4-0 first round defeat of the Palm Springs Indians in El Centro on Friday.

The Spartan defense allowed Palm Springs very few scoring chances and the Central offense spent most of the match threatening to score. The score was not as lopsided as the game.

Fernando Martinez scored twice for Central, Juan Cortez scored once and Sean Adkins scored once as well.

Central does not yet know who it will be matched against in the second round. Victor Valley was scheduled to play Corona in Corona on Friday, but high winds closed Highway 15 and prevented the match from being played. They were expected to try again today.

But whoever the Spartans are matched against, they will clearly catch Central while the Spartans are on a roll. Central (21-1) elected to play the first half into the wind so it would have the benefit of the wind in the second half and it worked out. Central took a 1-0 lead into the halftime break, then scored in the first minute of the second half to edge the game out of reach of the Indians.

Spartan coach Nabil Noujaim said, “As long as its 1-0, they’re still in the game.”

20 years ago

CHULA VISTA — In Michael Johnston’s mind, the recipe for a championship is simple.

“I just told them to win a tournament you have to win your first match and your last match,” Johnston said. “And that’s what we did.”

Holtville High claimed the CIF-San Diego Section Division III championship, claiming four weight class championships en route to topping defending champion Hilltop High of Chula Vista on Saturday at Eastlake High here.

Senior C.J. Johnston led the Vikings, winning a second-straight CIF title with a 10-8 victory over Claremont’s Isaih Titus in the 142-pound final.

“This feels great,” Johnston said. “We have been looking forward to this all year long and we have come a long way.”