STORIES FROM THE PAST
50 years ago
The Calipatria Hornets almost swept a triangle track meet with Holtville and Calexico yesterday in the Hornet Stadium. Calipatria won the Class A division, the Class B division and lost the Class C by the very slim margin of one-half point to Holtville.
The next action for the Hornets is Saturday’s big 12-team Calipatria Booster Club Invitational track meet.
Calipatria nudged Calexico for the Class A title yesterday. The Hornets had 64 points and the Bulldogs had 54. Holtville was last with 25.
Gene Jones scored a double for Calipatria with victories in the 100 yard dash and the long jump. Jones had a 10.7 time in the 100 and jumped 19-5.
40 years ago
Raymond Culp and Hector Diaz combined to pitch a seven-inning no-hitter Friday night as the Imperial Tigers snared a 6-0 exhibition victory from Borrego Springs.
Culp hurled the first four innings for the Tigers, striking out eight. Ace Diaz came on for the final three stanzas and set four batters down on strikes.
The Tigers are trying to make up for lost time. They had three earlier games rained out and are playing a trio of exhibition clashes this week.
Coach Ralph Ware had his horsehiders ready to face San Diego Hoover today.
The Cardinals played Central on Friday night, going after the Tigers at 1 p.m. Saturday.
“We worked hard for two days getting the field set for a night game,” Ware said, “and fans responded as 200 came out to watch our victory over Borrego.”
30 years ago
Plans to bring trainloads of San Diego trash to a waste-to-energy plant in the Ocotillo-Jacumba area have apparently been recycled to include a landfill.
Richard Chase, the man behind the much-opposed Ocotillo incineration project, has now teamed with Ogden Martin Systems, the company behind a proposed eastern Imperial County landfill for Los Angeles trash, to back the new San Diego trash proposal called “Project 2000.”
Like the waste-to-energy proposal, Project 2000 would involve the separation in San Diego of household trash into its recyclable and non-recyclable components.
The unusable waste would then be shipped via the presently unused San Diego-Imperial Valley Railway to eastern San Diego County or western Imperial County for disposal.
20 years ago
In a dramatic rescue here this morning, an Imperial County Sheriff’s Office’s rescue team worked with a Coast Guard helicopter crew to pluck a father and son from the Salton Sea and take the two to safety.
Manuel Diaz, 50, and his 10-year old son, Eugene, of Salton City, were found exhausted and suffering from hypothermia but otherwise OK, said Tony Rouhotas, commander of the Sheriff’s Office Boating Enforcement Unit. Rouhotas called a San Diego-based Coast Guard unit to assist in finding the two in the dark waters of the Salton Sea.
Diaz and his son left home Wednesday about 2 p.m. to go boating. Diaz’s wife expected the two to be home about 5:30 p.m. and when they hadn’t returned by 9:30 p.m. she called the Sheriff’s office.
Rouhotas said Diaz has a heart condition and his wife didn’t know whether he had taken his medication with him.
Deputy Robert Fricke of the Sheriff’s Office’s Salton Sea substation, responding to the call from Diaz’s wife, went to Johnson’s Landing and found Diaz’ vehicle parked there. Rouhotas was called in to the case and got approval to request federal assistance.
The Coast Guard Jayhawk helicopter crew arrived at the scene by 1:30 this morning.
The helicopter used heat-seeking technology to locate the two.
The Diazes were found wearing lifejackets in their partially submerged boat, which had lodged on a sandbar.
They were rescued at 2:13 a.m.