STORIES FROM THE PAST

50 years ago

The wind was hitting better than 60 miles per hour at times yesterday afternoon as the Brawley Wildcats and El Centro Spartans closed out the first round of Imperial Valley League track action at the Wildcat track.

But even with the wind, two Spartans jumped to the top of the lists in the California Interscholastic Federation, Southern Section, track performances this season.

James Watson and Willie Robinson were the pair that earned the honors yesterday.

Watson hit 24-0 in the long jump. His best of the season had been 22-7. The second best in the CIF, SS, and this season has been a 23-7 leap by Steve Sutton of Excelsior. The wind may have helped, but James has the ability to hit 24 feet on a still day.

The last time any Valley jumped passed 24 feet was in 1958, when Brawley’s Steve Rogers jumped 24-6 and won the CIF, SS, small schools championship.

40 years ago

Shannon Isom took over as Brawley High School’s top girls’ softball pitcher Monday and fired the Wildcats to a 6-3 victory over the hosting Imperial Tigers.

Exhibition-game action saw Coach Chris Zockoll make some changes in his lineup. The use of Isom on the mound added a new dimension to the Brawley defense.

The freshman hurler was in her first varsity game an allowed only one walk in seven innings. She went into the Imperial sixth having allowed only two hits.

“She finished the game giving up eight hits,” according to Zockoll, “and we’ll be counting on her to carry our pitching load for the remainder of the season.”

Irene Basurto and Shawn Medlin pitched for the Tigers and were roughed up for nine hits. Coach Art Zeigler saw his defensive team make three costly errors.

Brawley scored three runs in the second inning. Wildcat Isom allowed Imperial one run in the first and hurled shutout ball from there until the seventh.

30 years ago

“We are in a heap of trouble,” said George Wood, president of El Centro Little League. “This could not have hit us at a worse time. I don’t know if our teams can resume play next week.”

Wood said Monday that last week’s announcement from District Attorney Bill Jaynes that most fundraising drawings are illegal hit El Centro Little Leaguers “at the worst possible time, the week before our major fundraising effort, our dinner-drawing. I don’t see how we can continue the season.”

He said when Jaynes comes up for re-election, “About 30 organizations are going to work against him. We many run a full page advertisement signed by all the organization leaders.”

20 years ago

Jim Brock’s family has farmed at the Brock Research Center for 40 years, leasing the federally owned land.

Brock, 53, of El Centro, a third generation farmer, has spent the past six years trying to gain ownership of the 640-acre East Mesa site, which is 20 miles east of Holtville near Drop 2 of the All-American Canal.

He went through the official channels and was on track to get the property in a land exchange with the federal government.

But today Brock avoids going to the center that bears his family’s name. His lease expired Feb. 28, and he fears he might be charged with trespassing.

Meanwhile, the Brocks have 50 acres of citrus at the Brock Research Center that have been getting only minimal irrigations the past month to keep the trees alive.

“The place looks like a shambles now,” Brock said. “It’s embarrassing. It needs pruning. It needs weeding.”

It needs an explanation. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation owns the land, which has served as a crop introduction and improvement center. Reclamation leased it to the Imperial Irrigation District, which subleased it to the Brocks. IID’s lease also expired Feb. 28.