Anaheim High salutes Colonists veterans who witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor today Dec. 7, 1941.
Junior Perkins – Class of 1941
Our own Anaheim High alumnus Junior Perkins, Class of 1941, was on the U.S.S. Navy Destroyer Shaw docked in the harbor at the very moment of the enemy attack. Perkins survived the attack without a scratch, though his best friend standing next to him wa
s killed. [Read more…]
Colonists alumni across the generations and from as far away as New Zealand gathered for Homecoming 2024 at La Palma Park’s Glover Stadium. After the victorious Varsity Football Game against Savanna High, AHS grads gathered under the new BIG A, a blow-up replica of the BIG A built by Mr. Dardarian and his students that was used from 1966 through 1987.
A January ribbon cutting ceremony marked the opening of Anaheim High’s new state-of-the-art track and field. Moments after the ceremony, the Girls’ Soccer Team played a winning match on the all-weather turf field that is surrounded by a nine-lane synthetic track.
The project also features goal posts, bleachers shaded by solar panels and a pumping system to keep the new track and field free of pooling water.
A large crowd of students, alumni, coaches, administrators and special guests enjoyed messages from Principal Ruben Calleros and two student athletes, and performances by the band drum line, cheer squad and dance team.
Among special guests was Class of 1996 Colonist Reuben Droughns, a former NFL player who set many school records in football, track and wrestling while at Anaheim High.
He was joined by Ron Pharris, Class of 1967, who set school records in the 100 and 200 meter races.
Also in attendance was former coach Albert Rodriguez, age 89, who coached many track athletes to champion status, including Ylena Carrasco, a Class of ’86 grad and CIF-State High Jump Champion who was the first female Orange County athlete to clear 6 feet.
To mark the occasion, the Anaheim High Alumni Association obtained a donation of an electric utility vehicle, called a “Big Foot,” from Anaheim-based WAEV, the parent company of Taylor-Dunn, a manufacturer that has been producing — with employees who graduated from Anaheim High — trusted industrial vehicles for 70 years.
The Big Foot vehicle, valued at $15,000, was presented by Chief Operations Officer Alfredo Arroyo. The vehicle will used by the Anaheim High custodial crew to maintain the 17-acre Anaheim High campus. Thank you, Waev, for this amazing gift!
Click on the image to read the latest edition of the AHSAA Gold and Blue Newsletter.
Congratulations Class of 1972 on your 50th reunion celebrated Oct. 1, 2022 at the Highway 39 Event Center!
View YouTube video of the reunion here.
The remains of Class of 1937 Colonist John F. Minogue, who had been listed as missing in action since 1943, were return home for burial after being identified in 2022. He was buried April 20, 2023, next to his mother, Pearl Thessie Minogue Miller, at Loma Vista Memorial Park in Fullerton.
On Aug. 1, 1943, 2nd Lt. John F. Minogue, age 24, was shot down over Romania. But for nearly 80 years, he was among the fallen troops who could not be identified at the time.
Born May 1, 1919, Minogue played football for Anaheim Union High School and attended Fullerton College after graduating from AUHS in 1937. A Gold Star Flag was displayed in the window of his home at 506 Claudina Street, where he had lived with his mother until moving to Richfield, CA, 550 miles north of Anaheim, sometime before enlisting in the Army Air Corp on May 20, 1941.
By the end of 1941, Minogue earned his Army wings of gold and was sent to Europe. In the summer of 1943, he was assigned to the 328th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 93rd Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Army Air Force.
On Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator bomber named “Euroclydon The Storm,” on which Minogue was co-pilot, was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed during Operation Tidal Wave, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania.
Piloted by Lt. Enoch Porter, “Euroclydon The Storm” was part of the first wave of the mission and was positioned as lead aircraft left wing. The bomber took a direct hit and was seen attempting to climb to 300 feet. The plane broke in midair before crashing in flames over a school at Plopu. Of the 11 crewmembers, three were taken POW, the bombardier bailed out but his parachute failed to open, and it is believed that two gunners also jumped with failing chutes. Five bodies were never recovered, and only two crew were initially identified.
More than 500 airmen died in this mission, and 54 planes were lost. All of the 93rd Bombardment Group earned the Presidential Unit Citation. Minogue was awarded, posthumously, the Distinguished Flying Cross for his role. He was also awarded an Air Medal and Purple Heart.
Minogue’s remains were buried as “unknown” in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan in Romania.
Following the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC), the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel, disinterred all American remains from the Bolovan Cemetery for identification. The AGRC was unable to identify more than 80 unknowns and those remains were permanently interred at Ardennes American Cemetery and Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, both in Belgium.
In 2017, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) began exhuming the remains of those believed to have died in Tidal Wave in an effort to identify them and, in August 2022, Minogue was announced as successfully named.
Minogue’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Impruneta, Italy, along with others still missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Euroclydon The Storm Crew
1Lt Enoch M. Porter Jr. – Pilot
2Lt. John F Minogue – Co-Pilot
Raymond P. Warner – Navigator
1Lt Howard Dickson
Fl. Of. Joe E. Boswell
1st/Lt. Jesse D “Red” Franks, Jr
T/Sgt.Frank C Ferrel
TSgt Bernard R Lucas
SSgt Earl L. Frost
Class of 1950 Colonist Harry Edman Sexton, a retired U.S. Marine Corp Colonel, passed away Feb. 15, 2023, at age 90.
Born in Anaheim on Dec. 20, 1932, Sexton was an active AUHS student. He was a varsity yell leader, played football, and served as secretary of the Future “A” Club.
He enlisted in the U.S. Marine two years after graduating from Anaheim, and married Ann Goodrich in 1958. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps for 26 years, from August 1952 to January 1978.
A man of integrity and character, Colonel Sexton flew more than 400 combat missions during two tours of Vietnam. During his first tour, he commanded the only Marine F-8 Crusader Fighter Squadron to deploy from Navy Carrier USS Oriskany.
On his second tour, he commanded a squadron of HMLA-367 “Scarface” Cobra Helicopters, providing offensive air support, utility support and armed escort and airborne support, day or night, under all weather conditions, to Marine ground combat units.
Col. Sexton was awarded the Navy Cross, our country’s second-highest award for bravery, for heroism during Operation Tailwind as he and his fellow “Scarface” Cobra Gunships engaged the enemy to provide cover for the extraction of a nearly overwhelmed force of U.S. Army Special Operators out of Laos. Click here to read more about his mission.
He was also awarded two Legion of Merits with Combat “V”, a Distinguished Flying Cross, and 44 Air Medals/Strike Flight Awards, and was inducted into the Golden Eagles for his distinguished career as an aviator. More on his career can be read here.
His adventures continued after retiring from the military at age 45 when he turned his attention from flying the skies to riding the roads on a Harley Davidson.
His wife, Ann, son, Harry Jr., and daughter Stacie will remember him as a husband and father who lived for others, giving freely of his time, skill, and love to all who were fortunate enough to have known him. He is also survived by four grandchildren; and a great grandson.
Thanks to a communication from her granddaughter, the AHS Alumni Association has discovered our oldest living Colonist, Thelma Charles from AUHS Class of 1938, who will celebrate her 103rd birthday on June 10, 2023.
Granddaughter Malinda reported: “I just spent a weekend in Reno with her and my mom. Nothing stops her. She does it all!”
While at Anaheim High, Thelma was in Glee Club and the Domecon Club, which trained members in scientific home management. Fellow classmate, Marion Knott, daughter of Knott’s Berry Farm’s Walter Knott, was vice president of the club.
Thelma’s best friend was Jeanette VanDelden McDonald from Class of 1936, who passed away at age 103 in 2022.
The Super Bowl has become an star-studded event, and among those stars are Anaheim Colonists who have played a role in the epic gridiron match.
Fifty-six years ago, the Anaheim High School Drill Team appeared in the first Super Bowl and three Colonist grads have coached and played in five Super Bowls, placing AHS on the Super Bowl High School Honor Roll.
The Ana-Hi-Steppers carried flags representing all AFL and NFL teams in Super Bowl I. The U.S.A. outline map was created by two university bands. The team also performed in a pre-game show.
The award-winning 1967 Ana-Hi-Steppers Drill Team, wearing traditional blue and gold Colonial costumes complete with white wigs and tri-corner hats, performed along with the Grambling State University Marching Band and the University of Arizona Symphonic Band. Musician Al Hirt was the half-time headliner, along with two rocket men who were propelled over the field by jetpacks.
The Colonist Hi-Steppers shared the field that January day with such greats as Vince Lombardi, Bart Starr, and the colorful Hank Stram. The game was watched by 50 million TV viewers and football fans who packed the LA Memorial Coliseum. (Billed as the most watched event in television history, more than 10 million viewers are expected to watch Super Bowl 50, Feb. 7, at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara.)
The Class of 1967 also produced two football greats who are connected to what has become sport’s greatest spectacle. Gerry “Moon” Mullins starred in all four of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ first four Super Bowl championships (IX, X, XIII, XIV), and Jim Fassel was named NF
L Coach of the Year in his first season at the helm in New York, when he led the Giants to Super Bowl XXXV.
A third Anaheim football star, perhaps the school’s greatest player, Reuben Droughns from Class of 1996, played on special teams for the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII.
To honor Anaheim High’s contribution to Super Bowl history, the NFL gifted the school with a three commemorative Wilson Golden Football imprinted with the names of Mullins, Fassel and Droughns.
Footage of the half-time show is available at: http://twentytwowords.com/nearly-every-super-bowl-halftime-show-since-1967-37-videos.
Anaheim High is kicking off the school’s 125th anniversary with a Oct. 1 Homecoming All-Class Reunion from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on the historic Colonist campus. [Read more…]
