Anaheim High alumnus Oanh Nguyen, founder of the award-winning Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills, has built a career in the entertainment field as an actor and director since graduating in 1991.
Originally from Saigon, Oanh and his family came to the United States in the ‘70s. Spending most of his formative years in Orange County, it was at Anaheim High School where he first discovered theater.
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Opened in 1920, Wisser Sporting Goods operated at 169 Lincoln Ave. for more than 75 years until closing in 1981. The store became an Anaheim icon and was a favorite gathering place for local businessmen and neighboring farmers who came to town to tell tall tales of their fishing and hunting adventures. One such adventure took place right in the store when one of the mounted taxidermy specimens, a stuffed bobcat, was jarred loose by the 1933 Long Beach earthquake and landed on a startled proprietor.
The store’s connection to the community and to Anaheim High was also realized through other family members, including Marion Wisser Harvey, Class of 1938, and her daughters, Norma Harvey Brown, 1960, and Barbara Harvey, 1968. Other family graduates include: Al’s wife, Jean Allen Wisser, Class of 1948; and Al’s brother Edwin Wisser, Class of 1940.
The popular store evolved from the business dealings of family patriarch Roman Wisser (pronounced Weeser), who first opened a restaurant on Los Angeles Street in Anaheim in 1886. When his cook proved unreliable, Roman sent to San Antonio for Miss Emily Meyers, a young woman he had met while living there. Emily became his bride and helper in the restaurant. They had a son, Lucien “Pete” Wisser, Class of 1907; and three daughters, Mary, Emma (Class of 1917) and Alice (Class of 1921). (Al is Pete’s son.)
Roman and Emily tried opening a saloon in Fullerton, but returned to Anaheim to stay in 1898. They next opened a new saloon in the building at 144 W. Lincoln Ave., a property that later housed Lind Rexall Pharmacy. They called their establishment“Favorite Saloon”and advertised Schlitz beer on draught. The family liquor trade prospered and, in 1906, Roman built a new “Favorite Saloon” across the street at 169 W. Center Street (now Lincoln Avenue).
When Roman died in 1913, Pete took over the business until 1917, then left to serve with the U.S. Army in Europe. Emily ran the saloon until Prohibition in 1918.
Pete returned to Anaheim following World War I and was reunited with his sweetheart, Edna Nichols, a Santa Ana school teacher, whom he married in 1920.
The significant changes in Anaheim during the 1950s, including the arrival of Walt Disney, occurred while Pete Wisser sat on the City Council from 1950 to 1958.
In 1958, blindness caused by a diabetes condition led to his retirement from the Council and the store. Sons Edwin and Allan, who both served in the Navy during World War II, returned in 1946 to join their father in the sporting goods store and, with their sister Marion, continued running the store until downtown redevelopment ended their long run as Anaheim’s favorite sporting goods store.
Check out the following links for more history and photos of the Wisser Family:
Wisser’s Favorite Saloon: http://www.anaheimcolony.com/EarlyAnaheim/saloon.htm
Wisser Sporting Goods: http://www.anaheimcolony.com/Newspaper/Post1950/wisserhistory.htm
Wisser Family Pictures and Documents: http://www.anaheimcolony.com/web/wissers/wisserpictures.htm
BRANT COWSER (September 1925 – March 2014)
Across four decades as a teacher and a coach, Brant Cowser made an indelible contribution to Anaheim High School, and was an important member of the Colonist varsity football and boys basketball programs during the school’s legendary heyday. By every measure, he was Blue & Gold through and through. [Read more…]
E.M. “Speed” Castillo
A long-time educator whose two children graduated from AHS, Speed is the most recognized referee in Orange County sports history. Since 1959, he has officiated thousands of high school football and basketball games and was named the California Coaches Association’s Official of the Year for his contributions of time, service and dedication to the coaching profession and athletics. [Read more…]
Though he spent the first three weeks of his life in Drake, North Dakota, where he was born while his mother was visiting her parents, Ross Johnson proved himself a true native son by devoting his life to serving California as a public servant.
Johnson was a long-time California State Legislator and the first person ever to serve as a party leader in both houses of the legislature. He most recently served as chairperson of the California Fair Political Practices Commission. [Read more…]
Gary Shepard - Class of 1959
Gary served our country for 25 years as a fighter pilot in the US Air Force. He flew 100 combat missions over North Vietnam and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with eleven Air Medals.
In Vietnam, he did the planning for and leadership of 82% of the combat missions that he flew. His missions only lost one plane. They always hit their specified targets and never got lost. He was recognized as the most proficient air combat maneuvering pilot in his Air Command. He was selected as the Command Representative by a 4 Star General to represent him and the command at major unit deployments throughout the United States.
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U.S. Senator Thomas Henry Kuchel was born Aug. 15, 1910 in Anaheim to Henry and Letitia Kuchel. While growing up, Kuchel often aided his father who, for 48 years, was publisher of the Anaheim Gazette, the city’s newspaper of record.
From an early age, Thomas grew to have an interest in the political process by regularly reading the Congressional Quarterly out loud to his father.
Another defining event in the life of Thomas Kuchel came during his teenage years. In 1924, the Ku Klux Klan began to aggressively recruit members in Southern California. At one point, the Klan claimed to have a membership of 1,400 in their Anaheim chapter.
Sharron Backus – Class of 1963
Born Feb. 12, 1946, Sharron Backus is an Anaheim’s hometown girl who made good as an all-star athlete. A softball icon, she coached the UCLA women’s softball team for 21 seasons between 1975 and 1996, leading the Lady Bruins to nine national championships.
A member of the UCLA Hall of Fame, Sharron was architect of the UCLA softball dynasty and holds the record as the winningest Division 1 softball coach in NCAA history, posting a lifetime record of 847-167-3 (.835).
Backus and the Bruins brought eight national championship trophies to Westwood (seven NCAA and one AIAW) including an unprecedented three in a row (‘88, ’89, ’90). The Backus-era trophy case also includes four second-place trophies and three third-place awards.
Her UCLA teams played in the College World Series 16 times. Sharron coached a total of 53 All-Americans, including Player of the Decade (1980’s) Dot Richardson and Lisa Fernandez, the first softball player to ever win the prestigious Honda-Broderick Cup as the top female collegiate athlete in 1993.
Sharron was inducted into the Women’s Sports Foundation Hall of Fame in 1993, the National Softball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Amateur Softball Association (ASA) Hall of Fame in 1985. She was also named coach of the year four times in her career.
As a player, the Cal State Fullerton graduate had a legendary ASA career. A star shortstop, Backus was instrumental in seven ASA championships (‘61,’65 and ’71-‘75) and two international championships (‘72 and ’74) as well as three professional World Championships (’76-‘78).
During her amateur softball career, she played from ‘61-‘75 for the Whittier Gold Sox, and from ’64-’66 for the Orange Lionettes. Backus batted .268, .298 and .301 for the Gold Sox and was a second-team All-American in 1961, as the Gold Sox won the national title.
During her three years with the Lionettes, she was a first-team All-American in 1964 and 1966. She batted .285, .293 and .263 those three years.
Sharron spent the last seven years of her career with the Brakettes, achieving a .292 batting average (.361 in 1971 was her highest batting average) and earned All-America laurels three times.
While at Anaheim, Sharon was an all-round athlete. At AHS, she was a star player in softball, basketball, swimming (held the record for the 25-yard backstroke), basketball, hockey and badminton. Sharron was Girls’ Athletic Association president and named GAA Girl of the Year in 1963 for her outstanding play at shortstop.
Class of 1961 graduate Jerry Stephenson lived the dream of many young American boys when he signed with the Boston Red Sox on June 17, 1961, only days after graduating from Anaheim High. As a senior at Anaheim, Jerry was named the Sunset League’s Most Valuable varsity baseball player.
Jerry was a major league baseball pitcher for nine years, playing for Boston, the Seattle Pilots (later becoming the Milwaukee Brewers) and Los Angeles Dodgers.
Born Sept. 12, 1949, Chic Burlingame was one day short of celebrating his 52nd birthday when he died fighting hijackers who caused American Airlines Flight 77 to crash into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
An aeronautical engineer and honors graduate from the Navy’s Top Gun fighter pilot school, he served eight years flying F-4 Phantom fighters and 17 years as a reservist. A Persian Gulf War veteran, he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. [Read more…]
