San Diego institutions and their rocky histories

Big beef in Mission Valley

The judge warned Buckner and DePhilippis that if they had notions of assaulting and battering one another in the hallway, law enforcement officers were close at hand. Buckner has also accused DePhilippis of spitting at him — “He went Waugh’ and give it to me right in the face,” Buckner testified in court. DePhilippis admitted this latter indiscretion. “Yeah, I spit in his face,” DePhilippis said.

By Stephen Meyer, Nov. 13, 1986 Read full article

Saving the Balboa Theater — an uphill battle

What the Russo family purchased for around $100,000 in the serendipitous 1959 real-estate deal was a structure once described as “San Diego’s most palatial theater.” The building had been designed by a San Diego architect, originally owned by a San Diego journalist, and constructed by San Diego contractors with materials provided by San Diego subcontractors.

By Bob McPhail, June 4, 1987 Read full article

The fall of Mary Alice Hill

In 1979, President Thomas Day considered offering Hill the athletic directorship, but the job went to Gene Bourdet, former athletic director at Fresno State. Hill recalled that in a private conversation with Day at the time, he told her he wanted to appoint her, “but he didn’t think the community was ready for a woman athletic director.”

By Stephen Meyer, Sept. 25, 1986 Read full article

How this town pays for visitors

ConVis hired the Zoo’s ‘‘goodwill ambassador,” Joan Embery, to transport a boa constrictor, a toucan, and an exotic Asian tree-dwelling mammal called a binturong to this space six stories above Times Square. As people paraded by, Embery answered questions about the animals; the crowd around her never thinned. ‘‘What a gimmick!” chortled one observer.

By Jeannette DeWyze, Aug. 7, 1986 Read full article

William Rust and the early troubles of USIU

Eleven years after a financial crisis forced Rust to sell all of USIU’s worldwide campuses except Scripps Ranch, the president insists that there was no mismanagement at the time and that USIU’s problems had nothing to do with his international vision. He says that USIU had to sell the Point Loma land because the city placed a restrictive 2000-student limit on the Cal Western campus.

By Stephen Meyer, Apr. 24, 1986 Read full story

Bring back the cup

Writing in Sports Illustrated after Conner’s defeat, Blackaller conceded that “the U.S. was out-designed by the Australians.” But Blackaller laid blame on other factors, including the New York Yacht Club’s America’s Cup Committee and on Conner for refusing to practice by sailing against the other two American teams vying for the chance to defend the cup.

By Jeannette DeWyze, Apr. 17, 1986 Read full article

Little train on a big track

If the SD&IV were unionized, tonight’s train would require four crewmen instead of two. But Scudella and Byle don’t seem to need assistance, Byle signaling with his lamp and red flares and talking through his walkie-talkie, and Scudella, with a cheap cigar clenched in his teeth, inching the behemoth locomotive forward and backward with confident delicacy.

By Neal Matthews, Apr. 3, 1986 Read full story

History paved over

"The church is in possession of what I would call the second most important archaeological site, after the presidio, on the West Coast of the United States. It’s a site important to United States history, Spanish history, Mexican history, Indian history. It’s the West Coast equivalent of Jamestown."

By Neal Matthews, Feb. 20, 1986 Read full article