Jerry Gross with Stan Musial, St. Louis, 1960. By the time he came to San Diego, Gross had been a broadcaster in two World Series.

Don Zub shimmied the tree one night, wearing shorts and topsiders, and broke off the uppermost couple of feet. How’d he get up there? “On mushrooms.” Why? “UDT! Iron grip!”

Paul Stachelek

No man is an island (with the possible exception of Don Zub)

Most of the main drinking establishments in town have declared themselves off-limits to Zub over the years since he left the Navy. McP’s Irish Pub booted him, and the bouncer broke Zub’s collarbone several years ago, after he got into a fight. He awoke the next morning and proceeded to get a 502 on his bicycle. He’s also been banished from Goodies deli, the Brigantine, and Mexican Village,

By Neal Matthews, May 25, 1989 Read full article

Hannibal, 1977, undercover fencing. He grew a thick beard, long hair, and associated mostly with thieves and hypes.

Bob Hannibal was one of the good guys. Or so he thought.

With all the phony identities, the game playing, and the sympathy for crooks, it seems inevitable that officers such as Hannibal would end up cutting technically illicit deals with informants. He says information about where a police operation was taking place would be given as warning to an informant in exchange for the informant’s giving the name of a person who was pulling off a string of burglaries.

By Neal Matthews, Sept. 22, 1988 Read full article

Sanford Goodkin: "Zoning is racist. It is elitist."

Photo by Robert Burroughs

Sanford Goodkin does not mind San Diego sprawl

"I’ve worked for Aristotle Onassis. I’ve worked for Paul Getty," he boasts. "I’ve worked for Texans with horse manure on their boots who owned the world. I know Trammell Crow personally” In Southern California, Goodkin has worked with the men who reshaped such well-known pieces of earth as La Costa. Mission Viejo, Lake Forest, and Rancho Bernardo.

By Jeannette DeWyze, May 5, 1988 Read full article

Garland Peed

The chancellor's private plans

Burchard had become dismayed with the conduct of Peed and the trustees. “The more I got involved, the more I perused Peed’s documents, it became pretty apparent how he was operating and that this was the root of the problem. He snows the trustees, frankly.” Burchard began to believe the trustees were disinclined to cross Peed because of their high salaries and benefits Peed had won for them.

By Jeannette DeWyze, Feb. 18, 1988 Read full article

Human billboard at Super Bowl event

Local socialist takes on Super Bowl fans

The angrier Winter grows, the more the students seem subtly to turn against her. One girl asks if it’s true that the Sandinistas were teaching children to add and subtract with the use of hand grenades. “Well, I think there was a time when they had children’s readers where they had pictures of some of the military stuff that you mentioned," Winter answers. "But I think you have to understand the context."

By Jeannette DeWyze, March 3, 1988 Read full article

Gross ended up in the unemployment line in the summer of 1976. “It was the lowest point of my life. I was totally mortified. People in line recognized me.”

Photo by Robert Burroughs

Jerry Gross bounces back

"I criticized Bob Breitbard for selling the San Diego Rockets to Houston; I questioned Dr. Leonard Bloom, who had the [American Basketball Association] San Diego Conquistadors; I challenged Buzzie Bavasi, who lied to the public about Hank Aaron.... I ripped Harland Svare of the Chargers, and I attacked Neil Morgan for his yellow journalism."

By Neal Matthews, Oct. 15, 1987 Read full article