Aquire House

John was born August 22, 1919 in San Francisco.

His parents were born in the Spanish Basque country, just across the border of the south west corner of France. Spanish was the spoken language at the home, however his parents spoke in their Basque language when they didn’t want their children to listen to their conversation.

As a small lad, John had a little trouble with his school mates.  He did not take kindly to the laughs he received for his mispronunciation of the English language, he is still working on his phonetics. After being transferred (booted out) from Jean Parker Elementary he was sent to the Presentation Convent.  The sisters (having some small problems with his combative attitude) recommended his transfer to Salesians Grammar School for his education and rehabilitation, the Salesian Order was established in Italy for the rescue and rehabilitation of poor and neglected children. The brothers made him realize that he wasn’t as good a fighter as he thought and John learned quit a bit about boxing in the ring with the brothers.

In 1934-35 he started playing sandlot football for the North Beach Broadway Bums. The games were played on the 700 yard marina greens. Since this was not an organized league for football, the various neighborhood (gangs) teams playing the game were supervised by off duty truant officers, police, firemen, doctors and other good citizens. Their motto was “better to have controlled wars than uncontrolled street fights.”

In 1935 John entered Galileo High School, but did not participate in sports because he was still a “Broadway Bum”. In the 1936 season, the PTA and the san Francisco Examiner sponsored the city high school eight team tournament.  Two twelve minute quarters were played per game; Galileo reached the finals and lost, but John won the best tackle award trophy. 

In 1938 the Galileo Lions won the city championship and became known as the “Eleven Men of Iron”.  They still meet yearly and will be celebrating their sixtieth anniversary next year.  In 1991 John was given the great honor of being placed in the Galileo High School Hall of Fame.  He was given a scholarship to UCLA and played for the Trojans from 1939 to 1941.

After Pearl Harbor was bombed in December 1941, John joined the Air Force in January 1942, being sent overseas and spending the next three years in England, France, and Germany.

When he returned home USC talked him into returning to play football for them. In 1946 John played in the Rose Bowl on New Years day but the Trojans lost.  (Got his much prized Rose Bowl Ring anyhow).  He also received a life time pass for all athletic events at USC.

In 1947 he was drafted by the San Francisco 49’rs and in 1948 came north to play for the Calgary Stampeders. They won the Grey Cup that year, and John made the western all star team.  He also coached at Central High School in Calgary and worked full time at Imperial Oil.

In 1949 the Stampeders went to the Grey Cup again, this time losing.  John was again picked to the All Western Team and the Ted Reeves All Canadian Team, his Central High School team won the provincial championship and he got married to his Shirley Fenton, so all was not lost.

Following his playing days in 1954 John and Shirley moved back to California to get away from the coldest winter on record as of that date.  It was so cold that the tires on their car froze solid in the garage.

After their daughter Karen was born they decided to return to Canada to get back to a quiet place to raise their little girl.  They returned to Calgary but found it was almost as bad for traffic as California.  Their good friend Cliff Kliewer convinced them they should move to Kelowna because, as he said, it never snowed, never had thunder and lightning, and was the best place in the world to live. John and Shirley moved to Kelowna on September 15, 1971.

Cliff was instrumental in getting John a job at Immaculata High School as an administrator, and as luck would have it they also needed a line coach for the football team. That tiny school produced a winning team and took the Okanagan Mainline High School Trophy for the first time ever.

In 1973 John helped start the minor football league in Kelowna.  In 1980 as the Okanagan Sun were applying for membership in the BC Junior Football League, Barry Urness named Cliff and John two of the coaches, coaches without a team as the Sun had not been accepted in to league as of yet.

Even when John retired from coaching, he remained on of the Okanagan Sun’s most loyal fans, attending all the games over the years.