Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by William C. Eymann of Palo Alto, given to the Los Gatos Weekly-Times by the News Bureau of Santa Clara University.

A woman coxswain shouts cadence and controls the rudder for Santa Clara University's male crew during a practice. The sport was started at SCU by the late Jim Farwell, and Lexington was their practice course.

Picture from the Past

John S. Baggerly

Bloomers belong to young women of yesteryear

You've come a long way, baby, since practicing archery on the high school front lawn and wearing bloomers for basketball and tumbling. Now Los Gatos High School girls are eligible for all campus sports except football and wrestling. Off-campus sports such as crew and rugby are made available to school-agers through clubs--crew for both sexes and rugby for males.

Today's photograph of Santa Clara University's varsity male crew shows a woman coxswain shouting cadence and controlling the rudder. The cox starts the action with "ready all" or perhaps "ready y'all." The sport was started at SCU by the late Jim Farwell, and Lexington was their practice course--an excellent course except that the width was unpredictable because it depended on how much rainfall there had been.

From Athletic Director Butch Cattolico, here are sports currently offered at LGHS:

Fall

Football--boys

Cross-country--coed

Water polo--both boys and girls

Hockey--girls

Volleyball--girls

Winter

Wrestling--boys

Basketball--both boys and girls

Club rugby--boys

Club crew--both boys and girls

Soccer--both boys and girls

Spring

Track--both boys and girls

Baseball--boys

Softball--girls

Track--both boys and girls

Swimming--both boys and girls

Diving--both boys and girls

Tennis--both boys and girls

Golf--both boys and girls

Volleyball--boys

Note: most boy and girl varsity teams are complemented by frosh/soph teams.

In the 1950s, Farwell brought the Pacific Coast Intercollegiate rowing regatta to Lexington Dam, and downtown Los Gatos was awash with tall, broad-shouldered young men. Blessed with placid water and south-to-north wind, if any, the course was just fine--so long as there was plenty of rain.