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Green, Mika on North all-star squad
By Dick Sparrer
Richard M. Nixon was just days away from resigning as the 37th president of the United States, and Jack Nicholson's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was setting box office records across the country.
The Boston Celtics had just won another NBA crown, and the Oakland A's were on the verge of winning their third straight World Series.
It was the summer of 1974, and Doug Cosbie and Don Schwartz were two of the 60 or so players about to play in a brand new football game... something called the Santa Clara County All Star Bowl.
Cosbie and Schwartz would both go on to star in the National Football League, Cosbie for the Dallas Cowboys and Schwartz for the St. Louis Cardinals and New Orleans Saints.
And that football game they both played in would go on to become a summer tradition in the Santa Clara Valley.
This summer that All Star Bowl, now known as the Charlie Wedemeyer All-Star Football Game, returns for its 25th year and has grown from its humble beginnings into a summer classic.
And it all started because members of the Almaden Valley Rotary Club had an idea.
"Three Rotarians came to the police department and met with me at the PAL office," said game chairman Jim Guido, now a Rotarian himself but at that time the head of the San Jose Police Activities League. "They said, 'We have an idea for an all-star football game.' "
So Guido and his PAL staff went to work with the Rotarians to make the idea a reality.
"We had a marriage of sorts," said Guido of the relationship between the Rotary and the PAL. "They came up with the idea which was a good one, and we had the expertise to put the game together."
The first game was played in the summer of 1974 and, with the exception of 1976, the game has been played every summer since.
"The Best Game in Town" has featured over a dozen players (Cosbie, Schwartz, Jeff Toews, Rich Campbell, Carl Monroe, Greg Woodard, John Tuggle, Ben Bennett, John Faylor, Erik Howard, Randy Kirk, Tim Ryan and Pat Tillman) who have gone on to the NFL, and a couple more (Ken Caminiti and Bill Haselman) who have gone on to play major league baseball.
Countless players have gone on to succeed at the college level with a number of them playing in major bowl games, and many players have gone on to become successful football coaches.
One, Millard Hampton, even went on to strike Olympic gold.
"The great thing about this game is that there are no politics involved," said Guido. "This game is for the kids."
Local "kids" who will play in the summer classic include Trumaine Green and Ben Mika of Homestead.
The game is set for a 7:30 p.m. kick off on Friday, July 23, at San Jose State's Spartan Stadium, the same site where it all began 25 years ago.
Tickets are priced at $10 each, and proceeds go to the Rotary charity and scholarship programs.
Former local star to participate in the summer classic include:
Fremont
1975-- Rick Armer, Keith Burcham, Davd Geppert, Steve Brown, Kevin Johnson; 1978-- Rainy Meszaros, Steve Zankich; 1979-- Sander Markel, Greg Hooper, Greg Reiley, Mike Shriner; 1980-- Phil Graham; 1981-- Ramon Barron, Terry Theodore, Todd Barraclough; 1982-- Mitch Mariani; 1983-- Karl Castles, Doug Rothschild, Darrin Crawford, Vincent Brigman, Don Shearon; 1984-- Ulysses Vee; 1985-- Ricky Samuelu; 1986-- Kini Tufono, Dan Savage; 1987-- Brian Theodore, Frank Bellucci; 1988-- Steve Savage, Phil Davis, Stephen Robinson; 1989-- Rich Bellucci, Daryl Sadowski, Jeff Chinn, Tim Wadholm; 1990-- George Ulukivaiola, Scott Savage; 1991-- Willie Harper, Manvir Sandhu, Tom Mendoza; 1992-- Greg Perry, Andy Walczak, Jason Simontacchi; 1993-- Jabari Snowden, Jeff Neal; 1995-- Dennis Truong; 1996-- Tom Jimenez; 1997-- Art Alegria; 1998-- Tully Banta-Cain, Justin Stichter, Steven Leslie, Warren Rick.
Sunnyvale
1978-- Tim Thompson, John Ane, Don Thompson; 1979-- Bob Scheibley; 1980-- Brian Schaeffer, George Fletcher.
Peterson
1975-- Mike Nash; 1976-- Bob Duran; 1978-- James Lavery, Darren Nill; 1979-- Scott Campbell, Steve Nill, Kelly Pollock, Arni Thorsteinsson; 1980-- Ben Bennett, Mel Cozby, Bill McAfee, Ed Smith; 1981-- Rodger Johnson.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
