Having covered high school sports in Southern California since 1976, when there’s a Hall of Fame induction ceremony, it makes me go back in time to when they were teenagers showing early signs of greatness before people knew their names.
The City Section is holding its latest Hall of Fame induction ceremony Sunday, so let me offer some memories of several being inducted.
It’s 1999. Taft football coach Troy Starr is standing by the goal posts for a junior varsity game and pointing out a freshman receiver named Steve Smith, who’s too young to play on varsity. Starr insists the kid is going to be a phenom. Taft was already in the spotlight, having produced 1992 Olympic 400-meter champion Quincy Watts, so now the excitement is returning.
“I’ve never seen anything like him,” Starr said of Smith. “I’ve struggled to contain my excitement. Not only did I see him make outrageous plays catching the ball, but outrageous blocks.”
2025 CIF LA City Section Hall of Fame RSVP and Event Info!
— CIF LA City Section (@CIFLACS) March 4, 2025
Induction of the Class of 2025 is on April 6 at the Odyssey Restaurant in Granada Hills. 11 am - 4 pm.
Tickets on sale. Reserve your seat now!
Deadline is March 25. https://t.co/SUIom53dffpic.twitter.com/acCTpBHl2P
Smith scored 27 touchdowns as a freshman receiver and safety on the JV team. He got to play varsity basketball because there was no age limit and immediately became a starter.
“People come to the game and go, ‘Whoa, who’s No. 11?’” assistant basketball coach Derrick Taylor said in 1999.
The rest is history. Smith, in three years of varsity football, set state records by catching 271 passes for 4,545 yards. He went on to star at USC and win a Super Bowl with the New York Giants. In 2023 he had his Taft jersey number retired. He’s got two sons headed to the high school ranks. He’s long deserved to become a City Section Hall of Famer.
It’s 1994, the senior year for El Camino Real pitcher Randy Wolf. I had gotten to know the family well while visiting with his parents, James and Judy, at games. Suddenly, without warning, James died. I’m walking into an El Camino Real game and Randy is about to pitch. He’s standing on the mound with the national anthem playing. Tears are streaming down my face thinking about what he’s feeling with his father gone.
A left-hander who thrived under pressure, Wolf twice pitched at Dodger Stadium to deliver City Section championships. By 1997, Randy and his older brother, Jimmy, an aspiring baseball umpire, were on their way to the majors. Randy played for Pepperdine, then was drafted in the second round by the Philadelphia Phillies. He made his major league debut in 1999 and played his last game in 2015, going 133-125.
It was so fun to watch him succeed, particularly when he pitched for his hometown team, the Dodgers, in 2007 and 2009.
Reggie Morris Sr. was one of most influential basketball coaches in City Section history. At Manual Arts he had to battle against the juggernaut of Crenshaw and coach ...
