By Mitch Lehman
If Temple City fails to provide sufficient competition, San Marino High School’s varsity football players can always try to outdo each other tonight when the Titans square off with the Rams.
At stake is a 1-0 record in the Rio Hondo League, a Homecoming victory and a crack at the Earl Bruce 21 Award.
A former Titan, Earl Bruce passed away in 2009 after a bout with cancer.
“Something that stuck with my brother for all of his 55 years was the fact that he never beat Temple City,” his brother Steve said shortly after Earl’s death. “We would tease him that Temple City hadn’t just beaten them, but humiliated them. San Marino lost 55-0. Temple City had an undefeated perfect season winning the AAA CIF championship that year. For years and years when our family and friends would come together over the holidays, without exception, we would bring up the Temple City football team and we were guaranteed to get Earl to tear up.”
It reached a new level when Steve and friends saved a few of the ashes from Earl’s sea-spreading and tossed a few of them – where else – on the 50 yard line of Hitchcock Stadium at Temple City High School.
“As kids and even later as adults we would play ‘last hit’ and I wanted Earl to have the ‘last hit’ on Temple City,” Steve Bruce said.
Previous recipients of the Earl Bruce 21 Award include Stevie Yortsos (2009), Matt Wofford (2010), Seve Woods (2011), Nick Gott (2012), Tyler Spitzer (2013) and Carson Glazier, who earned the honors for a 368-yard passing game last year.
