| One leafing through travel brochures in search of sublime
hideaways in which to idle away a holiday is not going to find Mankato, Minn. Neither is
Boulevard, Calif., apt to be listed. Let me say this, having visited both venues: With a
choice, go to Mankato.
It was there, sadly, that Korey Stringer of the Vikings was overcome by the heat and
later died. As a very young boy attending a summer camp in Minnesota, I was introduced to
Mankato on an outing on which the principal activity was being escorted through the
Minnesota State Reformatory. My memories of Mankato, I must say, are not fond ones.
Right here, I have to say, I can never forget the summer of 1963, which I spent tagging
around after the Chargers at a property known as Rough Acres Ranch in Boulevard. I also
have to say that I would not wish to relive this experience.
There, amid the rocks and sand of east San Diego County, the San Diego athletes were
exposed to what had to have been the hottest, driest, most isolated, yes, most uncivilized
training camp any NFL team has endured.
The previous season, the San Diego athletes had gone 4-10 after preparing at the
University of San Diego. Sid Gillman decided that doing their nip-ups in the city had
presented too many temptations for his athletes. Sir Sidney determined to find a locale
where there would be fewer distractions.
One is reminded of John Butler, who has suggested that he feels the current Chargers
would bond more fully were they to condition themselves somewhere less comfortable than
the University of California-San Diego. Butler would love Rough Acres Ranch. If he could
find it, that is.
As it turned out, it was near Boulevard, which is off Highway 8 at the top of the grade
that ascends from the Imperial Valley. It used to be right on Highway 8, but that’s
another story. A mile or two east of the community of Boulevard, turn north, progress a
few hundred yards and there you have it — Rough Acres Ranch.
A year or two ago, I went back there. The property was not open to visitors, but there
is a camp near there where men are quartered who have volunteered to fight fires while
they serve prison sentences. From the roads around this encampment, I could see the Rough
Acres Ranch lodge and the little outbuildings where the players were housed during that
summer of ’63.
One day, a bell rang in the lodge while the players were on the field, and Paul Maguire
cried, "The stage is in!" Some guys might have believed it. Buzzards circled the
place. There not being a woman within miles, men at times went about naked. And hot! Whew!
As hot as it was though, I can’t remember any of the Chargers experiencing a
problem of the sort that was fatal to Stringer. My idea: That athletes laboring in extreme
temperatures are most vulnerable when there is high humidity.
Think of those persons who run extreme marathons through Death Valley. They live to
tell about it.
Anyhow, I ran my thinking past Ron Mix, a Rough Acres inhabitant who not only survived
his time there but had a rewarding career. You could look him up in the Hall of Fame.
To Mix, the Rough Acres climate being as dry as it was had a bearing on the Chargers
escaping without being devastated by the heat. I know this: It was too hot and dry to grow
grass. The club never could get grass to flourish on what passed as a football field but
was never more than a sand surface covered by a sawdust mulch.
Mix relates a football team successfully coming through the furnace that is Boulevard
in the summertime to a combination of things, the dry climate among them.
"I think everyone came in in pretty good shape," he said. "We had some
big players, like Ernie Ladd (6-9, 325), but he wasn’t a fat big, he was just big
big. And I think the coach always ran sensible practices."
Thirst, however, was a constant. After their evening meetings, the players would pile
into cars and hurry to a Boulevard saloon. At this time, a bypass was being constructed
that would direct the highway around the Boulevard community. To the saloon came the
highway workers, as well as the football players. They got along fine; the highway workers
didn’t want to be there either.
The grousing by the players was ceaseless. They had reasons for their discontent. The
area where the showers were located didn’t have a roof. Dust coated everything.
Worse, snakes lived there. Football players don’t like snakes. Some have an abiding
fear of them.
I remember the day Walt Sweeney showed up at Rough Acres, late, as I recall. A day
later, he was talking about leaving, but he stuck around to become one of the most
distinguished players in the club’s history.
So many stories. Funny thing. Following their summer at Rough Acres, the Chargers won a
league championship. They have not won another.
Jerry Magee has covered pro football for the San Diego Union-Tribune since 1961 and for
PFW since its inception in 1967. |
