The Cubs will be hosting St. Augustine of San Diego on Friday in their first game played on campus since 1949. Venice Boulevard will be shut down and it could be a great atmosphere. We also got an answer on Wednesday whether St. Augustine was the last team that Loyola played on-campus in 1949.
Pat Jacobs, the whirlwind p.r. contact from Loyola of Los Angeles, was having fun earlier this week sending out info about the Cubs’ impending game this Friday on their campus against St. Augustine of San Diego.
It was mentioned that the team’s last home game was 65 years ago in 1949. We also knew from an email sent by San Diego historian Rick Smith (the former St. Louis Rams’ p.r. executive) that St. Augustine played Loyola during that same season.
Image from Loyola of Los Angeles 1950 yearbook shows last home game played on campus between St. Monica and Cubs in Oct. of 1949.
“The 1950 yearbook elaborates those last games at Loyola Stadium,” Bethke wrote. “The very last home game was in October 1949 as the Cubs defeated St. Monica’s Mariners by a score of 33-6, led by Balch, Mitchell and Stehly. The St. Augustine game was the week before.”
According to Jacobs, the following season in 1950 Loyola played St. Augustine in San Diego for the last time the two schools competed before this Friday’s game. Loyola won 25-13. The Cubs lead the series, which dates back to 1928, 6-1.
Loyola has won its first two games this season — 48-6 over Harvard-Westlake and 42-6 over Lakewood — but has yet to play a team like the Saints. St. Augustine, ranked fourth this week in the CIF San Diego Section, lost its opener but only by 34-28 to state No. 11 Oceanside. The Saints won last week 36-29 against Madison of San Diego.
Since 1949, according to information from Jacobs, Loyola has used as its home the fields at Rancho Cienega Park (near Dorsey High School), Inglewood High’s Sentinel Field (1965-1979), Aviation High School in Redondo Beach (1980-1981), Glendale High School’s Moyse Field (1982-2006), Pierce College’s John Shepard Field (intermittently in the late 1990s through the early 2000s), East Los Angeles College’s Weingart Stadium (intermittently from the early 2000s through 2009), Santa Monica College’s Corsair Field (on rare occasions in the 1970s, and the 1980s through 2004), Cerritos College’s Falcon Field for a handful of playoff games in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s and Los Angeles Valley College’s Monarch Stadium (2009-present).
The last time we compiled all-time win totals, Loyola was sixth on the all-time state list.
There probably will be another similar home game at Loyola next season when the school celebrates its 150th anniversary. Many alums also are hoping that this week’s game and similar events leads to the contstruction of a permanent on-campus home stadium.
Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports
