PETALUMA FOOTBALL HISTORY: Before he ruled the seas, Lloyd Bridges ruled the gridiron

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a three-part series on the history of Petaluma football submitted by Scott Baker.

This week’s look at the history of Petaluma football begins in the late 1920s, when future actor Lloyd Bridges played football for Petaluma High School.

Younger readers may not recognize the name, so a bit of background may be needed. He was a major Hollywood star from the 1940s through the 1980s, starred with Gary Cooper in “High Noon,” had his own hit TV series called “Sea Hunt” in the late 50s, was the father of actors Jeff and Beau Bridges, and later the goofy air traffic controller guy in the disaster movie spoof “Airplane.”

Since his kids also became famous actors, his family was sort of the Martin/Charlie Sheen/Emilio Estevez or James/Josh Brolins of his day. He attended UCLA, and served in the Coast Guard in World War II. So how great is it that he played football for Petaluma High? For “Airplane” fans, it is pure speculation that during the 12-0 PHS loss to Vallejo in 1929 he muttered, “I picked a lousy day to quit eating dairy and poultry products.”

Not much more can be said about Lloyd Bridges’ Petaluma High football career, other than that he played on the 1929 and 1930 teams, which went 5-2 and 3-1, respectively, with impressive wins over Napa, St. Helena, Tamalpais, San Rafael and - wait for it - Analy.

Petaluma standouts of that era include lineman Melvin (Dutch) Flohr, who later played for Santa Clara and became a police chief; end Ralph Stone, who later played for UC Berkeley and competed in the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles; and Rollie Webb, who later became Justice of the Peace. All excelled in basketball as well.

As Ralph Stone had bit parts in Hollywood movies, it should be noted that Hollywood was mining local football players for talent going back to the mid ’20s. Ward Bond and John Wayne, then known as Marion Morrison, were both recruited from the USC football team in the late ’20s.

For a comedic look at how football was played at that time, check out the Marx Brothers’ movie “Horse Feathers” (1932), or the Three Stooges short “Three Little Pigskins” (1934).

Note that the ball was rounder, and all that protected a player was a few pieces of leather. The players of the era were necessarily stout, and stereotyped as “bearing of beef, but brief of brain.” Yet several studies have revealed this to be generally false, especially if overall intelligence is measured. This scholar-player tradition recalls Dr. William Halsted, a hell-raising football player of the 1870s, and captain of the 1872 Yale squad, who also happened to the surgeon who invented anesthesia, sterile method and several modern surgical techniques. Perhaps he needed these surgeries to keep his team on the field.

To continue this thread, know also that future presidents Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon played high school football during the ’30s. Ronald Reagan didn’t, but he was a football cheerleader and the “Gipper” in “Knute Rockne All American.” Did 1930s football breed overall intelligence? You be the judge.

The running game was dominant in the early 1930s, and most players played both offense and defense. Passing was a part of the game, but not popular until rule changes liberalizing the pass and redesigning the football took place in 1934. At that point, players like “Slingin’” Sammy Baugh (TCU/Washington Redskins) and Don Hudson (Alabama/Green Bay Packers) began to open eyes with modern pass routes, fakes, and passing/receiving numbers previously unknown.

In ’30s football, drop kicks and quick kicks were allowed. as they are today, and often employed, meaning that the backs were often the kickers. The redesign of the ball made drop kicking, where a back could fake a run and instead kick a field goal by dropping, bouncing, and kicking the ball, obsolete. This was long before Pete Gogolak, credited as the first soccer style kicker in the NFL in the 1960s, so the place-kicking game was ponderous.

The first proficient passing quarterback at PHS seems to have been Vic Rossotti in 1936, who played end but was brought in as a “passing specialist” to great effect.

Other familiar and prominent Petaluma Trojan football names from this era are Praetzel, Bundeson, Maddelena, DeCarli, Figone and Benedetti. Further testament to the strength of our local hero’s teams was the fact that they often carried no more than 15 players, and they sometimes played against Santa Rosa Junior College and the Cal freshmen.