STORIES FROM THE PAST
50 years ago
The Indio Economic Development Commission — a standing committee of the City Council — voted last night to drop a proposed petition against the closing of the Calexico campus of San Diego State College.
Instead, the body passed a resolution urging that Indio be considered as the site of a new branch college.
The meeting was attended by the members of the commission and local educators. Throughout the meeting the hope was repeatedly expressed that no one in Imperial Valley would “get mad” over the switch in opinion in the Indio-Coachella Valley area.
Dr. Roy McCall, president of the College of the Desert in Palm Desert, said that his school was ready to make classroom and campus facilities “immediately” available for the new branch college. He said that he was also confident that he could persuade his board of trustees to pay for new campus space and buildings for a new college.
40 years ago
The Barstow College Vikings stood in front of a one-man firing squad on El Centro’s Spartan Field grass Saturday night and quarterback Many Medina of Imperial Valley College shot the Desert Conference team full of holes.
Medina received help from Erik Darby, Wayne Walker and Ross Dickerson as IVC posted a 33-6 victory. It was the final game of 1976 for coach Leon Kelsoe’s Arabs.
Good passers usually mean victories for junior college football teams. Medina proved his ability to move the IVC offense with a pinpoint aerial bombardment.
30 years ago
An employee of Mexico’s principal oil company has been bound over for prosecution in U.S. Federal Court in San Diego on charges related to illegal dumping of fuel-contaminated water by Mexican petroleum tankers near Imperial County’s Mount Signal earlier this week.
Federal magistrate Joseph Schmitt in El Centro has ordered that Francisco M. Lujan, 26, of Mexicali, be incarcerated at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in San Diego in lieu of $100,000 bail pending a preliminary hearing or indictment by a federal grand jury.
Schmitt’s order came after Lujan was arraigned on charges of illegally dumping petroleum products on public land. Violation of the federal statue carries a maximum penalty of one year in custody and a $100,000 fine.
20 years ago
The Central Union High School Spartans brought home the bell, captured the first Cal Jones Trophy and took the Imperial Valley League championship with a 4-0 record.
So what’s left for the Spartans to do?
Spartan fans hope the team can win the whole cotton-pickin’ thing, the whole section championship, and come home heroes.
But what Central really needs to do is concentrate on its first-round opponent in the Southern Section Division VII playoffs. That opponent is the Desert Valley League’s Cathedral City. The Lions tied for second in the DVL with a 3-2 record, good enough for an at-large playoff bid.