Les Vogel Powergliders

03/05/12 - posted by Mike Sullivan

Reading about the Hibernian Pop Warner team and coaches in the early 60's, it brought wonderful memories of my own early athletic experiences with the Powergliders, SF's only entry in the late 1950's. A few things stand out for me: it was my first exposure to kids from from all over the city especially black athletes; you were not guaranteed a uniform as cuts were part of it; our coaches were Irish firemen & cops though Bob Hassing was an insurance salesman; we played a schedule of about 8 games mostly to teams from the Peninsula; I remember playing games against a Hibernian and a PAL team from San Francisco in '59 which we handily won; we practiced in GG park near 9th av on the Sunset side and dressed in the Shamrock Irish bar; somehow I was coerced to play when I was a freshman at SI and remember barely making the weight limit of 135 lbs.; we had a very good team only losing one game to a tough Santa Clara team at Galileo hs.; we played in the first Hawaiian Bowl at Washington High. We were way overmatched and lost by about 21 to the barefoot-playing Hawaiians. Very intimidating!; we had regular publicity in the Chronicle.
It was a wonderful, simpler time. I played 3 years, 57, 58 & 59. It was somewhat of an honor to make the Les Vogel team in those day!