bluorca
I believe the"remember the Titans" guys were in 1972. Also, I believe St. Paul was #1 in the nation that year. Then again I may have "no clue"

I think what has to be said was the Big Five (4AAAA) 1975-1985 had five great leagues that represented the best from the IE, LA and OC. There was the Sunset (Edison, Fountain Valley), Angelus (St. Paul and Amat), Citrus Belt (Fontana, Redlands and Colton), Sierra 1972 through 1982 (Los Altos, West Covina, South Hills) which was replaced by the Moore league in 1983 and Del Rey (Loyola and St. John Bosco). There was not a weak sister in the bunch. Each league could send teams to the semis or finals each year.

I know it is past history, but the conference really was the best that SoCal had and for the period of time was strong from top to bottom. I remember when the Angelus League would rotate in and out (Pius X –defunct, Bishop Montgomery and Serra) and they would go 0-5, but they often would be 5-0 or 4-1 against 3AAAA teams. Pius X is somewhat like those guys from J Serra in the OC with all of 300 students playing huge Catholic schools 10 times their size. Why?? There really was a difference between 4AAAA and 3AAAA in the old days.

I do, however, remember when Redlands (Beast from the East) went to Anaheim for the 4AAAA final and got smacked down by Edison (#1 in the nation) 55 – 0. I guess that year the Sunset really was that good. While we are getting nostalgic, does anyone remember the South Hills/St. John Bosco 1974 4AAAA final at the Coliseum? It was the fog bowl as you could not see the players, but South Hills won and I think ended up ranked #3 in the nation behind the “Remember the Titans� guys. I think.

on blue

I was just a kid back then but you guys on that 86 team were awesome. We were so proud of you all when you marched onto the field. That team had like 84 players. That sea of blue was freakin cool. Ya'll will always be champions in our book.

Dan

Its not that they won a lot of titles its more like they were always in the playoffs and they had good teams drawn from the local population. They sent many a player to play Division 1 ball year after year regardless of how far they went into the playoffs. They were both home grown football farms so to speak.

Here is a link to Ike's accomplishments...Fo-hi's site is down for obvious reasons.

http://ikefootball.org/recordsaccomplishments.html

It's not that Ike won a lot of championships but they were a pesky bunch of skilled players that were ALWAYS in the playoffs. Amat and Ike used to bang heads all the time back then.

This is no knock on Fontana & Eisenhower they were great teams but what makes them stand out from other So Cal powers like Poly, Mater Dei
Edison, Loyola, Amat, St Paul, Los Altos, etc.
Fontana won two CIF titles & had a couple of other apperances. Ike has 1 title & 1 or 2 other apperances, many other teams can match or surpass
those feats. I did notice that IKe had an impressive margin of victory in their title game.
I'm just curious as to why Oaks Christian was compared to these two teams over all the other dynasties.

Bluorca, I was on that '86 team that got beat at Ike. We went into that game thinking that we had it in the bag. We were shocked to see so much speed on the field. Our team was loaded and we were #5 in the nation at that time. From that '86 team 7 guys went to D1 programs and 4 made it to the NFL while one made it to the MLB. I still look back and wonder how the hell we lost that game. It was a Sad Sad day.

Oaks Christian will be good for years! Absolutely. That's what happens when people recruit! They have plenty of money and x pro athletes backing them up. They will be good for a long time.

I remember the Fontana teams of 1974-79. South Hills would occasionally run into them in the CIF 4A playoffs. Very strong teams. At that time there was nothing else to do in fontana but play or watch football and go shooting rifles out your back door or chase jack rabbits. One loyal Fontana fan told me that you had to arrive at least 2 hrs before game time if you wanted a seat.

Great Story however, back when the CBL was a force, the argument was always that those schools had far too many students in them. If you could not find 22 great football players out of 5000 students, something was wrong with the coaching staff. OC in comparison has somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 students or about 15% of the size of one of those schools and for them to assemble a team that good says alot for the coaching staff. With that said, if you put OC in one of the leagues in the Pac 5 this year, I do not think that they go undefeated.

By the way, where is the CBL now? They have dropped out of the top division despite still having some of the largest schools in SoCal. Fontana still has 4100 kids and they have not won a football game in 2 years. Congrats to all the programs who have been winning for over 25 years.

War Amat winning 2 league games and going to the playoffs in a down year.

Good comparison, I remember the Fontana and Eisenhour teams and they were power houses. Once Fontana opened up a couple of ned schools the talent got watered down. I think Oaks Christian will be strong for some time being a private school. Heck the Freshman running back behind Tyler is a stud and in 2 years you will be looking at one of the top recruits in the nation again. Exposure like this keeps the talent coming and being private they can come in from all over.

I remember the glory days of the CBL and how everyone hated to have to play Fo-hi and Ike. Redlands always fielded good teams but never had the firepower of the other two. These 3 teams used to beat up on everyone else in their league and I remember schools going in and out of the CBL "doing their time." I remember feeling sorry for Victorville, Hesperia, and Apple Valley when they were sentance to the CBL for a couple of years. These little high desert schools got slaughtered. This was in the late 80s early 90's.

The first time I saw Ike was in 1986. I was just a wee lad and Amat had this awesome team that was supposed to win the Big-5 title that year. The Big-5 was what Division 1 used to be called back in those days. The only thing I knew was that Ronnie Lott was from Ike and my step dad assured me that this was going to be a tougher game than everyone thought. I hated Ronnie Lott because he was a 49er and I was raised and still am a Rams fan. Anyways, Amat fans LOVED this team. And let me tell you...they were a sight to behold! Amat had this RB Eric Bienemy(colorado,chargers,bengals) who was breaking all kinds of records and running over everyone. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Bienemy for more info on this Amat and U. of Colorado Legend. This 11-0 Lancer team met Ike at Ike in the 2nd round playoffs and got shut down, Bienemy and all, 14-7. I still remember the shock of the Amat crowd when the game ended and many people had tears in their eyes. I remember seeing 2 nuns actually crying at that game. NUNS WERE CRYING ARAM! It was AWFUL!

Justrab gave a perfect description of how the other teams in the Big-5 viewed these CBL schools. They were feared but it was Fo-hi that was hated. Fo-hi was indeed described as being "corn fed" "good ol' boys" and yeah, the KKK was also thought to be a presence (I REMEMBER THE GRAFFITI TOO! HAHAHAA!). The entire city used to show up at the games. Fo-hi had so many fans that they used to take up almost half of the visitor section as well as their own (this was one reason why there where many fights that broke out at these games). And they have a pretty huge stadium too. And if Fo-hi was playing Ike it was usually for the league championship and you could expect no less than 15,000-20,000 people to show up. It was normal for a visiting team to have to be escorted out of Fontana by the police because Fo-hi fans were simply fanatically brutal. And you thought Amat fans were bad! haha!

This fan violence happened to the Amat players in 1988. That year, Amat had to play at Fo-hi in the 2nd round playoffs and Amat won in OT when Dick Bruich opted to go for the 2 pt. conversion and failed. An awesome victory for the Lancers but as they were leaving the school grounds, Fo-hi fans started throwing rocks and bottles at the bus. The Amat players had to duck in the bus but everyone was ok once the police showed up to escort them out of the city limits. My family and I as well as all of the Amat fans, got the $%#%* out of there in a hurry.

I also remember watching Fo-hi play San Gorgonio that year that was mentioned in the article. The game was televised though I dont remember what channel it was on. San Gorgonio had this HUGE OL. Every lineman was over 6ft 2 and weighed at least 275lbs. Fo-hi's line was huge too. As a matter of fact, all those CBL teams had huge lines because they all played smash mouth football. They would just run the ball down everyone throats right up the middle and were successful over and over again. I think Fo-hi won that game 21-0 and I hated them for it. Everyone hated the Steelers of Fo-hi! haha!

Man that was one hell of an era and one hell of a monopoly those schools had on the local talent. Then AB Miller was created followed by Rialto and then Redlands East Valley and BAM! The CBL was never the same. I dont think we will ever see such a monopoly of talent ever again in Southern California. And I mean a true monopoly with no recruiting. Oaks Christian "bought" their team by aggressive recruiting and no matter how well they do now or in the future, they will never match the spectacle that was once the great CBL.

Good Luck to the Steelers, the Eagles, and the Terriers this year and forever!

That was a great article on the old Citrus Belt League! It made me feel nostalgic!

I went to Gladstone High School and I had the pleasure of watching some excellent Montview League teams like Charter Oak in 85. The league was actually pretty good back then. At that point in time in my young life, that was the best football team that I had ever seen. They steamrolled everyone!

That being said, I moved out to Fontana in the late 80s and I quickly realized that those Fontana and Eisenhower teams were at a completely different level. Almost all those kids were big, fast, and skilled. I almost felt like I was watching a college football game. And I believe many of those kids went on to play college football. In addition, the fans were so intense, which made for an incredible environment to watch these games. It was the I.E.'s version of Friday Night Lights. You had to wear a comfortable pair of shoes and be prepared to stand; because, the season ticket holders at Steeler Stadium had purchased many of the seats (Yes, they had season tickets at Fohi). I could not believe it! But, I really did not mind standing and watching those teams play; because I knew I was seeing something special. Those were some great CBL teams!

SD-Lancer,

I have no clue about the Fontanas and Eisenhowers of that era. I've heard lots of great stuff, but I was too young to really pay attention back then. Obviously, Oaks Chr. is impressive. I wonder if they'll be this great for 10 years. I wonder they'll go on a prolonged run. You wonder about what's coming up in the pipeline. It's probably good because of Redell.
If you're talking about quality of athlete between then and now, then yes, there's no comparison. The current athletes are far more advanced in terms of strength, conditioning and nutrition. It really shows.

Hey Aram, here we go again. Its a great aricle, but its like comparing apples with oranges when comparing the different generations of high school football. Don't you think?

The CBL really was scary in the 70’s and early 80’s. I played at Amat, but we only did not play Fontana and Redlands when they simply were flat-out scary. I do remember driving out East for some games with IKE down the 10 past that old drive-in with the giant graffiti with KKK Land.

We thought of Fontana HS as corn-fed Nebraska types. They really had an environment like Aliquippa (PA) or as depicted in the movie “All the Right Moves� as the whole town/city of Fontana came to the games. My brother played at West Covina in the 70’s when they used to schedule Redlands and Fontana in pre-season and I recall him sitting in ice all day Saturday. The IE was simply a different world in those days with the mix of speed and size. I think that Fontana had something like 5,000 students. They should have been 5AAAAA, but there was no division large enough for them.