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BY FRED L. ELDRIDGE Lawrence G. Thome, 81-~Coach Thome to hundreds of Coronans whose physical education and athletic training were conducted under his supervision-had it a little easier his second year of em ployment by the city school system. He went to work in 1924 with the title of ‘“‘city supervisor of physical education and head coach of Corona High School.”’. In 1925 the powers that be told him he could have C. A. “Chick” Vaile, who is still raising citrus in the Temescal Canyon, as an assistant coach. Thome taught school and coached for about four years before he came here, and then retired from the Corona schools after 40 more years of service. He coached football, basketball, baseball, track and tennis during those early years, the first year with no assistance whatsoever. His most famous product was Jess Hill, later a star fullback at USC, holder for years of the ICAAAA record in the broad jump, a regular outfielder for the New York Yankees during their golden years, track and later football coach at USC, who was succeeded by John McKay as USC’s athletic director. Other Coronans whom Thome remembers fondly for re: Bob Rawson-“‘Jess Hill said he was the greatest football player for his weight (152 pounds) he ever saw;”’ Claude Kilday, now a New York City tennis professional; Hovis Bess, superintendent of schools at Yorba Linda; Monte Nutter, retired business manager of the Corona- Norco Unified School District; Bud Langley,a four-letter man, and Art “Mut’’ Powers, a five letter man. Thome has lost track of the last two. During—the—early—days,—male students on Corona athletic teams did their dressing and cleaning up in a small wooden shack on Buena Vista with a head and one cold shower stall. The football field was dirt, the dirt, however, giving way to rocks. That was fixed up after a fashion and fenced in 1928 and 1929 when the Great Depression started. ‘‘The Public Works Administration (PWA) was “looking -for projects to give employment,” he said, ‘‘and I spent the summer of 1928 supervising a work crew which dug all the rocks out of the football field. We hauled them away in wheelbarrows.” Asked to compare high school football coaching today with how it was when he was coach at Corona High, Thome said: “Everything has changed. It is all different. The relationship between players.and .coaches_,has_.changed, perhaps for the better. I couldn’t coach today. I’ve had former players of mine tell me that, and it’s true. “When I was coach,” he continued, “I told a player to do something and he did it, no questions asked. Today coaches explain why they want players to do what they are told to do. In my day, we didn’t have time to go into a lot of explanations. I tried to be fair, not much time for anything else. How many coaches today coach five sports?” he asked. ‘““You know,” he added, ‘‘we didn’t have 30 or 40 kids trying out for football. We usually had 15 or 18. One day a while back Jess Hill said to me: ‘Coach, how were we able to scrimmage during practice?’ “Why, I told him, we would put the right side of the line on defense in ‘front of the left side of the line for one play, then we would put ‘the left side of the line in front of the right side for a play. That’s the way we practiced. There was no platooning of offensive and defensive teams anywhere in those days, like there is today.” Like Vaile, Thome has been in volved in the citrus business here for many years, and the two of them once owned the controlling interest in the Corona Clipper Co. Thome served four years on the Corona City Council, during one of which he was Corona’s mayor. He made the motion which resulted in the urban redevelopment project that bulldozed down the downtown retail business section of Corona, replacing it with today’s Corona Mall, and he was a member of the council that voted to purchase the old Corona High School which is now Civic Center. “Am not very proud of the urban renewal vote anymore,’’ he said, “but buying the old school was one of the smartest things. Coronans ever did. When we voted for urban renewal,’ he continued, ‘“‘we never realized how long it would take to finish the project. If it could have been finished in a couple of years, there probably wouldn’t have been a shopping center at Main and Ontario or the one north of the railroad track or the two located east and west on Sixth. At least they wouldn’t have been built before The Mall had a good He conceded, however, that’ The Mall is a community asset. Thome, a former Corona Rotary president, and former master of the Masonic Lodge, was recently honored by Rotary when the direc tors unanimously voted to send future contributions to the Rotary Foundation establishing Paul Harris fellowships in Lawrence Thome’s name. That was a first for Corona Rotary. He has been involved in numerous other activities, is a solid 6’1” tall at 200 pounds. He has hands like Virginia hams, he’s getting a little thin on top, but has only been seriously ill once in his life. His doctor, he says, told him then that “the only reason I ‘lived through it was because I’d never in my life touched a drink or smoked a cigarette.” That was 16 years ago when some blood clots entered his lungs, and for a while it was touch and go. He still plays golf regularly. LAWRENCE G. THOME Jess Hill his best
Newspaper Details
Corona Daily Independent
Corona, California, US
Mon, Dec 15, 1975
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Tom R.
CA, USA 31 May 2026
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