History lessons of the Southern Section from John Dahlem

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The Southern Section has its own historian in John Dahlem, and he continues to come up with little-known facts about the section’s prep history.

Among his latest nuggets:

Of the original charter schools in the Southern Section, only one is still in the same league: Redlands High in the Citrus Belt League.

Also, private schools have always been part of the Southern Section, so those trying to kick them out, beware. One of the original charter members was Harvard Military, now known as Harvard-Westlake.

In 1906, Long Beach Poly’s girls’ basketball team beat the boys’ team and afterward, the guys called basketball ‘a sissy sport.’

During World War II, intramural sports were considered more important than the regular sports.

Just a little history courtesy of Dahlem.

-- Eric Sondheimer