Pat's History

Teen Years (High School Years)
Click here for the following side stories:.. John Hurate....TJ and Pat Go to Jail (kinda).....Upset ... St Jude

My teenage years began when my family moved to Newport Beach in the late summer of 1960. We had just left Lake Tahoe and traveled to Nevada, Missouri and after what seemed like an eternity in the humid heat of a couple of months in the Midwest, my father decided that we needed to be next to the ocean. In the next four years of high school my family will move fourteen times. I still went to only two high schools (Mater Dei and Newport Harbor). We always seemed to be moving cause we didn't come up with enough rent or we had to get out of a beach rental when summer came and move inland for a while. I remember having to do homework several times next to a fireplace or candlelight because we neglected to pay the electric bill. My mother would always remind me that Abraham Lincoln studied that way too and he became president. We often went days with no food too. That hurt as a teenager, cause we're always hungry. I remember being excited about who our president was (Go JFK!).

Summer in Missouri

Nevada, Missouri was where my father's side of the family was from. We went there because my father was out of work and our rich uncle Joe owned a huge construction company and would give him a job. We stayed at Aunt Erma' house (or a name something like that) in which her long driveway was totally made from "Pohl" bricks. These bricks were last made in 1932 and as customary the bricks had a name stamped on them of the company (Pohl). Our ancestors had come from northern Germany where the land was marshy and houses were built on pahls. The people from that area were called pohlmahns but when they migrated to America they dropped the "Mahn or man" Hence the name Pohl. They landed in New Orleans and then worked their way up the river to Missouri. Joe Pohl was a descendent of the brick company owner and built most of the buildings in Nevada, Mo. Of which most were red brick buildings. Imagine a whole town made out of Pohl bricks. I remember when I was there during that short summer I drove around town in his limo and he owned two airplanes which he used to oversee jobs across the state. We flew across the state one day and then back. I even got to fly the plane. I remember I always wanted to fly through the clouds, but Uncle Joe said it wasn't safe in case there was another plane with the same idea. Fly where you have good visibility. One day my brother and me were washing one of Uncle Joe's airplanes and we got in a fight over who got to hold the hose. I remember we were just finishing drinking 6 oz bottles of coke when I squirted him. I saw the look in eye and knew I needed to get away from him quickly. I was running out of the hanger when I remember feeling something hit the back of my head. I fell forward and started screaming and crying. As my father came around the front of the airplane hanger he saw me in face down with two pools of blood on each side of me with more blood gushing out. My brother had thrown the coke bottle at me and it broke on my head. Those 6 oz bottles were pretty tough, so everyone joke while I was at the hospital getting stitched up about what a hard head I had. My brother had pretty much kicked the crap out of me all my life. It would be in my sophomore year where I grew larger than him and he then became my best friend and we never fought anymore. He also went to the Deaf School during high school and lived on campus during the week, so we weren't stuck together everyday. During our stay in Missouri I remember lunches and dinners were huge with like 10 to 12 things to choose from. Lots of veggies and fruits and meats, and desserts. I put on 10 pounds that summer and got up to a whopping 97 pounds to be able to be still the smallest player on the freshman football team at Mater Dei. I also remember fireflies, the public swimming pool was so green with algae you couldn't see the bottom of the pool. The great high dive that I must of did a hundred swan dives off of. We got to sit in the front row of the Catholic Church because it was reserved for Pohls. Uncle Joe built the church. We were big fish in a small pond, that's for sure. But once a California boy always a California boy and we headed back to Newport.

Mater Dei (Freshman year)
When we first moved back to Newport we rented a home right across the street from the swimming pool of the high school. To have something to do I hung around the pool everyday and ended up swimming on a competitive swim team were I met a couple of friends that were influential upon me. I remember the coach was named Neimi and was a pretty famous swim/water polo coach in the area and was real disappointed that I was going out for football at Mater Dei High School. My father being a past coach there was able to get me into the private school. Funny that we were always poor but we had enough money or clout that I could get into private school. My father was a pretty good swimmer in his day, so I guess I got some of my talent from him. I met Tom Whisler, Janet Boetto, Kristy Helmstreet, and John Skwark that late summer. They all went to Newport Harbor High School except for Tom who was in his senior year at Mater Dei. That freshman year he would be my ride into Santa Ana and then my dad would pick me up after practice on his way home from another Catholic school that he was teaching and coaching at. I think it was Pious the 10th. I was the smallest man on the team but I loved football and wasn't afraid to tackle. I was tough to tackle too because of my short legs and having been around football for years with my dad had some special considerations. I do remember the first week of hell week or two a day practices and wearing pads for the first time. In those days there were no Pop Warner or youth programs. Freshman year was your first initiation into the world of football. I can still remember seeing the varsity team with players who had hair on their legs, chest and faces. They looked so big and huge. The schools program in football was second to none. The coach would select about 35 players to take to a football camp. It was a small church across the county with a grass field next to it. The team sleped in the hall and practice on the field. They slept in sleeping bags on the floor and were isolated from all friends and family. This always happened about a week before school started. When school did finally start the first week had initiation week. That's where the seniors paired up with a freshman and hazed them all week which culminated on Friday with a two hour trashing of our bodies by the seniors. Tom was my senior and he didn't take it easy on me. He made me bring whip cream, peanut butter, oil, and all sorts of stuff that he put all over me. We had to bring them food and drinks too. That was the last year Mater Dei allowed the ritual. I remember because in the clean up the varsity QB cut his foot on a piece of glass on the football field which was pretty well trashed from all the activities and mud slinging. I'm sure some legal things about hazing were responsible too. It was a great tradition for the seniors but sucked for the freshmen. By the way that QB would be another impact on my life (but then that's another story. Click here for the John Huarte story). As school started I found out that Mater Dei was a scholastically highly rated school. I struggled to just pass the classes with "C's". I had algebra, Latin, English, religion, history (with Father Rudney - but that's yet another story), and PE. I met Toby Page, James Stillwell, and many other who I can't remember anymore. It was long days from getting over to Tom's house for the car ride and then by the time dad picked me up late after practice was over. I remember some days going without food cause of the low economic going on with our household. my dad had his drinking habits and my mom made sure she had her cigarettes and coffee and prescription drugs first. I know that doesn't sound too good but they were great parents and loved us a lot. They taught us things of real value and we knew they were always there for Mickey and me. After football season I went out for the wrestling team. I remember my first match against a kid who had a tattoo. That was rare for 14 year olds in those days. I won the match but I still remember how scared I was of a guy with a tattoo. When I came back from Christmas Vacation I remember being told I was kicked off the wrestling team cause I didn't attend any of the practices. I didn't know we'd have practices over Christmas Vacation plus Tom was my ride and he didn't go to school when it was closed. I remember my dad saying something to Coach Coury (head football coach and AD) about my getting kicked off. Now remember this is the guy who I mowed his lawn and brought the watermelon money safely home for. He thought I was a really good kid. He was pretty upset about this and then the basketball coach got into it with the wrestling coach (a part-timer) and that was the last year Mater Dei had a wrestling program. I'd like to think it was because of me, but in a Catholic school who brings in more money a championship basketball team or the wrestling team. Nothing against wrestling I still owed my life to it because of the Kit Carson Experience and it's one of the real tough and discipline sports left. I ran track that spring. I ran barefooted because well you know (no money). I wasn't fast enough for sprinting so Coach O'Hara (my freshman football coach) made me run the distance race which was the 1320 (three laps around the track). The varsity ran the mile. My first race I took like fourth place. We had a guy come out the day before named Paul Schley and he won which by the way set a school record of 3:48, because it was the first year that the CIF ran the event. I suffered all season trying my best to beat the record, and finally in the league "C" finals I came through. ("C" was for little guys. Everyone was weighed, height taken, age, and year in school all added up to place you in C, B, or Varsity status. In the finals even seniors were allowed to dropped down to C class if they were small enough. I placed 5th in the league and broke the school record. I ran 3:46. At the end of the year track banquet I heard all the school record holders called out by Coach O'hara, but my name was left off. I went to Coach O'Hara after the banquet asked why I was not mentioned. He explained that it was because I took 5th and only had one stopwatch on me. You have to take first to count as a school record where they have three watches on your time. I was really bummed out. My girlfriend for the freshman year was a girl named Maureen Tobin. I can still remember going to an away varsity football game that year and we held hands under the blanket in the bleachers right next to her parents who took us. I went home that night and couldn't sleep. I was so in love and happy, I just couldn't close my eyes. But at the end of the school year I did my usually break up with who ever I was with. It was something about being free during the summer months that moved me in that direction.

Mater Dei (Sophomore Year)
My sophomore year at Mater Dei was much more different. For one, Tom Whisler had graduated and I had no ride to school. Between my mom driving me sometimes and taking the bus I made it work. My girlfriend was Cookie Dawson. Click here for some photos of the time period. I met her at the skating rink and thought she was just the cutest little blond girl I had ever seen. I remember once I was working out at the football field and saw her walk by. I thought that was odd. Then later I realized that she came by to see me. It was super love all over again. I was dancing in the clouds about this. Eventhough we went to different high schools we had a great year together. However my sophomore football season was a disaster. While I played both ways on the freshman team, the second year had me only playing defense at my rover spot (an outside linebacker) Like I said earlier I learned young in football that tackling is 10 percent skill and 90 percent desire. I was good at it. While I thought I was the best rover on the team, we had a freshman brought up to the "B" team or sophomore team. He was extremely talented. Fast and big. Good looking type from Laguna Beach. His problem was that he missed practices and made lots of mistakes on the field. At Mater Dei that's like committing a mortal sin. No one was allowed to start and sometimes not even play if they missed practice. Unfortunately for me we had a new sophomore coach that year by the name of Coach Baines. He's was a former player for Coach Coury and also had a fiancee who had a little brother who was a freshman football player at Mater Dei. Did I mention that coach's girlfriend lived in Laguna Beach. This guy was allowed to still play eventhough he missed a lot. Anyway I sat the bench a lot that year which is extremely hard for any athlete. I know it builds character and I acquired a great deal of it that year. Fortunately he screwed up enough in games that I got into play about half the time. Still not enough time for me. The sophomore team went undefeated that year but not the varsity like it did the year before and won the CIF Championship. So we almost didn't even have a banquet that year. So goes the varsity team so goes the year. I remember once not getting into a game at all. We won the game very handily and not even getting in to play was unususal. Since I was always consider first string and that game a lot of the reserves got to play I was kind of overlooked. My dad watched the game and was furious. He mentioned something to Coach Coury who in return said something to Coach Baines, who in return asked me why I didn't come up to him during the game and asked to be put in. That would be something a son of a coach would never consider doing. It was just an awful year except being the one year I got to play on an undefeated football team. I did have a practice game with our team against my dad's team at Pious X. He must of told the guys to go after me because I got knocked out and don't remember much of the afternoon. During my first two years of high school my closest friend was John Skwark. We lifted weights together in his garage and went to the roller skating rink every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It was my passion and the only place my parents would allow us to go out to. But John was getting into drinking beer. His dad stored it in cases in the garage. I told him that I wasn't into that and I saw what it did to my dad. If we were going to hang out that won't be one of the things we would be doing. He chose an alternate path (but that's another story). At school I became friends with a Toby Paige (later a USC QB) and a guy from Newport named Terry Moran (TJ). We ran track together. He played basketball. Because he was tall and big he had to run varsity and I ran in the "B" division. I dropped down to"C" division for the finals. I almost didn't attain the school record that year, because I got mononucleosis and missed school for over a month. I was on a revenge mission from not getting it my freshman year. When I came back some other kid (Pena) had already broken the record and was easily beating me. I had a couple of weeks to get back into shape and TJ and I started training together. I still remember the pier to pier run in the sand barefooted. That would be Newport Pier to Huntington Beach Pier. A very long run. Remember, I ran barefooted, but my sophomore year one of the parents felt sorry for me and bought me a pair of spikes. I tried several races with wearing them, but never could do very well. Finally I ran barefoot again and beat Pena. I did finally beat the school record on the last dual meet of the year. I had to because in league finals I wasn't going to come in first place to make it official (3 watches). Click here for the St Jude Story. In the finals I pulled a hamstring and finished like in fifth place again. I went into spring football training limping a lot and didn't do so well. It was two weeks long and I wasn't very impressive and still little in size. This was varsity football and I wasn't living up to the Mater Dei Monarch's level of excellence. We couldn't tackle because pads weren't allowed in spring practice. Coach Coury said he would take me to football camp in the autumn because I was my dad's son. But I had already felt the burnout of that sophomore year. I didn't want to return to Mater Dei and I didn't want to play football anymore. I wanted to switch to Newport Harbor and we as usual were always short on money. There was not tuition at Newport like there was at Mater Dei. That entire year my girlfriend was Cookie Dawson who went to Newport and even though I did the normal end of school break up I still was headed to Newport. TJ and I stayed close that summer and body surfed a lot everyday. Even though we were going to separate schools we still remained good friends. We're even close friends today (2011) but that's another story. We also worked at Snack Shop Junior as dishwashers. A job that no matter how awful it was made all the other jobs in our life seem easier and better. We both can remember when we went to see our boss to ask for a raise and ended up begging for our jobs back. We wanted a raise from a dollar a hour to $1.10.

Newport Harbor (junior year)
We I started going to Newport I was totally bored to death. Football had been a part of me my entire life. I remember watching my dad play football at LA State when he was 37 years old and had come back from the war on the GI Bill. The he coached and I always seemed to be tagging along with him. The players would all tease my as little pohl but I loved playing football. I played as a small child in my front yard with the neighbor kids. In sixth, seventh, and eight grade as flag or touch football. My freshman and sophomore years at Mate Dei. My dad would make me and my brother stand at attention during the Army - Navy Game each year. Then all of a sudden I come into my Junior year with no meaning. I didn't do all the training that I did in July and August that year like I usually did. When September came and football players around the country were busting their balls practicing I was going home after school got out at 3:00 pm. What's an athlete suppose to do during the afternoon. I just remember it was horrible and awful. I was really depressed.I did watch Soupy Sales though. My only friend John who was drinking himself into oblivion. I had another new girlfriend named Sharon Beach. She was only 13 but a real looker and a great body. Looked much older than 13. Again it was through the skating rink I met her. Who knew she would end up being the first Mrs. Pohl. I can remember really hitting bottom that faithful autumn when I was picked last in PE class. I can remember sitting while the student captains picked teams for touch football. Since no one knew me I was still not picked when it got to the last two students. Me and really fat kid. I remember pleading with God, not to be picked last. When the fat kid got chosen over me the last captains joked by saying we play with one less. I was on my lowest point in life. This story I use to tell my students during team picking time in my classes when I was a PE teacher and I developed a way that this humiliation would never be carried on in my class. I used a secret draft method that no one who knew who was picked first or last. All my students enjoyed the humor of how I told this story over and over. Anyway back to being picked last in PE class. I may have been picked last but I had just finished playing two years of tackle football at one of the nations elite high school football programs. The team that picked me didn't know what they were getting. I know I boasting here but let me tell you there is a difference in PE football and Mater Dei football. Let alone being the son of a coach and my all time favorite sport. Anyway in was in a matter of days before I did enough touchdown runs, interceptions, blocked people on their asses, and totally dominated the PE class. Fortunately for me again the PE teacher was Coach Hughes who was the varsity football coach. Unfortunately Newport was currently 0-4. He asked me why I didn't play football and I told him I had at Mater Dei the last two years. His eyes light up and he asked why I didn't come out for the team. I replied that I thought when you changed schools you had to sit out one year. He said that wasn't true and to show up after school for practice. Boy was I happy again. I was getting back in the saddle. Putting on a football uniform again. I went to practice that day and saw a big difference in programs between my two high schools. But I didn't care. I was back on the field making tackles. The first game I played in was a JV game which were played on Mondays for the Varsity players who didn't get to play much. This weeks game was cross town rival Costa Mesa. I watched most of the game from the bench but notice the players were pretty good. Especially our QB. Phil Spiller was our starting QB and Coach Hughes and put in a lot of varsity players to make sure we won. I wasn't impressed with that move at all. But I was learning the plays and understanding the defenses. The next week I played pretty well and John Skwark told me that I was the talk throughout the bleachers that day. A transfer from Mater Dei was living up to all the hype. In those first practices I met a player named Terry Lorentzen. Terry would go on to be my best life long friend of all time (but that's another story, heck, that's another novel in itself). Terry and I were inseparable and are still close friends today. Some how Coach Hughes got me into enough games to letter varsity that year. I was so proud when my parents bought me the Letterman jacket. I wore it all the time. I didn't go out for track that year because the school was building a new stadium and practices were held at another high school in the area. I did start doing the off season stuff one has to do to be successful at the sport of football. But to my surprise the school didn't have such a program. I would just go out on my own and run bleachers and sprints on the field by myself. I can still remember watching all the students getting out of school and walking home. How boring I thought. I was glad I had a mission now and was back into football. One day while I was running bleachers, the wrestling team came out to do the same. Terry Lorentzen was a good wrestler and asked me what I was doing. I told him I was training for football. He said it's March. I know but at Mater Dei it was a year round program. He said that this was the last week of wrestling and then he would join me the next week. Then there was two of us. Before we got to spring practice that year we had over 40 students training with us. We kept it up through the summer months while our coach sailed his boat to Hawaii. I never remember Coach Coury sailing to Hawaii. Just always working for the team. Anyway we didn't need a coach we had each other. I got to know more guys and all the working out must of helped. TJ and I still stayed in contact and we had a great experience one night in the City of Orange Police Station (another orange story)

Newport Habor (Senior Year)
Sharon was still my girlfriend. Her family had kind of adopted me. I ate alot over at their house and put on some weight finally. I was up to a 160 lbs my senior year. I was the only boy her father would allow her to go out with which is why she probably kept me as a boyfriend. We started off 2-0 before losing close ones to two other schools. I was starting both ways (running back and defensive back) We then got blown out by Santa Ana High School who had just lost the week before to Anaheim High School who was ranked nationally and hadn't lost an game in years. If fact I had gotten a lot of the players to go watch that game a week before when Anaheim played Santa Ana. I think the psyche of Anaheim won the game that week. I also think that our guys were psyched out by Santa Ana. They probably should have won that game. We were now going to play Anaheim and to make things worse it was their homecoming game. (I'm sure they picked us for this game because we were such a horrible team) Anyway because of a mix up in scheduling, Anaheim had to rent our brand new stadium to have their homecoming game. So we sat on the visitor's side and they got our side. The lowest prediction in the sports new was 45-0. Everyone thought it would be worse than that. We had lost games for weeks and we were getting frustrated as a team. The day before the game we had a light practice and went to watch the water polo game with Anaheim. We may have had a bad football team but we were great at water polo and tennis. Anyway our team won and as we were leaving the game, the varsity football team from Anaheim had come down to support their water polo team (probably to go to the beach had they had been given the day off. They were only playing Nepwort. Come on' how could Anaheim lose to Newport) They starting telling us that they would get revenge tomorrow night on the field. One of our players Jeff Pierose answered back by saying we'll kick your asses tomorrow night on our field. I thought we might not have enough to back him up but we all joined in with the heckling. Suddenly something began to grow inside of us. (click here for the biggest upset ever). We finished the year 4-5 losing to our cross town rival Costa Mesa. I played with a broken hand and I gotten on the last day of practice, but didn't tell anyone cause it was my last game. It was good that of the four victories we had beaten three league champions showing the strength of the Sunset League that year in Football. Also President Kennedy got shot and growing into manhood was not easy. Sharon Beach was still my girlfriend and would so be my teenage wife. I ended my high school athletic career by going out for track. Coach Haley, a biology teacher was another great influence on me and had me running anything from the 220 to the 880. It was here where I became friends with Frank Marshall who would go on to produce and direct many successful Hollywood movies. Just Google him if you want to be blown away. I got Terry to go out for track and he hated it. I made friends with Jack Fergurson, Wade Pearson, Jeff Pierose, John Weber, and many more Newport boys. At the end of the year they selected the top ten athletes. A honor that bypassed me I believe unfairly. If fact I didn't even make the top 25 senior athletes luncheon. These oversights really hurted me. Coach Haley told me that he fought for me to be selected buy Coach Hughes said I didn't deserve it because I hadn't gone to Newport all four years. I did get my first real medal. Our track 880 relay team took fourth at the varsity league finals. Which surprised us. We had only won one relay all season. I guess with all the athletes dropping down to "B" and "C" class for the upcoming CIF meets we slipped in there. I remember standing on the podium looking at the medal, thinking this was the first physical award I had ever received in my high school ahtletic career. I also won the track team most improved player that year. Another first. I was still pretty bummed out about the 10 and 25 athlete thing though. The politics of being a transfer I guess. Anyway the motivation from being overlooked did help me to try harder at the next level and get revenge by being successful at my college career days. My senior year had a couple of tough classes (Chemistry, thanks Mr. Smith my favorite teacher of all time) and some easy classes (ceramics and mechanical drafting). I ended up passing everything. After graduation I was still pondering the hitchhike around the United State plan. There were two things that changed my mind. First my mom informed me when I turned 18 (April 30th) as a family tradition, I would have to start paying rent. I said, "Mom, I don't even have a job and I'm still in school". She told me that was my problem. The month of May's rent could be late until I got a job in June. I hated her for this but as it turns out it was the best thing she ever did for me. (And I don't remember Mickey getting handed that ultimatium) The second thing was we had a senior day where we met with junior college counselors from the local junior college and they help us make a plan for the future. I told him about the hitchhiking plan and he laughed. He suggested college and to register just in case I changed my mind. He asked me what my favorite subject inn school was and I jokingly told him "Recess". He laughed and said that I should consider becoming a PE teacher. It made me think. He asked me what class I really did like and I said science. He suggested that I take classes that would allow me to teach science, be a PE teacher and coach. I thought to myself, well my dad was a coach and I always like his students coming around and hanging at the house. It seemed like something I'd always pictured myself doing as I was growing up. I would observe my teachers throuhout the years and remember things that they did in teaching that I might use someday when I became a teacher. I graduated in 1964. Instead of going to grad night, we drove out to my brothers graduation in Riverside, Ca. for his graduation. Then we returned late that night and I caught up on some of the last moments of grad night. I can still remember going to Disneyland that week with Sharon and having to go directly to my new job the next morning with no sleep. Tom Whisler had gotten me the job delivering beauty supplies to beauty salons. What a job for an eighteen year old kid. Tom was training me that week and he had just come back from Tijuana and had no sleep either. I remember driving down the 5 freeway though San Clemente and what I thought was just a brief blinking of my eyes. I had fallen asleep and driven about a mile or so with my eyes closed. I know then that God has definately kept an eye out for me my whole life (but again that's more stories). Anyway it was a great summer of learning the roads of Orange County. I had also decided on something else. College. I was enrolled in courses for the fall at Orange Coast College. By the way OCC had just won the National Junior College Football Championship. It was very unlikely a kid from Newport Harbor could compete with that kind of competition. But you know me and St Jude. (thanks mom) But again that's another story, here lets move on to the college days.....