Coasters’ Rosso still racking ‘em up at age 87

Ray Rosso, former grid chief at Orange Coast College, 1948-55, who

directed Chaffey College to a Junior Rose Bowl victory in the mid-40s

over Cameron of Oklahoma, will chalk up his 87th birthday Friday.

Rosso, who coached other sports at OCC, such as golf, tennis and

sailing for years, will just enjoy a quiet birthday on Friday, the

big celebration will arrive on his wife Jean’s birthday Aug. 20. He

said that’s when the family group will salute the birthdays this year

and the Rosso’s 60th wedding anniversary (held in March).

Although Rosso excelled in football at the University of

California, Berkeley, he and his wife came to meet when she was

attending USC in Los Angeles. They had three children, daughter Tina

and two boys, Dave and Bob.

One of the recent highlights for Rosso arrived in November of 2001

when his championship Orange Coast football team celebrated its 50th

anniversary on campus. Many of the former ’51 players attended the

grand event.

Rosso, who was born in Turin, Italy in 1916, came to the U.S. with

family in 1920 after his dad, Battista (Bob), grew weary of some

union problems and the new rule of a dictator named Mussolini.

Asked why his dad took the family from New York to the West Coast,

that was simple, Rosso explained. His dad had a sister living in San

Francisco.

In time, the family moved to Lafayette near Oakland where the

Rosso boys grew up. He had one brother named Ed, who went on to play

football and basketball before joining the Navy. He also chose to

attend Cal-Berkeley, then became a landscape architect.

Rosso said the real story out of the family’s arrival to the U.S.

was how it traveled 3,000 miles by train from New York to San

Francisco and the non-English spreading Italians never spoke one word

of English during the entire train ride.

“Somehow things worked out,” he said with amusement.

*

Walter Kenton Kelly, 83, a Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Famer, who

died of pneumonia March 6, was given a private service March 11 at

Pacific View Memorial Park. The Air Force played taps and presented

his widow, Lorraine, with an American flag.

Kelly, a captain in t he Army Air Corps during World War II, drew

national headlines once as a co-pilot on a B-24 bomber that used

three bombs to sink a Japanese cruiser in Rabaul Bay, New Britain. He

earned a Silver Star and three Air Medals.

His saddest moment came one morning after doctors kept him in

medical bay while his crew was flying down the air strip for its 11th

mission. He heard a commotion that prompted him to step outside, only

to observe his crew and plane exploding at the end of the runway.

Kelly, a 6-foot-4 athlete in prep days at Newport Harbor High, was

a versatile athlete who demonstrated great talents in football as an

end, basketball as a center and in track and field where he

established a few records, including the discus, hurdles and high

jump.

During prep days, he also did an outstanding job for two summers

as a city lifeguard in Newport Beach.

He later starred in basketball at College of the Pacific, a school

he was attending along with his footballing cousin, Al Irwin, also of

Harbor High.

Kelly, an All-Orange League end for Ralph Reed’s ’36 grid team,

was always popular growing up on the sands of Newport. He was also

popular on the street.

One day, Police Chief Hodgkinson came up to him one day and said,

“Walt, we’ve got to get you into the police department.”

Kelly figured it was worth a try.

Then came the tough part.

Everywhere he drove is patrol car so many of the errant motorists

he stopped “were people I knew. Newport was a small town in those

days,” he explained one day.

He was amused looking back at when he turned in his badge, adding,

“I just couldn’t’ come to grips with giving tickets to people I

knew.”

He and Lorraine had been married 59 years. His daughters are Donna

Gerrick and Karen Newsom while his two grandsons are Skyler and

Zachary Newsom.