“Jefferson High School was our cross town rival in all sports. In October 1968, when the football game between Jeff and Westmoor was to be played, a few senior students decided that a symbol of school spirit should somehow be shown. This meant the tradition of putting a huge “W” on San Bruno Mountain.

It was a typical Friday morning, so foggy you couldn’t see ten feet in front of you. The logistics had already taken place on Thursday evening. The plan was to liberate enough lime (the chalk-like substance that was used to line fields) to make a “W” so large that it could be seen for miles. Of course, we were students with hardly any money, so the only way to obtain the lime was to steal (I mean liberate) it from the school. That Thursday evening, Mike Milon had a guys’ slumber party in order to get everyone together for the morning assault. In attendance were Nick Nicolas, Steve Roche, Mike Molina and Scott Bimrose. We were met in the morning by numerous other students to help take the lime and make the “W”. First stop was the shed at the football field that housed the lime. The door was locked and chained but this could not stop us. We unscrewed the holding plate and proceeded to form a human passing line to put the 20 or so 50 pound sacks into Nick’s father’s station wagon. Our next stop was Westmoor Park, right behind the tennis courts, where we liberated another bevy of sacks. With the chalk in our possession, we all met at the base of San Bruno Mountain.

Our hopes were high as we drove to the point where we thought we should place the symbol of spirit. It was so foggy that we weren’t to sure if we had the right place, but we started unloading all the chalk and laying out the “W”. Tom Orlich, Rich Polonsky, Aldo Tesi, Charlie Freiberg, Bob Joyce, Don Getchel, Rick Karp, Rick Knobloch, Mario Rizzo, Debbie Shaw, some of the cheerleaders, and a host of others laid out the “W” and then put all the chalk down. Then it was on to Lyon’s for breakfast, and then to school. As the fog burned off that morning, we came to a realization that we had placed the “W” in the wrong place and it could not be seen from the Jefferson High football field.

The game started and we were all laughing at our goof-up. Some other students, and to this day I really don’t remember who they were, went up to the mountain and started putting a new “W” up so it could be seen. The team was actually losing the game for a while. As the “W” started to take form, so did the team, and I think that they actually ended up winning the game.

This is a memory I have never forgotten, except that I am really trying to remember if we won the game or not. I will have to call Dan Montelongo and find out. My Senior year would go on to have many more great memories, but this was one of the best.”

Nick Nicolas
Class of 1969


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