Li'l Amby Schindler turns 100 this Friday

Schindler, a Trojan Living Legend  turns 100 this Friday,  the  21st of April. Unless he is packed in a freezer, he is the last one still alive from the Howard Jones' led Trojans teams of the 30's. He had kept in touch with his family after football, whether on the phone or in person. He has called the Trojan Athletic Office when a mate had departed.
   The Golden Boy from San Diego can now rest since  his mates have now gone to another gridiron, this one in heaven. The San Diego Caveman quarterbacked the teams of 1936, 37, and 39. The 38 and 39 teams beat Duke and Tennessee in the Rose Bowl games, and no small achievement. Both southern teams had not given up any points during their respective seasons
    But the credits to the development of the greatest athlete to come out of San Diego must go to his Mom Nellie, who cooked her only son into a piece of dynamite. And it just could have been her  roast beef sandwiches that helped "Li'l Amby" capture the hearts of Lucy. He had met her in study hall and luckily for him, he became a good hoofer on the dance floor thanks to years of dancing lessons. Besides these lessons, he received piano ones also and also a permit to attend San Diego High School under the great Hobbs Adams. .
    At San Diego, he lettered in three sports, basketball, track and of course football. So good in track, he won every event at a track meet. Another kid marveled and wished to become a football player. During practices at Balboa Field, another kid could not get over the athleticism of Schindler. The tall thin kids name was Gregory Peck who went out for J.V. football one year. Since Peck could not become another Schindler he opted to join the glee Club  and participate in a school play.
  Three events steered him into becoming a football player.   The great Red Grange or Galloping Ghost barnstormed into San Diego as a Chicago Bear to play a team of U.S. C graduates along with  the great George Wilson.  And who could forget the times he stole his way into Balboa Stadium to watch "Cotton" Warburton run  like a rabbit. The third one was a tall rangy kid who built a plane where the San Diego airport his today. His name was Charles Lindbergh. 
  He was awarded the player of the game in the 1940 Rose Bowl,  and the Collegiate Player of the game after the Chicago All Star game in 1940, besting  Nile Kinneck, the Heisman winner for 1939.
  We study a kid who never knew what idle time was. . The only time he cried was when his Dad's Garage folded during the depression and the family had to work and pitch in to stay alive.  He and his Dad sold manure they picked up to sell to the nurseries, and fresh water to the trainers at the race track across the border. Like many kids, he helped out by giving his earnings from a paper route.


      A special thanks goes to Claude Zachary who allowed me to do research in the  document room. In a letter he wrote to me it partly read, "Mr. Garrett has produced a very interesting work, which documents an important period of U.S. C history, and would like to see the book published." 

     I can be reached at (714) 818-9965 for those who need an after dinner speaker who also plays one hell of a piano. He will show a clip of Schindler running, provide a  slide show presentation and also read from two chapters of the Schindler Story,  that took nine years to write.