Friday Night Heroes: About the Book

A New Classic in the History of California High School Football

The makings of an American football dynasty took shape in 1896 with a first high school football game played amid the rolling farmlands and acres of oil derricks of the San Joaquin Valley of California. The Bakersfield High School Drillers would lead the way in California from the early days of the new phenomenon of high school football, and continue to enthrall fans throughout the 20th century.

Friday Night Heroes: 100 Years of Driller Football will take you through the years of the industrial revolution, the Great Depression, the 1932 Olympics held in California, World Wars and the rise of television and professional football as the country’s most popular spectator sport in this first comprehensive history of California’s best high school football program of the 20th century. Order your copy today!

A Landmark Book

Author Rick Van Horne (see About the Author) chronicles each decade of championship seasons, accompanied by engaging stories from on and off the field. The book contains detailed player, team and season records, and profiles of all the players and coaches that made the Drillers great. More than a decade of research, hundreds of interviews and previously unpublished personal diary excerpts contributed to Friday Night Heroes, including its role as the training ground for Frank Gifford and other later college and professional football greats.

The Legends

The famed rivalries of Bakersfield High that would become the basis for the Hollywood movie, “The Best of Times,” are captured inside the pages of Friday Night Heroes. They are told by an author whose own experiences as a Driller player, coach and father of a third-generation Driller are reflected in the excitement and inside perspectives of each chapter.

Read about Gifford, Marshall Dillard, Theo Bell, Pat Skrable and other famous Drillers, Dwight Griffith and Paul Briggs and other celebrated high school football coaches. For Driller and California high school football fans, a new Hall of Fame is included celebrating the team’s motto: “Once a Driller; Always a Driller.”

A Legacy

For future historians, a portion of the proceeds from each sale will go to the history classes of Bakersfield High School, where recent students compiled many of the historic photographs and records featured in Friday Night Heroes. Your book purchase will support the history program at Bakersfield High.

Chapter by Chapter

Beginning with a foreword and insightful introduction, Friday Night Heroes features 160 pages of words and unforgettable photographs from the earliest days of California’s best high school football program of the 20th century. Decade by decade, season by season, Author Rick Van Horne describes the play-by-play details of the great wins and disappointing losses in games played in Bakersfield, throughout California and in hard-fought contests against out-of-state teams in Arizona and Hawaii.

This comprehensive history of the Drillers, based on 13 years of research, includes seven chapters, a new Hall of Fame, all the records and a listing of Driller Lettermen. Each chapter also includes memorable Q&A sections with former players and coaches and fascinating “Did you know?” highlights.

Included in the season-by-season records and continuing No. 1 rankings are some of these Driller firsts:

California Records

1^st in State: Most All-Time Reported Wins (576): 1897-1996

1^st in State: Most CIF Section Championships (31): 1915-1996

1^st in State: Most Consecutive CIF Championships (10): 1920-1929

1^st in State: Most CIF State Championships (6): 1920-1923

1^st in State: Most Undefeated Seasons (21): 1896-1996

Book Excerpts

From Chapter 1: Birth of a Dynasty:

“In 1908, the first of many legends appeared on campus. Dwight M. Griffith was hired as a teacher and coach. Griffith was the head coach for every sport on campus; however, it was football that came to be Griffith’s first love. For the next 38 years, Griffith blazed a trail to which no other coach in the history of California football could lay claim. During Griffith’s tenure as head coach he led Kern County High (later renamed Bakersfield High School) to 19 Valley championships and seven State championships. His first of seven state titles came in 1916 and the last in 1927. Many people say the reason California did away with State championships was because of Kern County High’s dominance...”

From Chapter 2: The 1940s: War Years

“The year 1944 got off to a late start. The city/county football schedule was not finalized until the first of September. There was debate whether they would play at all, since World War II was still going strong. U.S. troops were storming through France, and football was taking a back seat to what was going on abroad. The ‘43 season was not counted as interscholastic play, but rather considered intramural play. In 1945, California Interscholastic Federation officials decided to go back to interscholastic play despite the war...”

From Chapter 3: Fabulous Fifties

“The 1951 season found the Drillers back in the ‘Big Game,’ the Valley Championship. The Drillers, who finished the season with a 9-2 record, traveled to Radcliffe Stadium in Fresno to take on Fresno High. BHS was a heavy favorite,having beaten Fresno already once that year. Driller quarterback T.H. Lockard turned in the greatest game of his career as he ran 45 yards for one score and passed for two more. On that night, Lockard completed eight passes for 157 yards. End Louis Myles was on the receiving end of both touchdown tosses good for 71 and 50 yards, respectively. The normally grounded Driller attack took to the air that night, as the team hit on 11 of 14 passes for 234 yards. Coach Beatty praised the work of his offensive line featuring Russell Hampton, Ron Barger, Richard Olive, Rex Garner and Don James. It was the 21st Valley title for Bakersfield High...”

From Chapter 4: Decade of the Drillers

“The Dupont Corp. was having a nationwide competition among football coaches on the best football play of 1963. (Famed Bakersfield High Coach Paul) Briggs entered his ‘Screwy Louie,’ described as: ‘Ten men move to one side of the center in a surprise Pearl Harbor attack.’ The ‘Bald Eagle of California Avenue,’ as The Bakersfield Californian referred to him, won the Play of the Year for 1963...”

From Chapter 5: The Rockin’ Seventies

“In the mid-1980s, a film starring Robin Williams and Kurt Russell called the “The Best of Times” was released. The story was about the rivalry between Bakersfield High and Taft High. Many people say the story is based on the 1976 game between the Drillers and the Wildcats at Griffith Field, which Bakersfield High won 19-8...”

From Chapter 6: The Eighties: A New Wave

“As the 1980s rolled around, the Drillers were down but not out. The last four years, including 1980, the Drillers were a combined 20-22 with no SYL championships and only one playoff appearance. Then, a savior appeared in the form of a 6-2, 205-pound running back wearing No. 32. His name was Marshall Dillard, a quiet young man who did his talking with his pads. He was everything a Driller was supposed to be – big, strong and fast. Dillard would rewrite the record books as no other Driller had done to that point. In three years, he would lead the Drillers to a 22-9-1 record and rush for more than 4,000 yards...”

From Chapter 7: Drillers’ Century: The 1990s

“The ‘93 group had no less than six players eventually go on to play professional football at one level or another: Larry Parker, Jeremy Staat, Brett Clark, Steve Wofford, Craig Miller and Brian Walker. The veteran-laced Driller team of 1994 was loaded with talent, as talented as any Driller team of the 1990s. Steve Wofford was now a senior. The two-time state rushing leader was ready to shatter all the record books – school, Valley and even state records. Quarterback Robert Carter was back to provide aerial support. Up front, senior Brett Clark was going to provide all the protection necessary. Throw in returning All-Area kicker and punter Walker and division one prospect Craig Miller, and the Drillers had the makings for another championship season. The Drillers opened the season with three quick wins over unranked opponents, leading to a huge pre-season showdown with perennial L.A. power Bishop Amat. Before the largest crowd ever to see a football game at Bakersfield College, more than 23,000 fans packed Memorial Stadium to see the battle between the two football powers from Southern and Central California. Bishop Amat was ranked No. 1 in the nation by USA Today. Bakersfield fans awaited the match between senior Steve Wofford and Amat’s Daylon McCutcheon, the top two rated running backs in California...”

About Rick Van Horne’s Driller Football Hall of Fame

Author Rick Van Horne – also a former Driller player and coach — created the Driller Football Hall of Fame with profiles of these famed Driller players and coaches:

Burr Baldwin

Homer Beatty

Theo Bell

Paul Briggs

Jeff Buckey

Marshall Dillard

Frank Gifford

Claude Gilbert

Dwight Griffith

Bob Karpe

Jeff Siemon

Pat Skrable

Michael Stewart

Steve Wofford

Louis Wright