History

Young Chang Artist Mike Tauber laments the fact that in his mere 40 years he's watched the orange groves throughout Orange County all but disappear. He's nostalgic and sad that the landscape has changed but hopeful that the county's citrus heritage won't escape memories that have muddied for those too young to remember. "I think the loss of orange trees represents the passage of time," the Laguna Beach artist said. "What I'm doing is taking oranges for sentimental reasons and bringing them back as art. It changed from agriculture, and now it lives on as art."

The Newport Harbor High football team will play in the school's seventh championship game today at 2 p.m. at Angel Stadium against top-seeded Orange Lutheran, the sixth title game under Coach Jeff Brinkley. The Sailors have won the championship game twice, beating Irvine, 19-18, in 1999 and a 20-15 victory over Servite in 1994. Newport's most recent trip to the big game was in 2000 where Irvine exacted revenge with a 14-0 win. The Sailors also lost the 1992 title game to Irvine, 30-8.

Toshiba Classic organizers are hoping for a Sweet Sixteen when the tournament takes place March 5 to 7 at Newport Beach Country. If the tournament is anything like the first 15 years, everyone should be happy. Argentina’s Eduardo Romero capped it with his 11-under-par 202 victory last year, when he had 17 birdies in his three rounds. Romero, known as “El Gato (the cat),” will try to become the first repeat winner of the Toshiba Classic. That would add to the tournament’s rich history.

Christine Carrillo Hidden behind a red bandanna, black cowboy hat, a big buckled belt and, of course, white Reeboks, Gold Grabbin' Gus added to the mass hysteria of the gold rush that struck Lincoln Elementary School on Thursday. Fourth-graders scoured the field, money-hungry for gold nuggets to fill their personally fashioned satchels -- all in the name of social studies. It was a reenactment of the California Gold Rush of 1848. "It's called experience learning.

Bryce Alderton The Toshiba Senior Classic prides itself on attracting one of the best fields of any PGA Champions Tour event year after year. And players, in turn, almost always rave about everything from the course at Newport Beach Country Club, to the way they are treated, to the bevy of dinner options nearby. The golf, however, never fails to live up to the hype. This championship enters its 11th year, 10th at Newport Beach Country Club, and has already produced three playoffs -- two spanning nine holes in 1997 and 2001.

Barry Faulkner For roughly a decade, the only thing West Coast about the Costa Mesa High football program has been its geographic location. So, while Patrick Hulliger's 12 completions Thursday night in a 48-23 season-opening nonleague triumph over Saddleback didn't exactly stir the BYU recruiters, they did represent a significant aerial watershed in recent Mustang history. They were, in fact, the most completed passes the Mustangs have managed in a single contest since the seventh week of the 1990 season.

Alex Coolman It 1938, John Blaich was reading the Balboa Times when something caught his eye. "It was a contest," the 81-year-old Corona del Mar resident recalled. "You had to identify yachts." Blaich entered the contest, won, and came away $50 richer. He also acquired a new hobby, learning about the details of boats, that would stick with him for the rest of his life. Now Blaich, who has been writing the Daily Pilot's Monday column "Yachts of Yesteryear" for the last 30 weeks, has put his knowledge acquired from a life of loving yachts into a book that will go on sale Tuesday.

Bryce Alderton Walnut High's girls soccer team met its match against Costa Mesa Saturday in the CIF Southern Section Division III final at Cal State Fullerton. But, then again, the same could be said in the reverse order as the two schools dueled to a 0-0 tie at the end of regulation, both sharing the championship in their first CIF title game in girls soccer. Mesa (22-1-3) took home CIF patches and Walnut was awarded the plaque after a coin flip following the final whistle.