born 1925 Don Hunt died 2010
Most pictures on this page are from the John Muir High School yearbook of 1956.
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Where does Don Hunt rest in our recollection of this inspiring figure. I looked for some quotes by Captain Ahab, the driven man who chased Moby Dick. That's a place to start. Here's one that might capture the determination and earthy seriousness that Don passed on for his players to chew on while allowing, with a twinkle, that it was all about having fun and doing well for oneself in the midst of one's comrades in common struggle for whatever it might be. I think that Coach Hunt would like this one:
"And as for small difficulties and worrying, prospects of sudden disaster, peril of life and limb; all these, and death itself, seem to him only sly, good-natured hits, and jolly punches in the side bestowed by the unseen and unaccountable old joker. That odd sort of wayward mood I am speaking of, comes over a man only in some time of extreme tribulation; it comes in the very midst of his earnestness, so that what just before might have seemed to him a thing most momentous, now seems but a part of the general joke. There is nothing like the perils of whaling to breed this free and easy sort of genial, desperado philosophy; and with it I now regard this whole voyage of the Pequod, and the great White Whale its object.”
--Captain Ahab in Moby Dick, pg. 219.
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Don Hunt Muir High 1951-61,
Pasadena City College 1962-1968
E-Yearbook Home
- Pasadena City College
- Pageant Yearbook (Pasadena, CA)
- Class of 1968
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Page 231 of 240
"Coach Don Hunt stunned the city of Pasadena in early spring by resigning from his post as head football coach, a position he had held since 1962. Coach Hunt, who relinquished his position for personal reasons, will remain at the school as an instructor. Since coming to the school, Hunt compiled a 29-23-1 record, highlighted in 1966, when he went undefeated in regular season play, winning the WSC title and representing the West in the Junior Rose Bowl." |
Coach Hunt was an unforgetable figure in the lives of his players, a good motivator. He cared about his players. Driven by some combination of fervor, personal drive, and moral righteousness, he had all the energy of a 1930s evangelist minister, mixing football strategy with his internal value system. No player under him would ever forget him. He left coaching early at PCC, perhaps because the emotional cost unsettled him to a point. His parallel work with the California National Guard was enough stress. He was a National Guard senior officer at the time, and became a reserve General.
Every player admired coach Hunt. Command he had. We can be sure he was as good General as he was a coach.
pictures and text collected by Jack Truher
John Muir High School, Pasadena, class of 1956.
revised 2010-12-19
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After earning a battlefield commission, Hunt was promoted from a U.S. Army sergeant to a second lieutenant while serving in the Philippines during World War II. He retired as a brigadier general, said friend and former player Joe Borland.
Hunt attended UCLA (1947-1949) where he not only played football, but also broke the school's high hurdle record, Borland said. He also played a stint with the Los Angeles Rams. |
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