7 Friday Night Podcast | BONUS: Once Upon A Time In Long Beach

We Invite Four Special Guests To Celebrate The 20th Anniversary Of The Nation’s First No 1 vs. 2 Showdown Between De La Salle & Long Beach Poly •

Wednesday Oct. 6, marks the 20th anniversary of what is arguably considered California’s most significant high school football game of all time — and some have made a case it’s the nation’s most significant high school football game to date. It was the first ever meeting between the nation’s top two ranked teams as De La Salle traveled to Long Beach Poly.

This special bonus episode features four guests: Two who coached in the game (De La Salle’s Bob Ladouceur and Terry Eidson), one who played in the game (former De La Salle star QB, Matt Gutierrez), and one who reported on the game (former De La Salle beat writer for the Contra Costa Times, Joe Stiglich.)  

The host Jackrabbits were ranked No. 1 in the nation by USA Today, despite the fact that their opponent, De La Salle-Concord, was entering with a national-record winning streak of 116 games. (A few other rankings had it flipped, but still.) The game reportedly sold 17,000 tickets and issued 121 media credentials, some to publications as big as Sports Illustrated and the New York Times. A combined nine future NFL players took the field that night (including the player who joined us for this show). 

Regular listeners of this podcast are aware that Coach Eidson is a weekly visitor to our show. And we couldn’t let the anniversary pass without seeing if he could roundup some of his closest friends for a chat about the monumental game. He certainly came through.

Our hour long chat includes memories on how the game fell into place, what the seven months of hype were like, and of course several recollections about that October night at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

7 Friday Night is a weekly podcast with new episodes out each Wednesday through the end of the high school football season. Listening platforms include Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Breaker, Pocket Casts and Radio Public. If you listen to us on any of those platforms, please consider rating and subscribing. Also, feel free to look up SportStars’ other podcast, SportStories on any of those same platforms.

EPISODE EXTRAS

VIDEO

You can find pretty much anything on YouTube these days, and that includes the full telecast of the game. Enjoy!