Editor’s note: This story appeared 10 years ago when East Union marked its 40th anniversary.

Dick Durham remembers the game as if it were yesterday.
Ron Hanamoto was quarterbacking the East Union High Lancers using the formidable wish-bone offense coordinated by head coach Vern Gebhardt.
It was November of 1974. East Union was undefeated in football and never had beaten Manteca High on the varsity level.
When the dust finally settled in the 1974 version of the Big Game, it was 30-13 for the Lancers who won the Valley Oak League championship and racked up the only undefeated football season in the history of the school that graduated its first class in 1967.
It was extra sweet for Durham who was in his first year as principal. Not only did his 18-year career as principal — the longest ever at EU — start out on a winning note but he also got to enjoy bragging rights at the dinner table. His son Jim was a freshman that year at cross-town rival Manteca High.
“It was 18 years of fun for us,” said Dick’s wife “Ernie” of his tenure at East Union High.
And 15 years (in 2006) into his retirement, Durham still follows the Lancers and adds to his ever-growing collection of East Union High T-shirts.

East Union started with
sophomores in 1966
East Union High opened with sophomores officially in the fall of 1966 in the older section of Manteca High where the fabled bell tower once stood. The plan had been to start school at the North Union Road campus but a steel strike delayed construction. So the two friendly cross-town rivals shared a campus in EU’s infancy. The first principal was Bill Rodoni, who after a year, was replaced by Bob Trigg. Then his replacement was Gary Brophy. Durham was next serving from 1974 through 1993 before being followed by Linda Frost, Roger Hartman and then John Alba who just marked his fourth year (in 2006) as head of the Lancers.
“They had gone through a lot of principals,” Durham recalled. “So at my first faculty meeting I told them (the teachers) I intended to be around at least 11 years. Years later Don Laurenti stopped by my office on the first day of my 12th year and told me I had made it.”
When Durham arrived at East Union High in 1974, it was still pretty much “out in the country.”
To the north of the campus was corn fields. To the east, onion fields and to the west almonds. South of the campus was more irrigated farmland.
Durham remembers taking his vice principal and going out and rousting students who had left campus during the school day to retreat to a smoking area they had created in the middle of the corn field by flattening stalks. There also would be routine patrols of the irrigation canals in areas south of the campus to herd others who had cut class back to campus.
“For homecoming, downtown merchants always let Manteca High paint their windows,” recalled Durham. “A lot of (merchants) refused to let us do that at first.”
In the early days, Durham said it was difficult to get universal support for EU from merchants and others. It was understandable. Manteca High had been the only game in town. They also had a powerhouse football program with one of the best music programs around under band instructor Leroy Darling.
Also, the initial student body was comprised primarily of Lathrop and French Camp students as well as those who lived in Manteca generally north of Yosemite Avenue.

Manteca, EU worked to
keep rivalry friendly
Durham noted the administration and faculties of the two schools worked hard to avoid the creation of a negative rivalry.
He recalled an incident that first year at Manteca High’s homecoming parade staging area in the Golden West School lot when a boy from East Union threw a watermelon that by chance happened to strike his girlfriend who went to Manteca High.
Durham wasted no time. He personally went out to the football field, stopped practice, and announced anyone who was caught doing such vandalism or pranks would be kicked off the team immediately, but not by the coach, but by him.
“We never had a problem after that,” Durham said.
He credits much of the friendly rivalry to his working relationship with former Manteca High Principal Ed Brasmer. At basketball games, for example, the two would stand side by side at one end of the gym.
“I guess it’s the old Marine in me,” Durham said. “I believe in the value of discipline.”
He liked the Lancers being competitive on the playing field as well as off.
He remembers when East Union High tested higher than Manteca High for the first time in the school improvement program.
Between beating Manteca High in football and edging the Buffaloes out academically, the step-cousin attitude that once seemed to be the rule of the day when it came to East Union effectively dissipated.
He is particularly proud of East Union’s 40-plus years of academic excellence (in 2006). On his watch, the first Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program was started. He recalls one young man who came to East Union High as a freshmen with little command of the English language as he was struggling to earn ‘C’s. By the time he graduated, he earned a scholarship to Stanford and today is a medical doctor.
It is the effort in the classroom — and after school —from teachers and support staff alike that he believes is what makes EU a winner still today.
Durham recalled being approached by a custodian who was concerned about another boy who always showed up on campus at 6 a.m. and sat in front out in the cold.
“He (the custodian) asked me if it was OK to let him into a classroom because it was so cold,” Durham said. “I told him to let him into the library.”
 Durham found out the young man was dropped off my his father on his way to work. He also was introverted and avoiding talking with others. Staff worked with him and by the time he was a senior, he was in drama. He too went on to Stanford and became a doctor.
“East Union is one of the best high schools around,” Durham said. “The faculty, (support) staff, and the  administration are there for the kids.”

To contact Dennis Wyatt, e-mail dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com