Santa Barbara’s Legendary Father/Son Coaches
By Tim Tremblay
Santa Barbara’s Legendary Father/Son Coaches Moropoulos
Mike and Craig Moropoulos have been star athletes, teachers, administrators, and coaches over a span of 70 years and have positively influenced more lives than you could ever imagine!
Mike coached football, swimming, baseball, and golf. He taught Physical Education, Career Education, and Driver Training. He fished for calico bass and trout. He dived for lobster and abalone. He hunted pheasants and ducks. In all those pursuits, Mike preached, practiced, and lived by, the following set of Good Sportsmanship Rules:
You must observe the rules and regulations.
You do not demean your competition.
You do not catch more than you can eat (or give to friends for their meals).
You take both victory and defeat – whether it’s winning a big game or getting skunked on a long day’s fishing trip – with gratitude and humility.
He instilled those values during a 35-year career as a coach, teacher, and administrator at Santa Barbara High School. There was no other school that mattered to the Los Angeles native after he graduated with a teaching credential from UCSB. Moropoulos played the center position and was captain and MVP for the Gaucho football team in 1954 and was in the middle of some of the most cherished memories of Santa Barbara High School football.
He was the line coach in 1960 when Santa Barbara High won the CIF large-school championship, defeating Centennial in the L.A. Coliseum. In the late 1960s the Dons had the biggest defensive front four in the country, led by Bob “Big Man” Pointer (447 pounds) and Danny Herring (345 pounds).
The Players
One of Moropoulos’s best players was Sam Cunningham; All-CIF fullback in football and Shot Put champ and 100-yard dash champ in track and field. Cunningham was an All-American for the USC National Championship football team in 1972 and went on to be a star in the NFL for the New England Patriots. Sam often talked about the leadership lessons he learned from Coach Moropoulos.
Booker Brown, Sam Cunningham’s teammate at Santa Barbara High, is arguably the best lineman to ever come out of Santa Barbara County. Booker described Moropoulos as a no-nonsense coach who laid the groundwork for him to become a rising star as an offensive lineman at SBCC (Conference MVP and All American), USC (1972 National Championship and All American), and, ultimately in the NFL with the San Diego Chargers.
“You weren’t going to talk back to him,” Brown says. “He taught me the fundamentals: footwork, keep your head up and butt down, how to pull, how to trap block. He taught me to keep my composure. But more importantly, Coach Moropoulos taught me how to be a man. He taught me to never give up. He taught me to help my teammates. He taught me to use the gifts God gave me to the fullest.”
After his NFL career Booker became a pastor and continued to “give back.”
Randall Cunningham, Sam’s younger brother, was quarterback for the Dons in 1980. He led the Dons to a record 13 consecutive victories before losing to Long Beach Poly in the CIF final. He later starred at the University of Nevada Las Vegas and then took his talents to the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles where he was named MVP in 1990. “I am grateful for my experience at Santa Barbara High School with Coach Moropoulos,” Randall says. He was the all-time leading rusher in the NFL at the quarterback position when he retired. “But I never would have made it,” he said, “if Moropoulos had not tempered my instincts when I was young and raw.
“From the first day, Coach Moropoulos told me: ‘If you run, you will not play quarterback for me,’” Cunningham said. “He didn’t want me to be injured. That is the best thing that could have happened. I worked on my passing and became a complete quarterback. And he taught me how to be a leader. I owe so much to Coach Moropoulos.”
Like Booker Brown, after his NFL career Randall became a pastor and he too continues to “give back.”
More Than Just Football
Mike Moropoulos cared about all Santa Barbara High School students, not just budding football stars. He became the school’s second athletic director in 1965 and served until his retirement in 1989. Soccer and volleyball teams were established on his watch, as well as the entire girls sports program. He loved teaching. He loved making a difference in young lives. He instilled the will to succeed.
When he died in 2020, his son Craig, wrote “I lost my father Mike Moropoulos this morning. I am saddened beyond words, but I feel so blessed to have been led by my dad, my mentor, my coach and my best friend. He was as true a Santa Barbara ‘Don’ as there ever was.”
Mike Moropoulos was head coach in 1977 when his son, Craig, quarterbacked Santa Barbara High to a league title. Craig then went to SBCC where he starred at quarterback and received a football scholarship to Cal Lutheran College. He got his Master’s in Education at the University of Arizona.
If you ask Craig when he began his career as a coach, he will tell you, “When I was in grade school.” It was back then that he learned to “break down game films at home with my dad at night.”
Craig spent 14 years as an assistant at NCAA schools, including Arizona, Texas A&M, San Jose State, Stanford, Buckley, Cal Poly, Alabama A&M, and Boise State. In 1999, he returned to Santa Barbara High School as head coach and led the Dons to a Channel League title.
Craig joined the SBCC staff in 2005 and is now entering his 19th season as the Vaquero head coach. The 2022 season was the most successful season in the program’s history. The Vaqueros set myriad all-time records, including most wins (10), most points in a season (499), and in a game (86). SBCC won its 300th game early in the season before ending the year on an all-time best 10-game win streak, clinching its first conference championship since 1991 and second bowl game win ever at home, 44-23 over Desert in the 2022 Beach Bowl.
The Values of Team Sports
Craig Moropoulos said that although he got most of his football knowledge from his dad, but, more importantly, learned from his dad how to impart “life-lessons” through his coaching.
The important “life-lessons” teach a young man or woman how to work through difficulties, to “never give up.” The quarterback for his best team wanted to quit. It was more difficult than he had imagined, and he wasn’t sure if he could compete. Craig convinced him to keep after it, that he had all the tools needed to be an outstanding quarterback. He stayed and gave it his best, led the team to a championship and was voted MVP. He then won a full athletic scholarship to the University of Washington.
Craig has many stories of personal success. He hadn’t heard from a particular former player in over 20 years until the young man came back to visit Craig at SBCC and told him what a tremendous difference he’d made in his life.
Coaches have been such a huge part of the fabric of America. Coaches have helped form young men and women into honest, hard-working, goal-centered, caring adults. Mike and Craig Moropoulos have been doing just that for over seven decades in Santa Barbara. Thank you, Coaches Moropoulos. And a big “thank you” to all the coaches throughout this land. What they do is so important and so appreciated.
Get your kids involved in team sports.
Everyone benefits!
We need more men like the Moropoulos in every aspect of education and community, not just as team sports coaches. My step-father, George Chelini, was born here in 1931 and grew up in the Milpas area. He was the head of the Santa Barbara Boys and Girls Clubs for a number of years during which he began not only team sports programs, but camping, woodworking, among many others. Even after he retired, when I'd be out in Santa Barbara with him it was common for adult men of all ages to come up and thank him for changing their lives for the better, from leaving the gang they were in, to taking school seriously and getting through college. One night my husband and I took him to the ER and the male nurse said, “George Chelini! You kept me from a life of crime. I stole a skateboard once and you made sure I never would do it again. And look at me! I love my work and my life.” George passed away in 2020. But like any man who teaches young men how to be men - not to be bullies and criminals (and corrupt politicians) or apologize for their gender like too many men do today, but to be men - George's work lives on in Santa Barbara. And it ripples out from here to the rest of the world in a positive, truly masculine way.
Great article Tim. These two men definitely deserve the praise.