Frank Hughes sent a scan from the 3rd issue of Frontline Magazine, dated October 1985, which featured a photo of his team, Jerry’s Kids after they “cinched the California Survival Game Field Champions on Sunday, September 15th [1985].” Frank is pictured right side with the white T-shirt and video camera.
Jerry’s Kid’s was an Inland Empire / Corona based team (East of Los Angeles) and their home field was California Survival Games.
Frank explains their name originated when they “were badly defeated by an organized team. Their captain said to Mel Moon, our captain, “You guys play like Jerry’s Kids.” – alluding, of course, to children with muscular dystrophy for whom Jerry Lewis staged his annual fundraising telethon.”
After winning the the California Survival Game Field Champions Jerry’s Kids received $500, from which they donated a portion to the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The Frontline article states, “Captain Mel Moon said the team will donate $100 of the $500 prize money to the real “Jerry’s Kids.”
Frontline states that Jerry’s Kids would compete against other teams in Palmdale that year for the N.S.G. Regional Playoffs.
Frank, who reffed at S.C. Village and wrote for APG in the late 1980s into the late 1990s, described this photo, “That is me in the white T-shirt holding the early 80’s giant video camera on the far right. Our home field was California Survival Game, which was at an abandoned weather station on top of a mountain that straddled Riverside and Orange Counties, just south of Corona in the Skyline Drive Trail area. Marines used to come up the back way since it was close to El Toro. From Corona, you had to drive uphill a miles long, winding, scary dirt road to reach it, so when The Adventure Game and then SC Village opened conveniently off the 91 in the mid-80’s, it pretty much went out of business. A handful of us ended up at SC Village, where I eventually joined The Predators stock players team…”
Thanks for the history Frank!
