LO, THE GIANTS’ SAVIOUR?
FROM THE SAN MATEO COUNTY TIMES, AND JOHN HORGAN’S DESK…..
Neukom is coming home
By John Horgan
Saturday, May 17th, 2008 at 6:35 am in Uncategorized.
In one sense, Bill Neukom is coming home. He’s going to be the new managing general partner of the San Francisco Giants when Peter Magowan retires from that post later this year. Neukom, who has worked as an attorney in the Seattle area for 40 years, is from San Mateo. He grew up on Warren Road in San Mateo Park and graduated from nearby San Mateo High School in the late 1950s. It was a good time to be a kid on the Peninsula. Neukom, a tall, lanky fellow, was part of an informal gaggle of male teens who hung out at South Hillsborough School during the summer months. It was there, on the rudimentary outdoor basketball court at the school, where the Hillsborough Athletic Club was formed. To be honest, the HAC was a club in name only. But it was a lofty label you could use to tell your parents where you were going on a hot July evening. When it got dark, games were illuminated by the lights from parked cars. An entire generation of mid-Peninsula prep basketball players tested themselves at the HAC. The names go on and on: Mike Toomey, Phil Rognier, John Egenolf, Terry Curley, Gene Chaput, Dale “Driller” Miller, Pete Carboni, Sil Vial, Geoff Smith, Ed Shuler, Mike Zocchi, Doug Kast, a guy who called himself “San Jose” and a host of others. Neukom was part of it. He just happened to be a bit sharper than the rest of us. He had a wider world-view. He left San Mateo County to attend Dartmouth College in New England. He returned and graduated from Stanford Law School. By the late 1960s, he was in the state of Washington and his legal career was taking off. The rest, as they say, is history. As for the HAC, well, it’s long-gone. So is that asphalt outdoor basketball court at South Hillsborough School.