La Mesa Bolts! Sunset Park was Chargers Home in the 1960s

Sunset Park today is a place where 2-year-olds play on slides and 72-year-olds play in the dirt. But back in the 1960s, it was home to the San Diego Chargers.

A 6.69-acre chunk of La Mesa tucked between Lake Murray Boulevard and Lake Murray, the park has a small children’s play area, a basketball court, a large open field for baseball, softball and soccer, some restrooms, picnic tables and a small building on the park’s high ground.

Except for a small sign on a wall inside the building, no indication exists that this was the Chargers’ in-season practice facility for about four seasons, beginning in 1964.

It’s where Hall of Fame wide receiver Lance Alworth used to run routes across the grass now occupied by Little Leaguers and senior softball players.

And it’s where scrimmages and practices under coach Sid Gillman included such stars as Keith Lincoln, Paul Lowe, Walt Sweeney, Ron Mix, Ernie Ladd and John Hadl, who had helped the Chargers win the American Football League championship in 1963.

The Early Years

The park was created in 1962, but it hardly seemed like a park then to somebody who spent “many an hour” there.

“It was not at all fancy,” remembers Jerry Magee, who covered the Chargers for the San Diego Union then, part of his 52-year career at the Union and Union-Tribune. “It looked like a Quonset hut with an adjacent practice field. It didn’t look like a park.

“It was about all the Chargers could find at the time. It was just a utilitarian place. It’s not the kind of place you’d find an NFL team now. It was Spartan.”

But it served its purpose.

The Chargers were looking for a practice facility to use during the season—they  previously had used the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, says Magee—and came to an agreement with the city of La Mesa to use Sunset Park.

From 1964 until 1968 or ’69—records are sketchy—the park was the team’s in-season practice facility. Gillman had his office there, in the “Quonset hut” where the building is today. It’s also where players watched film, studied, lifted weights and had their locker room. Eventually, La Mesa businessmen contributed funds to erect the existing building for the Chargers to use.

Today, that structure houses the Challenge Center, a rehabilitation facility that helps people recover from a variety of serious physical issues, and a gym that offers membership to anyone for $20 per month.

A small sign is posted on one wall of the Challenge Center, detailing the Chargers history with the building and park.

Titled, “The La Mesa-San Diego Charger Story,” it provides a brief chronology that can be summed up like this:

The City Council offered Sunset Park to the team with the understanding local businesses would underwrite the cost of the building. In turn, the team promised to play an intrasquad exhibition game each year at the park, with proceeds going into a trust fund to pay off the building costs. During the offseason the building was to be used by the La Mesa Recreation Department.

After the Chargers left, the city took control of the building, which was used for a gym for many years. It’s now leased to the Challenge Center.

When it moved in 12 years ago, says Rebecca Thompson of the Challenge Center, the sign about the Chargers originally was taken down and “thrown out,” until someone realized it might be a good idea to keep it. So it was rescued and remounted.

Other than being pointed out to new Challenge Center members on their orientation visit, the sign doesn’t draw much attention, Thompson says.

Busy with Sports Leagues

Sunset Park now is a bit off the radar for most La Mesans.

It’s in the northwest corner of the city, tucked between tracts of San Diego land. A Coco’s and a Jiffy Lube sit between Lake Murray Boulevard and Lake Park Way, the small road that connects with the park entrance. In fact, to get to the park (5540 Lake Park Way), visitors have to take an access road that actually is in the city of San Diego, says Yvonne Garrett, La Mesa’s assistant city manager and director of community services.

The playground and basketball courts do get some use, but most of the park’s visitors are baseball, softball and soccer players.

“It does get a lot of use, primarily by sports leagues,” Garrett says.

Lake Murray Little League has one diamond, dedicated in 2001 as David Madrid Field, in memory of the son of Mayor Art Madrid, a former Little Leaguer and Helix football player who died in 1988.

A sign on the outfield fence says Lake Murray Little League has been “building character one player at a time since 1957.”

On the other side of the park’s grassy expanse is Charlotte Simmons Field, used by the Valley Mesa girls fast-pitch softball league.

La Mesa senior softball teams use both dirt-infield diamonds, which have large, tiered seating areas behind the backstops.

Larry Blankenship of La Mesa has been part of La Mesa senior softball since 1984. He says the fields are constantly busy. During the spring and summer, Lake Murray Little League puts up outfield fences, which is a bit of a problem for the seniors who can blast balls far over the barriers.

So they institute a ground rule during Little League season—a blast over the fence is just a single.

“It’s not a good field when the fence is up, but it’s OK,” says Blankenship, 87. “When the fence isn’t up, the outfielders play way back here,” he explains, standing about 15 to 20 feet beyond the left-field fence.

For the Little People

Just a short throw from home plate behind the Little League field and adjacent to the parking lot is the children’s playground, where a much younger set takes advantage of the slides, climbing structures and new thick, bouncy rubber padding that covers the area.

Virginia Ruehrwein, 41, of La Mesa, was there with her son Jonah, 2, on Wednesday. Though she lives about two miles from the park, this was her first visit and she was excited about the discovery.

A friend had told her about the play area, so she decided to bring Jonah.

“I just called my husband to tell him how good this place is, because it has this,” she said while pushing her feet into the rubber padding. “This is so great.”

The combination of new padding—which Garrett says is a recent addition by the city—and contained play area is perfect as far as Ruehrwein is concerned.

“We’re definitely coming back,” she says. “I think this is the standard from now on.”