It’s tough to beat a Central Valley sunset, such as this one I captured from outside of Selma on the way to a football camp.
By John Murphy
About eight years ago I decided to resign from the Riverside Press-Enterprise after three years there and 20 years at Southern California newspapers overall to take a job up north. It was a combination of reasons, really, one of which was to be closer to my mother in Oakland who was nearing 100 years old and in failing health.
Thus, began a five-year odyssey during which I worked in San Jose, Half Moon Bay and, finally, Hanford in the Central Valley — a dry, hot patch of land 18 miles west of Visalia.
I was the sports department of the Selma Kingsburg Enterprise Recorder, a 1,000-circulation weekly newspaper that was based in Hanford. Sounds bizarre, but it was fun.
Hanford was interesting. It had a quaint downtown that included the old Fox Theater where many top names such as Dwight Yoakam and George Jones had played. There were stately buildings like the Kings County Courthouse (built in 1896), the Kings County Jail (1898) and a 1920s ice cream parlor, Superior Dairy, where high school teams liked to celebrate victories and birthdays.
The most intriguing area to me was the ancient Chinatown, home of the shuttered, but once famous Imperial Dynasty Restaurant and the the Taoist Temple (1893). I loved to roam around there taking photos and checking out the decaying buildings.
Pro basketball player Tyson Chandler was from Hanford. He grew up on a small farm there before moving with his family to San Bernardino where he starred at Arrowview Middle School — before getting whisked off to play out of the area.
The Central Valley schools I covered were Selma and Kingsburg. Both had some excellent teams, with Selma winning five section titles and nabbing the state girls wrestling title while I was there; and Kingsburg excelling in girls soccer, volleyball and aquatics, while also producing a stud football player named Bo Jackson. I had some fun with that one.
Overall, I really enjoyed my time in the Central Valley – the athletic directors and coaches were cool and the kids and their parents about the same as anywhere else. Lots of just friendly, down-to-Earth folks.
PLUS, I got to interview and write a large feature about Olympic champion and renaissance man Rafer Johnson of Kingsburg – which made my 10 months in Hanford all worthwhile but is probably a story for another day.
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