Al Accurso:
CLASS OF 1951
Sequoia High SchoolClass of 1951
Redwood city, CA
Al's Story
7/17/15
I was sorting thru the Classmates postings looking for something to boost my ego when I saw the request to
"tell my story". Well, I couldn't pass that up, nobody asks about me, the lonely soul, however, the Classmates people
asked, so here goes.
First of all, I was born at an early age. (yuk, yuk, I couldn't resist, it just popped out. Then, I graduated from Sequoia
in 1951. What a great year, we had Ray Dolby, the Dolby Sound genius and Howard Gilmore the envelope magnate. There I was surrounded by giants. For those who may remember me, I was a shy, introverted, shrimpy guy at a towering 5 foot 4 inches and 120 pounds. How I envied you guys with the cool clothes and me with the 4 older brothers "hand me downs". I'm starting to choke-up (just kidding). Fortunately for me and thanks to coach Bob Andersen and the Sequoia boxing program which I excelled in as I was blessed with exceptional reflexes, coordination, balance and quickness. As a result of my boxing successes, I was recruited by San Jose State college for their collegiate boxing team. I did pretty good. Boxing got me into college and a college education. It also kept me out of the army during the Korean war probably saving my life. I graduated with a Business degree with a Real Estate major an worked as a Real Estate specialist fo...Expand for more
r Contra Costa Count for 30 years
After my amateur boxing career I got involved in training and managing professional boxers. One of my boxers fought a WBC champion on Don King's program in Las Vegas. We lost, but I got my 1/3 share of the purse. Later, in 1990 I was contacted by Manny Pacquiao's people to fight my tough little Mexican boxer in the Phllippines. Two weeks before we were to fly out, my boxer refused to go because he was afraid he couldn't get back in US because he was , uh, undocumented. What a lost trip, I'm starting to choke-up again.
Later, I got involved in motor-car racing, first with my 1953 Austin Healey 100-4 roadster and later, because you always want to go faster, with my 1969 Caldwell D-19 open wheel formula car. I ran these car at all the major road race tracks, Sears Point, Laguna Seca, Thunder Hill, Buttonwillow, Portland International, Las Vegas Internatioal.
In 2010, at age 78 I won the Vintage Auto Racing Association championship. Not bad for a 1951 Sequoia grad.
I have had a pretty good run, I signed my share of autographs, but now I'm just a an old lonely-soul has been....
but a Sequoia Graduate has-been with great memories.
The story of my life...Hey, don't blame me, somebody asked and I replied.
Al Accurso Class of 1951
PS. Sorry to hear about Ed Nordness.
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