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Famous Former Students

  • Red McCombs - In 1947, Red McCombs, current owner of the Minnesota Vikings, received a scholarship offer to play on Del Mar's newly organized football team... the Vikings. The Del Mar Vikings went on the win the Junior Sugar Bowl and the Gulf Bowl.
  • Terry Labonte - 1996 NASCAR Winston Cup Series champ.
  • Lou Diamond Phillips - Actor, writer, director, and Tony Award nominee Lou Diamond Phillips has performed in hit movies such as "La Bamba," "Young Guns," "Courage Under Fire" and the Broadway hit "The King and I."
  • Barbara Berman Barrie - Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award winner and Academy Award nominee Barbara Berman Barrie appeared in the movie "Private Benjamin" and TV series "Barney Miller" and "Suddenly Susan."
  • Farrah Forke - of the TV series "Mr. Rhodes" and "Wings."
  • Pepe Serna - actor in such movies as "American Me," "A Million to Juan," "Silverado" and "Scarface" and painter.
  • Dabney Coleman - of "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" and "Buffalo Bill" TV fame and "9 to 5," "Tootsie," "War Games" and "Inspector Gadget" movies.
  • Dr. J.A. Carroll - In 1958, history teacher Dr. J.A. Carroll wins the Pulitzer Prize for his noted biography, "George Washington: First in Peace."
  • Freddy Fender - the King of Tex-Mex, who released such hit songs as "Wasted Days" and "When the Next Teardrop Falls".
  • Helen Donath - of Germany, considered the best opera singer of German repertoire in her generation, with more than 55 recordings to her name, recently made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Susanna in "Le Nozze di Figaro."
  • Jo Ann Pickens - of France, known as one of the great black voices in opera, boasts a list of rave reviews, and has spent the last twenty years as a concert and recital performer in Europe.
  • Elaine Flynn Buegeler - first opera performance was in the Del Mar Opera Workshop presentation of "The Magic Flute." She now enjoys a full-time position in The Metropolitan Opera Chorus.
  • Ernestine Jackson - two-time Tony Award nominee for her roles in "Showboat" and "Raisin," Drama Desk Award nominee for her role in "Guys and Dolls" with Robert Guillaume, recently played Billie Holiday in "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill."
  • Henry Cuesta - former band leader of the Lawrence Welk Show.
  • Bob Gammage - Former Texas State Supreme Court Justice.
  • Samuel L. Meyerson - Former California State Supreme Court Justice.
  • Second Lt. Lloyd Herbert "Pete" Hughes - posthumously awarded the nation's highest military decoration - the Congressional Medal of Honor - for heroic acts as a pilot during World War II.
  • Stephen Harrigan - novelist, journalist, and screenwriter and former staff writer and senior editor at Texas Monthly.
  • Don Gillis - former center for the Chicago Cardinals.
  • Kevin Saunders
    • - former Best All Around Wheelchair Athlete in the World, gold medal winner in the pentathlon at the 1992 Paralympics, Barcelona, Spain, and the first person with a disability ever appointed to the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.