(4-3-23) Everybody knows who Ron Howard is, during his early acting years he played Opie Taylor on the Andy Griffith Show and later he would be Richie Cunningham on Happy Days. Today he is an Oscar winning Director and Producer.

After the Andy Griffith Show ended he was able to attend high school at Burbank’s John Burroughs High School, where he graduated in 1972, and was able to play on the Junior Varsity basketball team where he was a starter and the captain. But it wasn’t always as a glamorous star of TV.

In an outsider.com story Howard talked about what he faced during his return to high school-

“I was famous. I was famous, too, but in a way that attracted fights.”

“There was a lot of like, I played ‘B’ basketball. That was for the guys who weren’t kind of tall enough, you know, to play varsity at John Burroughs High School in Burbank.” 

In 2015 Howard told Dan Patrick –

“When I would go back to school there would always be a couple of weeks of sort of staking out your territory.”

“Sports helped me with that, I mean, it was kind of an equalizer. I wasn’t great, but you know I was kind of co-captain of that team. I was a starter. I was good enough to sort of, you know, to have another, you know, role a function at the school. ”

Howard told the Chicago Tribune –

“When I would walk to the line to shoot free throws, the opposing band would play the ‘Andy Griffith’ theme song and people would yell, ‘Miss it, Opie,'”

In 1971 #22 Ron Howard during his Junior year at Burbank’s John Burroughs High School

Why did he want to have the #22?

In the interview below Howard talks with Graham Besinger about those days playing at John Burroughs high school and some of his playing career,

Ron Howard: Bullied in high school

Graham Bensinger – You Tube Video

While high school wasn’t always a fond memory…one thing wonderful came out of it.

Ron would meet Cheryl Alley at John Burroughs High School in Burbank. In 1970, they went on their first date and the couple would marry on June 7, 1975.

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