"Golden Voice of the Warriors"
Football and Russell Cup announcer for forty years

Warrior Assistant Coach 1949-'50

President of Booster Club

Honorary Russell Cup Meet Director

John Bianchin is only the second non-Carpinteria high school graduate to be nominated for induction to the Warrior Hall of Fame. Dr. Fred Greenough was so honored in 1970.

John settled in Carpinteria following World War II and immediately began to establish roots here. He began by assisting Warrior coach George Anderson (1949-50) by coaching the Warriors backfield in football. Known by most Carpinterians as the “Golden Voice of the Warriors,” Bianchin announced all Warrior home football games and all Russell Cup Track meets for over forty years. He loved athletics, especially football. Announcing gave him an opportunity to be involved and make a contribution. When Jane Bianchin was asked what her husband’s worst memory was involving Warrior Athletics, she recounted an incident during a football game when John announced that the team was lining up on the 53 yard line.

Aside from coaching and announcing, John was the president of the Booster Club and helped obtain its charter in 1969-70. He again served as its president in 1974-75. Over the years, the Carpinteria High School student body has attempted to show their appreciation to Bianchin. In 1972, John was named the Russell Cup Honorary Meet Director. The Chamber of Commerce honored Bianchin in 1988 as the Carpinteria Man of the Year.

John Bianchin was born in Livingston, Illinois in 1924, to Louise and Orlando Bianchin. The Bianchin family moved to Santa Barbara in 1932. He was a member of the great Santa Barbara High School Golden Tornado football teams of the early forties, earning four varsity letters in football. John graduated from Santa Barbara in 1942 and became immediately embroiled in World War II. He served in the Army Air Force as a ball turret gunner in B-24’s. He was subsequently shot down, becoming a POW until the end of the War.

Returning to Santa Barbara after the war, Bianchin attended and played one year of football at Santa Barbara City College. In 1946 he married Carpinterian, Margo Jane Franklin, who he had met before the war. Jane had actually awarded John a Russell Cup medal while they were both in high school and John was a participant form Santa Barbara High School and Jane was a Russell Cup Princess. John and Jane raised three children, John David, who, as a Doctor of Ministry, is a pastor of a Presbyterian church in Illinois, Nancy Christensen, who assists a maxillofacial surgeon in Santa Barbara, and James, who is a local geologist.

John Bianchin passed away on November 7, 1987 after a lengthy illness.