In truth, he loved all sports and his collection of their memorabilia became the nucleus of San Diego’s Hall of Champions. SAN DIEGO –The International Sports Arena, today known as the Valley View Casino Center, was largely the dream of one Jewish San Diegan: Robert Breitbard.īreitbard loved football, he loved playing it, and he loved coaching it, both at San Diego State College (now University) and at Hoover High School. Interstate 8, Mile 1: Sports Arena Boulevard ~ Valley View Casino Centerīy Donald H. Valley View Casino Center, formerly the International Sports Arena (Photo: Donald H. Throughout this series, which we plan to run on Thursdays, we will use those numbers as aids to help our readers find the places we visit. Please note that over I-8’s California segment, the number designation of a freeway exit corresponds with that exit’s distance from the western terminus of I-8. Along the way, I will take readers to venues within a few miles of the freeway’s exits. In this I-8 travel series, I plan to reverse their route, and to travel inland from the coast of California, heading east on the I-8 until I reach that freeway’s terminus in Arizona. Editor’s Note: In my quest to find Jewish stories wherever I go, I decided there is no place like home to illustrate the concept that “there is a Jewish story everywhere.” Interstate 8 roughly follows the traditional route that settlers took in their covered wagons in the mid-19 th century to get to San Diego from the American Southeast.

Valley view casino arena