The Other Guys - LMHS

During the course of researching one of our stories mention was made about the LMHS yearbooks, and since I married a Bulldog and her '62 Yearbook is shelved in the basement next to the Viking '62 Yearbook, I took a chance it might provide the information I was looking for.  It did not, but I did find a horrible historical inaccuracy.  According to their yearbook, copy inserted here, the Bulldogs beat us 7-6 in the final game of the 1961 football season.

Obviously I was horribly offended by this inaccuracy, but Lonna didn't think it was much of a big whoop and asked me who I was going to report it to.  But here it is, check it out for yourself, and then compare it to the proper records of our own Yearbook:

She may not have thought it important today but look at her cheerleading face in this photo,  full of excitement and smiles, in a game against NKHS.  It has to be the game played at LMHS since it's on the stage, and if you look carefully (click the photo for a larger view) you will see David Skellenger on the far left end of the bench, what may be the crewcut of Maynard Midtgaard, and Gwen Hillman poised to cheer in response.

You may recall I once reported that she usually didn't know what was going on in a game, has little memory of the games, and so on, but she did seem to be pretty excited at what was happening at this moment.  And on the next page of their yearbook is this quality photo, full page, taken by a fellow named Bill Bakken.

This appears to be a shot taken at the Sectional game in St Ansgar, won by the Bulldogs 72-66.  Unfortunately, this time they did get the score correct, but some things you can't change.  The scoreboard, barely visible at left, shows the Visitor has 48 points at the time of this tip.  And notice that once again the crowd is standing room only.

Click the photo for a larger view, but if you can't read the caption it says: OUR MIGHTY FIVE!!!  Arlen (Stensrud) takes the tip from Phil!! The Bulldogs topped Northwood in sectional play 72-66 after being beaten by the Vikings twice in the conference contests.  A sad side note - Arlen and Allen Holstad (far left) are no longer with us.

You gotta admit - the rivalry with the Bulldogs was one-of-a-kind.

Memories - Many Lost Forever

The Lake Mills Bulldog

I keep thinking our cheerleaders will chime in with some exciting stories of the campaigns back in 61-62, but lacking their input, I turned to my better half, who was an LMHS Bulldog cheerleader at the other end of the ring.

"What great memories do you have?"  I asked.

"None," she said.

"You mean you don't even recall the upset in St. Ansgar?"

"Why?  Who did we play?  All I remember is that I always wanted to win - but I don't recall the details."  And she laughed at me.

Oh, Lordy.  Here I thought all that stuff was important.  Maybe she's just putting it in perspective for me.

Home Opener Tonight - vs Lake Mills

The Anchor reports the Vikings will host the Lake Mills Bulldogs tonight for the football home opener, having lost to Newman of Mason City last week.

Lake Mills was always a grudge match, it seems, and when we played them in the final game of the '61 season, we could only tie them 6 - 6, keeping our record .500 for the season at three wins, three losses, two ties.  The game itself was anticlimactic, and was personally a downer when the season had started with so much hope.  Apparently the record was the school's best since 1955, but nowhere near the performance of teams since then.

Just for the record, in case any of today's players may read this, we did NOT have leather helmets that could be folded and put in your pocket, and we DID have facemasks, but they were more a single bar or two made of nylon and they didn't look very cool at all.  I believe facemasks first came out when we were in seventh grade and Billy Roberts was the first to be able to put one on his helmet.  I don't know why he was selected but the rest of us didn't get them until 8th grade.

Our equipment was much inferior to what's available today, especially the helmet, which was a suspension style, a shell held off the head by a web of straps.  They were a little better than the leather style of prior players, but not much.  It hurt to "get your bell rung."

The yearbook report on the Lake Mills game says we completely dominated except for one Lake Mills touchdown drive brought about by a costly lapse in defense.  My recollection is more along the line of our just not getting our act together throughout the game than seeing any domination on our part.  If we dominated, why did we lose?  It was a cool or cold night, combined with a so-so record, so the turnout wasn't that great either.

Afterwards we got on the bus and the season's sorrow was mixed with a relief that it was over, unfortunately.  So we wish the 2011 version of the NK Vikings much better success tonight against the archenemy.  And I may place a bet on it with my Bulldog wife.

Music Competition Heats Up!

Richard Holstad (who else would have these photos?) emailed us after the posting yesterday, with the attached photo of the '63 Northwood-Kensett queen candidate for that year's band festival.

It's interesting that you and Phil are such compadre's and the Northwood 1963 Band Festival Queen was . . . Carol! You two go for the Queens of the crop, yes?

As this blog goes to show, old friendships remain forever. When we met for breakfast last weekend, Lonna and Carol jabbered the entire time, and I've been kidding her about it since.

The key issue on all this is that Phil and I should think of ourselves as the King of Queens - or something. More likely, we know somebody . . . who knows somebody.

The Year of the "Music Man"

The North Iowa Band Festival was a big deal in '62, what with the world premier of "The Music Man" in Mason City, Meredith Wilson, Robert Preston, Shirley Jones and others all in attendance. And I've heard that some upperclassmen may have been nearby during the shooting of the movie and have stories to tell. Perhaps we can get more on that later.

Being able to see folks of that fame from "up close" (curbside as their convertibles drove by in the parade) was pretty cool, and the energy in Mason City for the event was pretty incredible. I recall being struck by how pretty Shirley Jones was, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one who felt that way. If you've already clicked the link above to the Wikipedia article you know she played Marian the Librarian and Preston was Harold Hill.

Reading in Wikipedia, I had forgotten the number of songs that came from the musical, many of which pop easily back into my head. Mostly I recall it was a beautiful day, and Phil Johnson and I were both decked out in white Bermuda shorts. Shows off your tan better, doncha know.

I always thought this Festival was scheduled for June but I see it's already completed for this year, prior to Memorial Day. I can't imagine that it will ever go away because the economic impact for Mason City has to be significant, especially for a town that seems to have lost some of the gloss of our era.

If you're wondering about the attached photo - I don't know who our queen candidate was, but I happen to have this one - of the Lake Mills candidate, Lonna Hoel, who swept me off my feet a couple years later. For me the Lake Mills rivalry ended long ago. It had to.