I used the term "Tiger football" rather than school initials because we have seen change with the latter. As an alumnus myself I still have "MHS" rather burnished in my mind. The first adjustment was to "Morris Area" and thus "MAHS." Seemed awkward at the start but we got accustomed. The "A" was inserted for "Area" obviously.
Our school song was written with the "MHS" initials in mind. I'm told the "A" is inserted in how it is sung now, although I can't hear with enough precision to notice. School song sounds fine but it's touchy to alter the composer's intention with words, isn't it? The composer was the legendary Robert Schaefer, and the "legendary" is largely connected to what he accomplished with marching band.
I'm old enough to have played under Schaefer but not at the high school level. Our junior high concerts were at the old art deco auditorium, now razed, which was once part of the high school but later came to be called "elementary."
"The elementary auditorium" denoted both the auditorium and gym with the gym having been used for a long time for varsity basketball. It was home to our 1955 Tigers who made state in the one-class system, sort of like in "Hoosiers." Some of the luster eroded when we embarked on the '55 state tournament and frankly lost badly to a Twin Cities team, Minneapolis Washburn.
Real life does not always reflect "Hoosiers," and the coach isn't always heroic like Gene Hackman. In real life the big city teams really can pummel the country kids.
So our '55 team lost luster that way, and in addition, Morris legend has it that some members got a little big-headed in the years following. One of them became the head of a bank in town, in the age when the local bank presidents were huge movers/shakers and inspired jealousy/resentment in many cases. I read a book by a sociologist who touched on this once. The author noted that poor people were too detached to care much, while it was the middle class who vented the resentment primarily.
Our small towns have departed much from the mom and pop model for main street, which was characterized by local ownership. Today a bank in town is likely to have a head person who merely answers to higher-ups elsewhere, a corporate office. The bank heads do not symbolize the towns. They are simply professional people who are part of the mix.
I could allude to other members of the '55 team in ways that might be less than flattering. But let's leave it at that. The team's accomplishment in '55 was simply tremendous. It seems to have floated into obscurity in Morris history. Let's keep it underscored, please.
So let's reflect on the old "Coombe Field." To look at that piece of ground today, you'd hardly suspect a football venue was there. Or a "cinder" type track! I remember watching track and field meets there when I was a kid. One year for elementary "field day," I got poised for the pole vault only to notice teacher Roger Schnaser pointing his home movie camera toward me. Pressure! I'm so proud to say I made the jump. I wonder if ol' Roger's home movies are preserved somewhere.
Classic footage of me jumping, right? Just like the classic footage of the 1947 Diamond Jubilee parade in Morris? The latter is priceless. I got a chance to watch it recently and was blown away by the quality of the color footage and the quality of the event itself. Did you notice the footage where the marchers all wore Indian headdresses? Several music units.
I doubt that a parade of this quality could be put on today. No, I'm sure it could not.
Nostalgia? Everyone looked so happy. But it's easier to remember the good aspects of the past than the not-so-good. Remember that at that time, girls sports did not exist. What did all the girls with athletic talent do then? Had to find other outlets I guess.
Coombe Field got its name after the passing of William Coombe who was athletic director for the 1955 basketball accomplishment. Remember that "Hoosiers" was set in 1954. Everything you saw in the movie, i.e. small town culture, was replicated here to be sure. And I'm sure a lot of it was petty. Such is life. We have developed light years since then.
What if our 1950s fans could travel to the present and observe our Big Cat Stadium facility? So spectacular. How would they react to seeing the game on "color TV," i.e. through YouTube? Television didn't even come to this part of the state until 1958 when KCMT was established in Alexandria.
Life without TV? And even in the '70s, a void with no Internet or digital stuff yet. And how did we all get by? My generation always answers this question with: "Well, we just did." Morris in the '40s and '50s adapted as best it could also. No girls sports, no swim team, no hockey, no indoor arena for hockey or other things.
The YouTube telecasts of Tiger football now are making strides regularly, just breathtaking. I feel like a dinosaur with my way of "covering" high school football: a text review, sentences and paragraphs. Shall I bother any more? Our school's cooperation with the West Central Tribune for sports is steadily fading. Our Morris newspaper which was a robust twice a week when I was there, is of course down to once a week. I have completely gotten out of the habit of looking at our Morris paper. I would do so at the library, but rarely do I do that anymore. Seems like just a lot of "smiley face" news, sugar coating on everything, never a probe that might ask difficult questions about public affairs.
I cut my teeth as a journalist when the hard edge was of paramount importance. It was during Vietnam and Watergate, when newspaper writers became even more impactful than the nation's leading legal practitioners. How about that?
Today? Well, never is heard a discouraging word. Which is fine if it's an accurate representation. But is it really done out of fear, fear of stepping on some local toes? The paper can ill-afford to alienate people now, in these times when more and more people find the paper to be disposable.
I appreciate it, by golly
God bless a fellow long-time resident of these parts, initials R.D., who approached me Friday night at Big Cat and said "where's your notebook?" And then he proceeded to thank and compliment me on my long-time work. Was the highlight of the fall for yours truly.
Oh, and the Tigers won 41-13 over Melrose.
Coombe Field was when we had cheerleaders. Also in those times: a large percentage of the fans appeared to have almost no interest in the game! Really: people were spread out and engaged in a lot of social behavior. It was "the place to be" on a Friday night with the lights casting their glow over a large portion of the town. Duane Kindschi's P.A. voice could be heard across a wide span, like even out where I live!
As I saw Big Cat being constructed, I wondered: will the local public adapt to this? I mean, a place where everyone is supposed to just sit and seriously watch football? Because that's not what we did before. I observed Friday night that the adaptation was 100 percent. The enthusiasm could not have been more impressive. And all this when covid worries are increasing again.
I grew up in cynical times. It's not pleasant for those my age to remember. The common folk did not even pay attention to the stock market. If you saved money, you put it in "the bank." Imagine that.
Our school has gone from "MHS" to "MAHS" and now to "MACA" for athletics. Bothers me a little because we are not acknowledging the other small towns in our midst. I'm sure it's done because C-A still has a K-12 system but no stand-alone varsity sports.
Man, how I used to get involved covering Chokio-Alberta sports and activities! Worked with coaches like Paul Daly, Jill Willis, Neal Hofland and John Mithun. I also worked with Blake Knudson but he wasn't always totally pleasant. (The late Willis thought it amusing how I'd sometimes over-dramatize something! But hey, it's sports.)
Exciting times, priceless. But the only real constant is change, I guess.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment