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Sports have been a part of me from the time of my very first recollections of my youth. From the time of my childhood all the way through adulthood, sports were a very important part of my life. The Canal Zone was a wonderful place for growing up for there were lots of kids around all the time, and the government provided all kinds of sports programs to keep us busy. There was never any shortage of kids to make up a couple of baseball teams for a game.
And the outdoors was clean and well kept and had at our disposal all kinds of swimming pools, tennis and basketball courts and baseball and football fields. All the facilities were free and were well maintained for our use, and most of the time we had full use of all the military facililties that were scattered throughout the Panama Canal Zone.
When we moved to Gamboa in 1941, that put me right in the middle of the activities of what was called the Red, White and Blue Troop, a swimming group that was formed in the 1930's and which produced Olympic medalists from the Canal Zone. The coach, Henry Grieser lived in Gamboa, and if you had any talent, he got you on the team. Our house after we left The Ridge, was located about 50 feet from the Gamboa pool. How much better could I have had it.
So I started swimming seriously, coached by a wonderful man and an outstanding swim coach. The swimming paid off years later when I began my SCUBA activities.
One incident that will always stick out in my mind about swimming happened when I went through the Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation Department's SCUBA Instructor course. In an early class, the guy giving the lecture on the importance of swim fins picked two class members, me one of them, to demonstrate how much the swim fins helped to improve your ability in the water. The other guy chosen put on fins, and I went without. We were to swim 50 meters. The result was that I beat the other guy by a good 10 meters. A shock to the instructor, but not a surprise to me since I knew I was an excellent swimmer.
In early 1942 during the years of WWII when I was only in third grade, the Red, White and Blue Troop routinely put on swimming demonstrations for troop ships and warships transiting the Panama Canal on their way to the war zones. A lock chamber opposite the ship would be flooded up to the top and lane lines were stretched across the 110 foot width of the chamber. We would compete against each other with the soldiers and sailors cheering us on and betting on us. We collected all kinds of hats from all the services.
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| Publicity photo in my senior year of college - off to the All American Bowl |
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Football was perhaps my best sport and it gave me the chance to go to college with much of my expenses taken care of. This photo of poor quality was taken as a publicity photo for my being selected to play in a post season bowl game after my senior year. My team-mate and co-captain, David Burnham and I were selected to play in a bowl game with players from all the major schools in the country. It would be our first time to get to play against other players that had attended what we now know as Division 1 schools.
We did well! We both were fortunate to have been selected to the "all-bowl team" after the game, and we both received offers from professional teams to continue our football after college. We both decided not to pursue this, me because I had already committed to the US Army as a Regular Officer.
Organized football started for me in the Panama Canal schools, at Balboa High School. I played in my freshman year on the varsity, and then in my sophomore year I transferred to Wheaton Academy, Wheaton, Illinois. At Balboa we played "flag football" which consisted of grabbing a flag attached to the runner's belt and that was considered a "tackle". We played with only helmets. Nothing else other than shorts and football shoes. It was hot. It was rainy. But it was fun!
At Wheaton Academy I got into regular tackle football with all the equipment. I loved it. I loved the physical contact and beng able to knock down other players since it was part of the game. |
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| Holding the blocking dummy for freshmen players at Wheaton Academy |
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| Senior football photo 1951 - #34 |
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| Coach Harv Chrouser is pointing out to Dick where the name plate will be designating him as the most Valuable player for the year 1955. This was a great honor for him in addition to other awards he received for playing football. This award was made by his fellow players. |
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| More to come on other sports in my life. |
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