Roy Gordon’s Letters |
| 1914 Benson High School Basketball Team: Roy Gordon holding ball |
I discovered some old letters in the attic of my
grandfather, Roy Gordon when he was a senior at Benson High School. They fill a few gaps in our family history
and described the infancy of high school basketball in 1914. It appears basketball teams were just
forming. Some schools had teams, others
didn’t. Roy was a team member and
apparently responsible to contact other area schools to determine if they had
teams and if they were willing and able to schedule games. Transportation was by railroad not by bus or
car and communication was by ‘snail mail’ since there were few phones and
certainly no smart-phones.
There were 5 letters.
The first is in granddad’s hand, written to Mr. W.H. Morton,
Superintendent of Ashland Public Schools dated January 19, 1914.
The letter was returned with a note on the bottom; “We have
no basketball team” signed W.H. Morton.
My grandfather and his parents, Alex and Lucy Gordon were
farmers who lived 1 ½ miles northwest of Bennington. The Easter Sunday tornadoes of 1913
completely destroyed their home. It was
rebuilt later in 1914. The letters
suggest the family temporarily moved to Benson where Roy attended high school. (Bennington’s District 59 Public School
didn’t offer an eleventh or twelfth grades until 1924.) Apparently, it was the responsibility of a member of the basketball team,
possibly the team captain arranged the game schedule.
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| Hollyrood Farm prior to the Easter Sunday Tornado of 1913 |
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| Hollyrood Farm following the storm. |
The remaining four letters were replies. The first was from Robert Miller, Manager of
the Arlington High School Basketball Team.
Mr. Miller suggested the teams played games at each other’s school. I found it interesting that the opposing
school paid expenses. Those expenses was probably train fare.
The next letter was from H.H. Reimund, Superintendent of Weeping
Water Public Schools dated February 4, 1914.
Weeping Water didn’t have a basketball team either.
The last two letters were mailed from Gretna, Nebraska by Frank
Burns, who appears to have been Secretary of Gretna Public Schools. He replied on
February 26th by postcard. The
first letter sets a game to be played in Gretna on February 13. The next is a postcard agreeing to a game on
March 6; possibly in Benson.
This is from my history of Benson High School:
ReplyDelete1913-14: Benson's first boys basketball team played games in February and March. The record for Coach H.B. Stapleton included a loss to Arlington, then wins of 14-12 over Gretna, 9-8 over the Omaha High sophomores and 12-11 over Plattsmouth in a March 13 game at Gravert’s Hall. Arlington did not show for a March 20 return engagement in Benson.
On the team were Glen Gardner, Howard Furbush, Louis Campbell, Roy Gordon, Alvin Siert and Charles Pilant.
Roy Gordon also played football for Benson in 1912, so he was there before the 1913 Bennington tornado. He was involved in a play that resulted in the death of a son of a Valley hotel proprietor and the end of football at Benson until 1927:
"With Valley leading 39-6 late in the game, Valley sophomore Clair Fitzgerald broke his neck and his second vertebrae as he went to tackle Benson kickoff returner Roy Gordon. Fitzgerald died three days later at St. Joseph Hospital in Omaha."
What a great find!
Stu Pospisil
Benson High Alumni Association
(World-Herald sportswriter, too)