Brookings, South Dakota High School Class of 1969, Home of the Bobcats: 1964-65

Was doing some research on amateur baseball in Brookings during the years 1964-65 by looking at old microfilm copies of the Brookings Register. The end of summer is not only the end of the baseball season, but also is the time for 4-H Achievement Days. Many members of our class were notd for doing so well at this county-wide event. In 1964, Pam Johnston, along with her brother Greg, had their picture in the paper as they displayed their Angus cattle. Pam had been a member of the Sterling Satellites 4-H club for four years, while Greg had been a member of the Prairie Farmers for five years at the time the picture was taken.

Another article noted that Pam Lindsey (I beliveshe was a year ahead of us) was awarded top honors in horse showmanship, but our Janice Briggs was second. Other class members winning honors in this category were Pggy Bush and Gay Miller.

In local news, Wesley Bugg, Ed McComish, Wesley and Dennis Audus rode motorcycles to Sturgis for what is now the well-known Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.   Celebrities from all over the country and even the world make this event a popular attraction during the first part of August.

August also brings news about the upcoming school year. An article on new teachers indicated that Mr. James Klassen and Mrs. Doris Larson were returning to the school sysem after a year's leave of absence. New teachers to the school system that some of us may have had were Mrs. Eleanor Cochrane in home ec; Mr. Dennis Graber in vocal music; Mr. Robert Jostad in Jr. Hi science; Mr. Leon Friend in chemistry and English II; Mrs. Joan Tabor as librarian; Mr. Stuart Webster in Jr. Hi. science; Mr. Lloyd Wesche in art; and Mrs. Janie Wheeler in Jr. Hi. English. In the elementary grades, Jackie Walsh's mother was new to th system. Mrs. Behrend was the new secretary for Lefty Johnson. Another new face that year was Mr. Kent Kiepke. When we movd to the new high school, he remained in the building and became a well-respected math teacher, as the old high school was converted into the first middle school in the state. He was wondrful mentor to me when my career began there in 1973.

There were also a number of articles on the upcoming fall sports seasons, especially on the local football teams at BHS and SDSU. One of the football players on the high school team was Jim Horak. His younger sister Carol was a year behind us in school. One reason for mentioning them is that their mother, Margaret, recently passed away in Dell Rapids, where Carol lives. Our prayers and condolences go out to Carol and her family.  The complete obituary can be found at http://www.brookingsregister.com/v2_news_articles.php?heading=0&story_id=15188&page=80

In 1965, some of the new teachers that we may have had were Mrs. Myrth Rae Brchan for business education; Mrs. Joan Donaldson (Nancy Webbenhurst's sister) for Jr. Hi English (some of us had her for sophomore English); Carole Huwe (Fraulein Huwe) for German I and Eng. II; Mr. LeRoy Klavetter for math; and Mr. Marv Sherrill for social studies. At the elementary level, Mrs. Lois Wells was new. I believe she was Howard's mother.

A few other notable events that year were Jim Felt (I believe he is Patty's brother) becoming the first student to win all four events at the South Dakota Intercollegiate Forensics competition. Those four events were listed as extemporaneous, peace extemporaneous, oratory, and peace oratory. Secondly, the water carnival held at the pool at the end of summer must have been a big event, perhaps becaue there was no competitive swimming at that time. Anyway, Rocky Watson placed second in the 13-14 age divsion. 1965 was also the year our Teener baseball team earned a trip to the National Teener Tournament in Hershey, Pennsylvania. There were some nice write-ups in the paper about that team and their experiences out east. Finally, there were numerous articles about the need for a new high school in Brookings.  Gawain Roberts' father was on the school board at the time, and wrote a series of articles outlining the reasons why the present building was inadequate.  The artist renditions of the new school  turned out to be quite similar to the final result.

There were many articles of interest in those papers, and one could spend countless hours poring over all that happened during those days. Feel free, as always, to comment on your impresion of those years.

On a somewhat related note, this website http://www.mariahpress.com/products-page/videos/ has some films of BHS basketball when we were in high school. A number of years ago, they the athletic storage area at the high school was getting cleaned out. The coach was friend of mine, and asked if I wanted any of these old films. Of course! When Lee Colburn was inducted into the South Dakota basketball hall of fame, the fellow running this operation asked me for any films of Lee. I gave him these to transfer to DVD. Stew Linn had kept a scrapbook of our junior and senior years. Stew was kind enough to lend those to him, also. I would guess the quality is not real good. Our game films were somehat grainy and in slow-motion. Unless you had a real passion for those games, my suggestion would be to not purchase them.
Below are some pictures of some teams that may have been notable for us. These were scanned in from some old baseball programs. If anyone knows how to enlarge them, please let me know.