While this year has been memorable for a number of reasons, the passing of a number of dear and beloved people has reminded us that those individuals were part of what Tom Brokaw called The Greatest Generation. Mr. Brokaw, perhaps best known for his role as an anchor on the evening news, was born in Webster, South Dakota, and graduated from Yankton High School and the University of South Dakota. Our parents were members of that generation, a generation that experienced a great depression, a dust bowl, and many other trials that seem extremely difficult and practically insurmountable if viewed by today's standards (would they have "demonstrated peacefully" as so many young people did this past summer in numerous cities throughout the country?). If we have listened to or read their stories, as so many of us have, we have marveled at how they survived those horrific times. Survive they did, and that made them stronger in their faith, valor, fidelity, discipline, dedication, and morals. Their struggles allowed them to become "...united, not only by a common prupose, but also by common values--duty, honor, economy, courage, service, love of family and country, and, above all, responsibility for oneself. In this book (The Greatest Generation), you will meet people whose everyday lives reveal how a generation persevered through war, and were trained by it, and then went on to create interesting and useful lives and the America we have today." Many of our fathers (and perhaps mothers) served honorably in World War II. Some have even been mentioned on this blog previously. This summer Brookings lost a few more individuals from the greatest generation. Some of these wonderful people were our parents or teachers, while others were good friends and employers.
This list includes Mavis Neuberger and Harold Neuberger; Ruth Lee (mother of Bob Lee of our class); Dorothy Kratochvil; Harvey and Midge Mills. Also passing away this summer was long-time teacher and coach Jerry Kluess. As is so often the case (e.g.- Harvey and Midge Mills), one spouse passed away shortly after the other spouse had died. Jerry's wife passed away one month before he did Closer to home, Lynda Bailey from the BHS class of 1968 passed away. My connections with her during our school days were virtually non-existent, but many of you likely had close contact with her in your fine arts activities, in which she exhibited great talent, notably that of Laurey in the first BHS all-school production of the musical "Oklahoma." Her father was a prominent figure at SDSC/SDSU, first in the pharmacy department, and later as Dean of Academic Affairs, Dean of the Graduate School, and Vice-President. He wrote a book about his years of service at "State," which I browse through when I visit the barber. Very enlightening is this work, and it brings back fond memories of "the good old days."
Closer to home, we lost another classmate when Janette (Perso) Quail passed away on November 29, 2020. My associations with Janette were minimal during our Brookings school years. During college, however, they became more pronounced. Janette majored in medical technology in college, which required her to take a couple of chemistry and physics classes. Those disciplines can be difficult for many people, so she asked me to give her a little extra help. We would meet regularly in the old union and go over the areas that needed refreshing. It really benefited me, as I was planning to become a science teacher. I could try out some different strategies to see if they were useful. As her obituary states, she was a medical technologist at the VA hospital in Sioux Falls for over 20 years.
Thanks to Robyn for encouraging us to send birthday wishes to Janette this past summer. At the visitation, her husband Don told me that receiving so many cards brought a big smile to her face.
The day before Christmas, one of our Jr. Hi teachers and coaches, Paul Johnson, passed away. For many of us, he was our 8th grade math teacher as well as our 8th grade basketball coach. He also coached Jr. Hi track and field, so he may have coached some of us for three years. Before he became the Jr. Hi "B" team basketball coach, he supervised the intramural basketball program for 5th and 6th grades. The teams were members of the individual classrooms. There seemed to be a competition between Hillcrest and Central as to which school had the better teams. We played the games in the lunchroom, which had a small court marked on it. The "locker room" was in the basement below the 8th grade history room (Mrs. Etta Olson's room), the 7th grade English room, and Mr. Kabrud's room. Do you remember having to go up a short flight of stairs to get to those rooms? The stairway going down between the history and English rooms went to that "locker room." That was also the dressing room for our 8th grade football year.
One incident remains vivid during those elementary years. Since Mr. Johnson was usually in the lunchroom supervising the games, the locker room was generally unsupervised. Since the floor was slippery from the showers, a few brave souls, promptly after exiting the shower, would try to perfect their baseball sliding skills on the nearly frictionless floor. It seems that Mr. Johnson caught a few of them, and they had to sit out the next game.
In Mr. Johnson's homeroom, a couple of events were memorable. We started 8th grade in 1964, which was an election year. He allowed his homeroom students to debate the merits of the presidential candidates, Lyndon Johnson or Barry Goldwater. Can't recall which students actually participated, but Kenny Beckman seems to stand out. The other noteworthy occasion occurred during the winter, perhaps February. In class one morning, he wrote "Tami" and "John" on the board. (Tami George and John Iverson were in the same class). It seems that everyone looked around and thought "OK, what did those two do wrong?" After pausing a few moments, he wrote "son" on the end of "John." His wife, perhaps the night before, had just given birth to a daughter named Tami. By the time she was in the 8th grade, she had become a fine basketball player on a team that I was fortunate to coach. She was also a skilled gymnast, and used those skills once during a basketball game. There was some commotion during a game, and instead of falling down, Tami did a cartwheel. A number of years later, we saw a similar incident at a track meet. A girl was running the 300 intermediate hurdles and hit the second hurdle. Instead of putting her arms in front of her to break her fall and sprawling all over the track, she did a somersault and acted as if nothing had happened. Even though she obviously slowed down somewhat, she was talented enough to win the race rather handily. Tami's son was later a student-athlete during his middle and high school years in Brookings, and presently is the 9th grade boys basketball coach.
In later years (perhaps 1979-1995?), Mr. Johnson was the assistant girls varsity basketball coach. In the mid-1980's, the BHS girls basketball was nationally ranked, reaching as high as number three in the USA Today poll. Their head coach, Jim Holwerda, was named national girls high school coach of the year in 1986. From the Brookings schools website: Coach Jim Holwerda became athletics director at BHS in 1973 and served for 19 years. He was a graduate of Kansas State University – playing tennis and basketball – including three Big 8 basketball titles and a #1 ranking in 1958. Holwerda came to Brookings from Yankton College where he was AD and basketball coach. With the start of girls’ sports, Holwerda assumed a leadership role; starting the first girls’ conference and introducing the small ball that was eventually adopted by the NFHS. Jim also resumed coaching basketball, leading the girls to three ESD Championships, a 49-game win streak and State Titles in 1984 and 1985. Holwerda’s 1985 team was ranked #3 in the USA and selected as the SD Girls Team of the Year and he was honored as National Coach of the Year. Holwerda also guided the Bobcat girls to State Tennis Championships in 1990 and 1991. While this release says "1985", girls basketball was played in the fall at that time. This honor, then, was awarded in the spring of 1986 after all states had concluded their season.
On a positive note, the BHS football lost only one game all season. Unfortunately, that loss occurred in the championship game for the 11AA title. Second place is not too shabby. The team had a great year, and surpassed all expectations, as they had a new head coach and many new assistants. Congratulations on a wonderful year.
As we await a new year, let us hope and pray that it, too, will be memorable, but for the right reasons.
On a good note, the BHS football team is undefeated thus far. The last game of the regular season is against Yankton on Oct. 22. Most of their wins have been rather convincing, but last week's victory against Pierre was a tight game, as the Bobcats made some big plays to eke out a 21-14 win. They play at Spearfish tonight. While Spearfish is struggling, we hope the trip will not impair the Cats' performance.
