It is that time of year. Football playoffs.
I wonder if there is anyone around who remembers the game?

l.e. on 22nd November 2013 @ 7:24am

Attended game. Jefferson arguably had one of the very best high school teams in the nation that year. Future heisman trophy winner at quarterback. nfl hall of famer at one halfback, and small college all-american at other halfback, and fullback was faster than either halfback. Their line averaged 210 lbs. which was almost unheard of in that time period. Don't remember exact final score, but Jefferson romped. But kudos to Wyeast for making the playoffs. Had a number of friends playing for Wyeast. But also can't resist mentioning the last football game ever played between HRHS and Wyeast the year before when HRHS won 27 to 6. HRHS also had the prettiest cheerleaders.

Buzz on 22nd November 2013 @ 7:25am

OH WOWWWWWWWWWWW...How I ever remember that night. Wy'east had a awesome team that year under Don Hosford and Gene Flippen. Won the Wilco League (think that is what it was then.) Jefferson was a power house as it had Terry Baker, who later won the Heisman Trophy and the
Renfro brothers, who also went on to play pro football. I think people pretty well had a good idea that it would be slim to no chance of beating Jefferson, but just the honor of playing against them was something to always .remember. It was a terribly cold night, thought I would freeze to death. Anyone remembering that night would agree.

I think that this is just prior to kick off, with the Wy-east Band presenting the National Anthem. I can't tell you if the football players are Wy'east or Jefferson. Would take one of the team to identify. I don't recall color of uniforms that night.

I have to admit I used to throw up this game to my husband who was a Dragon. Ha-ha (good laugh for Buzz.)

charlott on 22nd November 2013 @ 7:35am

Let us make another comment for Mr. Buzz.............That was the game where Ray McKissen and dear old Denny (Uncle Denny in our house) hit head to head. Ray was taken to the hospital and Dick said Denny was in la-la land for a long time afterwards. All I know is that in our household that game was played over and over and over and over again. That as I recall was also a cold game, though played during the day at Wy'east.

Yes, a lot of the football players from Wy'east and Hood River were friend........that is as long as they were off the football field. On the field it was "kill time."

Charlott on 22nd November 2013 @ 7:42am

I just noticed something, I doubt if it is, but the referee with the flat top certainly looks like Ed Vannet. He certainly would have had the qualification to ref a game, but don't know what the qualifications would have been to officiate at a play off......

charlott on 22nd November 2013 @ 8:02am

Ed Vannet,as asst. football coach at HRHS, never refereed any football games on friday nights when I was there as he was always at our games. Good coach. Good Man.

Buzz on 22nd November 2013 @ 8:20am

But would there have been a game that night at HRHS? Just thought it looked like him....Yes, was a very nice man...

charlott on 22nd November 2013 @ 8:45am

Lots of memories of the rivalry between HRHS and Wy'east, especially with brother John going to Wy'East (class of 1955) when it opened and me HR (class of 1959). The battle between the school districts, city & county, was bitter as I vaguely remember at the adult level resulting in the county pulling their students out of HRHS and building Wy'East.. The last basketball game between the two schools was also won by the HRHS "blue dragons"......(still wonder how many beers it took to see a "blue" dragon)..... and some of our cheerleaders dated Wy'East players and had the GAUL to wear those "w" letterman jackets around HRHS.
Ed Vannet was an excellent coach and person.

Arlen Sheldrake on 22nd November 2013 @ 8:52am

Do not remember ever seeing, and have a hard time believing, that any cheerleader from HRHS ever wore a Wyeast letterman sweater in the halls of HRHS. Arlen are you sure that you weren't the one who got into the beer when you saw anything as degrading as that. LOL

Buzz on 22nd November 2013 @ 9:17am

I have a HRHS letterman's sweater and it has a beer opener in the pocket that is vintage, is that the one Arlen used...
......If you want to battle (ha) the city people didn't want their country hick cousins coming to town, so they built their own high school. I don't think I ever saw a Hood River letterman's sweater in the hallowed halls of Wy'east.

charlott on 22nd November 2013 @ 1:08pm

Wy'east Football Team (starters)

Alvie Cunningham, Dick Lowe, Lee Mitchell, David Beaton, Rick Routson, Bill Walker, Mike Curtis, Jerry Arthur, Danny McNeil, Gary Scoville, Bill Woods, Bill Fosburg, Scott Diamond, Arne Mortensen, Dick Miller and David Dinsmoor.

charlott on 22nd November 2013 @ 1:21pm

Memories! It would have been November of my sophomore year at Wy'east. I am sure that I am there. I didn't ever (or very very rarely) miss a game. We had a super team, and a bunch of great guys!

Sharron on 22nd November 2013 @ 2:37pm

I have really enjoyed reading these comments. It is plain to see the rivalry was NOT between Wyeast and Jefferson. I did not know this part of HR school history.
Buzz, I enjoyed your history of the Jefferson players. My husband and I grew up at the west end of the gorge and even in Washington, Terry Baker and the Renfro brothers were household names.

l.e. on 22nd November 2013 @ 6:19pm

Well Charlott it was really the other way around as Wyeast was built much later than HRHS. My mother, class of 37, went to May Street her freshman year, then to HRHS, She lived at the northern intersection of Old Parkdale Road and Trout Creek, south of there they went to Parkdale HS. So lots of country cousins went to the hallowed halls of HRHS

Jim Gray on 23rd November 2013 @ 10:50am

Ah yes, the closure of Parkdale High was also a LOT of community trauma....father John L. worked for the county school district during that time and got a lot of flack for being a part of the school district that closed this community resource.....
If my memory isn't failing, the story I remember is that Wy'East High School was a result of the city school district raising the tuition that the county school district paid for their students to attend HRHS; so the county school district decided to and built Wy'East. Corrections anyone?
It is interesting that finally the two school districts merged and that HRVHS followed, thus once again combining the students....
Jim, your Mother probably had a Sheldrake classmate.....

Arlen Sheldrake on 23rd November 2013 @ 7:01pm

Yes, I know Wy'east was built many years after Hood River High School, as my family went there in the 1920's. If I recall the first class to graduate at Wy'east was in 1952. It was at that time that the Parkdale students also came to Wy'east.

Had that Wy'east and Hood River been the same school in 1958 they would have destroyed Jefferson, as with the combo of the best players from both schools they couldn't have been whipped. Ask any player of both of those teams and I venture a good guess they would all agree.

charlott on 24th November 2013 @ 6:37am

Charlott, I believe you are correct. Brother John who graduated in 1955 was in the first class having gone all 4 years at Wy'East; he was pretty proud of that fact. Even though one of his brothers and father were HRHS graduates.

Arlen Sheldrake on 24th November 2013 @ 5:39pm

I was at that game. Years later I can say Ictuallysaw Ray and Mel Renfro play Football. Mel went on to become a legend playing for The Dallas Cowboys.

Patricia on 21st May 2014 @ 8:46am

Played in the band for that game. In fact I think I'm the clarinet player in the 3rd from last row. I couldn't play and march at the same time. Davie and Les Shields should be in the band also.

Pat Young on 22nd November 2016 @ 12:59pm