Memories Of Champions -- Everett To Salute All-Stars Of Past And Begin Anew
The past tends to dissolve into a fog that leaves only a few nuggets of memory within easy view.
If we're lucky, those nuggets represent landmarks of good fortune that comfort us.
Tonight, at the Everett Pacific Hotel, Everett High School will honor a few of its choicest nuggets of football greatness from a past that stretches back to 1903, when the school fielded its first official team.
Everyone who has ever worn an Everett High School football uniform has been invited to a banquet celebrating the school's 100th year of operation and its long standing as "The School of Champions," the motto it has worn proudly since the early part of this century.
"I'm sure that nickname goes back to before 1920," said Bill Dunn, who coached Everett during the 1950s and 1960s and will be named to the all-star team of the '40s. "It's always been called `The School of Champions' as far back as I can remember.
"Of course, there was the 1920 team that won the national championship, but Everett won league and state and regional championships before that."
Seven all-star teams have been chosen, representing the greatest players the school has produced, and the list is distinguished.
The stars of those seven teams have shined across the nation, beginning with that national high-school title in 1920, continuing through the first two Rose Bowl appearances by the University of Washington (Coach Enoch Bagshaw, center Chalmer Walters and back George Wilson all came from Everett) and to the present.
When Washington State plays Fresno State tomorrow at Martin Stadium in Pullman, former Everett High quarterback Mike Price will lead the Cougars out of the tunnel.
Last night in Miami, the quarterback who replaced Price when he was injured midway through his senior season, Dennis Erickson, coached No. 2-ranked Miami past No. 10 Houston.
"We had a member of the Price family playing at Everett throughout the 1950s and 1960s, it seemed," Price said. "My dad coached and my two older brothers both played for Everett. I can't remember not being caught up in Everett High School football."
Price said he learned his football foundation at Everett, and he tries to pass on those lessons.
"I can remember that you had to be tough if you were going to play football at Everett - you had to be, or you just didn't play," he said. "We were never all that big; I think our center might have weighed all of 150 pounds, but we were always well coached, we were really, really disciplined and we were really, really tough."
Dunn, Price's coach, agreed, and said that ethic came from the man who left an indelible mark on Everett High School athletics, the late Jim Ennis.
"I think that was a reflection on Jim and the way he approached things," Dunn said. "I played for Jim at Everett, I played for him for a year at St. Martin's College before the war and again at Washington State.
"That was the way he was and I think you can still see that in some of the kids who played for him: Jim Lambright (defensive coordinator at the University of Washington), his son Terry (the head coach at Cascade High School), his son-in-law, Rick Stubrud (the head coach at Hazen), and a long list of other coaches."
The teams, and the school's football history, will be remembered in a booklet produced by the school, written by retired administrator Larry O'Donnell, and distributed at tomorrow night's season opening game at Everett Memorial Stadium against Lynnwood.
The booklet also reveals how the team got the nickname "Seagulls."
"Before 1920, the team was always called `The Team' or it was called `The Champions,' " O'Donnell said. "Then I found an article in the 1921 yearbook, the Nesika."
The article, "The Emblem of Victory," explains how a big, grey seagull was a harbinger of good fortune for the 1920 team en route to the national title.
A gull swooped across the field during the team's 90-7 victory over The Dalles and again when it walloped East High of Salt Lake, 67-0.
When the team played at Long Beach, Calif., for the Western United States Championship, the telegraph wired the news back to 1,500 fans at the high school auditorium and the Rose Theatre that, "A large white sea gull is flying over a corner of the field." The crowds cheered the news and Everett went on to win, 28-0.
When East Tech High School, from Cleveland, Ohio, showed up to play Everett for the national title, a large grey gull floated over the field throughout the game, each time being greeted by wild cheers from the crowd. Everett won, 16-7.
The student body mounted a large stuffed gull in the school's trophy case as an emblem of those victories, and by 1924, the school had adopted Seagulls as its official nickname.
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EVERETT HIGH SCHOOL'S FOOTBALL ALL-STAR TEAMS OF THE DECADES
-- As part of the centennial celebration for Everett High School, a committee selected Everett High School football all-star teams of the decades:
-------------------- Team of 1903 to 1919 --------------------
Tackles - Victor Britt, Pete Tegtmeier.
Guards - Bert Brooks, Bill Guerin, Pete Lee.
Center - Chalmer Walters.
Ends - Earl "Click" Clark, Glenn Gallagan, Al Quist, Clarence Zimmerman.
Backs - Erv Dailey, Wally Dailey, Verne Hickey, Larry Jones, Dan Michel.
-------------------- Team of 1920 to 1939 --------------------
Tackles - Harold "Tubby" Britt, Abe Wilson, Ray "Tiny Arndt, Bert Gianelli.
Guards - Luther Berge, Glen Davis, Andy "Tip" Guttormsen.
Centers - Romauld Lauzon, Bob O'Brien, Vern "Bubs" Oliver.
Ends - Leroy Shuh, Roy Sievers.
Backs - Glenn "Scoop" Carlson, Felix Fletcher, George Guttormsen, Larry Killborn, Ed Kittleson, Harry "Frisco" Mitchell, Les Sherman, Dick Ward, George Wilson.
-------------------- Team of 1940 to 1949 --------------------
Tackles - Joe Erickson, Jim Jolgen.
Guards - Bill Dunn, Norm Nelson.
Center - Con Sampson.
Ends - Fran Bacoka, Les Hagen, Ben Newland.
Backs - Zed Aschenbrenner, Larry Hatch, Mel Kirkus, Keith "Bo" Moore.
-------------------- Team of 1950 to 1959 --------------------
Tackles - Bill Kinnune, Jim Linden, Don McCumby, Earl Monlux.
Guards - Terry Cabe, Dennis LeMaster, Ron Spjut.
Center - Bob Martin, Ray Sievers.
Ends - Larry Cyr, Bill Thieme.
Backs - Ed Brown, Ron Gilbert, Jim Lambright, Jack Leary, Chuck McAninch, Wes "Swede" Nelson.
Quarterback - Dan Michel, Jr., Geoff Price.
-------------------- Team of 1960 to 1969 --------------------
OFFENSE
End - Jack Meyers.
Wide out - Gus Russell.
Centers - Bob Fankhauser, Paul Lawrence.
Line - Scott Dean, Roger Haug, Gene Lilley, Frank Wilson.
Backs - Mike Dire, Tim Larson, Floyd Persson.
Quarterback - Dennis Erickson, Rick Stubrud.
DEFENSE
Line - Roger Haug, Paul Lawrence, Chuck Stahl, Charley Tripp.
Ends - Buzz Dire, Jack Meyers, Mike Skjei.
Linebackers - Mike Dire, Mike Goodwill, Jim Wall.
Backs - Jeep Carpenter, Dennis Erickson, Tim Larson, Dennis Scafe.
-------------------- Team of 1970 to 1979 --------------------
OFFENSE
End - Vince Smith.
Wide outs - Len Hammond, Marty Martinis.
Center - Scott McKay.
Line - John Lorge, Steve Merrick, Bob Sampson, Dave Womack.
Backs - Ron Gipson, Dave Koshelnik, Lloyd White.
Quarterback - Rick Osborne.
Kicker - Chuck Nelson.
DEFENSE
Line - Steve Cupic, Murray Gordon, Dick Heinz, Jim Shannon.
Ends - Jeff Hutt, Jamie Jasper, Joe Robinson.
Linebackers - Scott McKay, Ken McKeehan, Robin Robinson, Steve Wahl, Mike Warfield.
Backs - John Bielser, Kevin Cochran, Greg Erickson, Craig Smith, Anthony Smith.
Punter - Ron Gipson.
-------------------- Team of 1980 to 1989 --------------------
OFFENSE
End - Damon Taggart.
Wide outs - Mike Gaffney, Todd Larson, Rick Soriano.
Center - Aaron Dahlberg.
Line - Larry Bean, Paul Taggart, Todd Taylor, Fred Schmidt.
Backs - Cory Decker, Erik Peterson.
Quarterback - Chris Chandler.
Kicker - Tom Lane.
DEFENSE
Line - Larry Bean, Vic Rogers, Fred Schmidt, Mitch Vaivaimuli.
Ends - Keith Krassin, Brian Taylor.
Linebacker - Cory Decker, Kurt Munnich, Damon Taggart.
Backs - Mike Gaffney, Todd Larson, Joey Martin, John Sygitowicz.
Punter - Travis Mickelson.