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A History of Football in the Northwest...By Those Who Were There
The West Seattle Athletic Club
By E. Warren Lawless (reprinted from WestSeattle.com)
In the years following World War One, through the Great Depression and abruptly ending with the Pearl Harbor attack, December 7, 1941, there was an interest in neighborhood sports teams on an amateur and semi-pro level. West Seattle, with its vaunted “West Seattle Spirit” was certainly no exception.
The vehicle established to unleash all this manly pride was The West Seattle Athletic Club. The team they fielded was the “Yellow Jackets,” It was a way for retired pros, former collegians and some high school alumni players to continue playing for the love of the game. For sure, there wasn’t much money in it.
The West Seattle Athletic Club also maintained a supporting membership, eager to be associated with the social conviviality and spirit of a grid team representing a competitive West Seattle sports mantra. The membership list read like a “who’s who” of movers and shakers. Names I recognized were: Archie Phelps, a prime mover in getting the West Seattle Golf Course built; the Vann brothers, “Erv” and Reuel; haberdasher, and later city councilman, Bob Jones; “Cap” Sanislo, remembered by school kids for his lectures on fire safety; D. E. Marriot, Ford dealer, “Polly” Parrett, Puget Sound Power and Light; Roy Misener, County Assessor; Otto Case, State Treasurer; Jack Taylor, County Commissioner; “Morry” Campbell, Insurance broker; Frank Holert, Junction property owner; Lawrence Hunt and Bill Cloud who were my first bosses as contract operators of The Herald printing plant, “Rupe” Hamilton, publisher of the Herald; Herb Blackstock, Blackstock Lumber; and dozens more . . . too many to list here. Suffice to say, there were few trepidations about party lines or political correctness. Local managers of stores like Penney’s and Ernst Hardware had no corporate barriers to being included.
Mostly, they were West Seattle residents and stayed around more than a couple of years.
A 1955 game program in a treasure-trove of memorabilia lent to me by Leonard Vann illustrates how seriously local interests were involved. Game programs declared the club mission was “To promote clean athletics for the youth of West Seattle.” The game, apparently played locally, was with the Kitsap “Destroyers.” Remember, these were the days when players competed on defense as well as offense, so the roster listed a scant 26 players. Gonzaga, Wazoo, U Dub, West Seattle High and Rutgers were schools of origin among random others. The Yellow Jackets won by a thundering 12 to 0.
One Game of subsequent historic significance, pitted the Yellow Jackets against a team from the Battleship Arizona, played at the “rock pile,” Civic Stadium.” The date, December 15, 1940. The ship, under repair at Puget Sound Navy Yard in Bremerton, was reassigned to Pearl Harbor the next Spring and was sunk in the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941. Many of those killed played in the game. Of course, the Arizona, still resting on the bottom, is the memorial for the thousands of sailors killed on that tragic Sunday. Listed as West Seattle coach was “Fanny” Hunting; assistants, Frank Windust and “Pop” Reed, noted for his Franklin High School baseball dynasty which produced many AAA Pacific Coast Leaguers and several major leaguers. Most famous among them was the legendary Fred Hutchinson.
Many of the Navy’s Pacific fleet of battlewagons organized teams to play local semi-pro games. Among ones I remember in addition to the Arizona were the Idaho, Tennessee, California, West Virginia, and the carrier Lexington. The University of Colorado’s star “Whizzer” White poayed for one of them. He went on to become Justice Byron White of the U. S. Supreme Court.
Another memorable Yellow Jacket contest was played in Husky Stadium against the Dawgs, coached by a newly arrived Jimmy Phelan. Must have been 1930. I know it was on Thanksgiving Day and the playing surface was frozen hard as a rock. Smartly, Phelan raided the basketball lockers and shoed his squad in sneakers to overcome the slippery turf. At half time they had buried the West Seattle team 60-0. Their cleated shoes couldn’t penetrate the frozen turf. During the intermission, the Yellow Jackets bought out the tennis shoe stock of Nordstrom’s Shoe Store on the “Ave.” The score at the final gun was still 60-0.
I know something of the “Yellow Jackets” because they often traveled to Bremerton, where I grew up, to play the Bremerton Athletic Club team. The games were played on a middle school athletic field where all the local high school football, baseball and track competitions also took place. Most spectators arrayed themselves along the sidelines.
The fire for semi-pro football never was completely extinguished. Many teams were organized in the 40’s and 50’s; mostly independently, playing games scheduled on the spur of the moment. During the NFL Strike of 1982, team ownership raided semi-pro league teams for players to replace striking regulars in order to field teams for scheduled games. The situation was pretty ugly.
In 1985, The Northwest Football League was launched, fielding a variety of teams from towns and communities in Washington, Oregon and British Columbia. The league is still operating. Hampered by financial difficulties, many teams were started and many folded after a few seasons. The West Seattle Warhawks, owned by Jack Lawless. played in the early to mid-eighties. The team was sold and moved to Renton where it finally folded. after about two years.
Sept 25, 1954 - Seattle Ramblers vs University of British Columbia ThunderbirdsRemember the Rangers
By Dean Wong
Years before the Seattle Seahawks existed, Lafa Lane, president of the Ballard Mortgage Company, brought professional football to the city when he owned the Seattle Rangers from 1966 to 1969.
The Rangers competed in the old Continental Football League (CFL) against 29 other teams across the country in three divisions.
Lane first became interested sports as a teenager while growing up in Gas City, Kansas. He learned football as a second string quarterback at Lola High School.
In 1940 he moved to Seattle and started the Ballard Mortgage Company. The business grew and expanded to seven offices in the Seattle area and one in San Jose, CA. At its peak, the company employed 162 people. After being successful at business, he wanted to try his hand at owning a football team.
In 1966 Lane purchased the Edmonds Warriors, a Pacific Coast Football League team and renamed it the Seattle Ramblers. The team won the PCL title that year. Lane renamed the team the Seattle Rangers and joined the Continental Football League.
"The next thing you know, I was in the football business pretty deep, but I am willing to go deeper," Lane told the Seattle Times Hy Zimmerman in 1968. Lane wanted to eventually bring a National Football League franchise to the city.
The CFL was considered a minor league compared to the NFL and American Football League (AFL). "The average player was paid $50 to $60 a game," said Lane.
Ernie Nevers, the first player ever elected to the NFL Hall of Fame joined the Rangers as a kicking specialist coach and ended up as a member of the team's Board of Directors.
"Nevers said, the only difference between the NFL and the CFL was that the backfields were not as good. The linemen were just as good," Lane recalls.
The Rangers signed a then rare 313-pound lineman named Dick Hard who played for West Seattle High School but had no college experience.
Both NFL and AFL teams tried to sign Hard due to his size, but he wanted to stay in Seattle, where he could work with kids from the local YMCA.
"The kids worshipped him, he did not want to leave Seattle," said Lane. "He was good, oh God, was he big. He was one of the best offensive linemen."
The Seattle Rangers were the first football team to play at the Seattle Center's Memorial Stadium. The averaged 4,000 to 6,000 fans at each game.
The entire football operation was run out of Ballard Mortgage Company's building on the southwest corner of 24th Avenue Northwest and Northwest Market Street. The Rangers became Ballard's team as well as the City of Seattle's.
On August 31, 1968, the Ballard News-Tribune and the Ballard Jaycees saluted the team prior to a game against the Chicago Owls.
A parade was held down Ballard Avenue. Lane and former Ballard High School players Mel McCain and Les Mueller, who joined the Rangers were there for the festivities.
Lane loaded his staff with former University of Washington coaches and players.
Joining Don White, formerly the second in command to then Husky Head Coach Jim Owens were assistants Dick Berg and Bob Monroe. Steve Bramwell, a kick return standout for the UW was hired as Director of Promotions.
The Rangers won a lot of games, thanks in part to a working relationship Lane had with Lou Saban, the owner of the Denver Broncos.
Saban sent some of his developing players to the Rangers to get playing time.
"We did quite well, won a lot of games with seven Denver Broncos. Saban paid their expenses. A lot of them became first string players in Denver," said Lane.
Lane then began thinking it was time to try and land a major league franchise.
The Buffalo Bills, San Diego Chargers and Boston Patriots were all looking for new cities to move their teams to.
By 1969, rumors circulated about a possible move by the Boston Patriots to Seattle.
With the help of investors, Lane made an $8 million bid for the club. The deal fell through.
To boost interest in the NFL in Seattle, Lane organized an exhibition game between the San Francisco 49ers and Cleveland Browns at the University of Washington's Husky Stadium.
San Francisco was lead by quarterback John Brodie. The Browns had running back Leroy Kelly. The game was televised nationally.
Tickets were sold for $6 and $4.50 at locations all over the region, including Arts Driftwood Inn, at 1422 N.W. Market Street in Ballard.
In 1969, the CFL's Indianapolis Capitols made an offer of $400,000 to University of Southern California star running back O.J. Simpson. The NFL's Buffalo Bills had the draft rights to him.
Simpson was asking for $1,100,000 from the Bills and ended up signing with them. Simpson's interest in the CFL was said to be a negotiating tactic at the time.
"The AFL and NFL took notice and gave us a hard time," said Lane.
NFL and AFL teams began outbidding the CFL for players. The two more prestigious professional leagues merged in 1970.
In October 1969, Lane gave the team to White and Berg, who had become general manager by then. "I've spent a quarter of a million dollars trying to sell people of Seattle on good football, but he complacency shown by people here is overwhelming," Lane told the Seattle Times when he made the decision.
A few days later White and Berg declined the offer. Lane then suggested the idea of giving the team to the City of Seattle. Nothing became of that suggestion.
Before the team folded, the Rangers played one of their most exciting games, beating the Spokane Shockers14-12 at home in front of 11,102 fans, the largest audience in the team's short history.
On October 31, 1969, Lane made the announcement that the Seattle Rangers operation would shut down after their final home game on November 9.
Lane said he had lost half a million dollars in four years as majority owner of the Rangers.
"I took it (the Rangers) and closed it up, paid off all the bills," said Lane.
The CFL's eastern division western and central division teams all went out of business.
"We could not afford it. We could not afford all those salaries. That ruined the CFL," said Lane.
In 1975, John Nordstrom, owner of the Nordstrom department store finally brought an NFL franchise to the city and the Seattle Seahawks were born.
Jack Patera was hired as the head coach. Quarterback Jim Zorn passed for 2,500 yards in the Seahawks inaugural 1976 season and was named offensive rookie of the year. Wide receiver Steve Largent recorded his first of eight 1,000-yard seasons on the way to a record setting career.
"I should have been there," said Lane.
He was happy to see the Seahawks make it to the Super Bowl XL this year despite the loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers 21-10.
"That was great. I'm just not happy they did not win. The officiating was lousy. They lost it for us, no doubt in my mind," said Lane.
While player's salaries have changed drastically since the old days, the game itself has not changed said Lane.
"It's still football, a rough and tough game. Players are bigger, stronger and faster," said Lane.
These days, Lane is content beating his friends on the golf course. He is still physically active and plays golf three days a week. When his birthday comes around this August, Lane will be 90 years old.
"I enjoyed it. I enjoyed competing and beating other teams," said Lane.
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PLAYER SPOTLIGHT
Name: James Hooker Hailstone, Jr.
Birth Date: October 1, 1929
Born and Raised in Issaquah, WA and have lived in Highpoint for 45 years.
I played football in sophomore and junior years and lettered. Played Mt Si with 2 inches of snow on the field. The groundskeepers dumped gas and lit it on the field’s yard lines to clear them for the game.
When I was a senior, I played center for the Alpine Dairy, semi-pro football team, 1946-49.
Coaches: Eddie Parker, George Morgan.
Trainer: Ralph DeSmith.
Teammates: Jim, Nick and Pete Bakamus, Tommy Bevin, Dave and Harold Chevalier, Frank Crosly, Ellie Croston, Jack Evans, Al Pankey, Bill and Rex Seil, Mike Sernitch, Jack Shelfa, Larry Totten, Art Wallace.
Labor Day: We always played semi-pro football against a military team. In the mid-1950s, I was going to fill in as a relief player for the Issaquah team. But the Seattle Cavaliers were short handed so I ended up playing for them - the whole game - as tackle.
The team was coached by Elmo Hudgens, he was a policeman at the time. My children ran along the sidelines cheering for me. I was the oldest guy on the team- they all called me “Dad.†I continued to play for the Cavaliers part of the season traveling to games at the Monroe Reformatory, Grays Harbor Junior College (where they didn’t throw in a new player - they threw in a new TEAM!) Issaquah was the home field for the Cavaliers.
1955 - Hooker Hailstone with son Don at Lake Sammamish State park
Information reprinted from "A Memory Book Project of the Issaquah Historical Society"
TEAM SPOTLIGHT
1986 Auburn Panthers
Auburn wins Semipro Grid Title With 34-0 Win
by David Leong
Special to the Seattle Times
Nov. 23, 1986
Auburn's Panthers established themselves as the best team in semipro football by bowling over the Chicago Cowboys 34-0 yesterday in a game billed as Champions Bowl I.
By winning, the Panthers claimed the 1986 American Minor League Football Association (AMLFA) National Championship.
Auburn, the Northwest Football Alliance (NFA) champion with a 15-0 record this season and undefeated (43-0) for the past three years,
routed the Midwest Metropolitan Football League's champion from River Grove, Ill. The Cowboys finished 11-1 this year, with a
three year record of 36-3.
"It (the game) wasn't indicative of the way we've been playing," said Chicago coach Gene Nudo. "We did the best we could.
Our ballplayers tried. Our ballplayers tried their best."
"Their team controlled our linemen," said Nudo, trying to explain how Auburn quarterback Roy Medley was able to complete 19 of 26 passes for 288 yards and four touchdowns.
Three of the touchdown passes went to star wide receiver Harry Washington Jr., who finished the day with seven receptions and 145 yards. "We were serious. We wanted it. We were ready for them," said Washington.
Auburn gained 472 yards, 101 rushing and 371 passing compared to the Cowboys' 180 total.
Auburn's Darryl Baines rushed for 76 yards on 10 carries, including a 60-yard scoring dash with 7:12 left in the second quarter for the Panthers' second touchdown.
"It's hard to dispute the fact that these are the two best teams,"
NFA Commissioner Michael Highsmith said when asked how this championship game was determined. "Nobody can hold a candle to the Cowboys, except the Auburn Panthers."
The Panthers were coached in 1986 by former Seattle Seahawk Terry Dion.
LEAGUE SPOTLIGHT
The Continental Football League (CFL) was primarily formed from teams in the United and Atlantic Coast Football Leagues.
The Newark Bears, Springfield Acorns, Richmond Rebels, and Hartford Charter Oaks, came from the ACFL. The Springfield franchise was relocated to Norfolk, VA, where it was renamed the Neptunes, prior to the start of the season. The ACFL, though also losing the Atlanta and Westchester franchises, continued with the 8 remaining teams: Jersey City, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, and Scranton in the Southern Division; and, New Bedford, Boston, Mohawk Valley, and Holyoke in the Northern Division.
The Wheeling Ironmen and Charleston Rockets came directly from the UFL. The Toronto Rifles, Philadelphia Bulldogs, and the Ft. Wayne Warriors had been the Montreal Rifles, Canton Bulldogs, and Indianapolis Warriors, respectively, in the UFL. The remaining UFL teams (Joliet Explorers, Toledo Tornadoes, and Grand Rapids Blazers) folded.
Providence, or Rhode Island, was the sole new franchise.
The league adopted a "professional" appearance. The teams were sorted into two divisions and each time sported a 36-man roster with a 5-man "taxi" squad. Each franchise met the financial requirements of a $5,000 franchise fee and the posting of a $25,000 letter of credit.
The rules were primarily those of the NFL except that a "sudden death" overtime period was employed to break ties.
The league named A.B. "Happy" Chandler, the former Kentucky Governor and retired Commissioner of Baseball, as its first Commissioner on March 17, 1965.
The teams, to reinforce the image of league autonomy, were restricted from loaning players to, or receiving optioned players from, the NFL or the AFL.
The first CFL season opened with three games played on August 14, 1965
Championship Games
1965 — Charleston Rockets 24-7 Toronto Rifles
1966 — Philadelphia Bulldogs 20-17 (OT) Orlando Panthers
1967 — Orlando Panthers 38-14 Orange County Ramblers
1968 — Orlando Panthers 30-23 Orange County Ramblers
1969 — Indianapolis Capitols 44-38 (OT) San Antonio Toros
Teams in 1965
Charleston Rockets
Ft. Wayne Warriors
Hartford Charter Oaks
Newark Bears
Philadelphia Bulldogs
Providence/Rhode Island Indians
Richmond Rebels
Springfield Acorns / Norfolk Neptunes
Toronto Rifles
Wheeling Ironmen
Teams in 1966
Brooklyn Dodgers
Charleston Rockets
Hartford Charter Oaks
Montreal Beavers
Norfolk Neptunes
Orlando Panthers
Philadelphia Bulldogs
Richmond Rebels
Toronto Rifles
Wheeling Ironmen
Teams in 1967
Akron Vulcans
Charleston Rockets
Eugene Bombers: finshed 6-6; All-Stars: Punter Len Frketich, Flanker Bill Ford, DT Skip Diaz, LB Jack O'Billovich, LB Tim Casey
Hartford Charter Oaks
Long Beach Admirals
Montreal Beavers
Norfolk Neptunes
Orange County Ramblers
Orlando Panthers
Philadelphia Bulldogs
Richmond Rebels
Sacramento Buccaneers
San Jose Apaches
Seattle Rangers: finished 7-6; All-Stars: WR John Peyton, OT Jerry Knoll, HB Les Mueller
Toronto Rifles
Victoria Steelers: finished 4-8; All-Star: LB Fred Forsberg
Wheeling Ironmen
Teams in 1968
Alabama Hawks (Huntsville)
Arkansas Diamonds (Little Rock)
Charleston Rockets
Chicago Owls
Indianapolis Capitols
Michigan Arrows (Detroit)
Norfolk Neptunes
Ohio Valley Ironmen (Wheeling, WV)
Oklahoma City Plainsmen
Omaha Mustangs
Orange County Ramblers
Orlando Panthers
Quad Cities Raiders/Las Vegas Cowboys
Sacramento Capitols
Seattle Rangers
Spokane Shockers: An item of passing interest concerns the Spokane franchise. It initially sported a young quarterback, fresh out of the University of Alabama, who completed 17 passes out of 41 attempts for the Shockers.
He went on the become the outstanding quarterback for the Oakland Raiders. Known as "Snake", his name was Ken Stabler.
The Shockers opened their season against the Michigan Arrows whose squad included a soccer-style kicker. This tie salesman was later to prove in the Super Bowl that he had serious deficiencies as a passer. His name, Garo Yepremian
Teams in 1969
Alabama Hawks
Arkansas Diamonds
Chicago Owls
Dallas Rockets
Ft. Worth Braves
Hawaii Warriors/Portland Loggers: finished 3-9;
Indianapolis Capitols
Jersey Jays
Las Vegas Cowboys
Mexico Golden Aztecs
Norfolk Neptunes
Ohio Valley Ironmen
Oklahoma Thunderbirds (Tulsa)
Omaha Mustangs
Orlando Panthers
Sacramento Capitols
San Antonio Toros
Seattle Rangers: finished 7-5;
Spokane Shockers: finshed 5-7;
Texarkana Titans
Tri-City Apollos (Midland, MI)
West Texas Rufneks (Odessa-Midland)
More information available at this site.
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