In the summer of 1931, there was a short note in the Nevada Evening Journal about the fight promotion by the director of Lake Comar- just south of Story City about 2 3/4 miles. He had arranged an evening of local talent boxing for the entertainment of the crowd he hoped would come to see the event. They were there. From the 14th of Aug. paper:
“John Allen (‘31) of Milford put his opponent, Dan Jackson of Jewell away for the count in the third round. Jackson took a count of eight in the first and put up a scrappy battle for the next 2 rounds.”
Because of the great popularity of this event, they were moved to Carr’s Pool Park in Ames. Here, it is learned that John Allen, “the pride of Milford”, compiled a 3-1-1 record by the end of the season.
An informative article appeared in the 27 Sept 1933 Nevada Paper- some of which states-
Milford’s baseball team won their first game played in the season against the team from Carr’s Park by a score of 7-6. (Perhaps the thing that makes this most memorable is simply the name of the opponent)
The entire faculty enjoyed a steak fry at the Ledges south of Boone Wednesday evening.
Pictures of the students of Milford Twp School were taken on Wednesday by the James Brothers of Des Moines. (None of these were found in 2006-2007)
Five coaches representing the five consolidated schools of the north half of Story County organized into a basketball league at Milford. This is the start of the North Story Conference. Fernald was not at this meeting but joined soon thereafter. (Also pg 98)
Probably the roughest game ever played by a Milford basketball team happened on Friday, Jan. 6, 1939 against McCallsburg’s undefeated five. “After the field goals and free throws had been counted up, the fouls accounted and unaccounted for, bruises smarting and fists flying”, Milford was on the short end of the score 20-15. The JV lost also, 179. The team then moved on to Nevada on the tenth and Red Wakefield, injured in the Burg game, was unable to play.
This game, against Nevada, was probably the worst defeat ever handed to a Milford team 58-11.
The Basketball team held a box social to raise funds for the purchase of new uniforms. See pictures on page 138.
Milford Twp, apparently, from the early thirties until the spring of 1944, had no girls competitive sports program so it was the practice to have a boys varsity and a boys junior varsity game. (The accepted nomenclature was Varsity and Seconds.) Apparently, occasionally, the girls would play a sports club game against other schools. There seems to be no surviving evidence that the girls of Milford Twp played competitive sports during the twenties except the All County Athletic Association did award eight Milford Twp girls athletic letters in the spring of 1929.
The Nevada Paper of Tues. Feb. 4, 1941 talks about the games Milford played against McCallsburg on the previous Friday evening. It was a North Story Conference game played on the Milford court.
The JV game was first and this resulted in a win for Milford Twp, 26-23. The Milford players were Matters, Harper, Molde (lead the Milford point attack with ten), Wakefield, Christy, Halverson, Tjelmeland, and M. Johnson.
The varsity game resulted in loss for Milford Twp 37-29. The players for Milford were Samson, J. Johnson, C Johnson, Nelson (the leading scorer of the evening with eleven) Egland, and Matters. Fred Matters, a freshman at this time, scored three points in each game.
Our neighbors to the north, Roland, had a new gym constructed and ready for use in the 1941-1942 basketball season. They won their first game on this floor but then they tangled with the Milford five. (From the 6 Dec 1941 paper) “It was the second game played in their (Roland’s) new gym as well as the first game they lost in the new gym.” Milford Twp won an eight point victory- 20-12.
Some of the players for the Milford five included Earl Johnson, the leading scorer; Donald Halverson, the Supt’s son; Fred Matters, a freshman at the time; Glen Sampson, long time Milford resident; Julius Johnson; Junior Wakefield; Harold Tjelmeland; and Bill Christy.
Ol’ farmer hear report that: One of Milford’s army recruits tells of the following incident at Basic Training. One requirement was a demanding 12-mile march. We got started at 6 a.m. and were pumped up for the trek.
An hour later, feeling the heavy load of our packs, we wondered if the end would ever come.
“Men,” the sergeant yelled, “You’re doing a FINE job. We’ve already covered four miles!”
We felt a breath of relief at completing a third of the distance.
“And,” continued the Sarge, “we should reach the starting point any minute now.”