From the Nevada Paper of spring 1929:
“Last Thursday, a short time was taken in school..... for the coaches to award basketball letters to those in the basketball squad who were entitled to receive them. Brief talks were given by Supt Weyrauch and Coach Corter and then the presentation of the letters took place.
Those who received letters are Orlene Twedt, Kimble Peterson, Virgil Burley, Robert Harlow, Eugene Thornton, John Allen, Earl Prescott, Franklyn Crose, Edward McCaffrey.
In the basketball season of this year the boys won five games and lost five. Two Members of the team will graduate this year, namely Kimble Peterson and Virgil Burley.”
Some insight into the School times of the thirties is reported by an unknown recorder for the PTA:
“The Milford PTA met for its first 1936- 1937 meeting on 24 Sept 1936. There was the customary noise and clatter while some of us tried to say the Lord’s Prayer in unison. There was so much of this noise in fact, that those who think earnestly about the matter of prayer earnestly felt that repeating the Lord’s Prayer under such conditions is sacrilege. Have our children not yet learned the Lord’s Prayer that they do not know it is proper to bow the head while addressing our Heavenly Father?
“There was a good program but there were few who could enjoy it to the full because of the noise and confusion.” Picture of Milford PTA Presidents Page 301
Fall 1927; “The high school boys are taking football as their fall sport. Many bruises, skinned elbows and knees are in evidence but the boys continue to play undaunted by injuries or the weather.”
Tentative Identification:
Front: Ruth Durby, Virginia Donaldson, Viola Danielson. Back: Ethel Burley, Helen McCaffrey, Emarine Sloan.
Only two of these young ladies have been identified. The lady on the back left is Ethel Burley who married Floyd Davis and the lady on the front right, it is thought, is Viola Danielson. Note her fine looking “Letter Sweater” with its three chevrons. The assumption is that the three chevrons are for three years of competition in a sport. However, earlier than 1929, each activity is to be recognized by arm bands. (No record as to what an activity is -ie, a track meet, Basketball tournament, or a season of competition, etc??) The emblem in the “V” of the Milford “M” is probably a star which denoted Captain of the team. This photo and the beautiful letter sweater present a problem for the researcher in that no evidence can be found in the newspapers, of the time, that these ladies played competitive sports. The practice of awarding letters for athletic competition was begun by the county association for those who played in two-thirds of the games participated in by the team. For example, in 1927 nine girls from Milford received letters from the county association. By 1929 the individual school was giving the awards to the participants. The suggestion has been made that perhaps the sweater is her boy friend’s and she’s proud enough of it to wear it in this photo. It surely fits her well though.
1929-’30 Basketball: Milford finished in 2nd place in the first year the Consolidated Six Conference was formed. They finished at 8-2. 1930 March: 12 High Schools organized the Story County Baseball League; Cambridge, Collins, Colo, Gilbert, Huxley, Kelley, Maxwell, Milford, Roland, Slater, Story City, and Zearing. Edit; Was this a Summer league only? There is a memory book that reads that Milford beat St Anthony by a score of 62-8 on 20 Dec 1930. No record of this game’s results were in the paper but all the information in the memory book that could be checked is accurate including other games. Milford won; but suspicion is that the score would more likely have been 12-8 as this was more in line with the score of other games. 1931: Milford’s basketball team was referred to as the “Bluejays”. How many years this continued is unknown but they still had this nickname in 1936.