The 1947 TDHS State Football Champs
The challenge that started this whole adventure.
My Grandpa Dick was an excellent coach. He was so coach-like that even his grandkids had to call him “Coach” rather than “Grandpa.” Before his storied 27-year coaching career at Bandon High School, he coached The Dalles High School state championship football team in 1947.
A couple years ago, my dad called to tell me that Coach’s team was going to be inducted into the local sports hall of fame. He had been asked to talk about Coach and the team at the induction ceremony and asked if I would help him confirm some dates and locations for his speech.
Once he really got to thinking about it, my dad decided he wanted to invite at least one living relative of each of the 31 players to the ceremony. But he had no idea where to start. I offered to help, having absolutely no concept of how much work it would be. I got my hands on the original roster and got to researching. What followed was a crash course in creative research techniques. Many of the players had moved from much, much smaller towns in Oregon and Washington to join the promising TDHS football squad, so tracing their origins was laborious and time-consuming. And yet, it was incredibly satisfying!
During the process, I built a clearinghouse of yearbook photos and newspaper articles about the team and created a website so family members could view and download them. In the end, I found a living relative for all but one of the players.
Right as we were leaving my parents’ house to attend the induction ceremony, my dad got a call from the wife of one of the original team members. He had passed away, but she was a spry 96 years old and living in sunny Florida. She had called my dad to thank him for taking the time to track her down to let her know. She regretted that she couldn’t attend, but she had shared the news with her husband’s descendants so they could celebrate virtually.
Before she ended the call, she said, “However did you find me?” My dad looked over at me and winked. “Actually, my daughter found you.”
And that was it. I was officially hooked on family history research.
The story of The Dalles 1947 state championship football team is a really good one! You can even view digitized film footage of the game against Hillsboro at Multnomah Civic Stadium on that chilly December day. I would provide a recap of the game here, but Tom Peterson of The Dalles already did it better than I ever could in his piece, “Tackle for the Miracle.”
