WWII Scrap Rubber drive at Yost Motors

This particular scrap rubber drive ended in July, 1942, one of many efforts during the war to recover and reuse valuable raw materials in the war effort. 

Commemorative Plates of Sutton

Commemorative Plates?

Yep, we got some of those.

And, there might be a few more around the museum.

First Baby of 1994 - Lance Spongberg

Clay County's New Year's baby of 1994

Anyone know what happened to the kid? Check here among other easily accessible online connections. 

1993 Wrestling Story

Remember wrestling from days of yore?

December 1993 Basketball

A look at Sutton - Sandy Creek basketball from 25 years ago.

OK, so I cut off a few lines of the article. I did get in B. J.'a 32 point story to back up any tales he may have been trying to pass off. And there is a profile shot of Brian Shaw, who had a bit of a future in sporting activities, as I recall.

Roger Welsch column in Clay County News

In 1993, Don Russell carried the Roger Welsch in the weekly Clay County News. The Column is just one in a list of things that cause me to take a day or two to write my column for the paper.

My connection to this column is that my last active duty Air Force assignment was at Defense Depot Tracy, a Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) facility at Tracy, California where I was known as OTIS (Director, Office of Telecommunications and Information Systems). 

One of the 30 or so warehouses at the depot contained a MRE production line, one of two such DLA operations, as I recall. The staff sampled the product a few times, perhaps an unofficial QC role, and I found them to be an acceptable product especially for an operation that was responsible to produce literally millions of these packaged meals. 

My experience was from 1984-1987. Perhaps by 1993 the gourmet qualities of the MRE product had dropped off.

1944 Basketball Schedule

Your Sutton Mustang basketball schedule 75 years ago - admission 35 cents for adults.

Lots of Military News in Sutton in early December 1943

The war must have seemed very close for Sutton folks with this issue of The Sutton News on December 2, 1943. There were three major stories about Sutton men and a couple of lesser ones thrown in.

Edward Reiber showed up in the news reel at the Lyric Theater as he helped shipmates in an incident that killed 197. Wikipedia entry for USS Savannah has details of the incident. And if you've the stomach for it, there are youtube videos of the rescue, the dead and the wounded. 

Click Aspegren had this harrowing experience after a Messina bombing run. Another account is in the 99th Bomb Wing Newsletter from November 9, 1943 It's on the right side of the 4th page. The newsletter states that Major Aspegren was on the B-17 raid of Rome shown in this youtube video.

We saw a note from Lt. Lilliedoll a few weeks earlier when he was on R&R in Australia. His father had a drug store in Sutton.

This Sutton lad spent a year in North Africa before being assigned to Harvard Air Base.

There were months of training before getting to the war. Each crew member had specialized training before meeting for aircrew training as was done at bases in this area: Harvard, Fairmont, Bruning, Kearney, etc. Crew members often stayed together through aircrew training and to their base in the war zone. McKeeman was a Navy airman. Their training was similar to the Air Corps. 

Wrigley gum sacrifices tin foil in war effort

The impact of World War II on Americans stretched far and wide. Wrigley chewing gum had to sacrifice their tin foil wrapping. 

Museum Front Porch Memorabilia

The front porch of the Historic House provides a convenient place to display memorabilia from Sutton and from Sutton High. Join us in a walkabout on the porch:

Do you remember where you use to see this?

There have been numerous designs for school banners.

Sutton schools have enjoyed excellent support from community businesses.

Music badges for school sweaters.

The FFA jacket joins plaques recognizing Adeline Nolde who designed the FFA emblem in 1934.

FFA and Fire Department togs - there are more.

A vintage Sutton baseball shirt.

Memorabilia from the Sutton Country Club

Remember where Grothe's Pharmacy was located?

Another Red & Black pennant. 

Plettner Produce went on a multi-year classic car binge for their Christmas gifts. 

And the 70th anniversary of the Runza Drive-In approaches.

Occidental Hotel where the Legion is today. The Carson was on CPI property.
The Oakland Hotel was on the south bank of School Creek, west side of Saunders.

Timmerman's - Boehler's

Gibb Wieland, also know for basketball   Gibb Wieland and the 1922 team

From an early prominent Sutton family.

Kohler Brothers Inducted into OSU Football Hall of Fame - 1993

The Clay County News carried the story of Sutton's Kohler brothers being enshrined in the Oregon State University Football Hall of Fame in the December 2, 1993 issue.

Morrie Kohler and Vic Kohler

Morrie Kohler graduated from Sutton High in 1935, Vic in 1936. They attended Hastings College for their freshman year where they excelled. (They did pretty well at Sutton High, too.)

Morrie and Vic Kohler transferred to Oregon State sitting out the 1937 season. They starred at OSU during that program's best seasons. Morrie had a brief run in the pros after OSU.

Personal note: several years ago I received a call from the NFL Historian (who'd of thought that was a job?). He had a web site listing the oldest living ex-professional football players and wanted to know when Morris Kohler had died. I let him know that that had not happened yet. He got somewhat excited. 

I connected him with Kris Moody, then at The Clay County News who arranged for the NFL fellow to talk to Mary Lou and Morrie Kohler. Morrie was added to the website list as No. 12 of the list of 1,000 oldest surviving ex-professional football players. 

Although it was an NFL Historian working on the website, the list was for all ex-professionals. Morrie was drafted by the Cleveland Browns but his playing days were with teams of variations of the American Football League and other competitive leagues at the time. 

Morris Henry "Morrie" Kohler was born 5 March 1917 and died 13 March 2011. Victor Otto Kohler was born 2 February 1918 and died 14 March 1999. Both men are buried in the Sutton Cemetery.

When Morrie Kohler was added to the list of 1,000 oldest living ex-pro players, he was only the third oldest on the list with Nebraska connections. Ahead of him was William Henry Harrison Dye, better known as Tippy Dye (historical reference to Tippecanoe and Tyler too). Tippy Dye was athletic director at the University of Nebraska from 1962 to 1967. He was the clever fellow who hired Bob Devaney in 1962 kicking off the heyday of Nebraska football. As I recall, Tippy Dye was No. 2 on that list at the time.

Also on the list, older than Morrie was Bill Glassford, Nebraska's head football coach from 1949 to 1955. Bill Glassford just makes the cut for the site's current list of all-time oldest old timers as he lived to be 102. See: Oldest Pro Players website