3-27-24 Ledger

page 14 Wednesday, March 27, 2024

SPORTS

Red Arrow

By Justin Scott

sports reporter

While the spring sports

season kicks into gear this

week, last week, Lowell’s

baseball team continued

their tradition of reading to

Lowell elementary students,

in honor of March’s Reading

Month, which has been

going on for over a decade.

The holiday month, in

honor of Dr. Seuss’ birthday,

is named as such to motivate

people of all ages to read

every day.

Last Wednesday, the

team headed out to Alto

Elementary, where they

chose some of their favorite

childhood books to read to

the elementary schoolers.

In the past, the program has

Baseball continues Reading Month tradition

visited some of Lowell’s

other elementary schools as

well.

“Thank you for

fostering a love of reading

and community engagement

among our students. Your

support and enthusiasm

for this initiative means

a lot to us.” the program

said in a statement to Alto

Elementary staff.

For those school

classrooms, who weren’t

able to have a baseball

player join them live, the

program posted a YouTube

video of senior, Sam Albert

reading Arthur Goes to

Camp on their Facebook

page. Lowell baseball players read books to

elementary students at Alto, last Wednesday

(Head Coach Juston Miller)

By Justin Scott
sports reporter
In 2002, wrestling won
the school’s “first” MHSAA
State Championship. For
many, there was a belief,
it was Lowell’s only state
championship in any sport.
It wasn’t technically true,
but very few would’ve
known that. Sitting in the
Lowell High School trophy
case is a bronze placard from
the Michigan High School
Athletic Association. Lowell
High School, 1929 Track
and Field state champions.
It’s totally legit. On the
MHSAA website, it shows
the same thing. Lowell High
School, 1929 Track and
Field state champions, Class
C, and they beat runner-up
Kalamazoo High.
There are three sources
of information for anything
this old: area newspapers,
including our Lowell Ledger
archive, which is stored on
the Kent District Library
website, school records, and
school yearbooks.
Lowell High School,
not known as the Red
Arrows back then, was
coached by Ronald Finch, a
Lowell High School teacher
and coach from 1926-1934,
and Athletic Director from
1928-1933. Finch coached
football at Lowell, as
well, where he found great
success, and as Head Coach
of the Central Michigan
University Football team,
later had a record of 52-18-

2. Finch was a Rockford
   graduate, born in Howard
   City, and died in 1962.
   Finch Fieldhouse, at CMU,
   is named after him to this
   day.

Red Arrows Legends - Track and Field State Champions

The student-athletes

representing Lowell were

Morse Johnson, Adelbert

Odell, Max Hood, Willie

Wepman, Emory Friesner,

Harold Wardell, Irving

Wepman, Robert Porritt,

Clarence Klahn, Henry

Weaver, Raymond Loveless,

Glenn Parsons, Harold

Dawson, Orville Spencer,

Lester Stauffer, Clare Coger,

Richard Watters, Willard

Hunter, Bert Ellis, Jack

Denton, Elmer Layer, and

Kenneth Fletcher.

“On the first sunny day,

the call of the spikes and

the weights brought a good

turnout to the field. The

material that our coach had

to work with was new but

good, and as everyone did

as the coach suggested, they

worked hard for the many

positions left open by the

graduating team,” was noted

in the 1929 LHS yearbook.

Yearbooks back then

covered the same spring

sport season as the year they

were published, which isn’t

the case in the present.

The 1929 yearbook

was published before the

state championship meet

occurred, so there is no

mention of it. Lowell’s

schedule was as follows

with known results.

Rockford - Won 72-

Relay Carnival -

Unknown Result

Tri vs. G.R. Tech/GR

Catholic Central - Unknown

Result

Regional Meet (Ann

Arbor) - Unknown Result

State Meet (Mt

Pleasant) - 1st

Lansing Quad with

Rockford and Belding -

Unknown Result

Rockford - Won 71.5-

41.

Kent County Meet - 1st

Elmer Layer won

two individual state

championships, which

would’ve been a significant

help for Lowell’s team

score, winning in shot put,

43’8 and discus, 109’1.

Emory Friesner was noted

as running hurdles. Orville

Spencer ran short distance

sprints, in addition to broad

jump. A youngster by the

name of Baird was supposed

to participate in the mile

run, but was unable to due

to new rules regarding ages.

That individual was likely

eighth grader Richard Baird,

and is also a likely sign that

the young Michigan High

School Athletic Association,

which recognizes track state

champions dating back to

1925, founded in 1924,

was beginning to have

significant influence across

competition.

Layer was a very

talented athlete, playing

four sports, including

track, football, basketball,

and baseball. “The stock

muscular figure of Elmer

Layer may be accounted the

principal cause of Lowell’s

triumph. Again, it was the

work of this brilliant track

and field athlete, one of the

greatest ever produced here,

and who had previously,

almost single-handed,

brought a state class C

championship to Lowell,

that loomed largest in the

day’s performance,” the

June 13th, 1929 Ledger

stated.

The 1930 yearbook

makes no mention of the

state championship the

previous year, the 1930

squad had 30 boys, though,

and again, the Kent County

Championship is noted.

Results for Lowell at

the 1929 Kent County meet

were:

Javelin - 1st, Elmer

Layer. Harold Wardell -

3rd.

Relay Team - 3rd

Broad Jump - 1st,

Orville Spencer

High Jump - T-1st,

Elmer Layer

Discus - 1st, Elmer

Layer

Mile - 1st, Lester

Stauffer. 3rd, Clarence

Klahn.

880 Yard Run - 2nd,

Wepman. 3rd, Raymond

Loveless.

440 Yard Run - 2nd,

Emory Friesner. T-4th,

Glenn Parsons.

100 yard dash - 3rd,

Orville Spencer

120 yard low hurdle -

2nd, Layer. 4th - Bert Ellis.

The meet came down to

the relay, third good enough

for Lowell to narrowly

outlast EGR 48.5-46.

Lowell Ledger archives

elaborated little else, outside

of this article, on the state

championship. Newspapers,

back then, dedicated a few

lines to high school sports,

compared to the pages we

are able to compile today.

What they do mention is

Lowell won the KCIAA

meet, and it was regarded

extremely highly. Track

and Field was much more

of a community event than

even today, and Lowell

winning the Kent County

Interscholastic Athletic

Association meet was a big

deal.

At this stage, signage

doesn’t reflect the 1929

state championship, and

discussion is ongoing about

that. Until the trophy was

discovered in the 2010’s, as

Lowell built their historical

archive, it had seemingly

faded into memory, only to

be remembered by the eyes

that wander through the

historic trophy cases.

The 1929 Lowell State Champions - Front Row - Morse Johnson,

Adelbert Odell, Max Hood, Willie Wepman, Emory Friesner, Harold

Wardell, Irving Wepman, Robert Porritt, Clarence Klahn. Middle Row

• Coach M. Finch, Henry Weaver, Raymond Loveless, Glenn Parsons,
  Harold Dawson, Orville Spencer, Lester Stauffer, Clare Coger. Back
  Row - Richard Watters, Willard Hunter, Bert Ellis, Jack Denton, Elmer
  Layer, Kenneth Fletcher

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