Along Our Way
The third annual membership banquet of the Raccoon River Valley Trail Association was a huge success Saturday night, February 20, at the Panorama National Conference Center. About 200 people attended. Auctions and a few cash donations helped raise $10,604 to help market and promote the RRVT, the paved rec trail in west central Iowa that's in the midst of an expansion, 56 to 89 miles.
[TO READ THE STORY, AND TO SEE THESE AND OTHER PHOTOS IN LARGER FORMAT, CLICK HERE]
A conversation
COPING WITH CANCER
with the Offenburgers
Chuck Offenburger was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins, follilcular lymphoma cancer on July 10, 2009, and is undergoing treatment. We post updates weekly here, including brief insights from Chuck, Carla and at least one of you readers.
''The Lord will overshadow you, and you will find refuge under his wings.''
Chuck Offenburger's
new book on sports
legend Gary Thompson
gets excellent reviews
FOR INFORMATION ON WHERE & HOW TO BUY THE BOOK, CLICK HERE! ''GARY THOMPSON: All-American'' is the new, 352-page biography of one of the state’s genuine sports icons. From 1950-’53 Gary Thompson led the Roland Rockets to high school sports glory in basketball and baseball, giant-killers from one of Iowa’s small schools. Then he led the Cyclones at Iowa State from 1953-’57, becoming the college’s first two-sport All-American. He’s had major success in broadcasting and business, from his home base in Ames. And he and his wife Janet have a family as solid as they come. “I’m the luckiest guy around,” Thompson says.
Here's looking at life
at Simple Serenity Farm
After the toughest, snowiest winter that either of us can remember, we have now reached the point in early February where snow is stacked everywhere. Piles are six or seven feet high. The dogs can drop full-body into snowdrifts if they're not moving fast enough. Some drifts are five or six feet tall, and 30 or 40 feet long. Whew! Click here for larger format
Celebrating the time
when Gary Thompson
& the Roland Rockets
were the talk of Iowa
In the three years that Gary Thompson was in the basketball line-up for tiny Roland High School from 1950-'53, the Rockets went 35-1, 31-3 and 32-2 and played in the state tournament every year. Talk about March Madness! Roland lived it! Now, 55 years later, we celebrate with three of Thompson's old Roland pals doing the Rockets fight song. Brothers Harris "Pete" Twedt Jr. and Jerry Twedt are the singers, accompanied by Mary Severseike on piano.
Gary Thompson was first-team All-State three consecutive years. “I can’t imagine there’s ever been an Iowa high school athlete who was more idolized than Gary Thompson,” said Alan Hoskins, who played against him for rival Zearing. “Heck, back in Zearing when we’d play pick-up games, we’d pretend to be Gary Thompson!”
Des Moines Tribune sportswriter Tony Cordaro, known for the unusual hats he always wore himself, decided in the 1956-'57 season that when he picked a "Prep of the Week" in Iowa, he'd get a photo of the star wearing this hat and induct him into "Cordaro's Coonskin Cap Club." Here is Thompson at his "induction."
The ol' hometown has never forgotten Gary Thompson, "the Roland Rocket" as many people still call him. Here he is in 2005 at a sign on the edge of town. But as he always points out, "Roland was good long before me," and after him, too. In fact, the Rockets did not lose a home basketball game from 1946 to 1958!
Where the Rockets were launched
Old Roland High School, home of the Rockets, is gone. In 1969, the schools in Roland and Story City, a larger town five miles to the northwest, were consolidated. The high school is located in Story City and the middle school in Roland. The old brick building that had been Roland High was demolished in 1988, and was replaced by a new building for the middle school. However, the gymnasium Gary Thompson played in, which was built in 1941, has been well cared for and is still in use by young athletes.
