Along Our Way
KMA radio in Chuck Offenburger’s hometown of Shenandoah celebrated its 85th birthday on August 12. The station, owned by the May family for three generations now, honored its history of having big “jubilees” by putting up a big tent, broadcasting outdoors throughout the day, giving visitors free pancakes and sausages, inviting listeners to “face dive” in an 85-foot-long cake, airing lots of vintage audio clips, and doing special interviews.
[TO SEE THESE PHOTOS IN LARGER FORMAT, AND TO READ A BRIEF STORY, CLICK HERE.]
A conversation
LIVING WITH CANCER
with the Offenburgers
Chuck Offenburger was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins follicular lymphoma cancer on July 10, 2009, had six months of chemotherapy & is now doing well in a “maintenance” program. Carla Offenburger underwent surgery on April 26, 2010, for removal of a jaw tumor which was found to contain adenoid cystic carcinoma cancer. She underwent six weeks of follow-up radiation in June and July, and continues under close medical observation. We post updates frequently here, including brief insights from Chuck, Carla and at least one of you readers.
“If the sedative makes normal people balmy, I wonder what it’s going to do to you since you have been balmy ever since I’ve known you, except for the last days of your first two marriages.”
Here's looking at life
at Simple Serenity Farm
Carla’s sister & brother-in-law Chris and Tony Woods, of Des Moines, were at the farm on Sunday, August 22, helping Carla do the lawn mowing and other yard work that we’ve struggled to keep up with lately, with all our medical appointments. The Woodses brought along their 18-month-old granddaughter Ari, who was a delight watching all the action from the porch with Chuck, catching up on her reading and then getting a moment on the lawn tractor seat! Click here for larger format
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.
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.
