This print of 1964 or 1965 Central High School football players wasn’t great when it was new, and time has faded it even more. Sylvester Johnson is third from the left in the back row.
Syl was one of the best athletes Central ever produced. After Principal Dallas Albers noticed the star player eying his suspenders during an assembly, he shot him a deal: he would award his suspenders to Syl at the homecoming dance if the Tigers won their homecoming game against Sikeston. Albers was so sure Syl was going to come through that he showed up at the dance wearing both a belt and suspenders so his pants wouldn’t fall down after paying off his obligation to Syl.
That’s Bill / Jacqie Jackson on the far left in the front row. I’m pretty sure I recognize some of the other guys, but I’ll let you tell me for sure who they are so I don’t have to run corrections.
Those blue marks
Those blue marks on the top and right margins are crop marks where the sports editor decided to tighten up the photo, probably because he wanted to be able to run the faces larger.
A couple of years ago, I hooked up with Don Gordon, my old Missourian mentor who confessed that he leaned on me whenever it came to doing page layouts. “I watched John Blue mark up pictures. He almost always put a crop mark on them. It might be just to whittle off an eighth of an inch, but he seemed to feel he hadn’t done his job unless he had touched the photo in some way. When I got a picture, I found myself doing the same thing. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I’d always take a little off the edges.”
“I knew that, Don. That’s why I always printed my photos with a little ‘air’ around them so that by the time you and jBlue got finished, the picture would be just right.”
BruneTime Observation:
Back Row: Bob Young. Mike Schuette. Sylvester Johnson. Brad Brune. Front Row: Bill Jackson. Dave Patrick. Andy Pemberton. Mike Friese.
Can’t think why this particular picture was taken? We r all seniors but not all of the seniors. Various positions and both offence and defence is represented – and some of us played both ways but not all of us. The two best athletes in the group (with the blarring absence of our true Stalion – Billy Bishop!) are together on back row but the group is not necessarily the biggest stars on the team. Can’t be good looks because if you eleminate Jacqie and Brune Time – that leaves a few butt ugly though fine fellows. So. I’m stumped as to why coach Goodie would have requested we 8 to gather for a pic?? perhaps….. It could be the cleanest uniforms?? .. But I think that’s just cause Stienhoff’s old photo is just bleached out. .. Or perchance the best dancers?? …no… not with Bob and Andy there…. Could have been the first guys to dress out and rush to the practice field?? – but then that would break Puss Patrick’s life time achievement award for never being on time for anything!! Could have been the last 8 guys left on the practice field after running penalty laps for jacking around ….. But everyone knows Friese and Brune couldn’t get in trouble in the Girlie Show at the Cape County Fair. So…. I’m completely stumped??
Though….. it is nice to see a group of young, healthy, full of hope and potentialed young men — before the harsh realities and unpredictabilities of life on this planet took its heavy toll on each of us.
If we could go back to that unremarkable day and that exact point in time and Knowing what we know now…. Would we do anything differently??
A melancholy — Brune Time Out.
Mr. Brune, Sir,
Thanks for the additional information, the humor and the food for thought.
PS: It’s August – September 1965.
When I arrived at the Southeast Missourian in 1975, John Blue expressed it to me this way: “We crop ruthlessly.” By then I think the cropping was left to others, even myself. So I didn’t leave a little “air” around my photos.
I usually printed with a little margin for cropping in case it had to fit a hole.
Now that I’m blogging, I leave a lot more in than when I was working for print: people in the background that I would have whacked out in the old days get left in because someone may recognize themselves. Ditto backgrounds of street scenes.
Brad has all the names right. He is also right that two of the back row (Mike Schuette and Syl Johnson) were the nest athletes. Bill Bishop was injured very early in the season. That may account for his absence. I was injured a few weeks later. That suggests the photo was taken in between, say September, 1965.
It is interesting to reflect on how a few different decisions would changed our lives, but I not sure I would want to go back and do it all again!
My only input would have been that the guy on the back row, right end, just had to be a Brune (Greg or Brad most likely). However, looks like Brad beat me to the punch already. Though I came along 9 years later, I played in Cape’s first touch football league in the mid-70’s on the Mid South Steelers, and Brad was our star QB (and thus I recognized him).
I gave a fairly long and fun filled answer to this KEN. Is it just gone to the ozone again???
Testing?????
Back Row: Bob Young. Mike Schuette. Sylvester Johnson. Brad Brune. Front Row: Bill Jackson. Dave Patrick. Andy Pemberton. Mike Friese.
Can’t think why this particular picture was taken? We r all seniors but not all of the seniors. Various positions and both offence and defence is represented – and some of us played both ways but not all of us. The two best athletes in the group (with the blarring absence of our true Stalion – Billy Bishop!) are together on back row but the group is not necessarily the biggest stars on the team. Can’t be good looks because if you eleminate Jacqie and Brune Time – that leaves a few butt ugly though fine fellows. So. I’m stumped as to why coach Goodie would have requested we 8 to gather for a pic?? perhaps….. It could be the cleanest uniforms?? .. But I think that’s just cause Stienhoff’s old photo is just bleached out. .. Or perchance the best dancers?? …no… not with Bob and Andy there…. Could have been the first guys to dress out and rush to the practice field?? – but then that would break Puss Patrick’s life time achievement award for never being on time for anything!! Could have been the last 8 guys left on the practice field after running penalty laps for jacking around ….. But everyone knows Friese and Brune couldn’t get in trouble in the Girlie Show at the Cape County Fair. So…. I’m completely stumped??
Though….. it is nice to see a group of young, healthy, full of hope and potentialed young men — before the harsh realities and unpredictabilities of life on this planet took its heavy toll on each of us.
If we could go back to that unremarkable day and that exact point in time and Knowing what we know now…. Would we do anything differently??
A melancholy — Brune Time Out.