The Ekalaka Eagle - Your Community Builder

I was going to continue my articles on old and special neighbors, but decided to go down another rabbit trail this time. There have been a couple of individuals who asked, "Loyd, when are you going to write about your basketball referee days and years?" This may be a good time as basketball season is in full swing.

My thoughts here are to bring back memories for people of schools, teams, and special moments during those years.

I graduated from high school in the spring of 1948 and participated in four years of football, basketball, and two springs of baseball. I bring up the year because gyms, rules, and the game of basketball has changed some since that time.

Sports was my love. You might say I was a "sport nut." Mr. E.E. Short (my two year coach) came to our apartment one evening and asked if I would be interested in refereeing the high school basketball games. I said yes and started the during the winter of 1948 and continued basketball referee work through the 1972 season.

At that time, 1948, every town had it's own referee- I remember playing in Baker and Doctor Joyce (dentist) was always one of the referees.

One of the local men I worked with was my brother Robert. Robert graduated from high school in 1944, went to the navy for two years, and returned to Ekalaka where he was married to Florence Collins and had a daughter, Shirley. He later married Ruth Albert and moved to Baker where he was the Chief of Police for several years.

Another person who I "teamed up" with was Earl Thomas. Who was he? Well he was J.P. Larson's stepson. So who was J.P. Larson? Vol. I, page 445 of Shifting Scenes has a short article about J.P. and Annie Larson. I'll share some of the information from it.

J.P. Larson was born June 2, 1874 at Willmer, Minnesota and came to Ekalaka from Lakota, N.D. in 1931 to establish an electric plant. He married Annie Thomas on June 11, 1931 at Grand Forks, N.D. Both Mr. and Mrs. Larson had been previously married.

The electric plant was housed in a stone building and is still standing today. Some time later Ross Keith had a dry cleaning business there.

Mr. Larson was the father of two girls and a son Roland (Shorty) who was affiliated with his dad in the electric plant. Roland was father to James and twin boys; Gale and Dale. I previously wrote a precious article about Hazel, their mother, and the boys.

Now back to Earl Thomas. He and his wife, Arline, had two more children, Susan and Robert, while they resided in Ekalaka. They moved to Rapid City, SD where Earl died in the 1960s. If I remember correctly, he lost his life in a bad snow storm out on the highway. He was one of my special friends.

One of my early games reffing was when Baker came to Ekalaka to play. It was in the old school gym which had a small out of bounds on the sides and next to the stage. Because of the crowds, chairs were placed all around the sidelines which made "out of bounds" calls rather hard to call. The stage was covered with students. To say the least, there was a lot of competition.

Among other local men to work basketball games with me was Bob Pulse. Bob never graduated from high school but insisted in the Navy where he saw lots of action during World War II. He returned to Ekalaka, went to barber school in Fargo, ND, and was among others who took up the profession. Remember Harry West?

Ken Pulse, Bob's brother, graduated in 1949, went to barber school, and returned to Ekalaka to be a barber. Ken, Ted Hanberg, and I, as shown below, worked games together. Mr. Hanberg was a grade school principal and later moved to California. Some of you may have been in grade school at that time. Ken and his wife, Bev, moved to Cody, Wyoming. I occasionally talk with him on the phone.

Well this is a start-more to come.