Progress Notes

About a month ago I presented the space alien story as told by Claude Edwards of Tuscumbia (photo 01).

01 Claude Edwards

Grant Edwards of Tuscumbia was Claude’s brother (photo 02).

02 Grant Edwards

I knew Grant well because he spent his entire life in Miller County. Two of his sons, Ronald and James, attended school in Tuscumbia in the same time frame as I did. Ronald later had a career in the U.S. Army retiring as a Colonel. James has had a successful career in the trucking business (photo 03).

03 James Edwards

I’ve thought of James quite a lot recently marveling at the success of his children and grandchildren in the sports program of the School of the Osage. One of his sons, Ryan, played football at MU. Here is a summary of what Ryan accomplished while in high school (photo 04):

04 Ryan Edwards

All-State defensive back and MVP of his team ... Unanimous Tri-county Conference 1st-team pick ... Three-time all-district selection ... Three-year letter winner who totaled 314 tackles in his career ... Recorded five career interceptions, 24 pass break-ups, six caused fumbles and 10 fumble recoveries ... Doubled as a wide receiver, pulling in 42 receptions in his career for 944 yards and 8 TDs ... Played in the Lions All-Star Game and collected five tackles and a 43-yard interception return ... Also lettered in track and basketball ... Placed sixth in the state 3A long jump competition as a junior ... High school coach - Russell Burr.

You can read more about Ryan at the MU Tiger's website.

James (Jay), son of the older James, has been a School of the Osage board member. His twin sons, Jared and Zack, also play football for School of the Osage. Jared had an outstanding season this year as did the entire School of the Osage team. Their record was 13 and 1 losing only to John Burroughs School of St. Louis in the semi final of the state tournament. Here is a short summary of Jared’s record this year:

1. State record by taking back six punt returns for scores.

2. 30 total touchdowns, 722 rushing yards (11.11 per carry), 699 receiving yards (21.84 per reception). Set a new single-season

3. 115 total tackles, 2 forced fumbles, 1 sack, 1 blocked punt.

(photos 05 and 06)

05 Jared Edwards - 2011 All Lake Football Player of the Year

06 Jared Edwards - Top Player

I have noticed that periodically a Miller County school will have an exceptional year with one or another of its sports teams. Certainly, this was the year for the School of the Osage.

For example, in 1940 the Tuscumbia basketball team beat Eldon in the Eldon tournament. You can read about that at this previous Progress Notes.

However, Eldon won the first Eldon tournament in 1931. That win was memorialized with a large plaque at the 1981 golden anniversary celebration of the Eldon tournament (photos 07 and 08).

07 Presentation of Plaque
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08 Memorial Plaque
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The 1931 team Coach, O.G. James, also was memorialized by a separate large plaque (photo 09).

09 Coach James
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And here is a photo of the team (photo 10):

10 1932 Eldon Team Members
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The captions for the photos raise some doubt as to whether the game was played in 1931 or 1932. However, the plaque itself reads 1931.

As are many Miller County raised people, I have some connection to all the schools in the county. So while I always root for my home school, Tuscumbia, many times I have mixed emotions when two Miller County schools are playing against each other since I will have friends and/or relatives on both teams. My wife Judy’s folks come from Iberia and she has lots of cousins there. But because her father, Holmes Steen moved north of the river, she went to school at School of the Osage (photo 11).

11 Holmes Steen

My mother’s brother, Arthur Bear, moved to Eldon from Tuscumbia and raised his children there, so that was another conflict (photo 12).

12 Lena and Arthur Bear

Now, my wife’s nephew, Matt Davis, is superintendant at Eldon but other of her nieces and nephews attend as well as teach at the School of the Osage.

My mother’s sister, Bonnie Bear Tyler and her husband, Bud Tyler, taught at Eugene and then at Iberia in the 1950’s. Bud was a coach and Bonnie taught elementary school children (photo 14).

14 Bonnie and Bud Tyler

I roomed with Alan Doerhoff M.D. from St. Elizabeth when in medical school and we were good friends (photo 15).

15 Alan Doerhoff M.D.

But each of us rooted for our home team. And to complicate things more, Alan’s father Leonard Doerhoff and Leonard’s brother, Ray Doerhoff both attended high school at Tuscumbia before St. Elizabeth had a high school (photo 16)!

16 Leonard and Ray Doerhoff

And in the photo of the two men holding the Eldon Tournament plaque above, Robert Baucom and Victor Luetkemyer, Victor was a graduate of Tuscumbia High School and taught vocational agriculture there before teaching at Eldon!

Another historic sport event in Miller County was Iberia’s first football game. This was a game between the Iberia Academy and the Missouri School of Mines team. The story was retold in:

KJPW Old Settlers Gazette 2001 p. 46

Iberia’s First Football Game

Gary Knehans

One of the first, if not the first, organized football games ever played in Iberia(and perhaps in Miller County) took place during the late autumn of 1901. The boys of the Iberia Academy were eager to test their newly acquired gridiron skills against some outside competition.

“Some of the boys are getting quite skilled in stonemasonry as well as football,” reported the school newspaper, The Academy Student, on January 1st of the preceding year.

And so it was decided that an invitation would be sent to the Missouri School of Mines to schedule a game in Iberia on a Saturday in late November. The invitation was accepted. And, to bolster the Academy team’s ability to be more competitive against the much larger school, a coach was imported from Rolla to train the boys of the Academy.

Word of the game spread like wildfire throughout Miller and surrounding counties. On the day of the game, a huge crowd of spectators engulfed Iberia to watch the event. Organizers said the event attracted the largest crowd ever to attend a sporting event in Miller County. Undoubtedly this was the first football game most of the spectators had ever seen.

But there was little for the many Academy fans to cheer, as the hometown boys were overwhelmed by their stronger, more experienced opponents. The Iberia Impetus judiciously avoided reporting the final score in the game.

“The boys of Iberia Academy cannot in words express their deep gratitude and love for Mr. Schaberg, our coach from Rolla,” the Impetus stated. “Although he was with us only a week, he made a friend of every boy in the Academy, and saved us from an overwhelming defeat Saturday. Although it was bad enough, it would have been worse if it had not been for his hard week’s work of training us. Mr. Schaberg is a gentleman in every sense of the word, and no matter what his lot may be, we wish him success in all his honest efforts.”

Iberia
October 1901

Iberia is the coming place.
Don’t you ever doubt it.
And we wear a happy face,
Thinking much about it.
Do not worry ‘bout her “biz,”..
Watch her rapid movement;
Everywhere you find she is
Making some improvement;
And the tourist passing through
Comments nicely on us, too.

What’s the use to fret and swear?
Every blessed minute
Beat our breasts in black despair,
Thinking we’re not in it;
The almighty knows we are
And that is sufficient.
We are beating others far,
‘Cause we are efficient.

Here are a couple of photos, one of the Iberia players and another photo of some of their fans (photos 17 and 18):

17 John and Phillip Judy

18 Young Iberia Ladies

Although our museum is closed to visitors during the winter our staff of volunteers continues to plan and incorporate new projects in anticipation of the spring opening this coming May 19. Every Monday during the off season the volunteer staff meets to improve current displays and create new ones as well. Recently, we were fortunate to have the assistance and guidance of Eldon resident Bill Weidinger, originally from St. Elizabeth, who updated and linked our computer system and installed wifi access as well (photo 19)!

19 Bill Weidinger

Bill joined the group for lunch that day which had been prepared by my wife Judy in appreciation for all that our volunteer staff accomplishes for us (photo 20)!

20 Monday Volunteers

The names of those seated beginning at the far end of the table going clockwise are: Jody Newman, Betty Kallenbach, Brice Kallenbach, Doris Wiggins, Bill Weidinger, Catherine Ponder, Judy Pryor, and Karen Smith.

Regular volunteers Harold and Joy Flaugher, who also are valued volunteers at the museum, were involved with a conflicting activity the Monday this photo was taken.

That’s all for this week.

Joe Pryor

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