Lakes High School’s 1964 football season was
bittersweet for the Lancers.
Gerry Austin was Lakes football coach, and his
son, Rick, a senior, was the Lancers’ quarterback.
Playing a total of nine games and all of its home
games at Clover Park’s Thompson Field, the 1964 Lancers were twice victorious by
the same 27-14 score over the Clover Park Warriors. The Lancers won the
non-league season opener for both teams, 27-14. That was played Saturday, Sept.
12, 196. The next game between the two teams, this time a Puget Sound League
(PSL) contest, was Friday,
Oct 23, 1964.
During the season’s seventh game, Lakes beat
Franklin Pierce, 7-6, on Thompson Field when the teams were respectively ranked
#3 and #4 in the state.
When the 1964 PSL season ended, the Lancers were
the league’s only undefeated team with an 8-0-1 win-loss-tie record. It was the
tie, a 0-0 game at Puyallup on a muddy field, which was the crux. Played Oct.
9, 1964, Puyallup’s quarterback gained 17 years on a run in the game’s final
play. Statistics showed Puyallup gained 12 more yards in the game than Lakes.
Rick
said, “As I remember, the argument after the game was about teams on the field
not really supposed to know the stats during the game in order to avoid the ‘yardage’
issue. But the game was in Puyallup and the press box was on their side of the
field. So we all wondered why the Puyallup QB, Jerry Henderson, (who ended up
being a fraternity brother at WSU) ran a QB sweep on the last play of the game
to gain 17 yards and out gain Lakes in total yardage by 12 yards. Why didn’t (Puyallup)
try to score on the last play and try to win? A tough memory to say the least.”
League officials picked Puyallup as the PSL
Southern Division representative to play PSL Northern Division rep Kent-Meridian (KM) in the
league’s championship game. Reason? The reason being those 12 yards and despite
the fact Puyallup had lost a non-league game to K-M.
Gerry and Rick, proudly wearing his Lakes High
letter jacket, attended the Puyallup vs. K-M championship game played Friday, Nov. 20, 1964, at a
neutral site, Highline High’s Memorial Stadium in Des Moines, Wash. Puyallup won,
21-6.
“I remember it like it was yesterday,” said Rick.
“We were disappointed to say the least. In our minds, we shared the Puget Sound
League championship.”
Rich Goldberg, sports editor
Clover Leaves, Clover Park High
School’s student newspaper, agreed with the Austins. In a newspaper issue after
the Lakes-Puyallup tie game, in Goldberg’s “sports shorts” column, he wrote that
the PSL rule selecting the team in the tie game which gains more yardage was
not good. “With a rule like this, teams in the future could play important
games with the idea of picking up more yardage instead of points. Game scores
may end up being measured in footage instead of tallies. In the end, a flip of
the coin would seem better than the present rule. A playoff seems best of all.”
Story by Tim Marsh, Lakes High School Class of 1966. Updated Dec. 27, 2022.
Top photo: On the evening of Oct.
23, 1964, after defeating Clover Park on Clover Park’s Thompson Field, Marion
Oppelt, Lakewood Kiwanis Club president, presented the Kiwanis Club trophy to
Coach Gerry Austin and his Lancer football team. The trophy was presented to
the team winning the annual Lakes vs. Clover Park league varsity football game.
Clover Park varsity beat Lakes varsity, 32-7, to win the trophy in its initial
existence. That game was Friday, Nov. 1, 1963, on Clover Park’s Thompson Field.
Lakes Legend 1965 yearbook photo.
