June 1, 2010 The Suburban Times Updated 1/12/2024
By Tim Marsh, Lakes High School Class of 1966
There are “givens” concerning Lakes High School. Colors for the school are burnt orange and royal blue. Lakes teams are called the Lancers. In fact, even before Lakes opened in September 1962, the school colors were selected. But, when classes began in the 1962-1963 school year, there was not a nickname for Lakes teams. Nor was there a fight song or alma mater. For that matter, there was not a senior class either.
Lakes Colors
Lakes 1965 grad Rick Austin, 63, Kansas City, Mo., has first-hand knowledge of selection of the school colors and in the selection of the Lancers nickname, too. His father, the late Gerry Austin, was Lakes’ first athletic director and head football coach after serving as the successful head football coach at Clover Park High. Rick was starting quarterback for his father’s first three Lakes teams – the 1962, 1963 and 1964 seasons – and also played basketball and was a baseball pitcher for the Lancers.
“Dad was instrumental in the choice of colors at Lakes, with administration approval of course. The main need was to order the football uniforms for the first season,” said Rick.
Why burnt orange? Gerry Austin thought Darrell Royal was a great football coach. Royal gained his fame as coach (1957–1976) of the University of Texas Longhorns. According to the University of Texas at Austin website, Royal chose the burnt orange color for the Longhorns’ football jerseys. (By the way, before Royal joined Texas in 1957 as its coach, he coached one season, 1956, for the University of Washington, Gerry’s alma mater.)
Another reason for burnt orange and royal blue color scheme, said Rick, was because it was not used by other schools in the Puget Sound League or used by many high school teams in the state.
Rick remembers before the football season began when his father brought all the Lakes football jerseys – they were burnt orange with white numerals – to the Austin home not far from the northern shore of American Lake. “We had the jerseys spread out all over the family room floor and I got to pick my own number by ‘coach’s son privilege,’ Rick said. “The jersey manufacturer only put lower numbers on smaller jerseys. I needed a larger jersey, so that’s why I picked number 42,” he said.
Lancers nickname
Lancers was one of the several
nicknames names suggested by Lakes students during the 1962-1963 school year.
Rick Austin was one of the students casting a vote in favor of the winning
“Lancers.” Other nicknames in the vote were “Lakers” and “Blue Devils.” During
that first school year, Lakes teams played varsity teams from smaller schools
and junior varsity teams from larger schools. Thus, until that vote, those
Lakes teams in early games of the first year wore burnt orange and royal blue,
but they did not have a nickname. In the 1963-1964 school year, Lakes began
playing full varsity schedules as a member of the Puget Sound League: NORTH DIVISION of PSL: Evergreen Wolverines,
Glacier Grizzlies, Highline Pirates, Kent-Meridian Royals, Mt. Rainier Rams and
Renton Indians. SOUTH DIVISION of PSL: Auburn Trojans, Clover Park Warriors,
Enumclaw Hornets, Franklin Pierce Cardinals, Lakes Lancers and Puyallup Vikings.
An interesting sideline to Lakes not having a senior class in 1962-1963 concerns the classes housed in the then new Lakes High School. Sophomores used the school’s sophomore wing. Juniors used the junior wing. However, seventh graders were housed in the senior wing. Many of those students would return to Lakes in the 1965-1966 school year as sophomores. Consequently, as seniors during the 1967-1968 school year they were in the senior wing for a second time.
Postscript
What was the first time Lakes High’s school colors were mentioned in print? Perhaps in the Clover Park High Clover Leaves student newspaper. Bob Newland’s “Sports Corner” column in the paper’s issue of May 19, 1962, said, “By the way, the school colors at Lakes are orange and blue.”
