Blast from the past

The following was printed in the July 17, 1941 issue of the Brooten Review newspaper. It surfaced during the Bonanza Valley Voice's June 2015 interview with Donnie Beyl, a 1942 graduate of Brooten high school. Beyl and BHS classmate Chester Thompson went on a cross-country trip with BHS history teacher and Buccaneers coach (Howard) Seeley Eastman. Coach Eastman guided the Buccaneers in football, basketball and track and field. In those days, those were the only sports offered, and they were offered only for boys as Title IX didn't take effect until the 1970s.

Eastman was an All-American halfback at Gustavus College, where he was also All-Conference as a senior during the 1937 season. He started his teaching and coaching career in Brooten in the fall of 1938 and was coach of Brooten's first-ever formally organized Buccaneers football team. (At that time, Brooten played six-man football as did most area schools.)

To read the full story, read the April 7 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper.