‘I’LL TELL SOME STORIES’
Ken Calkins, last remaining member of team, reflects on life, football
Most Lovelanders hear names like Bill Reed or Ray Patterson and associate them with schools or football fields.
To Ken Calkins, they were his coaches and friends.
What is now Bill Reed Middle School was, in Calkins’ day, Loveland High School, and he refers to Loveland High’s current location on 29th Street, constructed in 1964, as “the new Loveland High School.”
The 97-year-old is the last surviving member of the 1942 Colorado State Champion football team. The school had only achieved such a victory once before, and has matched it only twice since. He still remembers the score 81 years later: 26-18.
A reunion to be held this weekend of the 1982 state champions will feature Calkins as an honored guest.
In those days, Calkins said, athletes played both sides of the ball, and he played as a center on offense, snapping the football to the quarterback, and as a linebacker on defense. He was only on the second team, but remembers seeing playtime in the championship thanks to the wisdom of his coach.
“You’ve probably heard of Coach Ray Patterson,” Calkins said in a cozy library on the first floor of Hillcrest of Loveland, the assisted living facility where Calkins lives with his wife Barbara. “Coach was a good guy. He understood players, so he made sure the second-teamers got in for most games.”
Ray Patterson Stadium, named after Calkins’ coach, is now among the premier high school sports facilities in town, hosting games from its position at Thompson Valley High School.
Other than some hearing loss, Calkins is both physically and mentally sharp.
In May, he climbed into a B-25 bomber, the model of plane that he labored to keep in flying shape during World War II 78 years ago.
His wit remains intact as well. When thanked for his time following an interview, Calkins quipped, “Hey, my time’s cheap.”
His first job after the war, a chemical engineering position in the Oklahoma panhandle, followed his graduation from the University of Colorado in the late 40s.
“Bill and I went into the service a the same weekend we graduated. He went into the infantry. I went into the Air Corps. Bill went into Battle of the Bulge. He was killed in Europe about a a month before the war ended in Europe. That just hurt me terribly.” — Ken Calkins on former teammate Bill Jump
“Have you ever been in the Oklahoma panhandle?” Calkins’ asked. “Don’t go.”
Practically all of his classmates joined the armed forces following graduation, and one teammate on the ‘42 championship team, Bill Jump, left a particular impression.
“Great running back,” Calkins said. “Fast, tough. Bill and I went into the service the same weekend after we graduated. He went into the infantry, I went into the Air Corps. Bill went to the Battle of the Bulge. He was killed in Europe just about a month before the war ended in Europe. That just hurt me terribly.”
Jump can be seen in a photo of the 1942 championship team, number 37, one number lower than Calkins, 38.
Jump was Calkins’ only teammate to be killed in battle, but he’s had to reckon with plenty more loss since then; being the last surviving member of the team has lonely implications.
“I’m afraid I’ve kinda gotten used to it,” he said mournfully. “You see, I was the youngest child of six children in my family, the youngest. All my brothers and sisters are gone. I think I had 20-something cousins. I think there’s only one left besides me. Many of my good friends, way back from school, I’m afraid they’re all gone. You don’t like it, but you have to face it.”
But he still has his wife, and has made new friends at Hillcrest. He reads, and he explores his family’s genealogy, which he’s traced back to their arrival in North America in 1639.
And he still watches football.
“But I’ve learned after a while, it is just a game,” he said. “You can get all wrapped up in the Broncos, and I do watch the Broncos, the local schools. But it’s a lot easier to treat it as a game.”
He’s looking forward to Saturday’s reunion as well.
“I’d like to meet those guys,” he said. “Looking forward to it. I’ll tell some stories.”