Red Arrows Legends - Track and Field State Champions
The 1929 Lowell State Champions - Front Row - Morse Johnson, Adelbert Odell, Max Hood, Willie Wepman, Emory Friesner, Harold Wardell, Irving Wepman, Robert Porritt, Clarence Klahn. Middle Row - Coach M. Finch, Henry Weaver, Raymond Loveless, Glenn Parsons, Harold Dawson, Orville Spencer, Lester Stauffer, Clare Coger. Back Row - Richard Watters, Willard Hunter, Bert Ellis, Jack Denton, Elmer Layer, Kenneth Fletcher
In 2002, Wrestling won the school’s "first" MHSAA State Championship. For many, there was a belief, it was Lowell’s only state championship in any sport. It wasn't technically true, but very few would’ve known that. Sitting in the Lowell High School trophy case sits a bronze placard from the Michigan High School Athletic Association. Lowell High School, 1929 Track and Field state champions. It’s totally legit. On the MHSAA website, it shows the same thing. Lowell High School, 1929 Track and Field state champions, Class C, and they beat runner-up Kalamazoo High.
There are three sources of information for anything this old: Area newspapers, including our Lowell Ledger archive which is stored on the Kent District Library website, school records, and school yearbooks.
Lowell High School, not known as the Red Arrows back then, were coached by Ronald Finch, a Lowell High School teacher and coach from 1926-1934, and athletic director from 1928-1933. Finch coached football at Lowell as well where he found great success, and as head coach of the Central Michigan University Football team later had a record of 52-18-2. Finch was a Rockford graduate born in Howard City and died in 1962. Finch Fieldhouse at CMU is named after him to this day.
The student-athletes representing Lowell were Morse Johnson, Adelbert Odell, Max Hood, Willie Wepman, Emory Friesner, Harold Wardell, Irving Wepman, Robert Porritt, Clarence Klahn, Henry Weaver, Raymond Loveless, Glenn Parsons, Harold Dawson, Orville Spencer, Lester Stauffer, Clare Coger, Richard Watters, Willard Hunter, Bert Ellis, Jack Denton, Elmer Layer, and Kenneth Fletcher.
“On the first sunny day, the call of the spikes and the weights brought a good turnout to the field. The material that our coach had to work with was new but good, and as everyone did as the coach suggested, they worked hard for the many positions left open by the graduating team,” was noted in the 1929 LHS yearbook. Yearbooks back then covered the same spring sport season as the year they were published, which isn’t the case in the present.
The 1929 yearbook was published before the state championship meet occured, so there is no mention of it. Lowell’s schedule is as follows with known results.
Rockford - Won 72-53
Relay Carnival - Unknown Result
Tri vs. G.R. Tech/GR Catholic Central - Unknown Result
Regional Meet (Ann Arbor) - Unknown Result
State Meet (Mt Pleasant) - 1st
Lansing Quad with Rockford and Belding - Unknown Result
Rockford - Won 71.5-41.5
Kent County Meet - 1st
Elmer Layer won two individual state championships which would’ve been a significant help for Lowell’s team score, winning in Shot put, 43'8 and Discus, 109'1. Emory Friesner was noted as running hurdles. Orville Spencer ran short distance sprints in addition to broad jump. A youngster by the name of Baird was supposed to participate in the mile run, but was unable to due to new rules regarding ages. That individual was likely eighth grader Richard Baird, and is also a likely sign that the young Michigan High School Athletic Association, which recognizes track state champions dating back to 1925, founded in 1924, was beginning to have significant influence across competition.
Layer was a very talented athlete, playing four sports including track, football, basketball, and baseball. “The stock muscular figure of Elmer Layer may be accounted the principal cause of Lowell’s triumph. Again it was the work of this brilliant track and field athlete, one of the greatest ever produced here, and who had previously almost single-handed brought a state class c championship to Lowell, that loomed largest in the day’s performance,” the June 13th, 1929 Ledger stated.
The 1930 yearbook makes no mention of the state championship the previous year, the 1930 squad had 30 boys though and again the Kent County Championship is noted.
Results for Lowell at the 1929 Kent County meet were:
Javelin - 1st, Elmer Layer. Harold Wardell - 3rd.
Relay Team - 3rd
Broad Jump - 1st, Orville Spencer
High Jump - T-1st, Elmer Layer
Discus - 1st, Elmer Layer
Mile - 1st, Lester Stauffer. 3rd, Clarence Klahn.
880 Yard Run - 2nd, Wepman. 3rd, Raymond Loveless.
440 Yard Run - 2nd, Emory Friesner. T-4th, Glenn Parsons.
100 yard dash - 3rd, Orville Spencer
120 yard low hurdle - 2nd, Layer. 4th - Bert Ellis.
The meet came down to the relay, third good enough for Lowell to narrowly outlast EGR 48.5-46.
Lowell Ledger archives elaborated little else outside of this article on the state championship. Newspapers back then dedicated a few lines to high school sports, compared to the pages we are able to compile today. What they do mention is Lowell won the KCIAA meet, and it was regarded extremely highly. Track and Field was much more of a community event than even today, and Lowell winning the Kent County Interscholastic Athletic Association meet was a big deal.
At this stage, signage doesn’t reflect the 1929 state championship, and discussion is ongoing about that. Until the trophy was discovered in the 2010’s as Lowell built their historical archive, it had seemingly faded into memory, only to be remembered by the eyes that wander through the historic trophy cases.
