I Was Thinking... We’ve Come a Long Way (Part 1)

(Part 1)
This fall, both Byron and K-M High Schools held their annual athletic Hall of Fame inductions. Athletes and coaches from recent years and from many years ago were recognized for their achievements. For those who haven’t been around for some years, seeing the facilities that today’s athletes have available to them was very eye opening.
Byron and Kasson-Mantorville now both have facilities that would have been the envy of many small colleges in the past. Each of them provides artificial turf athletic fields for their football and soccer teams. These are a vast improvement over the natural turf fields that many time became muddy messes sometime during the season. The stadium type seating is quite an upgrade from the five tier wooden bleachers that were so standard at most schools. Those days many fans had to stand once the limited bleacher capacity was quickly filled.
Two former athletes that talked at the Byron Hall of Fame ceremony played in the decade of the 1960s. Jim Campbell graduated in 1960 and Mike Hodgson in 1968. During their talks to the audience, neither one referred to the home field advantage.
For most of their careers, they played football and baseball games, as well as track meets on the road because Byron didn’t have those facilities at home. They played most of their home football games at Kasson and occasionally Pine Island.
Mike Hodgson, who played on the varsity football squad from 8th grade through his senior year, said one word symbolized his football career, mud. They practiced in a small area behind the old school in the middle of Byron. What little grass was there at the beginning of the practice season was soon gone and for the rest of the season it was basically mud unless it was a very dry year and then it was just dirt. Their dirty and muddy practice uniforms were hung in a tiny drying room and were basically crusty for the next practice since they were only washed about once a week. This is quite a contrast to today, since uniforms don’t get visibly dirty because teams play on artificial turf.
While graduation classes at both Byron and K-M now regularly top 150 students, the Byron graduating class in 1960 was 24 and in 1968 it was 36. Because of the lower numbers, some athletes were allowed to compete in two sports in the same season. Both Mike and Jim were out for track and baseball. Being a track athlete was especially challenging since Byron didn’t have a track until 1968. Jim Campbell won both the 100- and 220-yard dashes at the Wasioja Conference track meet while wearing his baseball cleats. He also envied schools that had adjustable starting blocks. His blocks were 4 x 4 wooden blocks that were nailed into the track. And they ran on cinder tracks that had to be re-lined before every meet.
Mike Hodgson threw the shot and discus but practiced his throws out into the grass behind the school. When he was preparing for the conference meet, he went to Pine Island to practice because they had a throwing circle with the necessary toe board. We have come a long way to the all-weather tracks both schools have today and the dedicated areas for field events. Electronic timing and video cameras have replaced the timers with stop watches. From these humble beginnings, who would have thought that Byron would one day have several state track championships. Sports and facilities have come a long way.
Did You Ever Wonder? — What happens when an immovable object meets an unstoppable force?