Outlook section predicts rise of pro football in 1919

By sharon nesbit

The Gresham Outlook, Dec 2, 2009

Jim Thorpe heads into pro football with the Canton, Ohio, Bulldogs, one of the first American Professional Football teams. The Outlook did a special section on the popularity of pro football and teased it with a photo of Thorpe on the front page in 1919.

Outlook archives / The Outlook

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1919 – Pro football would soon be the nation’s great fall and winter sport, according to The Outlook 90 years ago. The boilerplate piece (free copy distributed as filler for the paper’s columns) featured a picture of grid star Jim Thorpe, a Native American athlete who played baseball, but was moving into the pro football season in Ohio. (See photo.)

1929 – News from Pleasant Home 80 years ago: “Hans Nelson had two sacks of potatoes stolen from his place last Monday night. He had but three sacks and was preparing to sell the two sacks, which were all ready to sew, when a night prowler carried them off. Mr. Nelson’s advice is to keep your potatoes under lock and key.”

1939 – The climb up Mount Hood kept getting shorter and shorter 70 years ago. From Government Camp, at the 3,800-foot level of the mountain, it was once a 7.5-mile jaunt to the top. With the construction of Timberline Lodge at 6,000 feet, the climb was reduced to 3.5 miles. And by late 1939, the completion of the mile-long chair ski lift to the 7,000-foot level knocked the trip down to 2.5 miles.

1949 – Kenneth Sipe, outstanding tackle on the Gresham High football team, was named most inspirational player 60 years ago by the Gresham Kiwanis. Multnomah County Sheriff Terry D. Schrunk was to speak to the Gresham Chamber of Commerce. And baritone Bill Elliott was planning to sing for a holiday concert. Elliott, who became one of the area’s favorite funeral singers, liked to remember that he once sang “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” at a cremation.

1959 – The first green and white freeway signs, the new national standard, went up what is now Interstate 84 50 years ago. The new signs were on the water-level highway along the Columbia between Sundial Road and Rooster Rock. In Gresham, 4,315 Salk vaccine polio shots were given out in a two-week period.

1969 – The Gresham City Council changed the pattern of street names in southeast Gresham 40 years ago, making all the east-west streets numbers instead of names. That eliminated Kenny, Lawrence, Bertha and Metzger, among others.

1979 – A propane truck was tipped over by the East Wind on Seventh Street in Gresham 30 years ago. No damage was done and the propane was gently removed from the vehicles. And even though there was a scare about turkeys contaminated with PCB, it wasn’t stopping most people from buying a Thanksgiving bird.

1989 – Gresham’s Nick Alexander sat in a joint session of the U.S. Congress to hear Polish hero Lech Walesa call for the west to support his country’s new independence 20 years ago. Alexander was a Polish freedom fighter during World War II. He managed to escape to the American side and things have been going well ever since.

1999 – Vista House got a $1 million grant 10 years ago to start the weatherproofing of the building. Outlook reporter Mara Stine volunteered for a makeover and a glamour shot in Gresham. Stine, now a wife and mother, sat on a motorcycle and offered a come-hither look.

2008 – Stark Street neighbors in the area from Northeast 155th to 162nd avenues were rattled at this time last year by three killings in 16 days in the area. The dead were Roland Dir, Amatha Mendive and Abel Delgado-Morales, all killed in separate instances. All are still unsolved.