—3— RAPS club reports Book Club: An Inauguration Day discussion Our first meeting of 2009 will be held at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 20, at the home of Dez Roberts, 2610 SW 84th, Portland. Please contact her at 503-2926095 if you would like to join the discussion. Our selections for January are Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope, both written by Barack Obama, and both timely reads. The second book is described on the back cover as: The Audacity of Hopeis Barack Obama’s call for a new kind of politics—a politics that builds upon those shared understandings that pull us together as Americans. Lucid in his vision of America’s place in the world, refreshingly candid about his family life and his time in the Senate, Obama here sets out his political convictions and inspires us to trust in the dogged optimism that has long defined us and that is our best hope going forward. The book selected for February is a New York Times bestseller, The Glass Castle, a memoir written by Jeannette Walls. —Mary Gordon Brannan Bridge Group: Bids on Jan. 13 Not only do we shuffle (more than one way), we also deal and make contracts that we routinely break. Unless Portland is ice-bound, we will continue our nefarious ways in January, meeting at Willamette View at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 13. If you would like to play, please let me know as soon as possible and no later than Friday, Jan. 9. Or if you have questions, call me at 503-292-0838 or e-mail colinkeld@gmail.com. —Colin Dunkeld Hikers: A trek to the dinner table The RAPS Hikers will hike to the dinner table when the Sawyers host a potluck for past and present hikers on Friday, Jan. 23, at 6:00 p.m. The occasion will be used to plan future hikes. RSVP to Larry Sawyer at 503-771-1616 or larry_sawyer@comcast.net. —Larry Sawyer PAST TENSE Epler’s legacy: ’Friday Night Lite’ on the plains Afull decade before Stephen Epler launched the 1946 academic program at Vanport that produced PSU, he coached the Chester, Nebraska, high school football team. The Great Depression’s economic distress and dust bowl conditions resulted in declining rural area school enrollments throughout the Great Plains region, making it increasingly difficult to maintain traditional small-town athletic programs, even though students and townsfolk enthusiastically supported football. In 1934 Epler rescued this popular athletic-educational activity by introducing game modifications, making it feasible for low-enrollment schools to field teams with six or eight positions. Six-man football caught on instantly and grew to the point where—according to feature stories of the day in the New York Times and the Omaha World Herald—several hundred schools from Texas to Saskatchewan scheduled “Friday Night Lite” pigskin contests. Upon joining the PSU History Department in January 1959, a colleague of mine related Epler’s founding father role to me and casually mentioned his six-man football innovation. That resonated with me inasmuch as the small town secondary school that I attended had adopted six-man football in 1937, enabling me to play every autumn for eight years. When PSU honored founder Stephen Epler, the “Vanport Visionary,” at its 50th anniversary in 1996, I introduced myself in a receiving line and thanked him for founding an institution where I had enjoyed a lifetime career. I added that he had positively influenced my earlier life while I had played six-man football in junior and senior high school. At that point, he immediately led me to a corner table to quiz me about my involvement in the game that he had invented. I owe him a two-part debt of gratitude for his ingenuity, perhaps most of all for his invention. —Victor C. Dahl, Professor Emeritus of History Past Tense features glimpses into Portland State’s history. To submit a story (or an idea for one), email the RAPS History Preservation Committee at raps@pdx.edu. Markyour calendar Jan. 15, 1:00p.m. Tom Palm on Estonia 327 Smith Memorial Student Union Feb. 12, 6:00p.m. RAPS Dinner Multnomah Athletic Club, 1849 SW Salmon St. Feb. 19, 1:00 p.m. Charlie White: panel on RAPS history programs 338 Smith Memorial Student Union (Vanport Room) Vic Dahl Courtesy PSU archives / 1959
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