Picture this: Philomath High quarterback Caleb Russell goes back to pass in the first quarter and finds wideout CD Nuño in stride over the middle on a 50-yard touchdown pass. Nuño sprints to the end zone untouched and his bright red-and-white uniform remains unblemished.
The sea of red that fills Clemens Field’s grandstands goes wild in celebration.
Wait, red-and-white uniforms? Sea of red in the stands? What in the heck are you talking about, Fuqua?
Well, a reader recently pointed me to the story of the Warrior black and gold as shared in an old PHS yearbook. The change in school colors — from red on white to gold on black — occurred during the 1936-37 academic year.
That year, Wade Byington and Louise Hyde were the student body president and vice president, respectively, at Philomath High School.
“Around this time, the guys began objecting to the fact that white letterman sweaters were not practical because they soiled too easily and they wanted to change the school colors,” the account reads.
So, in 1936, the PHS student council began a discussion and put together a survey.
“They reported back that many students wanted a change and recommended gold-on-black letters on black sweaters,” the story reads. “A student body vote was taken and passed with a large majority.”
The account continues that athletes for the 1936-37 school year did not receive letters because it was too late to order the gold on black. But early in the 1937-38 school year, the athletes began wearing the new colors on their letterman sweaters.
By the way, Byington and Hyde later married in 1939 at a ceremony in Juneau, Alaska.
Incidentally, Wade’s older brother, Glen, who was a 1936 PHS graduate, played football at Oregon State and participated in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, 1942, in Durham, North Carolina. The bowl game was moved to the East Coast following Pearl Harbor, which caused fears at the time about a possible attack on the West Coast. Oregon State won the game, 20-16.
Altishin mentioned in article
A writer who covers Oregon sports for High School on SI (Sports Illustrated) this week put together a piece entitled, “Oregon high school football: Who will be the breakthrough stars of 2025?” Warriors coach Alex Firth commented on AJ Altishin, who will be a junior this fall and has been backing up Caleb Russell for the past two seasons.
René Ferrán wrote in the story that coaches around the state were asked to identify someone on their team who was a bit of an unknown last year but would be taking on a bigger role. Firth offered up Altishin.
“AJ is taller than Caleb and has a stronger arm, and he will allow us to stretch the field vertically,” Firth was quoted as saying in the story. “It’s on me as a coach not to overload him and let him develop. He understands the system and now just needs reps in summer drills and passing tournaments.”
Altishin was one of 70 athletes statewide included in the article.
Neelands earns student-athlete honor
Allison Neelands, who graduated with Philomath High’s Class of 2023, was one of five athletes on Hartwick College’s swimming and diving team named to the Empire 8 President’s List for this past fall.
To qualify for the conference honor, student-athletes must earn a 3.75 grade point average or higher during the semester, display positive conduct on and off campus and be enrolled full time while also participating in an NCAA-sponsored sport.
In addition, Hartwick women’s swimming and diving earned Empire 8 All-Academic Team honors, in which programs must post a team GPA of 3.2 or higher.
Neelands is pursuing a major in political science with a minor in legal studies at the school, which is located in Oneonta, New York.
(Brad Fuqua is publisher/editor of the Philomath News. He can be reached at News@PhilomathNews.com).
