Whittaker Field 50th anniversary celebration

There is reason to celebrate in La Conner on May 3.

La Conner Schools has set the day aside to observe the 50th anniversary of Whittaker Field and to recognize its undefeated 1968 high school football team. Its success paved the way for a lighted athletics venue on campus four years later.

Whittaker Field, named for legendary one-armed coach and administrator Jack Whittaker, opened during the 1972-73 school year. It remains home to football, soccer and track and field teams.

The May 3 program is at 2 p.m., prior to the league championship track meet.

Members of the Whittaker family and the 1968 team coached by the late Jim Frey and Vince Sellen, a retired La Conner teacher and coach, will be honored.

A public reception is planned immediately after the ceremonies. A new banner honoring the ’68 team created by Mortenson Signs for hanging inside Landy James Gym will be displayed.

In the 1960s home games had to finish before nightfall – and thus couldn’t be attended by those working day shifts – Frey campaigned to install a lighted field.

That effort realized fruition in 1972. Frey, then a high school administrator, was joined by Gail Thulen, a school board member, Superintendent I.W. Ricketts and Whittaker’s widow, Peggy, to formally dedicate the field during its first night game.

Braves football teams quarterbacked by present school board member John Agen won all their home games the first two years Whittaker Field was lighted.

Jack Whittaker was the obvious choice as namesake for the field given the impact he had on students and athletes after his arrival here in 1942 following a stint at Edison, which had its own high school prior to consolidation with Burlington.

The field that bears Whittaker’s name has over the past half-century been scene to numerous memorable athletics and cultural events, including the Orange Shirt Day program held last fall to promote awareness of the residential school system that has impacted Native American communities.