1944 - 45 Football Season
Game Schedule
| Richland Broncs | 19 | Prosser Mustangs | 0 |    |
| Richland Broncs | 6 | Sunnyside Grizzlies | 7 |  |
| Richland Broncs | 0 | Pasco Bulldogs | 14 |   |
| Mascot officially changed from Broncs to Beavers | ||||
| Richland Beavers | 18 | Kennewick Lions | 13 |  |
| Richland Beavers | 34 | Dayton Bulldogs | 0 |   |
| Richland Beavers | 0 | Pasco Bulldogs | 0 |   |
| Richland Beavers | 20 | Grandview Greyhounds | 0 |  |
| Richland Beavers | 40 | Dayton Bulldogs | 0 |  |
| Richland Beavers | 46 | Kennewick Lions | 6 |  |
 News Story
 Game Photo
 Game Program
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1944 News Articles, Photos and Programs
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Football Season of 1944 |
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Give Banquet to Football Players |
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Kennewick Event Draws 2500 Fans |
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1944 Richland Beaver Starters |
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1944 Richland Beaver Team Photo |
Notes from the 1944 Season
From Lorin St. John
The first 3 games the mascot was BRONCS. The last 6 games the mascot was BEAVERS. Here is the story (speculation) for the mascot change:
Speculation #1: Col-Hi changed their mascot from Broncs to Beavers after the 3rd football game of this school year. Bill Beaver, one of the Richland football players, was injured in the 1st Pasco game. The Richland football team had players from 26 different states. They were referred to as "the all americans" by many valley newspapers. Many of the players had never played football before. They finished with a respectable 6-2-1 record coached by John Eubanks. He left for Spokane with a new position at the end of the football season. Coach Eubanks (a 1933 grad from WSC) was head football coach at Tekoa High School in 1933 and Prosser High School in 1934 and 1935. This was the first football team since 1926 to represent Richland. When the mascot change was announced; many football players thought or assumed that the change was because of sympathy and respect for the injury of Bill Beaver. The mascot change "caught on" with the ever fast expanding enrollment (due to the build-up of the Hanford Engineering Works) of the student body and remained for the rest of the school year. Many students were enrolled for just part of the year and then moved on. Indeed the student body was in a state of flux.
Speculation #2: The government selected the Beaver mascot for the new high School (as an aquatic animal) to be more in line with DuPont's (the prime contractor of the Hanford Engineering Works) name for the school (Columbia RIVER High School) than the Broncs mascot - plus the school had just opened in April 1944 and the new school probably deserved a new mascot.
The truth is somewhere in there.
Richland played their homes games on a temporary football field by the north side of Lee Boulevard across from the city park alongside of the Columbia River.
Team Photo
1944 Player Roster
| No. | Name | Position | Height | Weight | Grade | Files |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bill Beaver | ||||||
| Lon Blauvelt | 12 | |||||
| Don Bloomer | 11 | |||||
| Dean Canham | 12 | |||||
| Charles Conway | 12 | |||||
| Norman Dam | 12 | |||||
| Richard Diamond | 12 | |||||
| Jim Domrose | 11 | |||||
| Ed Dunham | ||||||
| George Franceschini | 12 | |||||
| Charles Funk | 11 | |||||
| Kenneth Grubb | 12 | |||||
| Bill Hebbes | ||||||
| Roger Hughes | ||||||
| John Hughes | 10 | |||||
| Ray Hultman | 10 | |||||
| John Ingram | 12 | |||||
| Bob Keplinger | ||||||
| Chuck Larrabee | 10 | |||||
| Jim Loftus | 11 | |||||
| Harold Ludwig | 12 | |||||
| Richard MacDonnell | 12 | |||||
| Jim McClaren | ||||||
| Dick McCoy | 11 | |||||
| Craig Meier | 10 | |||||
| Lewis Merryman | 11 | |||||
| Sherwin Miller | ||||||
| Richard North | ||||||
| Curtis Parke | ||||||
| R. J. Pederson | 9 | |||||
| Leroy Pyles | 11 | |||||
| Bob Ross | ||||||
| Art Sircolumb | 12 | |||||
| Ben Van Clippard | 12 | |||||
| Gordon Weir | 10 | |||||
| Bill Whaley | 12 | |||||
| Charles Williams | ||||||
| Ed Wood | 10 | |||||
| Joe Wood | 9 |
John F. Eubanks
Head Coach
| Overall Record | 6 - 2 - 1 |
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