By Terry Mosher
Editor, Sports Paper
I didn’t realize Gordon Personius, the center and captain of the undefeated (12-0) mythical state champion Bremerton Wildcats’ football team, was a writer and poet on the side until I did a recent column on him for the Kitsap Sun that detailed what an accomplish man he was.
Personius, who died Feb. 10 at the age of 86, wrote the following poem on Oct. 31, 1997 as a 50-year tribute to the 1947 team. It was passed on to me by Bremerton’s Bob Fredericks, who is an accomplished man in his own right.
The poem is titled “Wildcat Dreams.”
“Looked like old men round a table,
maybe, out taking the sun,
but if one moved in real close,
something special’d begun.
Kind of magical things happened,
whenever one of them spoke—
they’d slip off all the years,
with one mystical stroke.
They’d laugh like a kid would,
after catching the ball,
and maybe scoring a touchdown,
in some long-ago fall.
Then they’d throw up their arms,
as if signaling a score,
and if one listened real hard,
you’d hear a crowd’s roar!
Winners, champions, if you please,
in Nineteen Hundred Forty Seven.
Playing football for the Wildcats …
the closest thing to heaven.
Smiling young/old men, at the table,
basking in all they could remember,
recalling how glorious it had been …
in that long ago November.”
Personius added the Bremerton High fight song (sung to “Anchors Away”)
“Fight for the Blue and Gold,
Fight for your school.
We never will say die,
we’re with you win or lose, that’s why
so proudly our cheers will ring,
up to the sun.
Bring back the victory, boys,
and make the others bow to Bremerton!”