By Terry Mosher<\/p>\n
Editor, Sports Paper<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t realize Gordon Personius, the center and captain of the\u00a0 undefeated (12-0) mythical state champion Bremerton Wildcats\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s Bob Fredericks, who is an accomplished man in his own right.<\/p>\n
The poem is titled \u201cWildcat Dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cLooked like old men round a table,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 maybe, out taking the sun,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 but if one moved in real close,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 something special\u2019d begun.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Kind of magical things happened,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 whenever one of them spoke\u2014<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 they\u2019d slip off all the years,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 with one mystical stroke.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They\u2019d laugh like a kid would,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 after catching the ball,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and maybe scoring a touchdown,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 in some long-ago fall.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Then they\u2019d throw up their arms,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 as if signaling a score,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and if one listened real hard,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 you\u2019d hear a crowd\u2019s roar!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Winners, champions, if you please,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 in Nineteen Hundred Forty Seven.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Playing football for the Wildcats \u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the closest thing to heaven.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Smiling young\/old men, at the table,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 basking in all they could remember,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 recalling how glorious it had been \u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 in that long ago November.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Personius added the Bremerton High fight song (sung to \u201cAnchors Away\u201d)<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cFight for the Blue and Gold,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Fight for your school.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0We never will say die,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0we\u2019re with you win or lose, that\u2019s why<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0so proudly our cheers will ring,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0up to the sun.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Bring back the victory, boys,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and make the others bow to Bremerton!\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Terry Mosher Editor, Sports Paper I didn\u2019t realize Gordon Personius, the center and captain of the\u00a0 undefeated (12-0) mythical…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2651"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2653,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2651\/revisions\/2653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}