Football at Astoria High School came from very humble beginnings and evolved into one of the most important sporting and cultural events for the community.

Over the past 94 years, Astoria High football has had many highs, lows, great teams, not-so-great teams, three athletes who went on to the National Football League, two unofficial state championships and one big stadium that was once considered state-of-the-art for high school football.

American football was invented in the 1860s by colleges that wanted to create their own improved versions of rugby.

Three of those schools – Princeton, Rutgers and Harvard – gradually made up a standardized set of rules, and in 1869, the first collegiate football game was played between Princeton and Rutgers. Within a few years, the game of football became more formal and popular, and spread throughout the country.

Organized football was first played in Astoria in 1890, when the Astoria Football Club was formed. Its only competition those first years came from West Astoria, a team from the Finnish settlement on the west end of town.

Many more clubs in the area were formed in the early 1900s that sponsored teams, including the Owa Pun Pun Club, the Amateur Athletic Club and eventually the Columbia Club. Many of the games were played on the tidal flat in Alderbrook because Astoria had few flat places to play.

First high school teamAHS’s first football team was formed in 1910. There were 15 students who were willing to play, but no coach was hired at the time. The first game Astoria High played was Nov. 5, 1910 against Jefferson High School.

In 1911, a teacher, Professor Crockett, was the first official coach of an AHS football team. The next year, the school hired Lawrence Rodgers as coach, and the Astoria Fishermen football program was off and running.

The program was low in numbers the first few years, but as more young men decided to stay in school beyond eighth grade, (it was common in those days to work in fisheries or logging at age 15), the school and the teams got bigger. With the exception of two early years – one canceled because of lack of student interest and one that ended when school was closed for the year because of the terrible flu epidemic – Astoria has successfully fielded solid football teams to represent the school and the community.

Coach WarrenLegendary coach John Warren was hired in 1928, and in his first year, the team won an unofficial state championship, with a record of 6-0-1. The Fishermen were not scored on by any high school teams that year, with a 6-6 tie coming against Centralia (Wash.) Junior College. The Fishermen wanted a playoff game against Medford for the championship, but Medford paid no attention, and was awarded the championship by the mid-state media.

The second unofficial state championship was in 1931 when Warren led the Fishermen to a 7-0-2 mark. Astoria challenged all other undefeated teams in the state to a championship game, but nobody accepted. That year was the last for Howard “Nig” Tihila. He eventually went on to play for the Washington Redskins.

Two other outstanding Fishermen under Warren who went on to play in the pros were Del Bjork and Hank Nilsen. Bjork played a year for the Chicago Bears, but was advised by George “Papa Bear” Halas that he would make more money by using his degree to become a teacher. Nilsen had a long and successful pro football career.

In Warren’s final year, the construction of Gyro Field began. Gyro Field had turf and lights installed, so all football games would from then on be played at night.

Warren coached Astoria’s Fighting Fishermen to a 48-14-6 record, and he’s most well known for his basketball coaching. In fact, despite being known primarily as a “basketball town,” Astoria’s football history was excellent from the start. From 1910 to 1942 the Fishermen had a record of 145 wins with only 66 losses.

Astoria had its fair share of good teams after Warren left to coach basketball at the University of Oregon, but the next truly great football year at Astoria was not until 1951.

Fighting FishermenThe Fighting Fishermen played under coach Ray Segale, and featured a strong line blocking for several excellent running backs out of the “T” formation including All-American tailback Dick Pavlat.

Astoria went undefeated (8-0-1), highlighted by a win over Tillamook in the first annual Homecoming game. The Fishermen opened the state playoffs with a blowout of a very strong Hillsboro team, 32-7. The next week the Fishermen scored an easy victory over North Marion on their way to the state semifinals against Grant High.

A train from Astoria took more than 800 Fishermen fans to the game; they would be part of 8,480 fans in Multnomah Stadium for the Fishermen’s game against the Generals. Astoria looked good early in the game, but Grant shut them down in the second half to end the Fishermen’s season with a 26-14 loss.

1972 mixupThe next notable great team in Astoria history was the Fishermen of 1972. They, like the 1951 squad, went undefeated with an 8-0-1 record and were at a point in time ranked as the No. 5 team in Class AAA (equivalent to 4A today).

For the first round of the state playoffs, there was a big controversy over which school would face Astoria on Gyro Field. Top-ranked Grants Pass had won the Southern Conference and had a perfect 9-0 record going into the playoffs. By all rights they should have been slated to play the Fishermen in the first round of the playoffs. A week before the game, the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) ruled that Grants Pass had to forfeit eight of its nine games because of the use of a player who was ruled ineligible. The second-ranked team in the state, Medford, was then awarded the Southern Conference championship, even though it had lost to Grants Pass earlier in the season.

As was mandated by the OSAA, Medford was slated to play against Astoria, so by Friday, the Medford football team was in town as well as many of their rabid fans who had made the long trek from southern Oregon to see the game. Friday morning, a last minute court ruling decreed that Grants Pass would not have to forfeit any games, and they had to play Astoria later that day. Because of the amount of time Grants Pass was given to get to Astoria and play the game, the team chartered a plane to Portland, then chartered a bus from the Portland Airport to Astoria.

The Medford team and fans had to pack up and leave with nothing to show for themselves, never even having the opportunity to challenge the Fishermen. As those fans moved out with their heads held low, an ecstatic horde of rooters from Grants Pass rolled into Astoria and began checking into the hotels the Medford folks had reluctantly vacated. The crowd of Cavemen fans came into Gyro Field chanting, “We’re number one!” Unfortunately for them, the Fishermen were No. 1 that night. Even though they had prepared for Medford all week, the Fishermen shut down the Cavemen, 28-20.

The week after easily handling the No. 1-ranked team in the state, the Fishermen, under coach Chuck Burns and led by a strong senior class, were set to play Wilson High in Civic Stadium for the state semifinals. Astoria had about 4,000 of the 10,000 fans in attendance that night. Unfortunately, the Fishermen once again fell short of the state finals, losing to the Trojans 47-20.

John Warren FieldBefore the 1975 season, the City of Astoria had plans to build a covered grandstand for Gyro Field. A Eugene businessman heard of the plans and gave a large contribution to the construction of the grandstands. He asked the fund-raisers from the Rotary and Astoria School Administrators that his gift be anonymous, but for obvious reasons they refused to keep it that way. During halftime of a game against Dallas High on Oct. 17, there was a ceremony in which the field donned its new name in honor of the Eugene businessman. Gyro Field then became John Warren Field, in honor of perhaps Astoria’s greatest coach in any sport. Next year marks the 30th anniversary of the dedication of John Warren Field.

Despite having some truly great teams in school history, Astoria has never managed to play in a championship game, a drought that started eight years before the Boston Red Sox won the World Series in 1918.

A few times early in the program’s history, the Fishermen actually should have been in a championship game, but it never happened. As the Red Sox recently solved the curse and brought their drought to an end, the Fishermen are improving by leaps and bounds. Hopefully some time in the near future, Astoria can improve enough to end its drought as well.

Andrew Ellsberg is a junior at Astoria High School and wrote the above story, “94 Years of Gridiron Excitement for the Fighting Fishermen” for his Writing 123 class.