Gene Kemper Letter

May 20, 1970

Mr. Bill Hargiss
c/o F. G. Welch
Emporia, Kansas

Dear Bill:

So sorry I cannot be with you at the big banquet in your honor May 28 at Emporia, where you did so much to make athletic history. Helen joins me in the disappointment because we had planned to be there until this week when help problems broke loose around our newspaper plant. But we are there in spirit, no less!

I always will treasure memories of our famous trip to the 1932 Olympics.

Of the night we got lost trying to get home from Joe Reilly's place and ran far past our station on the last trolley car--and how you had to challenge a fellow cussing us out a window so we could get someone to unlock the apartment house door! Of our many trials with Ira Stockebrand!

And of the good things, too, such as Jim Bausch's victory in the decathlon after the heartbreak of Glenn Cunningham's muscle tie-up; and the great events and athletes we were privileged to see.

Then, of course, were the years following when you used to come to the boar's nest Chesley Culp, Jack Garrett and myself operated at Emporia--to get away from the KU pressure. Remember the night you witnessed a transaction between Culp and Bill Wiggley and the classic remark you made about your former star halfbacks?

And remember the Kansas City track meet I was announcing when you first met Helen and learned of our approaching marriage? And of your many later stops in Topeka when our family was just getting started. Keith is 33 and is practically running our paper now. He attended Kansas State. Wade, 32, is an engineer for the Federal Aviation Administration and married and located in Atlanta, Ga. Keith has two sons. Helen is still putting up with me.

I hope your daughter told you I called for you in Lawrence in 1968 when I was there for the William Allen White centennial events. You were in California.

So sorry I can't be in Emporia the 28th but here's hoping we can get together before too long.

Same Ol'

Gene Kemper