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Honors
1950 Outstanding Back Award: Hal Gardner
1950 Outstanding Line Award: Edgar Shetler
1950 Team Co MVP: Donald Myers (QB)
1950 Team Co MVP: Gary Whitfield (HB/QB)
1950 Team Co MVP: Selman Williams (HB)
Prior to 1947, the Fort Lewis team was known as the "Engineers"
winning the 1947 Northwest Service Teams Championship, a challenge game
with the California El Toro Marines and finishing 11-0.
Manford Gregg was the high scoring back in 1947.
Linebacker Thomas Miles scored the only TD in the Centeral Washington game
on a 21-yard interception return in 1948.
When Cowan Field opened in 1949, the 2nd Infantry
Division football team was first to christen it and reeled off 16
straight home victories being crowned Sixth Army Champions in a game played
in Hawaii.
Key Players for 1949:
Louis Grzadzielewski - DE ( later Univ. Puget Sound
1953 Inspirational Award Winner, All-Evergreen Conference 1st Team All
Star)
Lt. Tom A. Lombardo, former West Pointer captained the
undefeated 1944 Army National Championship team, was transferred to Fort
Lewis' 38th Division and handed the team in 1949 after coaching the 1948
First Cavalry Team.
Lombardo was deployed to Korea where he fell Sept
24, 1950. On November 17, 1962 the football field at Yongsan
Reservation, Seoul Korea was designated Lombardo Field by the US Army
Seoul Area Command.
In 2009 Lombardo, a St. Louis native and 4-year
starter for Soldan High School, was inducted into the Missouri Sports
Hall of Fame.
Coach Lt. Tom Lombardo
The team became the "Rockets" for the 1950 season.
Selman Williams was the team high scorer on the 1950 season. (2TD-Oct 28,
1 TD Oct 21)
Bad weather in Alaska forced Fort Richardson to disband its football team
and cancel the 1951 Thanksgiving game with the Rockets.
Head Coach for 1952 was Lt. Richard Smith, a former Portland University
starter (1939-1940) and University of Missouri QB (1943), set an
unofficial javelin record with a 239' 31/2" at a meet in San Antonio, TX
in 1944. From 1946-1951 he racked up an imposing coaching record for
the Army European Command teams. Assistant Coach Walter Gomes was
named coach of the year in Japan (1951) and played pro football with the
Providence Steamrollers prior to the war.
1952 Roster vs Tacoma Safety (Pos=starter):
10-James Nelson, 11-Gerald Droll, 12-Garland Daniels, 13-Alvin Johnson,
14-Donald Justice, 15-Robert Franklin, 17-Jack Devoughn (RT), 19-Charles
Miller (LHB), 20-Richard Smith (QB), 21-Clarence Landenburg, 22-George
Hale (RG), 22-James Snell, 25-Richard Beal, 26-David McCoy (RHB),
27-Rayshaw Gaddy, 28-Edward Carney, 30-James Holliday (RE), 31-Rudolph
Perry, 32-Waymond Taylor (LG), 33-Albert Cummings, 34-Hubert Johnson,
36-Edward Hoke, 37-Donald Lewis, 38-Robert Brown, 39-Stanley Hill,
40-Carl Diggs, 43-Ted Klingenberg, 44-Chris Kondoff, 46-S.C. Farrison,
49-William Kelly, 50-Frank Williams (LE), 51-Garland Brown (DT), 52-O.K.
Brown, 54-William Parker (FB), 57-Gilbert Rowe (C), 59-Thomas Faivey,
60-Claude Devers (LT)
Garland Brown was named All-Japan three years in a
row while serving with the Army Occupation Forces and considered the
best blocker and tackler on the Rockets team.
The "Rockets" were blended into the 44th Division
becoming the Fort Lewis 4x4s, a similar
name the team used while stationed at Camp Cooke in California.
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