High School 1924-1926

Rina Beck taught dramatics and the last year of high school coached the debating team. She took special interest in me and gave me a lot of valuable training and help. During my last year in high school I had a "Ford Bug" which consisted of the chasis of a worn out delivery truck which my father gave to me and on which I had built a tin body with two seats. It would be a "hot rod" in today's parlance (August, 1951). I used to take Rina Beck for rides in the "bug" and about scare her to death. Rina Beck left high school soon after I did. She studied law at the University of Utah, was married to a Mr. Bassone and later became a municipal judge in Salt Lake City. Five years ago she was elected to the House of Representatives from Utah where she is at present.


YEAR (FILE ) PICTURE AND SUBJECT
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1926 (4805) John Griffin portrait
1926 (1416) Ogden High School Play - John Griffin, Dorothy Israelson
1926 (1417) Ogden High School Play - John Griffiin
1926 (0111) Ogden High School Play - Dorothy Israelson
1926 (0113) Ogden High School Play - Dorothy Israelson

In addition to my other activities in high school I also played football. My first year I played on the second team and we went all over the state playing the second teams of other high schools. I recall especially a game which we played in a snow storm at Ogden. It had snowed about 3 or 4 inches before we started the game and it snowed so hard during the game that the snow was about a foot deep when we finished. When you tackled a player you would slide for yards before you would stop. It was more fun than it was football. My second year at high school I was a substitute guard. I went with the team everywhere but did not play very much. My last year I started out the season as the regular right guard. Our opening game was with West High in Salt Lake City. I was scared stiff on the opening kick off but soon got use to it. Along towards the end of the game (the score was 7 to 6 in our favor) I was trying to catch a West Side back making an end run. I.couldn't quite make it and fell short of the fellow right in front of the coaches bench. The coach must have thought that I was not trying hard enough because he pulled me out of the game (West won 13 to 7). The rest of the season I played only in the unimportant games until the final game of the year with L.D.S. High. The evening before the game we were practicing hard and I was being used for opposition to the starting team. I decided that it was now or never if I was going to earn my letter in football. During that practice I broke through the line and made tackle after tackle for big losses. The coach noticed this and called me aside after the practice and told me that I had done well and that he was. going to start me in the game the next day. I played all of this game except the last two minutes and won my letter. This was a bitter experience in my life but one that taught me a good lesson. I found out that you can do what you want to do if you will just try hard enough, and that half-hearted effort will bring you nothing but disappointment and unhappiness.

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