Wirt Trawick smiled from ear to ear as he examined a Stroud football scrapbook from 1948-49, reminiscent of his gridiron days.
Trawick, at 94 years old, is a 1948 Stroud High School graduate and currently lives at Prairie Pointe retirement home in Stroud.
What he examined is a scrapbook of historical photos and articles on the Stroud football team, dating back to the 1948-49 school year.
No one is sure where the scrapbook came from originally, but it was in the files of the Stroud American newspaper when it merged with the Lincoln County News and Tri-County Herald during the COVID pandemic in 2020.
Editor Brian Blansett found the scrapbook while looking for something else and thought it too cool to leave in the drawer, so he texted Stroud football coach Josh Presley, who said he would like to have it to display in the Tigers’ fieldhouse.
After that, it was a matter of finding someone from that era of Tigers Tigers football. Enter Lincoln County News Office Manager Baylee Blancarte, a Stroud graduate, who tracked down Trawick through Facebook.
Trawick played left guard for the Tigers from 1944 to 1947, earning Tri-County All Star honors and winning a district title in his time.
Though the scrapbook dates to the season after he graduated, Trawick recognized several familiar faces causing him to reminisce on his time as a player.
“I did not know some of the names, some I did,” Trawick said. “Raymond Pearson, his sister, was my classmate. And Jimmy Irby, he was one of the groomsmen when I got married. The coach here, he was my coach, Irving Gaither.”
Along with them, he also recognized teammates Don Burkhart, Lonnie Van Meter, Bill Cox, Ronald Duty and Carl Lafoon, who all graduated the year after him.
As Trawick admired the scrapbook, so did current Stroud Head Football Coach, Josh Presley, but from a completely different perspective.
“I don’t know anybody in this book, I’m originally from Seminole,” Presley said. “It’s just so awesome to see the history of Stroud, seeing the rock wall that we still have in place today. Just seeing all those young men out there in leather helmets.”
Presley referenced a term - “OST” - he often uses with his players, which stands for “Old School Tough,” a mindset the Tigers take into competition.
If they play anything like the 1948 Stroud football team, which went into the state semifinals undefeated at 12-0, that mindset will take them far.
For Presley, his goal is for his team to be a continuation of the Tigers’ historical success.
“It means something to me to try to uphold all that. Around here, it’s not just enough to make it to the playoffs,” Presley said.
“We want to make deep runs, a good season for us is if we’re playing past Thanksgiving. That’s our expectations and that’s the way we want it to be and that’s the way it’s always been.”
While Presley aims to meet the program’s expectations, he’ll be backed by the overwhelming support of the community.
“We’ve felt support throughout the years,” Presley said. “You see the whole town of Stroud roll out, there’s not a better feeling. The boys get fired up, they love to see the community out there supporting us.
It means a lot to them.” Times change, but the Stroud community backing the football team remains the same. In the scrapbook, an article from 1948 talked about just how much the community revolved around the team.
Trawick confirmed this as “very true” back then and referenced how that “big community support” is still going on today.
To pay homage to the communities historical support of Stroud football, Coach Presley is planning to display the scrapbook in the fieldhouse foyer.
“When everybody comes in, that’s one of the first things they can see,” Presley said.
“In the foyer, it has a lot of our old All-State players and just some of the tradition and the cool stuff that Stroud’s done over the years. The state championship pictures and everything that goes with it and putting it in that to show off for the community.”
Now in the fieldhouse of Jack Poskey Field, there’s a piece of history that speaks to the Stroud football’s tradition made up of success and support.