Panther football history on display

A year ago, local sports historian John Walters unveiled his display of Creston basketball history in the east room of Anson’s Bar and Grill, now A&G Restaurant & Lounge, on Adams Street in Creston.

A former Panther basketball star from the 1960s, Larry Goodrich, was one of the featured speakers at the ceremony observing this display. In his conversations with Walters, he noted that his father Dale Goodrich was an all-state football player for Creston.

“Larry was with us to speak that day and asked, ‘Are you going to do something for football?’ That kind of triggered this latest project,” Walters said.

The latest project is an impressive display of Creston football history on a series of old photographs, plaques and lists of all-state players on a wall just to the right of the main entrance at Mario’s Sports Bar & Grill’s new location at 705 South Cherry Street. A Creston Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting ceremony is planned 10 a.m. Wednesday, March 19.

Wrestling area coming

In the same building where his father John Galanakis once operated the Olympic Flame restaurant, Mario Galanakis is pleased to have this addition of Creston sports history in his establishment. Although slowed by a recent knee replacement surgery, Walters is already deep into his research for a display of local wrestling history on the wall across from the football display.

Even at his former location at 129 N. Pine Street, Galanakis had a display of his own wrestling history at Nodaway Valley High School, All-American status at Ellsworth Community College and as a starter at 133 pounds for the University of Iowa. The expanded display of local football history has already generated interest, Galanakis said.

“We’ve only been open a week and a half, but I have had some people who pointed it out and said they really enjoyed it,” Galanakis said. “I think it’s good to show history. There’s really not places to see history all in one place, but here you can go down the line and see dads and sons.”

Walters has arranged the photos and lists chronologically, from south to north along the west hallway that connects patrons to a smaller bar separate from the main dining area. He did his research from microfilm copies of the Creston News Advertiser and an archive subscription to the Des Moines Register.

All Creston all-state players and those receiving honorable mention from the Register and Iowa Newspaper Association (formerly the Iowa Daily Press Association) are listed by name and year in the display. Some of those honored were Orient-Macksburg students from the era of shared football between the two schools.

Multiple generations

There are many examples of multiple generations represented, such as former Creston wrestling coach Rich Downing from the 1963 team and his grandson Trevor Downing, a Panther three-time all-stater through 2017 who went on to start in the Iowa State offensive line. Trevor’s father, Todd, was the starting running back on Creston’s first playoff team in 1985. A plaque of that team is among the displayed items.

There is also a plaque devoted to Creston’s first UNI-Dome qualification for the semifinals in 2014. The other appearance was in 2023.

One of the individual displays is devoted to Creston High School Hall of Famer Tom Hertz, who became an All-American player at the University of Missouri.

“People can see their parents, uncles, grandfathers or great-grandfathers of the kids in town now,” Walters said. “Many times these people were very humble and maybe you didn’t even realize they played football.”

The display includes several photos of all-state players, complete lists of all-state players and those receiving honorable mention from 1921 to Weston Trapp from the 2024 Creston team.

There’s a special plaque devoted to Kyle McCann and Collin Bevins, who were selected to the all-class Elite All-State Football Team. Another plaque shows the historical advancement of lights installed at the home football field at the former Burton R. Jones Junior High field, which was the second school west of the Mississippi River to have night football. The first was in Burlington one year earlier in 1929.

Walters said he devoted about 300 hours of work in researching the all-state honors and getting copies of associated photos. After finishing the wrestling display, he hopes to obtain similar lists of all-state softball and baseball players.

The current display at Mario’s also includes a framed Buffalo Bills jersey of offensive lineman Spencer Brown, former 8-Man all-stater from Lenox and offensive tackle at the University of Northern Iowa.

Walters has also researched the all-state football information for area schools Greenfield (and Nodaway Valley), Orient and Orient-Macksburg, Afton (and East Union), Murray, Mount Ayr, Corning, Lenox and Prescott.

“It would also be good to do it for track,” Walters said. “I really feel we should have a Creston Sports Hall of Fame. There are a lot of superstars from Creston that people don’t know about, or very few people are still alive that remember them. That history is important. I enjoy doing it. I’ve been lucky to find spots for these things.”