LARRY LARKIN column

The construction of the new Lantow Field football stadium has triggered some special memories for Claremore resident Pat Staggs.

"It has been fun looking out my back window each day and watching all the work going on," Pat said last week.

While she is experiencing new feelings daily as workmen continue their tasks, several old memories have also surfaced. These deal with the 1960 opening of the Lantow Field that has been demolished to make way for the new facilities.

Pat is the daughter of Bob Henning, an assistant coach for the Zebras at the time the team moved from the Claremont School field to the new location on North Sioux Avenue.

"I was too young to remember the games, but I do recall going there Friday nights to watch my father down on the field," she said.

Her recollections have become clearer with the recent discovery of the Oct. 28, 1960 issue of the Claremore Daily Progress. It lists a busy schedule for Homecoming, including the official dedication for Lantow Field.

Apparently, her father didn't throw away much during his time as a coach. Pat and her sister, Barbara Tedder, now living in Tulsa, have recovered countless newspaper articles and clippings he had saved. Among other items are a 1959 Zebra coach's letter jacket and the whistle he used.

Actually a head basketball coach, he also served as an assistant in football. Henning started his coaching career at Lordsburg, in New Mexico, in 1956. He taught science in the classroom. When three years later he was offered the same positions at Claremore, he gladly accepted. He and his wife, Carolyn, had driven through Claremore a short time before and both agreed it was a community where they might enjoy living.

"My father was an intelligent man to begin with, but he always sought additional knowledge," Pat said. "Our Claremore stay came during a time we moved quite often, or so it seemed. We were here from 1959 to '61 and then Dad took us back to his hometown, Albuquerque, after he accepted a Natural Science Foundation grant. Then it was off to Florida for two years before we moved back here for the '64-’65 and '65-’66 school years.

"In the summer of 1966, we moved again, only this time it was to Hawaii. My father worked on a science fellowship at the University of Hawaii for two years. He then spent the next 10 years as a public school councilor at Kailua on the north shore of the island of Oahu."

Following a divorce, the mother and two daughters returned to Claremore.

While attending her final five years of junior and high school, Pat said she didn't take interest in football and basketball.

"About the only athlete I remember talking to back then was Tojo Johnson,” she said. “He was older than I was, but he was always pleasant to be around and he could be so funny at times. He was never too busy to stop and visit.