June 1, 2010 Suburban Times, Lakewood,
Wash. Updated 12/5/2022
There are “givens” concerning Lakes
High School. Colors for the school are burnt orange and royal blue. Lakes teams
are called the Lancers. In fact, even before Lakes opened in September 1962,
the school colors were selected. But, when classes began in the 1962-1963
school year, there was not a nickname for Lakes teams. Nor was there a fight
song or alma mater. For that matter, there was not a senior class either.
Lakes Colors
Lakes 1965 grad Rick Austin, 63, Kansas City, Mo., has first-hand knowledge of selection of the school colors and in the selection of the Lancers nickname, too. His father, the late Gerry Austin, was Lakes’ first athletic director and head football coach after serving as the successful head football coach at Clover Park High. Rick was starting quarterback for his father’s first three Lakes teams – the 1962, 1963 and 1964 seasons – and also played basketball and was a baseball pitcher for the Lancers.
“Dad was instrumental in the choice
of colors at Lakes, with administration approval of course. The main need was
to order the football uniforms for the first season,” said Rick.
Why burnt orange? Gerry Austin thought Darrell Royal was a great football coach. Royal gained his fame as coach (1957–1976) of the University of Texas Longhorns. According to the University of Texas at Austin website, Royal chose the burnt orange color for the Longhorns’ football jerseys. (By the way, before Royal joined Texas in 1957 as its coach, he coached one season, 1956, for the University of Washington, Gerry’s alma mater.)
Another reason for burnt orange and royal blue color scheme, said Rick, was because it was not used by other schools in the Puget Sound League or used by many high school teams in the state.
Rick remembers before the football season began when his father brought all the Lakes football jerseys – they were burnt orange with white numerals – to the Austin home not far from the northern shore of American Lake. “We had the jerseys spread out all over the family room floor and I got to pick my own number by ‘coach’s son privilege,’ Rick said. “The jersey manufacturer only put lower numbers on smaller jerseys. I needed a larger jersey, so that’s why I picked number 42,” he said.
Lancers nickname
Lancers was one of the several
nicknames names suggested by Lakes students during the 1962-1963 school year.
Rick Austin was one of the students casting a vote in favor of the winning
“Lancers.” Other nicknames in the vote were “Lakers” and “Blue Devils.” During
that first school year, Lakes teams played varsity teams from smaller schools
and junior varsity teams from larger schools. Thus, until that vote, those
Lakes teams in early games of the first year wore burnt orange and royal blue,
but they did not have a nickname. In the 1963-1964 school year, Lakes began
playing full varsity schedules as a member of the Puget Sound League: NORTH DIVISION of PSL: Evergreen Wolverines,
Glacier Grizzlies, Highline Pirates, Kent-Meridian Royals, Mt. Rainier Rams and
Renton Indians. SOUTH DIVISION of PSL: Auburn Trojans, Clover Park Warriors,
Enumclaw Hornets, Franklin Pierce Cardinals, Lakes Lancers and Puyallup Vikings.
An interesting sideline to Lakes not having a senior class in 1962-1963 concerns the classes housed in the then new Lakes High School. Sophomores used the school’s sophomore wing. Juniors used the junior wing. However, seventh graders were housed in the senior wing. Many of those students would return to Lakes in the 1965-1966 school year as sophomores. Consequently, as seniors during the 1967-1968 school year they were in the senior wing for a second time.
Lakes Alma Mater and Lakes Fight Song
During the 1963-1964 season, the Lakes boys’ basketball team, coached by Holly Gee, had an outstanding season and played Renton in the Highline gym for the league championship. Lakes won, 47-46, in an upset. It was announced over the public address system late in the game that the fans of the team winning the game could sing its alma mater at the game’s conclusion. Lakes won. There was momentary silence – no Alma Mater — followed by cheering. At that point, Lakes did not have an Alma Mater or Fight Song. Later that school year student-written music and words for the Alma Mater and Fight Song were composed/written and adopted.
Austin postscripts
Gerry Austin — From Kelso, Gerry Austin, who died at age 70 in 1994, was a quarterback at Kelso High and for the University of Washington during the 1942, 1943, 1946 and 1947 seasons. His career as a Husky included being the UW’s quarterback and punter in the 1944 Rose Bowl football game. A member of the Washington State Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame, he coached football at Clover Park from 1949 to 1961, then coached for six years at Lakes. He compiled a 118-53-8 record at Clover Park and Lakes with his Warriors and Lancers football teams winning four Puget Sound League championships. He became the Clover Park School District athletic director in 1975 and retired in 1981. His wife/Rick’s mother, Lillian Austin, died in 2006. Like her husband, she was a Kelso High grad. Prior to retiring in 1986, she was an elementary school secretary for more 20 years in the Clover Park School District.
Rick Austin — The son of Gerry and Lillian Austin, he was born in 1946 in Seattle and lives in Kansas City, Mo., where he is financial adviser working with business and estate owners for Austin & Associates, a firm he owns with his son, Luke Austin. He was an outstanding pitcher for Coach Ron Storaasli’s Lakes baseball teams. Selected by the Cleveland Indians in the first round of the 1968 Major League Baseball draft, he pitched for the Indians in 1970 and 1971 and the Milwaukee Brewers in 1975 and 1976. He was with Japan’s Hankyu Braves in the 1974 season. While Rick loves baseball, he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father, Gerry, and be a college quarterback. But, there was more interest in him from colleges for his baseball talents, so he pitched for Coach Bobo Brayton at Washington State University. Rick takes satisfaction that his son, Luke, was a college quarterback at Washington University in St. Louis.
Luke Austin — the son of Rick and
Verna Austin, he was a three sport-star at Brookfield, Mo., High School. One of
two athletes at Brookfield, a four-year school, to ever earn 12 varsity
letters, he lettered in football, basketball and golf. He was a quarterback for
the Washington University (in St. Louis) Bears football for two seasons before
an injury ended his football career. A finance/management graduate of
Washington University, he earned a Masters of Business Administration from the
University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business. He works for and is an
owner of Austin & Associates.
GERRY AUSTIN
RICK AUSTIN
Photos
of Rick and Gerry Austin from the 1964 Lakes High School Legend yearbook.
