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TI: So let's talk about high school. So when you went to high school, where did you go?

GN: Kent High School.

TI: So then it's both the...

GN: We all mixed, yeah.

TI: So at Kent High School, like in a typical class, how many Japanese would be in that class?

GN: My class, the perfect example, was it was a quarter Japanese.

TI: Okay, twenty-five percent would be Japanese.

GN: I think there was, twenty-five percent were Japanese. And my class was very unusual. We had five kids that made football team. In the class ahead of us and the class behind us didn't have any athletes. But in my class, five of us lettered.

TI: So did you play football?

GN: Yes.

TI: So what position would you play?

GN: I played running guard. I was the smallest, I bet you I'm the smallest guy that ever lettered there.

TI: So you're like a pulling guard, like on sweeps and stuff, you'd pull out and be a blocking guard?

GN: By the time there was three of us playing guard, the two ahead of me, they were bigger than me, myself. And when we were seniors, the coach had designed a play, all the plays to utilize us. And we pulled out and ran just about every play, even the pass plays, pull out and block.

TI: Because it was so powerful to have three of you pulling and running.

GN: Yeah. I had a great time. I only lettered one year, but I had a lot of fun.

TI: That was your senior year?

GN: Senior year, and we were number two in the state. Right next to... Garfield was rated one ahead of us, number one, and we were number two.

TI: So did you ever play the Seattle schools for football?

GN: We used to always play against Seattle Prep, but never, the Seattle schools never played any outsiders. I often wonder who we'd have done if we'd played Garfield.

TI: Yeah, it'd be interested, Garfield or Broadway, because then you would have played against other Japanese.

GN: Yeah, yeah. Cleveland had Japanese, Franklin had Japanese, Garfield especially. Garfield had a good team.

TI: Because you said you're probably the shortest one to letter, how tall are you?

GN: Smallest.

TI: Or smallest. How tall are you?

GN: I'm about 5'2". I can remember one incident, this was before a game, the coach had made his final speech and we had about a minute to go, and the room was just dead silent. And the coach looked at me and he says, "Nakagawa, what do you weigh?" I wouldn't tell him, so two guys sitting right next to me picked me up and put me on the scale and I didn't move. Hundred and twenty.

TI: [Laughs] So you were 5'2", 120, playing football against...

GN: I weighed, probably weighed about 110, 15 pounds.

TI: Yeah, because especially being a guard, I mean, you're going against probably guys that were six feet tall or something.

GN: I remember one evening, Bellarmine Prep from Tacoma came down and they were, they were specifically polished up on a couple of the plays. And one play came right over the door, and this bigger guy had a heck of a time, he was getting all chewed out, 'cause I was always short, so I was under him. And at the end of the practice, he came in to our locker room and looked me up and says, "You're the toughest son of a gun," he's ever tried to block. [Laughs]

TI: But you're right, because I played football, too, and sometimes it's about leverage.

GN: Yeah.

TI: And people don't realize that, if you've got a bigger guy, if you get underneath them..

GN: You've got to get under 'em.

TI: ...and drive 'em, if you lift their feet up a little bit, they have no leverage.

GN: That's right. And I can feel 'em. If they're coming over me, I can feel 'em.

TI: But still you have to be, your legs have to be pretty strong to drive them.

GN: Yeah. I'd always be under 'em.

TI: That's a good story. So that was your senior year in high school. So what year did you graduate?

GN: 1939. This was 1938 when we were number two in the state. We were undefeated, we were unscored on until about the sixth or seventh game of the season. We were playing Highline one year, that year, and we were wondering what they were yelling about. It didn't dawn on any of us that that's the first team that scored a point on us.

TI: Oh, so they were just happy to score.

GN: They were just happy, they were hollering because they scored on us. [Laughs]

TI: Now, did you play any defense, or just offense?

GN: In those days, you played both ways.

TI: And so on defense, what did you play?

GN: I played guard.

TI: Even at your size, you played defensive guard? That's unusual.

GN: You had to play both ways in those days. You couldn't go in and out, you couldn't substitute.

TI: Because I would have thought that they might have moved you to like a linebacker or defensive back or something.

GN: No, no, I was better off right in the guard, where I can cover my hole.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2014 Densho. All Rights Reserved.