Densho Digital Archive
Japanese American National Museum Collection
Title: Wally Yonamine Interview
Narrator: Wally Yonamine
Interviewers: Art Hansen (primary); John Esaki (secondary)
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Date: December 16, 2003
Densho ID: denshovh-ywally-01-0018

<Begin Segment 18>

AH: Were you getting a lot of publicity?

WY: Oh, yeah, lot of publicity, yeah.

AH: And were you getting approached by college scouts at that time?

WY: Not at that time. See, how the 49ers got a hold of me was, when I graduated, and I had a scholarship to go to Ohio State, but the 49ers got me. So before I signed with the 49ers, see, after high school, I was in the army at Scofield Barracks here. And I was there for year and a half. And while I was there, I played on a team called Lealums, they're the alumni league. And I played for Lealums, and we barnstormed to Portland, Oregon. So, we played against Portland University. And at that game, we beat Portland, 64-13. And I scored about forty-six points myself. I kicked all the extra points and I scored maybe six or seven touchdown. And then the scout for the 49ers came and scouted, wanted to scout the quarterback for Oregon, Portland University. But I did so well at that game, that they didn't, I had a play that I would run around in, on the run, I would kick the ball, and that day I kicked the ball 65 yards in the air.

AH: This was a career day, wasn't it?

WY: Yeah. So the scout, instead of writing about this quarterback from Portland University, he only wrote about me when he got this report to the 49ers. He only wrote about me. So, it was about two weeks or so before I was supposed to report to Ohio State. The 49ers, they told me they want to see me in San Francisco. So instead of going to Ohio State, I went to San Francisco and met the owner, Mr. Morabito and Buck Shaw, the head coach. And they gave me a two-year guaranteed contract.

AH: What was the year, the years that you were in the army?

WY: I was there '45, '46.

AH: So was the war over when you got into the army?

WY: Not yet. See, I, when I went in the army, we were supposed to take three months of basic and they were going to ship us to Europe and join the 442nd Infantry, the battalion there. And then about month and a half, the war got through. So, I was stationed in at Scofield, I just played football, baseball and basketball after that. [Laughs]

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2003 Japanese American National Museum. All Rights Reserved.