<Begin Segment 10>

RP: Let's see here. You talked about I think all of the guys on the team. Do you remember your, your uniforms, your colors? What were your colors?

CT: Blue and gold. Gold and... blue and gold? No, I think so. It's in that song there. "Give a cheer, give a cheer for the boys of..."

RP: Manzanar High School's colors were cardinal and gold. Oh, green and gold. That's your colors.

CT: Green and gold, there you go.

RP: Yeah, I should have remembered that. Did you have a, any type of a pep rally or anything before you went down to play the game?

CT: I can't remember. But there's always some little somethin' but nothin' large. No, not like your, the regular pep, no. None of our games that I can remember had it. Now I think they do but we didn't ever.

RP: Uh-huh. Oh yeah. And where did you, where do you recall playing the football game at Manzanar?

CT: The only thing I could remember about it, we went into the gate, up the road a little ways, and then to the right. It was some kind of a service center or something there. It was very cordial. I mean, they were, everybody was happy. They were as friendly as they could be. No, no bad words that I can remember. It wasn't either side. During the game we were just trying to win, but we didn't. They had a thousand guys. We only had three or four.

RP: You mean just three or four rooters?

CT: No, no. I mean people on the team. They were, they were so unbalanced for the personnel. We had nine and they had, I don't know how many. On their roster there was, there's a whole bunch of people.

RP: They had a full roster.

CT: Oh yeah. I think they had eleven men team too.

RP: Uh-huh. And they had been used to just playing the seniors versus the juniors all this time so they were just elated that a team from...

CT: Yeah, they, everybody was happy. It was, it was real cordial. They greeted us like old friends and no, nothin', nothin' bad at all about it as far as I can remember. I don't know what they did but I don't know if we had something to eat or drink or whatever. But it was all nice. Whatever happened was good stuff.

RP: So who came down from Big Pine to root for you?

CT: I have no idea. I couldn't tell you one person. But sports was usually pretty, pretty well followed so I don't know. There might have been quite a few but I don't know.

RP: So you played right halfback?

CT: In that game I did.

RP: Uh-huh. And you got a few carries that day?

CT: Oh I'm sure. I could remember feeling disappointed but we never did get into the goal. We'd get close I think, but never did quite make it. But, it was a good game as far as we was concerned. You know we didn't... I thought the, I thought the juniors won but I guess they didn't.

RP: Yeah, according to what I've read, the juniors didn't.

CT: I thought that they had.

RP: And I was too.

CT: So I was mistaken.

RP: Yeah, the score was twenty-six to nothing.

CT: And ours was thirty-three to nothing.

RP: And yours was thirty-three to nothing. I thought you had scored. I thought I heard somewhere thirty-three to six, but...

CT: I don't know.

RP: Yeah.

CT: Nothin' stands out, but I'm not sure. I don't, I didn't know that when you, when you first talked I had no idea what the score was except that we had lost. It's hard to remember in the game. But all, all I can really remember of the game and of the people was it was a happy time as far as they were concerned and as far as we was concerned it was the same. And we were glad for the experience. And I doubt if any of the half of us had even seen a Japanese before.

RP: And, do you have any idea who printed up these programs? Was it Manzanar?

CT: I have to say they had, they did.

RP: Manzanar?

CT: Because of the spelling. Fansler, they use an "S" and I understood the Japanese didn't have an "F" in their language.

RP: Oh, in their language so they put an "S."

CT: Yeah.

RP: Sansler.

CT: It was supposed to be "F", Fansler.

RP: Huh. Wow. Another thing that was mentioned about the game was I guess Rowland got in for some plays and scored, or ran for a total of two yards I think was his net yardage?

CT: Is that all?

RP: Yeah.

CT: Well, I don't know. They called him the "Steamroller" for some reason or other. It seems like he'd have to get more than two yards.

RP: That's a story that you told, shared with me last year about that they were calling him the "Steamroller" in Japanese?

CT: I don't know what it was, but that's what I heard. They called him the "Steamroller."

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.