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John West Hunt (1960)
Having seen recent postings mentioning long-ago coaches/teachers Jack Marriott and Norval DeWitt, I thought I might throw in a comment. Then Richard Leutzinger's (1961) posting about his discus throwing cemented my interest in writing since I (1960) could directly relate to that too. Both of the mentioned teachers/coaches were among my favorites, along with Dick Boyer (band), with whom I still have occasional email contact. I visited both coaches at UHS when I could get to Urbandale while attending ISU, although my parents had moved to Illinois the summer before my senior high school year at UHS. I had stayed at the Laverrenz's. In typing class, Mr. DeWitt let me use a keyboard with all the characters on the keys so I could look at them as I typed, then memorize a line and type it, etc. I actually was pretty good at it, but he knew what I was doing. So one day he put me on a typewriter without marked keys and I had to look at the chart on the wall, memorize a line at a time, and type each one. Having had fun with me and made his point that I would never be a touch typist, he let me go back to "my typewriter" to cheat for the rest of the term (but he gave me a B, probably for speed/accuracy and at least using all of my fingers). I'm down to 8 fingers now. He and I played table tennis in the old lunchroom (in a separate small building from the original high school) after everyone cleared out from lunch.
Discus: I was a pack, at best, mile/cross country runner in high school and was more useful as track manager by keeping track of records. That gave me time to play around with discus throwing. Being a 5' 8'' 115-pound thrower (not much strength but with long arms and a fast rotation), my throws were a gross number of yards shorter than Richard Leutzinger's. I could almost toss my numerical weight in distance, and once in awhile even earned some points for the team by beating the other team's backup thrower. I still have the black, rubber discus my parents bought me to practice throwing when I was in high school. I sometimes wish I could still spin and take it out for a spin.... As others have mentioned their slide rule days, I also still have my 1960 K&E slide rule from ISU. No, it never comes in handy, but I can't just throw it away.
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