Mostly, the Tracyites were cheering for the Flames’ quarterback, Colin Rhoads, a nimble, athletic signal-caller who also doubles as a defensive back. He ran 62 yards for Lodi’s lone touchdown in the Flames’ 52-7 loss to the undefeated, playoff-bound Bulldogs.
Seated next to me were Colin’s grandparents, Chet and Donna Miller. A few rows below was another set of Tracy grandparents, Jerry and Barbara Rhoads.
Colin, a junior at Lodi High, has some solid Tracy-connected athletic DNA. His dad, Ken Rhoads, also in the stands that Friday night, was a hard-charging running back and linebacker for the Tracy Bulldogs back in 1980, the year the Bulldogs went 11-0 before losing to Vintage of Vacaville, 41-40, in triple overtime. (Tracy ’back Mike Toon missed the goal line by 6 inches to end that long-remembered — and long-lamented — game at Vacaville Stadium.) Ken won the Peter B. Kyne Trophy as the team’s most valuable player and later carried the ball for the Pacific Tigers.
I suspect area football fans will see more of Colin Rhoads next season. And there’s no doubt there will be a full contingent of Tracy grandparents in the stands to cheer him on.
Tracyite recalls the wall
My recollections of passing through the Berlin Wall via Checkpoint Charlie five months before the wall came tumbling down 20 years ago last week generated a response from a native of East Berlin now living in Tracy.
Simone Reed wrote: “When I was reading your article, I remember the time when I was young. I was living behind the wall and grew up with the German Democratic Republic system and the Stasi (state security police). It was not always easy for us. I remember Checkpoint Charlie and how often we were standing there as children and thought, ‘How does the world look like behind there?’”
On the night of Nov. 9, 1989, when the wall was breached, she watched the jubilation on television.
“I was 16 years old, and my mother didn’t let me go to the wall, because she didn’t believe what she saw on TV. We watched TV, and David Hasselhof was singing on the wall.”
She added that the next day, her family went to West Berlin and received 100 D-Marks to shop there. “That was fun.”
‘I think that is me’
Another response, this time from a former Tracyite, referred to the Remember When “mystery photo” that showed eight Tracy High students in the senior court in 1957.
“I think that is me, the black girl,” wrote Flora Haynes Krasnovsky from her home in Lake County. “I live in Kelseyville, where I am a research psychologist and work with governmental and nonprofit agencies to provide life-skill services for the underserved population. I graduated from Tracy High School in 1957.”
Flora, a member of a high-achieving family, has gained a national reputation in her field.
• Sam Matthews, Tracy Press publisher emeritus, can be reached at 830-4234 or by e-mail at shm@tracypress.com.
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