(Staying with the historic-sentimental theme about people, places and events in Grinnell, Iowa in blogs and my books – this piece focuses on a classmate of GHS class of 1957, teammate and good friend, Jim Van Draska, who lives in Grinnell with his wife of 53 years, Sandy).
by Dave Adkins
July 12, 2015
The first time I recall seeing Jim Van Draska was at the old high school gym – Henely Gym – during the annual Grinnell Schools Fifth and Sixth Grade Basketball Tournament in 1950. Davis School was the only elementary school in town which had a gymnasium, although it was a very small one with overlapping free throw and center lines and the concrete walls at each end, where the backboards were fastened, were the out of bounds.
Nevertheless, it was an advantage for Davis when matching up with Cooper and Parker Schools, which had nothing but baskets set outside on the playground. Davis dominated the elementary tournaments those days and Jim was the best player in 6th grade among all the teams.
Dick Ritter was the GHS star then and led a team to the Central Iowa Conference title and quarterfinals of the Iowa State Tournament in 1951. Early in Ritter’s career he wore number 13 (although later number 40 with the purchase of new uniforms) and Van Draska, like all 5th and 6th grade players in Grinnell then, had a home-made basketball jersey – his with #13 emblazoned on the back.
He was strong and had a lot of endurance in junior high sports and one of the best players in both football and basketball in those years. Jim’s Grinnell Junior High School coach, Dale Christison, Grinnell College grad, a WW II veteran and career high school teacher and coach, said when he heard this piece was being written: ”Say hello for me–Have to tell you that Jimmy was one of my all-time favorites as I look back thru the years & that includes kids like a former NFL executive and others with big names and big resumes.”
Photo 1. Below is a photo of the Grinnell Jr. High football team – 7th and 8th grade – 1951 – Jim Van Draska is number 26 third from the left in the second row of players. Head Coach Dale Christison is at the far right. Photo courtesy of the Grinnell Herald Register.
Also, he played third base on the Grinnell summer league youth baseball team in his early teens which played out of town opponents. He threw right and was a left handed hitter. In high school, Jim was a starter in both football and basketball on the sophomore team, which in 1955 won the Central Iowa Conference in basketball.
He lettered as a sophomore in varsity football and was a starter on defense as a junior and senior – a guy who was a hard and deft tackler- and with a broken collarbone paid the price on two different occasions on the gridiron for the Tigers. Jim also was a member of the first GHS baseball team, which had its initial season in the spring of 1956 with Paul Maaske the head coach.
In varsity basketball, he was the sixth man on the 1957 GHS co-champion of the Central Iowa Conference, a team which finished the season with 18 wins and 4 losses falling to eventual state champion, Dowling, by four points in the District Tournament finals at East High School in Des Moines. (The previous year, 1956, Grinnell was also eliminated by the eventual undefeated state champ Marshalltown by 9 points in the District Tourney, also at East High).
In the ‘57 season Van Draska and his teammates, coached by Paul Maaske, beat non-conference opponents East Waterloo, Cedar Falls, Des Moines Roosevelt, Iowa City High and conference teams Marshalltown, Ames, Boone, Newton and Oskaloosa. Jim came off the bench with energy, played good defense, and knew where to pass the ball and when. He was a valuable member of that team with a good attitude and a hustler in practices. Other players on that Tiger team were starters: Paul Ahrens (deceased), Frank James (Texas), Wayne Olson (California), Jerry Robison (Arizona) and Dave Adkins (Texas and Iowa) along with top line reserves Jim Van Draska (Grinnell), Larry Ellis (Grinnell) and Joel Prescott (New York).
Jim said to me recently, “I used to outscore you all the time in junior high.” And I said, “I grew, Jim, and made basketball a priority. You had several sports and interests and didn’t grow as much.” His participation and abilities developed in high school basketball, football, and baseball proved to come in handy for him when he entered the armed services in 1959.
Chip Gibson, a year ahead of Jim in school, was an avid hunter and fisherman and Van Draska caught the outdoorsman fever from Chip. Both have carried this interest throughout their adult lives. Jim these days likes fishing in Iowa’s lakes and rivers and trapping for furs which has taken the place of time he used to spend hunting. He traps raccoons, muskrats and coyotes to name a few. I had to call his home this summer to get the facts straight on this article and more often than not Sandy, Jim’s wife of 53 years, would say that he’s out fishing or that he’s at the Elks playing pool.
Game Time Sports Bar, owned by Gary Gibson, is a daily meeting place for old friends from grade school and high school days. Frequenting the GT regularly in the morning are Jim, Chip, Hollis Sisco, Fred Johnson, Hugh and Larry German, Larry Ellis, Terry Schmidt and others. Nick Ryan, recently inducted into the Grinnell College Hall of Fame for his heroics on the grid iron 60+ years ago, is also a regular although he did not attend GHS, coming from Missouri Valley, Iowa to Grinnell College. Chuck Reeves, Tom Ellis, Bill and Tom Lannom and Don Louden also make an occasional appearance. Jake Minear is the rose among the thorns and the lady of the group.
Jim’s good friend from days gone by, Chip went into the Navy out of high school and served on the USS Saratoga. When stationed in New Orleans, he made a name for himself as “the dancing sailor” moving his 240 pounds in unique rhythm to his favorite sound of the day like “Shimmy and Shake like My Sister Kate”. He did his routine around the bar room dance floors of Bourbon Street and received some freebie drinks for his efforts and in small town week-end dances in Iowa after the Navy.
Jim was influenced by Chip’s dancing style and still loves to get out there and show’em how he does it now and how it was done in his prime. With the street dances in Grinnell , a young woman tabbed Chip as “Dancing Bear” and Jim also enjoys and gets after it also at those events.
Graduating from Grinnell High School with the class of 1957, Van Draska worked at a gas station in Grinnell for about a year, then joined the U.S. Army in March of 1959, doing his basic training at Fort Carson, Colorado. He was assigned to the 19th Infantry Regiment known as “The Rock of Chickamauga” (a reference to Civil War combat duty), Hawaii Division, U.S. Army, Oahu.
The historic 19th Division was organized in 1861 and had a distinguished WW II combat record and then occupation duty in 1945-46 after Japan had surrendered. The assignment of the 19th Infantry in this peacetime era was Basic and Advanced Training; however, once established there, Jim Van Draska was able with his athletic ability and competitiveness to qualify for a special services assignment with his outfit and represented his battle group in competitive sports year around.
- Above is a photo of Jim Van Draska – far right, front row-in team uniform of Army battle group basketball team in Hawaii. (1960)
While a few after graduation have an opportunity to compete in college sports, the majority of high school athletes give up organized participation. Jim carried on his post-high school athletic career in some very good competition in the service. When he first arrived at his assignment in Hawaii and new home in Schofield Barracks, which became a household word in the Pearl Harbor Attack of 1941, the young Grinnell guy played flag football.
A coach spotted his talent in a flag game and he then tried out for the battle group team made up of several former college players and made the cut as a back-up quarterback, seeing plenty of action in the weekly games with other U.S. Army battle group squads on the island. It was his job in the Army– practicing football every morning during the week with night games on Saturday night and then the rest of the year he played battle group league basketball mixed in with his rifle team achievements.
- Below is a photo of Dragon grid iron team. That’s Jim in football uniform #10 in the second row, 4th player, counting from the right to left. (1960)
Jim also was a member of the Dragon Rifle Team in Hawaii firing Browning Automatic 30-30 rifles at targets as far as 500 yards away. He set a record there in marksmanship and represented his company in the All Army championships at Fort Benning, Georgia. He was comfortable handling firearms as he had spent many hours with a shotgun in Iowa cornfields during pheasant and duck season; however, he said the 30-30 was a completely different challenge and he had to adapt to its power and open sights.
- Photo below of Dragon Army rifle team members – that’s Jim 3rd from the right.
Jim entered the service in March of 1959 and completed his hitch in June of 1962, having been extended three months because of hostilities involving the U.S. in Laos, with Viet Nam not yet heated up. However, later, when it did become urgent, Jim’s outfit was one of first to be called to combat, by then Jim was out of the Army having served his three years and back in Grinnell.
Having played in the Grinnell fast pitch men’s softball league while in high school and at one point in 1954, his sophomore year, he was leading a very good level of competition with experienced mature players in hitting.
Third base was his favorite position but he was shifted to the outfield because of veteran infielders at the hot corner. Upon his return from Army duty, he resumed his fast pitch career playing in an era when the Grinnell league was among the best in the state.
- See the batting averages below:
Returning to Grinnell from his military duty in Hawaii, things fell into place rapidly for Army vet Van Draska. His first job back was at the Amana Refrigeration factory and he was married to Sandy Terrell the summer of 1962. He worked at the Amanas for a few months, then went with Miracle Equipment in Grinnell as a welder. In 1971, a spot on his lung was discovered, a condition related to his job, and he had surgery in Iowa City successfully removing that infected area. When he returned to work his assignment was shifted from welding to receiving clerk, out of the way of most of the toxic material, byproduct of the welding process.
Jim worked for Miracle for 29 years, then having retired took a job briefly at Grinnell College working in the athletic equipment room and later was a poker dealer as the Mesquaki Casino in Tama for 13 years. It was a natural second career for Jim as he was an avid poker player at one time. He says he enjoyed the atmosphere at the casino, but now plays pool, no poker these days, at the Elks nearly every day for recreation.
Jim and Sandy bought a comfortable home on Washington Avenue with a view of the reservoir from their back yard – Jim frequently checks out the duck and goose activity on that small Grinnell lake. Pam is the older of Jim and Sandy’s two children and the also has two children of her own. She was a starting forward at GHS in six-on-six Iowa girls’ basketball. In one game she nailed 15 of 15 fouls shots. Dad Jim was proud of Pam’s play and said she was a very good player, and I have no doubts that she was, although I wasn’t around Grinnell when she was in high school. She later managed Subway at the corner of 6th Avenue and West Street for several years. Pam’s two kids graduated from GHS – Jessica was a cheerleader and participated in dance and Greg played football and baseball.
Scott, the younger, was a high school athlete like his dad and trained for and participated in the Mr. Iowa Bodybuilding Championships several times. He studied design at Hawkeye Tech and is now a commercial artist in Cedar Rapids. Scott has two boys – Jim and Sandy’s grandsons- who have been also involved in high school sports, Brier, a football player, and Tyson, who is an elite middle distance runner for Prairie High School and a medal winner at the Drake Relays. Brier is now studying at Iowa State and participating in intramural sports.
He was the youngest of 7 children – Ruth (Texas), Donna (deceased), Shirley (Texas), Helen (California), Dale (MIA in Korean War), Dick (deceased) and Jim (Grinnell). He had a lot energy as a kid growing up on south Main Street attending Davis School and he directed that energy later on to an admirable sporting career as a Grinnell High School athlete in football, basketball and baseball; with U.S. Army in Hawaii in basketball, football and rifle team; as a good fast pitch softball player in the Grinnell league, and as an active skilled and avid fisherman, hunter and trapper. Jim has had a unique and productive life as a husband, father, soldier, outdoorsman and versatile athlete and is still going strong.
Dave Adkins Grinnell Ramblings and More 
I am anxious to read this. Thank you. Karen