Officers of the Wethersfield Alumni Association have made efforts to place nearly a dozen trophies and plaques found in the attic of the Blish building into the hands of people and organizations who have a connection to or could display them and that’s led to a few discoveries.

One of the first “finds” was a memorial plaque with a color photo of a student named Daniel Larson. No one knew who he was but the plaque was presented by the Class of 1984 “In Loving Memory” of their classmate.

The plaque was saved until more could be learned about Larson. Pam Sellers, alumni association treasurer who volunteers at the Kewanee Food Pantry, was sharing the discovery with WHS alumnus and fellow food pantry volunteer Janel (Eisenbarth) Smith.

Sellers was surprised to learn that Daniel’s older brother, David, was in Smith’s class graduating in 1985. Smith reached out on Facebook in an effort to find her classmate and soon received a response from David Larson, who has lived for many years in the Washington, D.C. area. David was astonished that someone had found and saved his younger brother’s plaque.

So, what happened to Daniel Larson? The plaque contains his birth and death dates, indicating he was 17 and a junior when he died on Feb. 26, 1983. That clue led to his obituary and the story of how he died in newspaper archives. According to the coverage, Larson was a passenger in a car that was racing another car on the four lane on a Friday night. The cars were heading south on South Main Street approaching Division. As the car in which Larson was riding entered the “S” curve, the driver lost control and struck a utility pole. Larson died a few hours later at the hospital. He was survived by his parents and one brother, David, among others. According to his obituary, Daniel was an honor student and on the Scholastic Bowl team.

The inscription under his photo reads “We the Class of 1984 feel that he is not dead. He has only gone on into a brighter and more wonderful dawn.”

David Larson plans to pick up his brother’s plaque when he is in Kewanee for his class reunion during Hog Days.

Another discovery led to learning much more about a well-known Kewanee teacher and the history of his early days as a football coach.

A large plaque recognized George Keist on his induction into the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1993. Keist taught Algebra and Plane Geometry for many years at Kewanee High School but what was a football Hall of Fame plaque doing in a pile of old trophies found in the attic of the Blish Building at Wethersfield?

Some research led to the answer.

A native of New Berlin, in Southern Illinois, Keist was a star football player at Eureka College in the late 1920s where he met a self-described “bench warmer” from Dixon named Ronald Reagan. Also on the team were Kewaneeans Eudell “Lump” Watts and Bill Jenkins. Also in their circle of friends was Wethersfield graduate Fred Mursener, which may have been how Keist, who graduated from Eureka in 1929, heard there was an opening for a football coach at Wethersfield High School which he applied for and was hired.

Keist coached for 12 years at WHS and, in 1941, resigned to take a similar teaching and coaching position at Morrison. Soon after he began at Morrison, however, World War II began and Keist joined the Naval Reserve. With the rank of Lieutenant, he was stationed in Seattle, Wash., where he conducted physical fitness and rehabilitation training for student pilots. His commanding officer was another reservist named Gene Tunney, a famous boxing champion in the ‘20s.

After the war, in 1945, instead of going back to his short-lived position at Morrison, Keist took a job coaching, teaching and as principal at Manlius High School where he remained until 1954 when he came to Kewanee High School, mainly as a math teacher, but also serving as varsity assistant and frosh-soph football coach for many years. He retired from KHS in 1972 and died in 1992.

According to a 1993 “Sportsland” column by Bob Westlund, detailing the upcoming Hall of Fame induction, Keist’s 23 varsity football teams at Wethersfield and Manlius compiled a 52-46-6 record. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame at Eureka in 1987.

How did Keist come to be inducted into the Football Coaches Hall of Fame? That story, as told by Westlund, dates back to 1954. Bill Jenkins II, son of Keist’s old Eureka football teammate, Bill Jenkins I, said he had just graduated from college when Keist came into his Dad’s gas station on West 5th Street and asked him if he would like to coach football at Manlius as he was apparently planning to make the move to KHS. The younger, just-out of college Jenkins said he was interested. Keist made a few phone calls, and he got his first coaching job filling the vacancy left by Keist and began a successful coaching career at Manlius, and later Polo.

According to Westlund’s column, years of lobbying by the younger Jenkins eventually resulted in Keist’s selection for induction in 1993. Unfortunately, it came a year after his death.

The Hall of Fame plaque reads George Keist “is recognized for his ability to inspire his athletes to the highest in discipline and spirit. His professionalism has shown in his dedication to the game, school and community.”

Since Keist had connections to both Wethersfield and Kewanee high schools, the alumni officers decided to donate the HOF plaque, along with an account of Keist’s career, to the Kewanee Historical Society for display in the school section of its museum.

The over 400 awards found while cleaning will go on sale Sunday, Aug. 17 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Wethersfield High School gym. The gym will be open for anyone who wants to view the trophies and plaques dating from 1960 to 2007.

Anyone wishing to take any of them may do so in exchange for a donation to the Wethersfield Alumni Association. Members of the WHS Key Club will be assisting with the sale.