The Turkey Day Rivalry of White Bluffs and Hanford
A holiday football game between two vanished river towns turns into a community spectacle involving heavy-set centers and last-minute lineups.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Like the Irishman’s handcar, 'Off the track and on agin,' the football game between White Bluffs and Hanford, sponsored by the Dallas McGlothlen Post, materialized Thursday forenoon. The game drew an exceptionally large crowd. The Hanford team had practiced, while the White Bluffs team was picked up from the crowd just before the game started. The Hanford center, weighing around 250 pounds, became a crowd favorite, especially when he suffered fainting fits from over-exertion, only to make quick recoveries. The score ended 7 to 0 in Hanford’s favor.
“The Hanford center, who looked like he would dress around 250, was a bulwark of strength to his team and because of his roly poly proportions captured the fancy of the crowd.”
Both White Bluffs and Hanford were eventually cleared of all residents to make way for the Hanford Nuclear Site in the 1940s. Today, their names exist only in historical memory and restricted government lands, a stark reminder of how entire communities can be erased by federal policy.
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