Purple Passion reunion at CSC this weekend

To make sure no one would go thirsty, it’s said that a large washtub was obtained. Everyone was invited to pour his or her favorite beverage into the tub. Someone apparently brought lots of grape juice. The brew turned purple, and Purple Passion became the name of the group.

The next year, generous citizens of Chadron unwittingly helped make the picnic a feast. Jars labeled PPP were placed at strategic locations around town. There was no explanation about what PPP meant, but this was in the days when polio was feared almost as much as the atomic bomb. Perhaps the donors thought they were giving the dread disease the triple whammy. At any rate, enough pennies, nickels and dimes were received to lay out a nice spread.

It should be noted that the ex-GIs were good football players. During the last three years of the 1940s, the Eagles won 21 of 26 games and captured two conference championships while running the single wing under Coach Ross Armstrong, a guy the players reportedly weren’t too fond of initially, but learned to revere. Five of them named sons after him.

The idea of a reunion sprouted in the early 1960s, when several of the original picnickers met in Cheyenne to discuss ways to re-establish contacts. Initially, the reunions took place every other year. But when the group started to lose members, it was decided to make it an annual event. It’s a late-summer event they’ve come to cherish.

“It’s been a wonderful thing,” said Verne Lewellen, who has been the primary ramrod of the reunions over the years. “The camaraderie is tremendous. We’re closer than many families. Most of us know the names of nearly every one’s children and grandchildren. We feel the pain when there’s a medical problem or other difficulties within the group.”

Even in its early years, Purple Passion was much more than a football reunion. “We expanded to include basketball players, cheerleaders, members of the band and eventually anyone who knew how to spell Chadron,” Lewellen said. “We really don’t care if they even spell it right as long as they like to have friends and have a good feeling toward Chadron State College.”

The reunions have been held in 20 locations in six states. Many have taken place in western states such as California and Nevada where numerous Chadron State grads migrated over the years. Nearly 100 attended some of the gatherings.

The reunions were extra special when Coach Armstrong and his delightful wife Ruby were in attendance through the mid-1980s. While coaching was an important aspect of Armstrong’s activities at Chadron State, he also had served as dean of students and knew practically every student and many of their parents during his 50-year tenure at the college.

At the 1982 reunion in Chadron, Armstrong was in rare form as his bantered with the participants after they presented him with a plaque inscribed “Thanks for your patience and understanding.” His response was, “It sure took a lot of it.”

Some of the former athletes confided that they hadn’t always appreciated the coach they eventually grew to love. He told them that was probably because the vets had met up with so many hard-boiled officers during the war that it took them a while to adjust to his “easy going” coaching style.

“I was so mellow that they had a hard time getting used to a coach who was so nice and quiet,” he said with a telltale grin. It was later revealed that he definitely was not a meek or timid coach.

Armstrong poked some more humor at his proteges. He noted that one his goals as a coach was to build character. “And just look at all the characters I built,” he laughed as he surveyed his audience. He also said that many of the best times he ever had occurred with these athletes, “as well as some of the worst,” he added with another big grin.

About 30 are expected for this weekend’s reunions. Lewellen said he sometimes wonders how much longer the reunions will continue. Nearly all those in the core group are in their late 70s or early 80s. But he added, several have vowed that as long as they are able, they will continue to meet to remember the good times they had as students at CSC and to discuss the friendships that resulted.