75 Years Ago – Sept. 26, 1946
Special agent in Aroostook County — Wilfred Trafton, president of the Northern Aroostook Baseball League, was appointed special agent in Aroostook County for the Berkshire Life Insurance Co. He planned to set up his office in Presque Isle.
Well known throughout The County, Trafton served as an employee of the Northeastland Hotel for six short years. In 1941, he accepted a position as chief clerk in the quartermaster department at the Presque Isle Army Air Field, where he maintained until the time he was inducted into the infantry in 1944.
Eastern Maine Crown went to Brewer — The Aroostook County champions from Oakfield bowed to the Brewer Jaycees 8 to 6 in a battle for the undisputed baseball title for Eastern Maine. A crowd of 2,300 fans saw the Jaycees score all their runs in the first four innings as the Oakies were scoring two in the first, fourth and seventh innings. Both pitchers were bothered by a constant drizzle throughout the contes but Wilcox struck out 13, while Clark whiffed six of the visitors. Ten of Wilcox’s strikeouts came in the last five frames.
50 Years Ago – Sept. 29, 1971
Theriault received Silver Wings — Larry D. Theriault, son of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley L. Theriault of Washburn, received the Silver Wings of an Army aviator and was appointed a warrant officer upon completion of the Officer Rotary Wing Aviator Course at the U.S. Army Aviation School, Ft. Rucker, Alabama. He began his 36 weeks of instruction with 20 weeks of preliminary training in the U.S. Army Primary Helicopter School, Ft. Wolters, Texas. The remaining 16 weeks of training were conducted at Ft. Rucker, where he was taught tactical instrument flying, aircraft systems, tactical maneuvers and survival and aerial suppressive fire techniques.
Initiates — Four new members were accepted by Alpha Epsilon Chapter of Beta Sigma Phi during their meeting at the Maine Public Service center. They included Miss Carol Brown, Mrs. Donald Walton, Mrs. James Berry and Mrs. Jeffrey Hemphill.
UMPI’s most valuable player — Rick Crawford, a junior at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, received congratulations and a trophy from UMPI baseball coach Peter Story for being named Most Valuable Player. His batting average for the Owls was 435. He was also named to the Northeast College Conference All-Star Baseball Team. A native of Portland, Rick was majoring in health, physical education and recreation at UMPI. The previous summer, he played for the Falmouth Townies in the Portland Twilight League.
25 Years Ago – Oct. 2, 1996
UMPI women claimed two victories — Coach Bob Grove Markwood’s UM-Presque Isle Lady Owls broke into the win column at Thomas when they came away with a 2-1 win. At home on Saturday, they got by Notre Dame College from Manchester, New Hampshire, 1-0. The two victories gave them an overall mark of 2-3 and left them even in conference play at 1-1. At Waterville, Heather Norsworthy scored two minutes into the second half of an assist by Marcie Burr and eight minutes later, Stori Shaw scored what proved to be the game winner, with an assist from Jen Richards. Erika Russell got the only goal for Thomas with 15 minutes remaining in the game. Keli Daigle had seven saves on 15 shots for UMPI. According to Grove-Markwood, “The Owl ladies came back strong following a ‘disorganized first half’ to make their offense work effectively.”
Menzies got ’Cat hockey post — Allan F. Menzies was named head coach of the Presque Isle Wildcats hockey team for the 1996-97 season. Menzies, who served as an assistant coach during the 1993-94 season, took over for Rod MacIntosh, who resigned to coach in Perth-Andover, New Brunswick. Menzies became the fourth head coach of the Presque Isle ice hockey program, which began its sixth season. James Roach coached the first two years and Kevin Wilson held the post for one season before MacIntosh’s two-year term. Menzies coached an all-star ice hockey team in his hometown of New Castle, New Brunswick, for three years.
