Doris Gillespie was going through some boxes in her Humboldt home when she ran across a box. Inside the box, she found a faded and yellowed newspaper clipping from the 1953 Eagle Grove Eagle. It was a treasure she thought too good not to share with our readers, especially during football season.
It was a tribute poem written by then one of what she described as “Clarion’s star athletes,” Len Froyen. He played basketball and football…and he wrote this poem in honor of Gene Hinrichsen, his friend and an Eagle Grove athlete, who was fatally injured while playing in a home football game on October 9, 1953.
The poem he wrote was presented to Coach Al DiMarco.
Last Friday night in Heaven
A game was taking place,
God had lost his quarterback
Who really was an ace.
He looked down upon this earth
His eye upon this state,
To find a great football player
To add to His estate.
He took a real great friend of ours
Who was always on the beam
A guy who devoted all
To a great Eagle Grove team/
So when next Friday comes
An you’re thinking of a game
I ask you to look to Heaven
And there you’ll see his name.
For You’ll see beyond the horizon
That a game is being played,
And with each play that’s being run
Much talent is displayed.
And when the team breaks huddle
And they come up to the line,
You’ll see Cobby at quarterback
A captain in design.
I played against you Cobby
As a competitor you were great,
No better player ever
Will Eagle ever make.
I kneel and pray Cobby
That God’s law I may abide,
So when he takes me from this earth
I’ll play the game on your side.
“To think, as competitive as these small towns were, that this star athlete thought enough of Cobby to write this poem…” said Gillespie.
She added that she was honored to have had Hinrichsen’s little sister in her teaching class, which also gives the poem special meaning to her.
Following the incident, the Eagle Grove football field was named the Gene Hinrichsen field in his honor and memory.
