Show L rl P t bya by A T roberts PAUL THOMAS AWARD as thoele athlete fa presented with thomas trophy thursday december 4 a young man s athletic ability was recognize rec ed when he was presented the paul thomas trophy in recognition of his being picked by opposing coaches at thoele tooele s ng foot ball player the young man so honored was the buffaloes co capt halfback charlie lee and the donor of the trophy was paul thomas sporting fans of tooele thoele are a ware of the records and the feats of charlie lee so we think it is only fitting that the story behind the thomas trophy be told ORIGIN OF TROPHY in 1923 paul thomas played foot ball under dick romney for the old brigham young college in logan when the season ended and the all conference team for that year was announced thomas was selected as the fullback on the mythical all star eleven after graduating mr thomas went to malad idaho where he hit upon the idea of giving a tro phy to the outstanding high school athlete in that locale thomas be mg ing an athlete himself knew of the work and the sweat and the many bumps and aches that an athlete must take in stride in order to be classed as outstanding mr thomas also knew the feel ing of knowing that he had given his best and the satisfaction of taking pride in having liming been select ed as being above the average that of being an all star so he decided that in his own way he would do something tang ible that would encourage and pro mote the spirit caf of athletics both on and off the field something that would promote the spirit of fair play as m well ell as to encourage youth to strive for higher levels in scholarship and to dellop then their a athletic abilities to a standard a bove the ord nary I 1 working in harmony with his ex coach mr NIT romney thomas de aided to present ng rig ath letes with trophies symbolic of the branch of sports in which they ex celled the sports chosen for this award was football and basket ball in order to remove all chance of playing favorites and to base the selection on expert opinion thomas decided to have the op posing coaches select the player to receive the award the coaches selections are mail ed to mr thomas and are opened in the presence of unbiased indi visuals who tabulate the votes and declare the winner of the trophy LONG LIST OF STABS STARS from the date of its inception until 1942 the thomas trophy was awarded to athletes in idaho since that time mr thomas has lived in tooele thoele and the trophy has been given to athletes of the too ele high school only one athlete has been a warded both the football and has bas netball trophies and that was wil ham liam mckendrick who was the dual winner in the school year of 1942 43 in 1945 two stars were dead i locked for the football award so i thomas presented each with a tro phy previous winners in tooele thoele are FOOTBALL 1942 bill mckendrick 1943 byron mckendrick 1944 keever jankovich 1946 ray garrard 1947 charlie lee basketball BASKET BALI 1942 43 bill mckendrick 1943 44 george 1944 45 alien allen swan 1945 46 david fernau 1946 47 angelo cerroni 1947 48 9 9 the trophy is a gold statuette mounted on a mahogany maho gony base and is approximately 12 inches high A long with the trophy the winning athlete is offered a scholarship to the utah state agriculture college I 1 after he graduates i sportsmanship AWARD in addition to the thomas tro phy a football autographed by the coaching staff and the players of U S A C is presented to the team that displays the best sportsman ship throughout the season in 1945 grantsville Grants ville high school won this award followed by B engham high school in 1946 the winner of this years team sportsmanship A ward has not yet been determined but it is expected to be announced in the near future sporting events and athletes are not the only civic enterprise that mr thomas takes an active part in every year he gives the news paper carriers of tooele thoele a dinner inviting the carriers of all the pap ers to be his guests started just two years ago this event has brov ed so popular with the earners carriers that mr thomas with the aid of his wife and mr don droubay have decided to make it an annual at af fair f air and so as his own pres onal con trib ution to the youth of the corn com in recognition of their ser vices and achievements mr tho mas annually makes a presenta tion to the outstanding football and basketball star of the high school and gives all the news car ners tiers a dinner our commendations to you paul thomas for your worthwhile con in behalf of the youth of tooele thoele |