Denis Nolder

He was vacationing with relatives in the Pacific Northwest (I think Portland but I am not sure) and while they were all swimming, he dove off of a bridge and hit a sand bar and broke his neck. He was paralyzed and then died the next day....or maybe later that day. 7/28/69.

What a shock his death was right after our senior year. It was the first loss of a friend that I experienced and I will never forget the sadness at his funeral; seeing our (usually rowdy) classmates subdued with grief as pallbearers and mourners.

Sheryl Emery Ogden

I didn’t know Denis that well but do remember him as a nice guy. I remember the shock of hearing about his death – much too young to go.

Carol Longtain Brzeczek

Denis “Bronco Nolder” was a character. He enjoyed his shortened life. Denis was a football team mate and wrestled for a while also. He was a tough football player. He was a fullback on offense and a nose guard on defense. He was all league his senior year as a nose guard. As a fullback he liked to run into and over would be tacklers. I believe he played some varsity games when he was just a sophomore. He used to get bad headaches. He used to give Coach Daniels fits. On the team bus after games if we won we were allowed to sing songs. Some were fun rhymes about other players or coaches. Denis made one up about Coach Daniels. “ I know guy named Daniels. Hey la dey la. He likes to do cocker spaniels. Hey la dey lo.

Since I was a center my senior year and Denis was a nose guard we oftentimes played against each other in practice. He wrote this in my yearbook for our senior year. “It was a pleasure to play across from you, Even though you creamed me.” He also signed all of his photos playing football in my yearbook and there were many such photos.

We were a tough hard hitting football team. One of the drills we often did was called Bull in the Ring. One player would be in the middle of a circle of players. The coach would call out the number of one of the players in the circle and that player would yell something to let the player in the middle know he was coming at him. Maybe this drill was too tough. Because once when Denis was in the middle my number was called and he was not able to turn and face me for some reason but I really clobbered him anyway. Now I have some reservations about having done that, but that is how we were coached to play the game. So sorry about that hit Bronco.

Bob Reimann