The evidence of the aftermath of rural school closures is as close as a 15-minute drive west of Great Bend.  Alumni of Pawnee Rock High School, which was closed in 1972, against the wishes of the patrons, came together Saturday in Great Bend for an all-class reunion.  While most have moved away, they recalled fond memories of the town they grew up and went to school in.  For many, coming home and seeing how their hometown has fared since the school closed and their lives have carried them off to points elsewhere was sobering.  
For many years, the reunions were held in Pawnee Rock, where up until the end of 2002, the elementary school still held class.  Then, the party moved to other buildings and farms of nearby alumni, and once in the Pawnee Rock Depot.  For the past six years, the venue has been held in close-by Great Bend, quite simply because there are no longer any buildings left that can accommodate the 120 or so attendees each year, said Roger Hanhardt, one of the event organizers, Saturday afternoon.  Saturday morning, several met at Stone Ridge Country Club for golf.  Then, starting at 3 p.m., attendees began arriving at the Angus Inn to catch up and reminisce, followed by a catered meal at 6 p.m.  

Documenting transformation
“It’s still a thorn in our side,” Hanhardt said, as he leafed through the pages of the 1972 Pawnee Rock High School yearbook.  He flipped open to pages filled with newspaper clippings of the fight by Pawnee Rock patrons to keep their high school open.  A bid to consolidate Pawnee Rock with Larned High School met with bitter protest.  Despite their efforts, and a brief reprieve that kept the school open temporarily, the school was ultimately closed.  In protest, Hanhardt recalled, most of those students travelled 30 miles south to Stafford County and attended their remaining years at Macksville High School, rather than attend school in Larned, only eight miles away.
“We had great ball teams, and then Macksville started to have great ball teams,” he said.
Even though many of Saturday’s alumni that once called Pawnee Rock home have graduated and left, some put in countless hours keeping the memories alive and offering moral support to those who still live there through their writings and their web expertise.  Ed Crosby and Roger Hanhardt organized the annual event.  Hanhardt, formerly from Albert, now lives in Hays.  He and another former Pawnee Rock resident, Leon Unruh, now residing in Alaska, maintain the PawneeRock.org website, periodically posting news and columns about the town.  The website features a photographic history of the town store on the website, documenting the incarnations and eventual decline of the building.  (http://www.pawneerock.org/history/store_by_postoffice.html )
Unruh’s sister, Cheryl Unruh, a columnist and author of “Flyover People,” recently returned to Pawnee Rock and wrote about the closing of the once thriving Bergthal Mennonite Church in May.  She shared her commentary with Kansas Public Radio, which was aired in early June (http://www.kansaspublicradio.org/news/commentaries/6816-death-of-a-church ).  Her Emporia Gazette Column, also called “Flyover People,” often reminisces about growing up in Pawnee Rock and rural Kansas.  Her website, flyoverpeople.net, contains a gallery documenting with photographs many rural towns in Kansas, among them Pawnee Rock.

Memories
Hanhardt was from Albert, and took the bus to Pawnee Rock for  high school.  He now lives in Hays, and admits he doesn’t get back very often.
He has fond memories of growing up in Pawnee Rock--and of the little towns that played ball in their league.  
In 1963, The Pawnee Rock Braves eight-man football team was undefeated, and for the championship game, went up against undefeated Radium.  
“Half the people from Great Bend and Larned, over 2,000, were there for that game,” Hanhardt said.  “It was solid lights on the highway coming from all points.”  In the end, Pawnee Rock won 40 to 14.  While it may sound bad, he gave credit to the Radium team, which with only about 12 players, was quite a bit smaller than The Braves 30 man team.  
“At halftime, the score was 20 to 14,” he said.  “Fatigue had a lot to do with our win.”
Other memories include parties, soap box races, and sledding at the Pawnee Rock memorial north of town.  Then, it was the location of much of the student’s fun, and where many community events were held.  Today, it continues to be visited, but mostly by travellers from elsewhere, following the Santa Fe Trail.

Oh, the places they’ve gone
Hanhardt credits tradition for the success of The Braves.  “Little kids see big kids, and they want to be like that, and it just carried on year after year,” he said.  “Good coaching too.”
One of Saturday’s alumnists is Class of 1968’s Steve Crosby, who went on to enjoy a career with the National Football League, first as a player for the New York Giants, and later as a scout and coach for several major league teams.  He’ll be attending with his brother Ed Crosby, a longtime area farmer, along with three other siblings.  
After graduating from Pawnee Rock High School, Crosby played college ball for Kansas State University for two seasons before being drafted into military service.  When he returned, he attended Fort Hays University, and was drafted to play with the New York Giants in 1974.  He played for three seasons before a serious knee injury ended his playing career.  He returned to Fort Hays University to complete his Masters degree, and was contracted to coach at Scott City High School in May of 1977.  But one month later, he got called to coach for the Florida’s Miami Dolphins.
“I called up my old high school coach, Snyder, who helped me land the Scott City job, and told him I wasn’t going to do it,” Crosby recalled.  “When I told him why, he said, “Steve, I think you’re making the right choice.”
He stayed with the Dolphins through their Superbowl XVII game in 1982.  Then, he went to the Atlanta Falcons, where he coached for several years.  Other teams include the Cleveland Browns, the New England Patriots, and the Philadelphia Eagles.  After a brief stint coaching college ball at Vanderbilt in Tennessee, he went on to finish out his career as a Special Teams coach for the San Diego Chargers, retiring in 2010.
Basketball was another important game for The Braves.
“The Braves ball teams were great, and we, like many little towns, had lots of support,” Hanhardt remembered.  “We had the nicest gym in the country.  It could hold 800 and was packed for every game.”  
That team was coached by newly graduated Lorin Miller, who went on to coach basketball at Barton Community College, Cloud County Community College, and the NBA team the Seattle SuperSonics (not in that order).  Miller was on hand Saturday too, and spent time catching up with several of the athletes who graduated in 1963 and 1964.  
Many other alumni began trickling in as the afternoon progressed, some from Great Bend, Lyons, Larned, and others having made the trip of hundreds of miles.  Despite, or perhaps because of the fact many feel their high school was “stolen” from them, the bonds are stronger than time and distance.