By KEN CARPENTER
Great Bend Post
A 1939 Great Bend High School graduate was inducted into the Great Bend High School Hall of Fame last Saturday. Willmar Bledsoe excelled in athletics during the four years he was a student at Great Bend High. During the induction ceremony at the high school gym between the varsity boys' and girls' basketball games Saturday night, GBHS public address announcer Kurt Schaub described some of Bledsoe's accomplishments.
“He lettered four years in football, basketball and track. He was part of the undefeated 1937 football team. He was a two-time state champion in the broad jump. He held the Kansas state broad jump record from 1939 until 1960. He held the Great Bend High School broad jump record from 1939 to 2010.”
Bledsoe attended the University of Southern California on a football scholarship where he played half-back and quarterback during his three varsity years. His touchdown reception in the 1941 game against rival Notre Dame was shown on a Universal Newsreel in movie theaters throughout the nation. After graduating from USC in 1943, Bledsoe joined the Marine Corps serving in WW II, Korea and Vietnam, retiring as a Colonel in 1974.
Bledsoe was the oldest of five children. His father died in an auto crash in 1934. Bledsoe's son-in-law, John Colonna, said Bledsoe had a good history in Great Bend.
“His mother lived here for 50 years, from ‘31 to ‘81,” Colonna said. “All five kids went to Riley School, Great Bend Junior High School and Great Bend High School. They all loved this town.”
Bledsoe died in 1989 and was buried with full military honors at Quantico National Veterans Cemetery in Virginia.
Jeff Langrehr, a 1982 Great Bend High grad and successful GBHS baseball and basketball coach, was also inducted into the Hall of Fame on Saturday.