The other day Curt Severson gave a report at the Kiwanis Club of Gainesville noting that the football team at South Dakota State University had won its first game. Now the nickname for that spirited but little-known football team is the Jackrabbits, and when local Kiwanians learned the Jackrabbits had won their first game there was cheering. Had the Jackrabbits lost, there would have been groans. Now ... why on earth would a bunch of businesspeople in Gainesville, Georgia, have any interest in the football fortunes of the South Dakota State University Jackrabbits?
Well, Curt Severson attended South Dakota State University, and went on to work for the Ralston Purina Company ... the checkerboard folks. He progressed through the ranks of the company, became a company officer, and in time ended up in the Southeast where he became a major player in the development of the poultry industry in our neck of the woods. Logically, he spent a great deal of time in Gainesville, and he liked it. So, when he retired, he chose to stay in Gainesville and became active in a number of church and civic activities ... among them the Kiwanis Club which has a lot of projects that have to do with the young people of the area.
One year, Curt was chairman of the Kiwanis Club's fall football foolishness.. a weekly report and another tradition that usually leads up to the Georgia-Georgia Tech game as its highlight. Gosh that was probably 20 years ago, but Curt reported on the fortunes of the Jackrabbits that year, and we've been keeping up with them ever since. This year they started out one and o...and the fact we haven't heard much about them since then indicate the jackrabbits aren't doing too well this year.
This is Gordon Sawyer, from a window on historic Green Street.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/10/189444