I am amazed that a young man, a recent WHS athlete, had never heard of Dave Rankin, until I brought it up.
Could it be that current WHS coaches, players, athletic directors, etc., also have never heard of Dave Rankin?Dave Rankin is arguably one of the greatest, if not the greatest athlete in WHS history. He is the only first team All-American football player in WHS history. He made it two years in a row - his junior and senior years - at Purdue in 1939 and 1940. He was also co-captain of the 1940 All-Stars that played the NFL champion at Soldier Field. After graduating from Purdue, he stayed there to become the head track coach - a position he held for many, many years. He is, mildly putting it, an institution at Purdue. As far as I know, by now he is approximately 90 years old, still alive and still living in West Lafayette.
In high school, he was a great football, basketball and track athlete at WHS.
You can easily verify all this by simply contacting the Purdue Athletic Dept. What a feature it would make for the Times-Union.
