Warrior Memories: 1952 DN Grad Lyle Peterson

Warrior old-timers know what the name Peterson has meant to Crescent City sports history. All summer long baseball is being played at Peterson Park, a local sports facility named for former Del Norte Warrior standout Rocky Peterson, who had his athletic career cut short when he died on the Battleship Arizona during the Pearl Harbor attack in December of 1941. The youngest brother of Rocky also contributed a lot to local sports history. Lyle “Bunky” Peterson, a 1952 graduate, left his mark on the local baseball and basketball arenas.

My first experience with Bunky goes back to my eighth grade year at Crescent Elk. We had a basketball team that was coached by Ed Fraser. Ed had recently retired after a 20-year tour as the head coach at Del Norte High School. The starting five on that team consisted of four eighth-graders and one seventh-grader. The lone seventh-grader was Bunky Peterson. Bunky was the point guard on that team and really helped us be successful.