Turning Back the Pages

30 years ago – August 30, 1985

It’s becoming a tradition. For the fourth year in a row, the Rollinsville men’s team has won the Evergreen slow-pitch softball tournament. The team is sponsored by the Stage Stop Inn of Rollinsville. The tournament was the fifth annual Budweiser-Evergreen King of the Hill Tournament. The Stage Stop team came in second the first year. Since then the team has always come out on top. It’s never easy to win, though, according to team manager and outfielder Vince Suich. If a team loses two games in the King of the Hill tournament, it is out of the competition. The Stage Stop has always lost one game. This year was no exception. The Cliffdwellers, a team from an Evergreen league, beat the Stage Stop 14-9 in the first of two games between the teams. However, the Stage Stop came through in the second game against the Cliffdwellers, the final game of the tournament, and won the game, 7-6.

Central City’s Gravity Grand Prix was marred by an accident Saturday when a wrought-iron lamp was pulled off a building and hit a passerby on the head. Shortly before the parade of race vehicles was to begin, a 1970 Chevrolet pickup turned onto Main Street from Eureka Street. Because of pre-race congestion in the streets, Kemp Colt, a reserve police officer was directing traffic at the intersection. The pickup had a camper on it and on top of the camper was a metal rack. The vehicle hit the “start” banner for the race that was stretched above the street. The banner had been strung across the street with ropes by volunteers; the lower ropes had been tied to a lamp on the exterior of the Bonanza gift store. The pickup hit the banner and the lamp crashed to the sidewalk, striking Eva June Heinrich on the head as she was walking. According to the police reports, the banner was nine feet nine inches above the street. The highest point on the camper was 10 feet two inches from the ground. The light fixture fell approximately four feet and weighed about 20 pounds. Heinrich, 30, who is from Broomfield, received two lacerations, a 4 ½ inch one and a ½ inch one, to the top of her head. She did not lose consciousness. She was transported by the Search and Rescue ambulance to Lutheran Medical Center where she was treated and released. The driver of the pickup was not held.