He was the principal ball carrier on the 1946 Wildcat team, netting 1593 yards from scrimmage, scoring 22 touchdowns and kicking four extra points. He had two 5-touchdown games, one against Mt. Carmel which Salem won 73-0, and one against Olney in a 52-0 Salem victory. The 1946 Wildcats posted an 8-1 record, outscoring their opponents 21625, and out-gaining them from Scrimmage, 2594 yards to 1052. The only loss was 13-0 to Flora.

Hooks was an All-North Egypt Conference selection his senior year and gained All-State Special Mention. He had been an All-State honorable mention selectee his junior year. He was a fast, explosive runner, breaking for many long runs in his career. He also played defensive halfback. In 1947, he was named to the National Star Athletes Society, nominated by Athletic Director, M.E. Lenich.

As a junior, paired with Hall of Famer Howard “Bud” Wagoner, Hooks gained 850 yards and scored 10 touchdowns on a team that posted an 8-2 record. Also lettering as a sophomore, he was on the 8-1 NEC championship team with Hall of Fame members Jim Finks and Wagoner.

Hooks was also a mainstay on Salem’s championship track teams of 1946 and 1947. Salem won back-to-back NEC championships those years. He won the 100-yard dash title as a junior and was second by a split second in 1947. He won the conference long jump title in 1947 and anchored the 880-yard relay team.

An All-Conference guard in 1949, Bishop was also selected for All-State honors by the Champaign News-Gazette and the Chicago Daily News. He was selected to the 1939-49 SCHS “All-Decade” team picked in 1950.

Bishop played football all four years at the University of Illinois – on the freshman team in 1950, the JV team in 1951, and lettered with the varsity his junior and senior years. A member of the 1953 Big Ten champions, he was selected for the prestigious “George Huff Award for Scholarship and Athletics.”

He graduated from the University of Illinois in 1954 with a degree in geology and later earned his Master’s degree in geology from the University of Illinois in 1959.

In high school, he also participated in basketball and track. He lettered his senior year in basketball, the only year he played. In track, Bishop ran the dashes – 100, 220, and 440 – high jumped and long jumped and ran on the relay teams. He placed second in the long jump in the District meet in 1950 and earned a trip to the State track meet. His longest jump that year was 19 feet, 9-1/2 inches.

The 1949 Wildcat football team lost only a 24-21 decision to non-conference foe Benton and in conference play were tied 7-7 by Lawrenceville, forcing a tie with the Indians for the Conference Championship.

In his high school years, he attained the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts and was active with the Boy Scout movement and was a member of the Kiwanis Club of Denver, until his death in 1990.

He served with the Army Corps of Engineers from 1955-1958, with 3-1/2 years active duty as an army aviator. After his active duty, he returned to the University of Illinois to complete his Master’s degree.

When Larimer began writing, the sports program included football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and track and field in the spring. Baseball was added In the early 50′s, and golf, tennis and cross country were initiated later.

One of the major developments late in Larimer’s career was the beginning of girls’ athletics. Volleyball began in 1974; basketball in 1975; tennis and softball also started while Larimer was writing sports. Larimer strongly supported the development of a girls’ athletic program in his column “Knothole News”.

The sport in which SCHS enjoyed its greatest success during Larimer’s years of writing was football. The Wildcats string of .500 or better seasons reached 25 in 1962. Larimer pointed to the 1953 team coached by Howard Thurman, which lost a controversial one-point decision to Lawrenceville in the season opener and then won eight straight, as possibly the best SCHS grid team during his writing career.

Three SCHS basketball teams, the 1947-48, 1951-52 and 1955-56 squads, were the best Wildcat cagers Larimer covered during his tenure as a sportswriter. The 1951-52 team rallied to win the North Egypt Conference by winning all of its February contests.

One of the highlights of Larimer’s career was the publication of the Tournament Times during the Salem Invitational Tournament Four separate editions were written by Larimer during the first twelve years of the tournament.

In the Spring of 1940, Larimer was a member of the short-lived SCHS men’s softball team organized by Coach Mike Lenich. The team never played a game because no other area schools fielded squads.

Larimer was one of the group that set up the Little League baseball program in Salem, serving as secretary of the Salem Little League for many years. He also was one of the first managers of a team in the program.

During Larimer’s career he covered thousands of sporting events for SCHS and wrote about many more thousand of athletes who participated in those events. His articles, while not always praising a team during a contest, were never derogatory about an individual player or coach. He has, through thirty-one years of writing, contributed more to promote and publicize SCHS athletics than any other individual.

Larimer graduated from SCHS in 1941. He attended the University of Illinois until his induction into military service during World War II. He and his wife, Patricia, are the parents of four children. Adaughter, Marianne, pursued an interest in sports, excelling in basketball and volleyball at Millikin University, and has been a teacher and coach at Bement, Arcola, Salem and Casey-Westfield High Schools. A son, Timothy, followed his father in Journalism, graduating from Northwestem Another son, Mark, a graduate of the University of Illinois, is working with his father in the Larimer Abstract Company. Another daughter, Terr~ a graduate of Millikin University, teaches In the Music Department of the Salem Grade School system.