Sports : Meet the Vikings\' newest football opponent: The Charles City Comets

Charles City and the Comets will introduce themselves to VS players and fans this Friday.

When the Charles City football players board their bus outside the school at 1 Comet Drive for the 88-mile journey to the Karr Athletic Complex, they will be introducing to the Vinton-Shellsburg district and community a city much like their own.

Under the new football district alignment, V-S will play Charles City in the first district contest of the season this year and next. The Vikings host the Comets this Friday.

Charles City High School Assistant Principal Larry Wolfe could be describing many Iowa communities, including those in the V-S district, when he says: “We are a blue-collar community with a lot of farming families. We bring our lunch boxes to work every day.”

Charles City and Vinton have much in common. Both are county seats established in the middle of the 19th Century along the Cedar River, with areas full of pasture and woodlands necessary for growing crops and wood for houses and business buildings. Both are now connected to other Iowa towns by Highway 218. Both survived flooding several times in the past generation, including in 2008.

And while V-S residents clearly remember the devastating winds storm of July 11, 2011, Charles City residents remember a much worse storm -- the May 15, 1968 tornado that claimed 13 lives, injured 450 people, and devastated much of that community.

The name

Charles City is named after Charles Kelly, the first son of Joseph Kelly, who is commonly considered the first white settler of that area of Iowa. First called Charlestown, and then St. Charles, the city changed its names on two occasions to avoid confusions as other towns with those names arose.

Farm history and 'tractor'

Farming equipment and famous women leaders are also two things Vinton and Charles City have in common.

Vinton residents are familiar with Keith Elwick and his Hawk-Bilt line of farm machinery, including balers and manure spreaders.

In Charles City, historians remember Charles Walter Hart, who was born there in 1872. He and his college friend Charles Parr worked together on combustion engines for farm equipment. The Hart-Parr Gasoline Engine Company, eventually merged with the Oliver company, which later became the White Farm-New Idea Equipment Co., which employed many in the area for decades during the 1900s.

The most famous word in Iowa farm history was also born in Charles City. Hart-Parr sales manager W.H. Williams first used the word “tractor” in 1906, combining the words “traction” and “power.” That new word quickly became the most-common term for engine-driven farm machines.

Women in History

Vinton history buffs can recall Myrtle Cook, the Women's Christian Temperance Union leader who was murdered in 1925 – shot to death by an unknown assailant who stood outside her window a block from the Vinton railroad depot.

Charles City also has a connection to a famous historical female, Carrie Lane Chapan Catt. The president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and founder of the League of Women Voters spent most of her childhood in Charles City, before attending the Iowa State Agricultural College (now Iowa State University). Catt helped pass the 19th Amendment to allow women the right to vote; her childhood home is now open to the public, along with a nearby interpretive center.

Comets and/or Comettes?

The Charles City School District includes the towns of Floyd (population: 335) and Roseville (population: 49).

The sports teams have always been called the Comets, although for the first 50 years, the girls teams used the spelling “Comettes.”

In 1997, after some long debates (similar to ones a few years ago over the Vikings/Vikettes name issue among Vinton-Shellsburg residents), Charles City students and coaches chose to remove the "feminine" spelling of the girls teams -- except for the softball team, which after much discussion, decided to keep the traditional name. Legendary softball coach Jerry Newton was among those who preferred to use "Comettes;" the Charles City softball team now name its annual tournament after him.

Wolfe said he does not now why the school originally chose that nickname, but says that Charles City's athletes have been called the Comets/Comettes in every yearbook going back to the 1930s.

500 'famous kids'

When asked about any “famous” alumni from Charles City, Wolfe replies, “We have 500 famous kids in our high school.”

Charles City students are Comets forever, said Wolfe.

“We really embrace the students of our past and future,” he said. “It's a big part of how we do business.”

Wolfe said he hopes that Charles City alumni members who now live in Vinton will wear some orange and black under the black and gold of VS this Friday.

“We are looking forward to a great evening,” said Wolfe. “We look forward to visiting with Vinton-Shellsburg families and the student body and a great football Friday night.”