Chadron State College Athletics

The Eagles’ 3-0 victory over the University of Colorado in 1925 caught Stangle’s attention. He was a senior at Rapid City High School that year and wanted to play college football.  “I knew Chadron must have a pretty good team if they could beat Colorado,” Stangle said in a 1995 interview.
CSC Coach Roy Wynne offered him a scholarship that was a job as janitor in the Administration Building for 45 cents an hour.  That, Stangle said, was enough to pay the bills because meals in the college cafeteria cost $5 a week and his room was $5 a month.
But Stangle’s initial stay at Chadron State was short. He was homesick and dropped out of college before the 1926 football season was completed. The following year, he went to the University of Minnesota in hopes of playing football for the Gophers, but decided the school was too big and returned to Chadron State.
He was ineligible for the 1927 season, but started at blocking back in 1928 and was an all-conference offensive guard his final year in ’29. The Eagles had a 12-3 combined record those years.  After graduating in 1930, Stangle was hired to teach and coach in Valentine, where he remained for five years before moving to Scottsbluff as the basketball coach.
In 1940-41, Scottsbluff went 26-0 and won the state Class A state championship.  Shortly after the season ended, Stangle enlisted in the Army despite being 36 years old. After serving four years during World War II, he returned to Scottsbluff and took the 1947 and ’48 basketball teams to the state tourney. He became the school’s athletic director in 1949 and had the position until retiring in 1972.
Leo and his wife moved to Estes Park, Colo., in 1975, but he returned to Scottsbluff shortly after her death in 1995. He was still mentally and physically sharp at age 95 when his 1941 basketball team had its 60-year reunion in 2001.