Archive for November 2011

Official Results Kare Youth League's 5K at Santa Fe Run/Walk

Mr. "Francis", as he was known, gave his life in service for youth – from early days coaching Kare teams in Pop Warner to many years in "Coral" – the Rosemead and El Monte area. He also greatly supported both RHP and KYL by designing custom computer software to organize membership, sports awards and all alumni data. He spent many hours organizing all of the records for Kare's annual summer track meet. Most of the high school parents know of his enthusiastic support for our baseball teams from the home plate bench. He was a very loyal supporter of the RHP teams – both home and away. Mr. Francis Hampton was the son of Kare Youth League's founder, Mr. Orrick Hampton Sr. He is survived by his brothers, Mr. Orrick Hampton & Mr. Philip Hampton, his sisters, Mrs. Arlis Dowd &  Ms. Arleta Hampton, his wife Paula, sons Perry and Paul Hampton and daughter, Heather Hampton Gasaway. We all will miss this very special leader and friend. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that contributions be made to the new gym project.

Perry Hampton's Performance

My Lifetime Friend

By Philip Ostergard

Francis Perry Hampton made his entry into life on July 31, 1938, joining his one year old brother Orrick.

My first real memory of Francis Hampton was when his mother was boarding a train.  Mr. Hampton had gone north to work in a school in Washington. Francis was about a month old and Orrick just a year older.  I recall the conductor shaking his head as he was thinking of Mrs. Hampton being on the train for 24 hours with her two children. Two years later, the family was back in this area and Boys’ Christian League was reorganized.  The family rented 333 W. Colorado in Monrovia, just a block from Monroe School.

Francis Hampton was a sensitive, spiritually minded youngster.  I recall one time when Francis Ostergard was having a problem with his car.  The motor would sputter, but not start.  As his parents were putting the boy to bed, Francis Hampton bowed his head for a night time prayer:  “Jesus, forgive me for putting dirt in Francis Ostergard’s gas tank.”  While we laugh about that now, it showed the heart of the young Francis – sensitive, repentant, and honest.

When I was in the U.S. Army in 1944, I received a letter from the six year old Francis. 

I have treasured his child like expression of encouragement to me in the service and the letter is one of the precious, special documents in my home.

Boys’ Christian League had a good athletic program, and we also fielded teams in the King Football Conference. Most other teams had coaches who had been good football players and they worked to train boys to be stars like they onetime were. But Francis Hampton used the Kare philosophy to build up average boys to become good athletes.

We played teams all over Los Angeles. Francis was head coach of the Pee Wee division, made up of 5th and 6th graders.  We had won all our games one season and were playing our last game against White Oak, way out in the San Fernando Valley. It was a scoreless game down to the end. We had one last chance for a touchdown, and tried our reverse pass play. The defender was able to jump up and barely tip the ball, but our pass receiver was able to catch the ball for the victory. It was a great finish to a great season – a season in which Francis helped average ball players excel.

Interrupting his leadership responsibilities, Francis Hampton was serving in the U.S. Army at the time of the Cuban crises.

One year I was with a group of campers in the High Sierras. On our way home from camp, the water pump on the bus began to leak and we were literally miles and miles from any source of help.  We slowly made it into a service station, but they didn’t have the part we needed. What options did we have? I didn’t even have to come from home.  But a stranger came into the station beside us, and in the trunk of his car was a water pump that fit our bus.  With that miraculous ending to that story, I am glad that I had a witness to that incident … the bus driver, Francis Hampton.

Today, Kare Youth League is a many-faceted organization with our ball games, finances, ticket selling, trips and camps. Everything functions because of our computer system. Several persons have contributed to this, but more than anyone else, we owe the smooth running organization to Francis Hampton who performed a most important function. He is responsible for the efficiency of our organizational computer system and deserves our gratitude.

In a very real sense, Francis Hampton was each one of us, for every one of us finds our likeness to Francis as the lad, the young man, the husband and the father. But also Francis was as unique as a fingerprint. There will never be another person quite like him.

There are great lessons we can learn from his life:

1.  He was sensitive and had great spiritual desire.  

2.  He never put himself above others; he was one of us. Boys playing for him were encouraged to be their best.

3.  He did not seek credit or notoriety. His attitude was, “Take a job and just do it.”

4.  He did not harbor hard feelings or carry grudges.

5.  Francis Hampton was a team player.  Not liking to be the one up front, he carried his responsibility as part of the great body of the membership. 

Over the last sixteen years and more particularly in the last year I have watched my lifetime friend in his battle with cancer. In my mind, I have been reminded of the words of the Apostle Paul in II Corinthians.

We have this treasure in earthen vessels (4:7).   How true this picture of the person!  A man, a personality, a gifted intelligent being in a body that will return to the dust from which it was made.

The outward man perishes; the inner man is renewed day by day (4:16).  While the body was weakening, we saw the inner spirit of Francis Hampton strong and renewed.

When the earthly house is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (5:1).  This is our solid hope and assurance.

For Paula and her children, Perry, Paul, and Heather, we pray the prayer given to us by Moses: 

            The Lord bless you and keep you

            The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

            The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.