History Lesson: Freeport QB Harry Kent led unrivaled passing attack in 1959

I discovered Harry Kent - apparently known as "Golden Arm" by the Freeport sportswriters - because I was trying to learn more about Ron Fearn.

Fearn went from Rockford East to playing quarterback for the University of Illinois. I wanted to compile as much info about Fearn as possible so I looked up his junior and senior football seasons - 1958 and 1959.

Right away, I noticed that Freeport had quite a squad in 1959 and that its quarterback, Harry Kent, was throwing a ton of touchdown passes.

The Rockford Morning Star and Register-Republic tended to be hit-and-miss when it came to reporting about Freeport. Some years, the Rockford papers would miss several games. In 1959, though, every Freeport box was reported.

That allowed me to total up Kent's 20 touchdown passes. I still have years left to look up, but I can't imagine anyone having thrown more to that point. A NIC-10 quarterback wouldn't top 20 until 1987.

Still, coaches picked Fearn as the first-team all-conference quarterback. Typically, if your QB is solid and you win the conference, he's picked first team. Thanks to Don Werntz, I was able to find Kent in Montana and talk a little 1950s football.

Click here to read the story.