Howard Triplehorn, who graduated from Bluffton High School in 1931, was the first Pirate to play in the Big Ten.
At one time three Bluffton High School athletic records belonged to Triplehorn, who eventually played football at the University of Michigan. He held several additional athletic records at BHS, which are in this article.
His records included the BHS football’s career scoring title at 345 points (it stood for 70 seasons when Zac Kohli scored 354 points in 2001).
Triplehorn still holds the single season scoring record with 28 TDs and 1 PAT for 169 points, achieved during the 1929 season.
Also during the 1929 season, as a junior, Triplehorn scored six touchdowns against Van Wert. A record held for 72 seasons when Brandon Martin scored seven TDs in 2001 against Paulding.
During the three seasons when Triplehorn played football, Bluffton went 5-3-3, 8-1 and 8-0-1.
Included in those wins were victories over Lima Central High School 31-0 in 1929, and Upper Sandusky 93-0 in 1930.
The 1929 yearbook described Triplehorn, then only a sophomore, as the fasted man to ever carry a “pigskin” for Bluffton.
He played on two state tournament basketball teams – 1929 and 1931. In 1929 he was named to the second all-star state tournament team.
The 1930 yearbook mentioned that at the Dola – Bluffton basketball game he received a badly fractured leg.
He was the second-ever BHS athlete to win a state track title when in 1929 he won the state Class B (only 2 classes at that time ) broad jump at 21 feet 6 and 3/8 inches. That record stood for 41 seasons until 1970 when Rob Eastman recorded a jump of 22 feet, 5 inches.
Triplehorn first went to Bluffton College and played football one season. Then he played in 1934 as a halfback for the University of Michigan. One of his teammates was Gerald Ford, who later became president of the United States.
At the time Ford was president a story circulated in Bluffton that Triplehorn and Ford were actually college roommates, however that story was never officially confirmed.
And, today, Howard Triplehorn is part of forgotten Bluffton.
