About The Codger Pole
Colfax has a 65-foot chainsaw carving devoted to one of the strangest football rematches ever organized. The Codger Pole depicts the aging players who returned to the field in 1988 to replay a game first contested between Colfax and St. John high schools fifty years earlier.
The original game took place in 1938. Half a century later, many of the same participants suited up again for a rematch. They were no longer teenagers, which was precisely the point. The event celebrated the old rivalry by putting the former players back on the field instead of merely inviting them to sit in the stands.
Carver Jonathan LaBenne transformed five upright red cedar logs into a monument to the game. The sculpture contains portraits of fifty-one players shown as older men while wearing football uniforms associated with their youth. Stacked vertically, the faces turn a sports reunion into something resembling a monument designed by an extremely enthusiastic chainsaw artist.
The pole stands downtown on South Main Street. Most sports monuments celebrate championships, famous athletes, or dramatic victories. Colfax created one for a group of senior citizens willing to replay a high-school football game fifty years after the clock should have permanently expired.