Over the course of many years, the Velling brothers-Joe, Mike and Jerry-took turns as quarterbacks for the Kennedy High School football team.

The three Velling girls-Marisa, Molly and Jennie-also brought home athletic laurels in less guy-type sports like swimming and tennis.

The trophy case in the family home looked like it should be in the hall of the school.

Father Roy Velling himself was a whizball pitcher for the Washington Huskies and his wife, Helen, who has two holes in one at golf, was a pretty fair country tennis player back in the days of Gussie Moran, though she says she never wore lace trimmed panties like Gussie.

Roy, now in the artificial knee stage of life, was a dentist in White Center from 1952 till he retired from filling cavities and pulling teeth and turned his practice over to sons Mike and Jerry.

Eldest son Joe was the first Kennedy quarterback in the family and also earned letters in track, baseball and basketball. Then he went on to become a lawyer.

Mike was next and also earned letters in basketball, track and swimming.

Then came Jerry as the last of the family quarterbacks. He also won letters in basketball, soccer and tennis.

Are there any more Vellings likely to become Lancer athletes? Don't bet against it. There is a bunch of grandkids out there.

What brings this history lesson up was the Kennedy-Ferndale football game at Highline stadium Nov. 10. I witnessed this windy, wet, frigid struggle sitting between Mike and Jerry Velling.

We were seated right next to the Kennedy High band and a Kennedy rooter with Teflon lungs.

I have no idea what happened out on the field. Both teams were undefeated and Kennedy had a much-heralded running back named Nate Williams who has already agreed to play for the Huskies.

Not only could I not hear anything because my hearing aid battery went dead, I could not see because my glasses were fogged up from the heat given off by Kennedy rooters.

I have been to scores of games there and I was ready for the elements. A blanket, down jacket, knit wool stocking hat with Snoopy the dog embroidered on the front, and two huge authentic athletes as strategic football advisors to explain the finer nuances of the game.

In spite of all those advantages I nearly froze. Icicles were hanging from my nose. And I could not appear as a wuss in front of guys who used to play in blizzards, so when they asked me several times if I was warm enough I scoffed and hid my popsicle nose.

A cup of hot chocolate brought to me by Jerry is all that saved me being carried home to Elsbeth, my corpse stiff as a fence post.

And Mike was not even wearing a hat. In weather at least 20 degrees below.

Just as the game got underway, Jerry's cell phone rang. It was a buddy, a Kennedy schoolmate of his calling from Nova Scotia. It was movie actor Jim Caveisel, who played the part of Jesus in the Mel Gibson movie Passion of the Christ.

Jerry and Jim are still close friends and keep in touch. Caveisel, originally from Mt. Vernon, went to Kennedy for two years. Jerry filled him in with the epic game on the field.

Grampa Roy is on a golf getaway in a desert someplace so he missed all the fun.

I did have a great time reliving a lot of my younger days in that stadium, which has the stands facing directly into the southwest winds of winter.

The good guys won and I have now thawed out so I could be talked into doing it again.

I will take my Coleman stove and electric socks next time.