THE FIGHTING FINNS - Ralph Kangas
New Ipswich Historical Society
FINNS: An Oral History of Finnish-Americans in New Hampshire’s Monadnock Region
Excerpted from FINNS: An Oral History... by Patricia Kangas Ktistes, 1997, all rights reserved.
Ralph Kangas
As a boy, you looked up to the Fighting Finns’ you wanted to be one of them. They were the greatest basketball team ever supposedly, according to them. Of course, our Uncle Leonard was the primo player. The Celtics were looking at him. The girls all loved him because he was handsome and everything. The Fighting Finns were the best in the state at one time. And when you went anywhere—even when I was in high school—and they found out your name was Kangas, some of the older people would say, “Ah! Are you related to the Fighting Finns?” Especially if you were in Peterborough or Wilton or Milford. If they found out you were a Kangas, then you were a basketball player. I was really proud in junior high and high school to know that my Uncles Leonard and Harvey and Toivo and my father Ralph were part of the Fighting Finns. They practiced everywhere. They put a basket up against the barn door. And I think my grandfather looked down on sports because it was a waste of time. He kind of frowned upon it “You guys should be out working, doing something. Not playing ball.” But then I think my father said that once my grandfather found out that Leonard that was doing very well, he kind of mellowed into it after awhile.