J's World: Moose lose a member of the PHS football family

For 14 years, during every Palmer High School varsity football home game, Mike Schwartz could be found in the same spot.

He’d be sitting in the back of his green Ford pick-up, parked just beyond the artificial red track and silver home stands of Machetanz Field.

Schwartz sat behind the scenes, somewhat anonymously, but each and every time the Moose scored, everyone within several city blocks of PHS knew Schwartz was there.

For 14 years, Schwartz was the man behind the ‘Moose Gooser,’ a 12-gauge cannon that is fired each time the Palmer football team scores.

In 2002, 10 years after he inherited the Moose Gooser, Schwartz told the Frontiersman he’d be firing the cannon after every Palmer score for as long as he possibly could.

Schwartz could not think of a better way to spend a Palmer home game.

Prior to the 2007 season, Schwartz was forced to give up the Gooser to battle pancreatic cancer.

On Monday, Schwartz lost his fight, and Palmer lost a member of the Moose football family.

It’s been almost 10 years since any of his sons — Alex, David, Tim and Steven — played for the Moose, but Schwartz continued to be a big part of the Palmer program.

“He kept on doing it,” Tim Schwartz said. “It was a labor of love.”

Schwartz, also an active member of the PHS football booster club, began to follow Palmer football long before his oldest son Alex, a 1991 graduate of PHS, stepped on the field.

“He’s been following Palmer High football for a long time,” Tim Schwartz said. “(Palmer football) meant a lot, an awful lot.”

Like many of the things Schwartz did during his life — he was a veteran, an architect who managed the planning and design of several schools in the Valley, a proud father and grandfather, a man of faith and a Sunday school teacher at Mat-Su Covenant Church — Schwartz brought a sense of dedication, care and community to the Palmer football program.

“He wasn’t doing it for the recognition,” Tim Schwartz said. “He was doing it because he wanted to.”

His love of Moose football continued until the day he died. When the Moose played in the ASAA First National Bowl large-schools state championship game last weekend, Schwartz made sure he was listening to the game on the radio.

I knew Mike Schwartz for 15 years before he died.

Even though it’s been a year since he’s sat in his spot — in the back of the green Ford pick-up parked just beyond the artificial red track and silver home stands of Machetanz Field — I still can’t imagine anyone but Schwartz being there, firing off the Moose Gooser each and every time Palmer scores.

“He was a fixture of Palmer High football,”

Tim Schwartz said. “I think he and the Moose Gooser are as much a part of Palmer High football as the mascot itself.”

Schwartz was a fixture in the Palmer High football program, and an example of what makes programs like Palmer football so special.

Because it’s the people within the Palmer football program that make the Palmer football program great. Yes, it’s the wins that are celebrated and the championships that are cherished.

But it’s the people, like Schwartz, who should be valued. It’s the people, like Schwartz, who should be remembered.

And I know I am not alone when I say, it will be hard to think of the Moose Gooser and a Palmer High home game, without thinking of Mike Schwartz.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.