​EDITOR’S NOTE: The start of football season is a perfect time to remember Del Bjork and John Warren, two local sporting legends who were the subjects of this profile in our 1973 centennial edition.Astoria High School old grad Del Bjork played college and professional football and he owes it all to John Warren, the most successful Fishermen coach in history of the school.“He was a major turning point for me,” Bjork says of Warren. Bjork, who is a retired, highly decorated Army Colonel, teaches and coaches at Clatsop Community College.Bjork is probably the greatest football player produced at Astoria High. He played three years under Warren, picked up a football scholarship from the University of Oregon where he was an All-American and was drafted by the Chicago Bears.A lineman in high school, college and the pros, Bjork was named all-pro as a tackle in 1938 after an equally outstanding 1937 season under Chicago coach Poppa Bear George Halas.Smallest pro tackle“I was the smallest tackle in professional football. I never weighed more than 220 pounds as a regular right tackle on offense and defense.” Bjork said. He weighed even less as a tackle and guard at Oregon and never weighed more than 190 as an Astoria High tackle. But back in the early 1930s, when Warren produced some of his greatest grid talent, a 200-pound lineman was considered a monster. At age 58, Bjork today probably weighs no more than during his pro days.Bjork says Warren was a “no-nonsense” coach who demanded the most from his athletes. “He was also a football fundamentalist. So was George Halas and that’s why I was able to get along fine with the Bears and play the Halas brand of football, which was rough and tough and devastating. I learned it all first under Warren, who was the greatest perfectionist I have known,” Bjork said.How Warren, just 22 as a first-year coach at Astoria, dealt so successfully with some athletes near his own age is another “plus” for him, according to Bjork. “Remember it was the depression. Times were really hard and a dime went a long way. Many boys quit at end of the eighth or ninth grade to go to work to help their parents. A few would return to school a year or two later. You could continue to play sports up to age 21 as long as you were in high school,” Bjork explained.1931 Astoria teamBjork believes it was the 1931 football season which his Fishermen staked a “championship” claim to because Astoria’s challenge was conveniently ducked by one of the teams in the Valley. “We considered ourselves as state champions because last-minute playoff plans for us fell through,” Bjork said. The 1931 Fishermen team was undefeated.As Warren’s coaching record grew, so did his reputation. Some of the earlier dropouts returned to high school just for sports, forgetting that Warren also taught history, health and physical education. “Oddly enough there were practically no discipline problems with his athletes,” Bjork said of W