Steve Solorio nostalgic reflecting on history of DePue Boat Races

As Steve Solorio contemplates his final year of 37 as the President of the DePue Men’s club and the last year at the helm of the APBA National Championship Boat Races for the Pro and Mod divisions, he becomes a bit nostalgic thinking through the club’s history.

I asked Steve to go back those years for a look at the internal decisions of himself and his board as to what direction they wanted the club to go. As in the earlier article, the group wanted to be a force for good in the village of DePue in whatever way they could. It started with a group back when I was a kid called the Lake DePue Preservation group. Men like Don Bosnich, John Widmar, Elden Harrison and others were about preserving Lake DePue for generations to come. They were the first group to bring a Nationals to DePue.

The first iteration of the club was actually the DePue Jaycee’s, but because of the structure of the dues needed to be viable, Steve and the group looked for a viable alternative to move forward. Thus, the beginning of the DePue Men’s Club.

The core group of Steve, Eric Bryant, John Widmar began and as time went on others came on board such as Secretary Dave Marquez, and our directors, Paul, “Big Pal” Bosnich, Alan Bosnich, Don Hoffert, Gilbert Moreno, Steve Rauh, Trent Solorio, and Trey Solorio, all supporting the DePue residents.

Steve reminisced a bit on John Widmar, who was a bit older than Steve and was a great athlete in his time, and as Steve says, John has the toughest job in the club as the treasurer. Knowing John for as long as I have he reminds me of the guy that makes the trains run on time, efficient, honest, and ready to move forward. John’s father was a leader in the forerunner of the Men’s Club with the Lake DePue Preservation Association which brought the first Nationals to the waters of Lake DePue in 1961.

As to Eric Bryant, interesting that Steve was just a bit younger than Eric, but Eric ended up coaching Steve in football, basketball, and baseball. Steve said taught him how to be a leader instead of a follower.

“We butted heads back in the days when he coached me, or tried, but he humbled me and made me a better person,” Steve said.

“Eric has been great to have next to me over the years as well. His role as vice president is to be ready to lead the club whenever needed. He’s been very good in that position over the years. I learned a lot from him and I’m very thankful for his friendship as well.”

Steve said he can not stress enough the importance of being surrounded by great people.

“It’s easy to lead when you’re surrounded by smarter people,” he said. “Three others who were staples in our club as officers/directors for many years, need to be mentioned as well. Rueben Barajas as a director, my late brother, Frank, as secretary, and my in-law, the late Dolan Kimble, a director.

“All of these and the general membership are the best! It’s been an honor and privilege to serve as their president.”

I am sure as Steve thinks back through the memories, it gives him pause to think of what the DePue Men’s Club has accomplished in his tenure and what it has meant to not just the city of DePue, but to the drivers, family members, and crews who look at DePue as the place of all places to race.

Well done, Steve Solorio.

Ray Rodda is the longtime public address announcer at DePue as the “Voice” of the DePue Boat Races. This year’s races will run July 25-31 with testing to be held Monday, July 25 and races running Tuesday, July 26 through Sunday, July 31.