Coolest name ever.
I wasn't ashamed to admit it a year ago... and I told it to his face Monday morning.
Sure it's just my opinion, but when I heard who GMG's quarterback was during a senior session a year ago from a teammate of his, I went, "WHOA... Bridger?"
You wanna talk about takin' names... literally. That name kicks all kinds of posterior.
We're somewhere north of 3500 seniors in my career here at Stewart Photography, and I can safely claim that Monday was our first ever Bridger.
So, who's to blame for glossing this young man with such a ready-made for stardom name?
Mama Angie didn't hesitate.
"My husband did that... I had no say."
I pressed further wondering where the inspiration came from to tab the future Wolverine signal caller with such a moniker. Plucked out of a baby book? A family name? From a soap opera?
None of the above.
Evidently young Mr. Claassen is named after a mountain man.
No lie.
If I have my story straight, Papa Rod was enamored with the name due to legendary mountain man/explorer/trapper Jim Bridger, who was well known in the 1800's in the Western United States. While Rod's wife CLAIMED to have no say in the naming of her son, she DID admit that she refused to have her son name Jim or Jimmy.
So, there you have it... the mountain man's LAST name became Rod and Angie's firstborns' FIRST name... and the rest is history.
And as part of documenting Bridger's history, I was entrusted to be his senior photographer. And like many senior guys, he was just putting in his time with the "regular" outfits and waiting patiently to get to his true love...
Sports.
A four sport standout at GMG in Garwin, it was hard to pin him down on his favorite sport. The solution was to take the 1980's inspired Bo Jackson poster that included the two-sport star in shoulderpads with a baseball bat over his shoulders and put our own little twist on it.
Get the pads... get the bat... toss in a basketball, and BAM... that's what 'cha get in the center of his sports collage. As a tip to Mr. Jackson, we did a more authentically accurate version of "Bo Knows" for the fun of it, but since Bridger has looked into possibly playing hoops in college, we HAD to include basketball in the Claassen version of "Bridger Knows."
Not surprisingly, Angie got an earful of two guys having Hawkeye Sports Roundtable discussion for most of the session. My man Bridger is also a Cubs fan which gave us something else in common, but as usual... far less to talk about there as the Northsiders are once again 16 games under .500 and laboring in last place in the National League Central.
So, we stuck to our shared theory that undoubtedly the Hawks will start the season 10-0 before trying our hand against Wisconsin and Nebraska, and we also had to break down why Iowa hoops collapsed down the stretch last year, and just how much Bridger's Twitter friend, Trey Dickerson is gonna boost the Hawkeyes' level of play for this upcoming year.
Put it all together... four sports... a myriad of images and a TON of extracurricular Hawkeye discussion, it will come as no surprise to anyone that the session ran long... keeping Bridger from going to work on time (with his dad) and his mother had to postpone some hair appointments with early afternoon clients. (sorry Angie!) I guess those clients just had a couple more hours of looking ratchet before Bridger's mom cleaned 'em up with a style and trim at her salon.
A small price to pay to get history recorded. Thanks, Team Claassen!
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