 Born in Ohio, Calland moved with his family as a child to western Washington, where he attended school in a log cabin on Lopez Island, in the San Juan Islands near the Strait of Juan de Fuca, where all of the other students were Native Americans.He was an outstanding athlete at Broadway High School in Seattle, where he played football under coach Gus Henderson.Henderson became the head football coach at USC in Los Angeles in 1919, and Calland followed him south.