Elsewhere in this week’s paper, there is mention of Bertrand Laugen, Jerry Kolander, Jerry Johnson, Darwin Gonnerman and Rich Dierks. Those five athletes from the past all placed in an event at the one-class Minnesota State High School track and field meet, over a 40-year span between the years 1929 and 1969.
Later, when the state was split into classes, there were many more track and field performers from the Slayton, Chandler, Lake Wilson, Fulda, Adrian, Ellsworth, Magnolia, Heron Lake, Okabena, Brewster, Round Lake and Sioux Valley areas who competed and placed at the annual big event in the Twin Cities, capping a successful spring season.
It’s unfortunate that a state track and field meet in 2020 is unlikely. The same goes for golf, baseball and softball. The weather is fine, but the “virus” is still lurking and everything is on hold until things improve. That may take some time.
Pipestone Star sports editor Kevin Kyle, who I worked with at the then Worthington Daily Globe back in 2006 and 2007, has a most interesting feature in the March 25 issue of that weekly newspaper, entitled “Resilient: Area athletes have history of coming from quarantine with gusto.”
Kyle’s article describes how both the Asian Flu (1957-1958) and the Spanish Flu (1918-1919) took their toll on area schools and sporting events. Schools were closed briefly in the fall of 1957 and the annual season-ending Pipestone vs. Luverne football game for the ‘Battle of the Axe’ — scheduled for November 4 — was cancelled.
Four weeks later, the Arrows’ basketball opener (vs. Tracy) was played on December 2 and the winter season of ’57-58 happened, despite a good share of continued absences due to the flu.
Four decades earlier, the deadly Spanish Flu — which resulted in an estimated five million deaths worldwide, 675,000 in the United States and 10,000 in Minnesota — did cancel the whole 1918 football season for Pipestone.
Schools and businesses were also closed. The following is a statement, quoted by the Pipestone Star in October of 1918:
“As a measure to check the further spread of influenza in Pipestone, a ban has been placed upon public gatherings of any kind; schools, churches, the moving picture theatre, pool and billiard halls and other assembling places have been closed. School children are to be kept at home and not allowed on the street except when sent upon errands.”
That’s how it was in the fall of 1918 when the fear of the Spanish Flu was spreading. There were approximately 400 cases reported in Pipestone, but the five-week ban was lifted in mid-November and schools re-opened and activities resumed.
Kyle’s feature article is a good read and Pipestone athletic legend Jack Kelly is mentioned for his exploits as a St. Cloud State senior during the ’57-58 school year. Kelly, 84, passed away at his daughter’s (Kim Kelly-Sommer) home in Roseville on March 29. The Celebration of Life for Jack has been delayed until July 19 at the BARC in Windom.
A long-time industrial arts teacher, basketball coach and baseball coach at Windom, Kelly was a true “Jack-of-all-Trades” and was an amazing all-around man who supported, encouraged and actively helped basketball players — both girls and boys — at Heron Lake-Okabena during recent years. He will be greatly missed.
I am going to close this edition of Bleacher Views with a pondering question about something new I learned. Until a couple of days ago, I never heard of an athlete named Eddie Eagan. Nearly 100 years ago, 12 years apart, Ed accomplished something really unique. What was it?
Now I am not talking about Ed Eagan, the football wide receiver, who had brief tryouts with four different NFL teams — or Eddie Egan, the police detective and actor. The football player was born in 1993 and the actor was born in 1930 and died in 1995.
This other Eddie Eagan was born in 1897 and was quite a scholar and all-around athlete, doing something great in both 1920 and 1932. Be the first to email me at lknutson5169@gmail.com or call or text me at 507-822-2053 with the correct two answers.
