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Sports Memories by Tom Jones

This past weekend my wife, Nancy, and I spent two nights in Duluth celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. This is one of our favorite places to go, and the weather was perfect.

When looking at my phone, I discovered that the Duluth Huskies were hosting the LaCrosse Loggers in the second game of a best of three series in Northwoods League baseball play. I couldn’t resist heading to the game to see the historic Wade Stadium, which I have always wanted to visit.

According to Wikipedia, the stadium was built in 1941 with some of the 381,000 bricks that had been removed from the surface of Grand Avenue in Duluth. It was built by the WPA, which the federal government had established to boost employment during the depression years. Sitting along the right field line, it reminded me of the stadium in the movie “A League of Their Own.”

Over the years the team was a part of minor league baseball’s Northern League until the league ceased operations in 1971. Former Minnesota Twin Don Mincher and Cy Young Award winner Denny McLain are two of the many notable major leaguers who played there early in their careers. The stadium sat empty for many years until 1993 when a new Northern League franchise came to town, and it has been used ever since. For baseball lovers, the stadium must be on your road trip list for a place to visit.

After my wife picked me up following the Huskies getting eliminated by the Loggers 8-6, we were on our way to get pizza when we drove past Duluth Denfeld High School, a place I had been to with my parents on the Friday before Labor Day of 1976 to watch the Albert Lea Tigers football team defeat the Hunters 46-0.

Garry Abben opened the scoring for the Tigers that night on touchdown runs of five and three yards. Scott Verhey added two touchdowns on runs of 74 and 5-yards. The Tiger ground attack netted 346 yards which also included touchdowns runs of five-yards from Jeff White and 24-yards from Doug Edwards. Vinny Cerrato also completed a 19-yard pass to Terry Fuller for a touchdown. Late in the game KATE’s Tom Capistrant made the call of “Pops pops for two as reserve running back Jeff Poplow saw action.”

The Tigers finished that season with a record of 7-2, with their only losses coming to Rochester Mayo and Rochester John Marshall. White led the Tigers in rushing with 838-yards on 141 attempts. Cerrato threw for 890 yards and 12 touchdowns while completing 52 passes in 96 attempts.

The seniors on the squad put together a two-year record of 15-4 under coach Jerry Nelson.

Alumni update

Kailey Boettcher, a 2023 graduate of Albert Lea High School and a sophomore on the Hamline University Women’s Soccer team, recently returned from a nine-day trip with the team to Costa Rica where they played three games. While there, they toured three cities, discovered Costa Rican culture and volunteered at an elementary school. The Pipers open their season Aug. 30 at Pat Paterson Field on the Hamline campus against Whitworth College of Spokane, Washington.