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Sports Memories by Tom Jones

As many of you may know, I am a collector of many things, mostly sports memorabilia. One other thing I really enjoy collecting is old Albert Lea historical papers. When deciding what to write about this week I went into my collection of old AhLaHaSa’s from the high school and came across an interesting article of a great athlete of Albert Lea’s past.

The sports page was on the back of the four-page AhlaHaSa that was published Dec. 19, 1940. Columnists Doc Calhoun and Earl Nelson co-wrote a column called “The Dope Bucket,” and this issue’s subject was about former Albert Lea High School football star Chuck Myre, who had stopped by the paper’s classroom to talk about his very successful first year as a member of the Milwaukee Chiefs of the newly formed American Professional Football League.

Online records show Chiefs’ opponents that first year included the St. Louis Gunners, Des Moines Comets, Kenosha Cardinals, Boston Bears, Buffalo Indians, Cincinnati Bengles, Columbus Bullies, Milwaukee Chiefs and New York Yankees.

The columnists noted that Myre had scored 60 points on 10 touchdowns for the Chiefs that first season including a season-opening four touchdowns, which included an 85-yard run in the team’s 60-0 win over St. Louis. He said his greatest thrill was intercepting a pass against Columbus and running it back 80 yards for a touchdown.

The Chiefs played their home games for their two years of existence at the Dairy Bowl at State Fair Park in West Allis, Wisconsin. Unfortunately, because of the attack on Pearl Harbor, plans for a third season with the league were scrapped and the league ended play.

The 1934 Tigers team he was on won the Big 8 championship and he was captain for the Albert Lea football team in the fall of 1935, where he is pictured wearing No. 36 in the Tiger yearbook.

He later went on to play for the Minnesota Gophers and legendary coach Bernie Bierman in 1937-38-39.

An obituary in the Star Tribune shows that Myre passed away in 2006. He was the son of Helmer Myre, the light heavyweight champion wrestler in the world from 1920-1922, of which Myre-Big Island State Park was named.

I hope you have enjoyed my look back at one of the great ones in Tiger sports. I wish all the readers of my column each week a very Merry Christmas.