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Sports Memories by Tom Jones

This Sunday marks the fifth year since I was able to celebrate Father’s Day with my dad, who passed away on Nov. 27, 2018.

Father’s Day weekend was always special in the Jones family as it was also the same time that I celebrated my birthday.

Three days before my dad left us, I sat at his bedside at Thorne Crest Rehabilitaion Center and had my last talk with him. We covered so many things that day. Two that I remember most were him telling me how much he wished he would have been more of a sports dad to me and how happy he was to be able to see both of our children get over half-way to being adults.

On my first go-around of writing this column before COVID hit, I looked back at how much of a sports dad he really was and will share some of those stories again here.

While we have home movies from vacations of my mom swinging my baseball bat at rest stops on car trips out west, my dad really was a great sports fan.

In going through artifacts in our attic, I came across some homecoming pins that my dad had saved from the 1940s, when they were made of wood over metal, which would have been used in the war. Still in perfect shape in a box along with a treasured participation medal from the Minnesota State High School League state basketball tournament in 1936 when Albert Lea played in it. I wish I knew how he ended up with this as he was a graduate of the class of 1947.

Other memories include being a part of the 17,967 fans attending the Twins-Red Sox game on Aug. 25, 1970, with a group of Kiwanis Club members when it was announced we had to leave the stadium for a bomb scare at Met Stadium. I also remember going to a bat day promotion, where the thunder of so many bats being pounded on the Metropolitan Stadium floor made quite a racket.

Dad took our family to Williams Arena on the campus of the University of Minnesota where he had graduated from college during the Bill Musselman era to see the men’s basketball team play, including getting to watch their fabulous pre-game “Magic Circle.” What a thrill it was even if we were seated in the upper corner of the lower deck.

I have vague recollections of going to a football game at the old Abbott Field as a kid with my parents. He told me he and a bunch of his buddies drove to Ft. Dodge to watch the Tigers play football in what was probably his senior year in the fall of 1946. We went to many football games all through my school years, including a game at Duluth Denfeld on Friday of Labor Day in 1976 where the Tigers took it to Denfeld 46-0. He loved listening to our broadcasts I was a part of on KATE and often recorded them for me to listen to.

He took us to many Tigers basketball games over my childhood years. I especially remember going to games in Rochester where we would eat at Wong’s or the High Forest Truck Stop before the games. It was so fun to watch Orrie Jirele’s team clash with the Rochester teams over those years.

He also took us to Lea College hoops games at what is now the City Arena, where his longtime friendship with coach Al Arends developed. I cherish that I have continued the friendship with Arends today.

As dad became older as did I, we didn’t go to many games together. When we adopted our children in 2006 I couldn’t wait for my kids to hopefully get into sports so my dad and mom could see their grandchildren play. We were so fortunate they lived long enough to see both kids play in traveling basketball tournaments and in softball and baseball games. It was truly special at one of my daughter’s softball games in Kasson-Mantorville when she and I could see grandpa’s car parked well beyond the outfield fence watching the game while she played and I coached.

As I celebrate my 18th Father’s Day and my 61st birthday this weekend, I want to wish all fathers out there a special day.