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Sports Memories by Tom Jones

15 years

• The Minnesota Gopher men’s basketball team defeated North Dakota State 90-76 at Williams Arena. Albert Lea’s all-time boys’ basketball scoring leader Ben Woodside led the Bison with 16 points. The Bison hadn’t defeated the Gophers since 1936.
• The Albert Lea girls’ basketball team opened their season with a 72-51 loss to Waseca. Abbey Arends led the Tigers with 15 points.
• The Glenville-Emmons girls’ basketball team opened their season with a 41-28 win over Cannon Valley Lutheran. Danielle Cooper led the Wolverines with 10 points.
• The Alden-Conger girls’ basketball team opened their season with a 46-43 win over Nicollet. Krista Mathiason led the Knights with 13 points with Nadean Krueger and Megan Miller each adding 12.

20 years

• The Albert Lea “B” Bantam hockey team opened their season with a 1-0 win over Waseca. Matt Hobbie scored the only goal of the game with an assist from Phil Runden. Nick Boncimino picked up the shutout in the nets.
• The Albert Lea Tigers girls’ hockey team suffered their first loss of the season as Rochester Mayo came to the City Arena and defeated the Tigers 4-1. Jerri Mondeel scored the only goal for the Tigers.
• The Alden-Conger girls’ basketball team opened their season with a 47-43 win over Martin Luther in Alden. Angie Wichmann scored 19 points in the win.
• Minnesota Twins relief pitched signed as a free agent with the Chicago Cubs. The contract had an average yearly value of $3.67 million.

50 years

• Mike Stensrud of Lake Mills was named to the first team of the Iowa Daily Press Association’s All-State football team.
• Coach Jim Vangen’s Moose PeeWee hockey team defeated Minneapolis Northeast 8-0.
• Roy Nystrom picked up his first victory as hockey coach of the Albert Lea Tigers when his team defeated Rochester Lourdes 7-4. Dale Hendrickson scored two goals with Gary Trytten, Kent Hanson, Mark Breck, Kelly Brandt and Jon Breuer each scoring one.
• The Albert Lea VFW traveling bantam hockey team defeated Minneapolis Northeast 6-2. Todd Dahl scored twice with Roy Fleming, Vinny Cerrato, Dan Colstrup and Dan Hendrickson each getting one.
• Albert Lea State Rep. Henry Savelkoul was set to speak on wetland projects at the Minnesota Waterfowl Association meeting at Interstate Hall.
• Alden-Conger wrestling coach Dick Waslein picked up his first win of the season as the Blackhawks defeated Winnebago 27-15. Dave Reindal, Dave Pestorious, Mark Reimer, Rich Newman, Randy Whelan, Ron Krueger and Clair Drescher all picked up wins.
• The Minnesota Twins announced an increase in ticket prices for the upcoming season with general admission being $2 and box seats $4.50. Leftfield box seats were remaining $3.50.
• Behind Steve Peterson’s 15 points, the Alden-Conger boys’ basketball team defeated New Richland 80-40 in a game played in Alden. Blackhawks coach Neil Pierce commented that the game was a good one.

And long ago

In 1923, the bus taking the Albert Lea football team to Austin overturned, ruining Charlie Ruble’s new $55 suit, which was the pride of the school.