Trending
This area has had so many outstanding football players, and I am again going from my memory to name a few of them that I remember. Balaton had some outstanding teams in the 60's, coached by Ron Borchert. Jim Johnson, Class of 68, went on to play for the Air Force Academy. Pat Popowski (1970) and Craig Rasmussen (1971) were my teammates and roommates at Mn-Morris. They both had terrific careers there, (in spite of having to play with mediocre teammates like me), and Pat went on to have a tryout with the Chicago Bears in 1974. After a couple of weeks trying out as a halfback, he was injured and got cut. So when he got back to Morris, we were all anxious to hear about the experience. He said that one of the guys he was trying to beat out was from a small school down south, Jackson State. "He wasn't that well known, but boy, he was really good!" That man was Walter Payton, and I heard he had a good career........
Wood Lake also had a great football team in the 1965-66 season. Their quarterback was Charlie Munsch, a terrific athlete who later starred at St. Cloud State. That team also had Terry Timm, Bruce Zemple and my friend, Dave Johnson. They won the District that year by beating a fine Ruthton team, led by All-State quarterback Arden Jensen. Wood Lake won the game handily, but Larry Anderson, Ruthton’s star halfback, had broken his hand the week before and did not play. Ruthton may not have beaten Wood Lake anyway, but it sure would have been a closer game.
My friend and colleague at the Tyler Tribute, Jim Kopel, had a column in last weeks paper about the great teams from Russell, Tyler and Ruthton. Some great football players came out of those schools. Obviously, Todd Bouman was the most successful, having a 13-year NFL career. But Kyle Minett stood out in the mid-2000's, gaining over 6000 yards in just 29 games at RTR. For those of you who aren't good in math, that is an average of 200 yards a game for his career. He went to South Dakota State, where he became the second all-time leading rusher. He was the first running back to have three consecutive 1000-yard seasons, and Kyle was inducted into the Jackrabbit Sports Hall of Fame in 2021. Kyle was also a finalist for Walter Payton Award (yes, THAT Walter Payton) as the top offensive player in the FCS.
Lake Benton also had some tremendous players in the 50's through the 70's, starting with Jim Krause, who played for the Minnesota Gophers in the early 60's. The Bobcats won the 9-man State Championship in both 1973 and 1974, led by Coach Andy Nelson. Their quarterback was Kim Nelson, a tremendous athlete who went on to have an outstanding career at Dakota State. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame there in 2024. He is the winningest coach in South Dakota history (314-154). But they also had two of the best running backs in the state, Jeff Frey and Curt Weber. Those two were unstoppable running the ball, and if you threw the ball towards C-Web, it was most likely going back the other way for a touchdown. He had a fine career at Southwest State, but it was limited due to a shoulder injury Sadly, he passed away at age 60 from ALS.
Hendricks and Ivanhoe also had fine players, and among the best of them was my brother-in-law, Doug Buller. But there was a host of Johnsons, Dorns, Hexums and others that made Hendricks a powerhouse. And Ivanhoe had Duane Jerzak (one of my coaches at UMM), Jim (Red) Herhusky, Greg Gropel, Clark Spanton, Randy Noble, and my friend Bill Barber who all contributed to some great football in the 60's.
I didn't really get to see any Marshall games, since I was playing myself at the same time, but I know that Mike Culhane, Lee Markell, Drew Kinseth and Rick Manke all made their mark on the Marshall Tigers football program. I did get to watch Mike at Southwest and Rick at Moorhead State, where I had a great view from the sidelines. It was fun to watch them excel at that level.
Of course, the danger of doing this column is that I will leave out some tremendous football players from this area. But my memories of either watching, playing with, or hearing about the players I mentioned always makes football season special for me. So I apologize for those that I left out, but I look forward to seeing more great football in the future in our region. Thanks for the memories!!