NHS Tiger became a CHS Viking to continue playing football

The following is a “Have Fun or Get Out of the Way” column by Don Leighton and his alter ego, Lance Boyle, and Willie Wannabe.

On a typical summer morning at Botten’s Green Acres Golf Course, Northwestern High School alumni of old gather for a round of golf, but more importantly for camaraderie and conversation of what is, what was and what might have been. Invariably, the conversation drifts from the present to the past, sometimes as far back as a half century or more.

As the 1940s became the 50s, young men in rural northern Wisconsin usually had two choices to exhibit their athletic prowess; baseball in the summer and basketball in the winter. But men of that day were macho and yearned to play the sport that was the manliest of all, football.

For most, it was only a dream. Oh, it’s not that there were not Tigers who would have excelled at the sport; names from the past like Jacobson, Alberts, Jorgensen, Knoll, Lapole, Sedin, Fredericks, Tribilcock, Khalar, Johnson, Arnold and Hanson are just a few of many who come to mind, and one shivers in his boots at the thought of being met at the line by any one of them.

But memories of them on the gridiron in Tigerland are mythical and filed under the storyline of what might have been. Football at NHS did not start until the fall of 1965, after these athletes had graduated.

Don Larsen grew up in Maple and Poplar, the only son of Charlie, a cattle farmer, and housewife Lillian, a sister and sister-in-law of Mickey and Larry Weinandt. The Weinandt’s themselves were the parents of Tigers of old including Larry, a member of the first Tiger class in 1950 and one of those two-sport athletes of the day. As was the habit, Don too yearned to play the game of football. The difference between his story and the story of his cousin, and other country buddies, is that it is filed under the storyline of what was.

Had history been different, Don would have been a member of the NHS class of 1951. But his desire to play football took him to uncharted land. To fulfill his dream, he defected to the dreaded city and became a member of the Superior Central High School class of 1951, playing football and baseball for the Vikings.

He parlayed his high school experience into a college career at Hamline University in St. Paul, where he made his name on the field and used that opportunity as the springboard to his future. You see, his football career did not end at Hamline. Don became a very successful coach first at Cameron High School then at the college level at Northland College in Ashland, Central College in Pella, Iowa, and Mankato State College (now Minnesota State Mankato) in Minnesota. He went full circle and closed the book on his coaching career at Mankato West High School.

Don has left a positive mark on numerous young athletes over the years and continues to do so in the twilight of his career as the Region 2AA Secretary for the Minnesota State High School League.

Fast forward to 2010 on a typical summer morning at Botten’s Green Acres. At a table in the corner might be a group of Tigers of old sharing stories and swapping lies.

Among them might be Mickey Killoren, a Tiger from the 60s and another one of those two-sport athletes of the day; Pat Moreland, he himself not a Tiger graduate, but a Tiger just the same as a teacher and coach who helped mold the lives of many a Tiger; and Darrel Kaldor, a Tiger by transplant who may have coached more Tiger legends in his time than any other.

Cal Ruska, an outstanding three-sport athlete at NHS, may be there, and sitting with them might be Larsen, who along with his wife, Marla, have found solitude in a home on Lake Nebagamon and spend most of their summers there.

If you look closely, you’ll probably see a smile on Don’s face. I believe it’s because he is where he was meant to be: in Tiger country. We have found the Tiger who was lost.

Opinions and/or story ideas can be e-mailed to dleigh1273@aol.com or wgranlund@centurytel.net

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