Sports
Ernie Nevers pro football debut was exhibition game in 1926
On Jan. 2, 1926 — one hundred years ago today — Willow River native and Superior Central High School standout athlete Ernie Nevers made his pro football debut in an exhibition game in Jacksonville, Florida. He represented the Jacksonville All Stars in a much-hyped game against Red Grange’s Chicago Bears. (more…)
Duluth-area Hockey Pin-back Buttons
With hockey season well underway, we’ve pulled out the hockey-related buttons from Perfect Duluth Day’s larger button collection. (more…)
Minnesota Historia: Bronko Nagurski
Bronko Nagurski is celebrated in International Falls with his own museum and a giant statue. He’s considered one of the greatest football players who ever lived. And the Car Talk guys mentioned his mellifluous name every chance they got. But what did he think about all this attention?
Minnesota Historia is a PBS North web series dedicated to Minnesota’s quirky past. It is hosted by Hailey Eidenschink and produced/edited/written by Mike Scholtz.
PDD Quiz: Soccer
Test your soccer smarts with this edition of the PDD Quiz.
The next PDD quiz, reviewing the month’s headlines, will be published on Aug. 31. Please submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at alisonlinnaemoffat@gmail.com by Aug. 26. (more…)
Ice Racing Getaway Driver
1983 St. Louis County jailhouse interview with “Turbo” Ted Van Brunt
Interviewer: Tell me about your escape from Duluth.
Turbo Ted: Escaping Duluth is a coin flip. Half my friends tried and couldn’t reach the velocity, came back after two or three years of getting kicked around out there. I tried a couple times.
What you’re really asking about started a couple springs ago, when it rained then the temperature plunged. The city woke up with a coating of clear ice on every surface. Branches falling in the road. Whole city shut down, nothing could move.
Except my black, street stock, ice racing stud car, a 1976 Chevette with a roll cage and 500 spikes on each tire — sheet metal screws we screwed in ourselves. Fender all chewed up. Commonly called the worst car of all time but it did everything we asked. And Johnny said it was go time. He was the brains, had it all worked, how to disarm the system at the Superior Street jewelers there. He got that with a bribe. It was only a question of when, and this was our crisis of opportunity. “The cops won’t stand a chance,” he said, and they didn’t. They even had chains on but they still didn’t know how to drive. Anyway so Johnny robbed it, but he didn’t get all the alarms. And I was the getaway driver but I still get half. Which wasn’t much — a couple display cases worth of diamond jewelry. Pulled him behind the car on a tether as we blew down Superior through deserted intersections, cross-training for frozen lake ice races at the same time we’re robbing a jewelry store. Just on his feet — no skis, just boots. And of course the cop shop is right there. But their interceptors fell behind. It was beautiful. (more…)
Rawkers shutout Rollers in 2025 Homegrown kickball
First-year Rollers coach Kaylee Matuszak did all she could to inspire her team, but her players rarely made it beyond second base in a 4-0 loss to Leon Rohrbaugh’s Rawkers in the Homegrown Kickball Classic. At least, that’s what happened if you believe the liberal media.
“Team Saturday Night takes it,” Matuszak wrote on Facebook shortly after the game. “If you hear we lost 4-0, that’s fake news and you cannot prove it and also I won’t speak to you without an attorney.” (more…)
Minnesota All Hockey Hair Team 2025: No Biz Like Flow Biz
Lettuce, camera, action! The bright lights once again were shining in St. Paul, and mullets were on the marquee. This year’s All Hockey Hair Team takes on a Hollywood theme as John King and Pulltab Sports offer up another montage of the best hair from the Minnesota State High School Hockey Tournament, handing out some Osc-Hairs for best supporting salads and best leading lettuce. (more…)
Christian Boarding School Texas Football
I still have bitter high school football recriminations. My 1980s Episcopal boarding school in Texas glorified football above other sports. I attended on a scholarship from family connections, not through any academic or athletic merit. And I learned the wrong lesson about authority from the sports program.
A recent obituary in the alumni newsletter helped spur me to write this, although I’ve been kicking it around for 40 years. Nothing personal against Coach P who I don’t have to name. For the purposes of this story he is the universal coach. This is not to disrespect his essential personhood or whatever. But I learned things I did not want to learn about society and all the rest of it — universal things I never forgot.
Coach P’s obituary said he was the decades-long athletics director, had coached thousands of games and taught thousands of history classes, too. He is fondly remembered by nearly everyone, including myself. He was a real Texas character. His knees were busted up and it crabbed his walk. I assumed it had happened on a football field in his younger days, a brutal hit or series of hits marking him, claiming him for the sport. You knew he was committed. He was gray and had the hairy ears of an old man if he let it go, something I noticed sitting behind him in chapel once or twice, and it made me swear to never get old or sentiments to that effect. He wasn’t really that old but he was weathered. He was not without warmth or humor, and he bonded with his players particularly. Like in the Lou Reed song, they “wanted to play football for the coach.” They liked how, when he was consternated at you, he would exclaim “Hellfire, son!” (more…)
Duluth jockey Lloyd Geving a top prospect in 1925
Duluth’s Lloyd Geving, 18 years old in 1925, was one of the most promising jockeys of the winter season at Oriental Park Racetrack in Marianao, Havana, Cuba. (more…)
Giant Ski 2025 Highlights
The drama. The pageantry. The American Birkebeiner Giant Ski Race on Main Street in Hayward.
The 2025 race featured 30 teams, including the champion — Tree Schoolers.
Birkie Giant Ski 2025: The Stage is Set
The stage is set for the “giantest show on snow.” The American Birkebeiner Giant Ski Race on Main Street in Hayward happens tonight.
Carl Holmstrom jumped 110 feet at Chester Bowl in 1925
Carl Holmstrom had the longest ski-jump at Chester Park during the opening event of the 1925 season, held on Jan. 4, 100 years ago today. The newspaper clip above is from the previous day’s edition of the Duluth Herald. Below is the report of the race from the Jan. 5 Herald. (more…)