Vikings begin pre-season (yawn) in Nashville

Our Minnesota Vikings played in Nashville, TN, Saturday. It's a testament to the popularity of the NFL that there's enough interest to justify the televising.

The games don't count. We watch many players scurry around whose names we aren't familiar with. The execution is rough.

Nashville was a minor league city when I was a kid. We'd get familiar with the names of these cities thanks to baseball cards. A player might have had a hitch in Des Moines on the way up.

Or Charlotte. Or Winston-Salem. (No, I don't think their team was called the "Filters.")

Educators might have decried baseball cards and comic books but this fare supplied building blocks. I remember a college teacher who decried Hardy Boys books for kids. I suppose she'd rather have us reading "Bartleby the Scrivener" by Herman Melville.

I read years ago that Nashville's minor league baseball team was the "Sounds." What an absolutely perfect name for a Nashville sports team. Tennessee's NFL team is the "Titans."

Sometimes when a new big league sports team is created, the best nickname can't be considered. It's already taken by a lower-echelon team or might have been used in the past.

For example, we here in Minnesota once had an American Basketball Association (ABA) franchise called the "Muskies." Actually the ABA had more than one incarnation in Minnesota. I remember the "Pipers" too.

The ABA was a fascinating league that used the multi-colored ball, remember? Many black athletes liked the "afro" hair style at that time, and basketball uniforms were tight-fitting.

Loose-fitting clothes might have made you a "sissy" in those days. And in a later era, a "nerd."

If someone had told me low-riding baggy shorts would become fashionable, I would've said "you're nuts."

I would rather see the afro come back than to continue seeing all those tattoos. The tattoos are reason enough to switch off the NBA.

I'm assuming that because "Muskies" had already been used in Minnesota sports history, it couldn't be offered again as a nickname candidate. "Muskies" conjures up our north country nicely and it rolls off the tongue better than "Timberwolves."

I remember when our NBA team was forming and local government bodies were asked for opinions on team nickname. I think there were three candidates, one of them "Polars."

"Polars" wouldn't have been good PR because it suggests we live in igloos here.

I remember the late public servant Steven "Skip" Sherstad saying of this name polling: "I think this is ridiculous."

I'm not sure to what extent the polling influenced the choice but we ended up with "Timberwolves."

Right away we all knew it would be shortened. It's common to hear "Wolves" or "T-Wolves."

Even "Vikings" isn't snappy enough for some people, who opt for "Vikes."

"Muskies" wouldn't have been subject to this sort of thing. Although, I suppose some people would do like with the Miami Dolphins and say "Fish."

"Titans" (for Tennessee) bothers me a wee bit because you cannot, as a practical matter, pronounce the second "t."

"Twins" is a nice crisp one syllable but oddly, some people lengthen it to "Twinkies."

I wonder what the new University of North Dakota sports nickname will be. I'm sure that will be a mess there as people keep showing up for games wearing "Fighting Sioux" sweatshirts and with like fan paraphernalia, either as a habit or to make a protest statement.
UND presidents have turned gray dealing with this, surely.

I have had the pleasure of visiting Nashville three times. There's a main street called Broadway that has a small-city feel.
Nashville has expanded way out I'm sure, but there still is good ol' Broadway with its Tootsie's Orchid Lounge. I posed for a photo next to Webb Pierce's 1962 Cadillac.

I'm sure Nashville's economy has diversified quite a bit. Country music will be a legacy image.

The Tennessee Titans handed our Minnesota Vikings a 14-3 defeat Saturday (8/13). Some of the sheen is already gone from the Leslie Frazier coaching regime. The offense needs to get juiced up a little.

QB Donovan McNabb didn't give us any proof that he has found new life after his disastrous year in Washington, D.C.

I continue to feel that McNabb coming here is the equivalent of Dave Winfield coming to the Twins. It's maybe not quite as bad as Steve Carlton coming to the Twins.

Bill Madlock said after facing Carlton in Carlton's twilight: "I faced Lefty back when Lefty was Lefty, and Lefty isn't Lefty anymore."

Time will tell but we can't rule out McNabb falling into that category. A grisled veteran signs a one-year contract loaded with incentives. It's a long shot.
The athlete still looks good in a uniform. But nobody wins because of the uniform.

McNabb was benched last year because as his coach put it, he "wasn't in good enough shape" to run the two-minute offense.

No coach's comment could be more embarrassing. And this is the quarterback we brought in because our rookie might be too raw? It could be a bumpy ride.

And we'll have to start scoring more than three points.

Charlie Johnson hasn't looked real sharp as Bryant McKinnie's replacement.

One thing about having Joe Webb at quarterback: he can always improvise (run) to gain yards. Didn't he beat Michael Vick last season?

Maybe in the contest between the graybeard and rookie, we'll see neither prevail. It might be Webb.

The Vikings will play at Seattle Saturday. Bill Musgrave had better find a way to prod the offense.

(Sorry, you people who found this post because you Googled "Bartleby the Scrivener.")

- Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Those green and red arrows rule our psyche

It's Sunday (8/14) so I don't need to pay attention to those little green arrows or red arrows. But even on Sundays, the media are beginning to pay attention to when the Asian markets open.

Early risers can check right away how the "futures" are doing. If the S&P futures are up, say, 4.20, we can feel good that the Dow will have a decent day.
There's an irony here. Even the people who tout stocks will say "don't pay attention to day-to-day fluctuations in the stock market."
The knee-jerk wisdom is to stay in for the long haul. People who sell this stuff always talk about the long-term upward trend in stocks.
But the behavior of the media suggests that the day-to-day movements are important or at least ought to be of interest for most people.
I find the interest in these "arrows" to be perverse.
People who might be cynical in many things don't seem to extend this distrust to stocks. Even though, American history suggests that people can be hurt mightily by woes in the stock market or so-called free market.
People love to talk about freedom and the ownership society.
I'm writing this after listening to days of Republican rhetoric leading up to the Republican straw poll in Iowa.
We can still laugh at Stephen Colbert's parodies. That's because the storm clouds hovering over our economy haven't really scared us yet. The stock market goes down like a bungee jumper and then comes back.
We always depend on the Federal Reserve to make some sort of statement talking the market back up. It happened last week, even though it was previously reported that the Fed was "out of bullets." The Fed has a trace of magic left.
The Fed can apply a Band-Aid to our economy here and there but it was never meant to be some sort of fountain of prosperity. I don't want my financial future resting on Ben Bernanke sitting at a microphone, slightly bent forward.
Who would want their prosperity resting on anything that is shaky and unpredictable? Americans have seemed content being mesmerized by those daily green arrows and red arrows.
The market could have crashed in 2008 but the government patched things over. The government can always apply patches but it comes with a cost. The government can apply stability as it apparently did with TARP, yet so many politicians tell us the government must simply get out of the way.
We should be so lucky as to have the Republicans' core principles be a good guide. It would be nice if a totally unfettered economy served us all. It would be nice if, as Mitt Romney said, "corporations are people too."
History is full of fractures in the stock market that left people suffering. How can people put faith in the markets when no one is completely sure why they fluctuate the way they do?
The media cover them in a disingenuous way. The experts line up to go on TV, people whose careers benefit from the exposure, and they talk as if they really know.
The media want to cover all this stuff because Americans have bought into 401Ks and the market in general. So the self-interested experts give us analysis.
I know all the jargon so I could go on TV and sound as credible.
The market was in total manic-depressive mode last week. The Fed gave us a little rescue net. What will the futures say Monday morning? Or what will the Asian markets tell us later today (Sunday)?
If we want this information, the media will make sure we get it. There is no real moral or principled component to what the media does.
Much of the stock market coverage comes from media properties supported by advertising from companies that seek to tout the market. I can see this but apparently many others, who should know better, cannot.
Republicans are riding this big wave of sentiment toward having the government get out of our lives. Wipe out regulations.
"Reform entitlements" which might mean having people work to a more advanced age.
The fundamental problem with putting faith in the stock market is that profits absolutely rule. They come ahead of virtually all human considerations. If you're 65 you might not be allowed to "limp" to retirement at 70. If the numbers dictate, you'll be gone.
A prominent Republican was recently asked about jobs that might be too demanding for people who are getting up in years. The answer was "there might be waivers."
This was a huge admission but the moderator of the discussion just moved on. A system for granting waivers might be a bureaucratic monstrosity unto itself. Lawyers will be busy.
The vast majority of jobs nowadays might be classified as high-stress. Technology has eliminated a lot of the tedious or "boring" work. What's left is stuff that requires analysis and sharpness. A lot of people aren't going to be able to cut it.
But the empowered Republicans are pushing us toward their Utopian, free market-centered universe. Their hatred of the whole concept of taxes makes me wonder if they'll just criminalize any system that imposes them.
They are empowered right now because the public seems to like this talk.
Will the Democrats be frozen as a permanent minority party? Will Americans buy into the rhetoric of the impulsive far right politicians of the Deep South, like Jim DeMint, Newt Gingrich or even Rick Perry, people whose dislike for Barack Obama might be motivated by considerations outside standard political issues?
How clueless can the mass citizenry be? Well, how can our Minnesota, which put the likes of Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale and Paul Wellstone on the national stage, now be the home base of Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty? If either got elected president, would they even shake hands with Obama at the time of transition?
Update: Pawlenty dropped out of the race today.
The level of animosity is worrisome.
I remember when there was worry that the Republican party might get frozen as a permanent minority at the end of Watergate. So these things can change.
Republicans try, when given the chance, to put up barriers to voting. Their approach these days is scorched earth.
This recent status quo will continue if the stock market can find its legs again.
If the stock market crashes this coming week, which no one can rule out, a new paradigm might set in. Maybe we'll decide that people are important again. Maybe we'll decide to start judging things again by criteria that don't involve how much has been "invested" in it.
Maybe a bare bones church will be seen as having just as much to offer as an opulent megachurch. Maybe a plain-jane school with a gym built in the mid-20th Century will be seen as just as practical and attractive as our amenity-drenched Morris Area School.
Maybe it would be healthy for us in the long run, to have an economic calamity on a scale that causes us not to want to follow those "green arrows" and "red arrows" all the live-long day.
And when will the Republicans become isolationists again?

- Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

On school, public facilities & changing times

Morris High School was grades 10-12 when I was there. Sophomores were the "young kids" and seniors were the settled, mature ones (relatively speaking).

Longfellow Elementary School in west Morris was still in existence.

Longfellow memories came back with the recent passing of Ruth Moerke. I remember the "milk machine" in the commons area and the "George Washington in the Clouds" wall hanging.

That was indoctrination, right? We might have been told that in the '70s as we went off to college. No, seriously.

Today everyone has their head on straight.

The Morris High School building seemed new in the 1970s. There seemed to be considerable difficulty getting the vote through to construct it. I'm not sure if that was due to the condition of the economy or if less non-local money was available.

It took more than one try. Many would lament years later that we voted down a proposal that included a swimming pool. Swimming pool proposals were bandied about for years until the RFC got built.

I have written before about the "earthen pool" chapter in Morris history. That flash in the pan was out at Pomme de Terre City Park. It had its merits when it was well-managed.
Costs may have taken it down. I probably swam there once or twice after it was officially closed.

I was in junior high when "split shifts" were implemented at our public school.

Student numbers were bulging in the mid-1960s. The community was divided on building a new school. "Split shifts" were a somewhat drastic means of dealing with the burgeoning numbers.

Were they a means of showing the community the folly of not building new, soon?

Up through most of the 1960s, the old, now abandoned school was the heart of our local educational efforts. Each year's high school yearbook proudly presented a photo of the exterior in the first few pages.

It doesn't seem that long ago in the scheme of things.

Grades 7 through 9 were the junior high and they stayed in the old building. The old building never really seemed the same after the high school left.

For years I felt like wincing when referring to the art deco auditorium as "the elementary auditorium." This is where the grand all-school musical "Oliver" was presented in 1970.

I remember watching a couple of varsity basketball games at the "elementary auditorium." It was substandard and certainly couldn't have been maintained much longer for that use.

It was the kind of gym you might see in the movie "Hoosiers." Today it's the home of pigeons.

Progress should concern itself not only with building the new, it should remove the old. It's painful for those who have memories in the old building.

I had Bill Coombe as a teacher in the seventh grade - the man for whom Coombe Field was named. Coombe Field had the same fate as the rest of that complex.

The only good thing about that mess is that the city - the proud owner - can't point fingers at anyone for having a "nuisance property." The city has the biggest nuisance property.

The high school auditorium was built after I graduated. It really seems kind of modest. Believe it or not there was controversy about it. The superintendent was known to tell people he "almost got fired" pushing it through.
A friend told me this who had come back to town to help judge a Miss Morris Pageant. He said the superintendent repeatedly mentioned the peril he was in, advocating for that.

The irony now is that the auditorium has been dwarfed by the concert hall. The concert hall is absolutely opulent. I continue to believe it goes beyond our needs.

That former superintendent might want to pinch himself looking at it, seeing if he's dreaming.

I also believe the gymnasium space has become way excessive. When the school expansion was on the drawing board a few years ago, one of my journalism compatriots wondered if Morris was trying to become "the gymnasium capital of western Minnesota."

All the rhetoric about needing expanded athletic facilities has always seemed to work here.

That compatriot of mine also suspected that "large commons areas" in new schools might be remembered as a transitory fad.

I have my own theory about this. Cavernous gyms, concert halls, cafeteria areas and the like are a means of "wowing" the public, to get the public's jaw to drop, as it were, and appreciate the money spent.

Schools without such amenities might seem humdrum. What do you think a school is, a place for students to sit at desks and learn?

If these gyms are such assets, why do we hear more and more about the "obesity epidemic" among our youth?

The new gyms here startled me a little because I remember the 1968 gym as being new and quite special. That was the gym that lifted us out of the supposed dark ages of the "elementary auditorium" gym.

I was always amused by how many schools used the words "gym" and "auditorium" interchangeably for their facilities.

I was in the Morris High School band when it gave concerts at the 1968 gym. Remember, the high school auditorium was not yet built.

Actually the gym seemed to work nice for concerts. I remember attending a concert there when Renee Schmidt played a dazzling flute solo.

Most of us probably thought the high school building would always house grades 10-12 only. We didn't see the demographic tremors coming. Maybe the administration did but I didn't.

It's amazing how in school, someone just one year older or one year younger seemed so separated from your world. Only your exact age peers really seemed to have affinity with you.

As you get older, you realize that a mere one year of age difference is nothing.

This thought occurred to me recently in church where I was greeted by someone who said "Hi, do you know who I am?"

I should have remembered but I didn't. She would have been a junior when I was a senior. She was a drummer in band.

It's ridiculous to think of her as being "younger" than me now.

Maybe it's unhealthy to have such rigid age divisions. Maybe it encourages too narrow a social orbit. Broadening our relationships would prepare us better for the big wide world.

The woman I saw in church asked "Do you still play the trumpet?"

It reminded me of that old joke where you're in the doctor's office and ask "Doctor, after this operation will I be able to play the trumpet?"

I suppose her question showed that we're all "known for something" when we're in school. You're a homemaker, an athlete, a musician or whatever.

The hockey players were sort of rebel kids because we didn't have school-sponsored hockey then.

On the trumpet question I answered "no."

I remember asking at a pawn shop in Alexandria whether musical instruments were a highly sought commodity at such stores. The worker said unfortunately, no.

The reason is that band directors impose requirements that mean you can't just use any type of instrument. The ones available at a pawn shop might be lacking for some reason.

Too bad, because they seem reasonably priced. So you end up going to Sarlettes Music in Morris and having to contribute to the Sarlettes' immense wealth. (Just kidding.)

So, I don't still play the trumpet, Tracy.

I have a theory that traditional musical instruments are becoming archaic. Who wants to listen to someone blowing air through a brass cylinder who has to "empty spit out" periodically?

There, you'll probably never listen to brass instruments the same way again. I'm reminded of how Don Klein said he could never watch basketball on TV again after someone mentioned how the "shoes were squeaking" all the time.

I would have preferred that Tracy ask "Brian, are you still driving that ol' Toronado?"

Unfortunately the answer is "no" to that question too.

- Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Eagles score well but come up shy

The end of baseball season is a signal we're coming down the home stretch of summer. The 2011 season ended too early in the eyes of Morris Eagles baseball fans.

The Morris town team had a forgettable Saturday, Aug. 6, as it was dealt two losses and had the curtain come down on its season.
Wheaton was the site for Region 9C play. The 9C affair was unfriendly for the Eagles, first against Rosen and then Montevideo.

Please click on the link below to see a set of Morris Eagles photos (on Flickr) taken by yours truly (B.W.) this past summer. Sorry, I only attended two games but I got enough shots for a decent album.
When the Flickr page comes up, you can either click on the individual thumbnail photos to see a larger version, or try the "slideshow" feature (neat).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/morrismn/sets/72157627271544937/with/6026828750/

Let's reflect: The Eagles plunged into 2011 with a new roster and a need to establish just the right chemistry. There were bumps in the road early in the summer. There were bumps at the very end too, but in between there was a stretch of quite special memories.
That desired chemistry came around, to be sure. The Eagles won nine of their last ten regular season games.
If only they could have parlayed that success into 9C play. But it wasn't to be on Saturday, Aug. 6, at the home of the world's largest mallard: Wheaton.
Morris fell to the Rosen Express 11-8.
Cole Riley did his part trying to lift the Eagles' fortunes in a winning direction. Cole came to bat in the sixth with the table set nicely for him by a couple of Rosen errors. Cole hit a majestic home run to left-center, plating three runs.
The blast was good for cutting Morris' scoreboard deficit to two runs (9-7). Unfortunately Morris had a problem with errors in this game, just like Rosen. The line scores show each team with four errors.
Rosen outhit the Eagles 12-8.
Rosen crept forward with an unearned run in the top of the ninth. Cole Riley went back to work for Morris, connecting for another homer. But there were no baserunners on.
Again the scoreboard deficit was two runs. There was promise after that as Morris got the go-ahead run to the plate with two outs.
Up to bat came lefty Craig Knochenmus. Knochenmus had no trouble making good contact but he hit the ball right at someone. He lined out to the shortstop and this game was over.
Had Morris won this game, it would have been remembered as a special showcase for the "young guys" on the Morris roster. The prep seniors and Legion athletes were standouts with power bats.
Eric Riley hit a solo home run to center in the second. Ryan Beyer connected for a solo round-tripper in the fourth.
The Eagles needed more runners on base for their power blasts. They also needed to put the lid on Rosen's offense a little better.
A draftee from Appleton, Kyle Sachs, was the Morris starting pitcher. It was a rough outing for Kyle as he allowed eight runs, seven earned, in four innings.
Nathan Gades pitched the other five innings and he had things more under control. Nathan gave up two runs, one earned, and fanned four batters.
Rosen struck with a huge seven-run fifth inning. The Express used bunts effectively. Seven of their game-total 12 hits came in the fifth.
The Eagles tried to regroup to face Monte in their second game of the day. They failed to regroup as they committed six errors in a disappointing 11-8 loss to the Montevideo Spartans.
Yes, the score was almost identical to the Rosen game.
It was a "sloppy loss," spokesman Matthew Carrington said.
There were hopes early-on as Morris led 3-1 at the end of the first inning. Ryan Beyer, Craig Knochenmus and Eric Riley picked up RBIs in the first, Beyer with a double that landed barely fair.
Monte just couldn't be held down. The Spartans rallied for two runs in the second, five in the fourth and three in the fifth. Ouch.
Monte led 8-3 going into the bottom of the fourth but Morris was determined not to be down for the count.
Specifically it was Ryan Beyer making a statement. Beyer tore into a Monte delivery and achieved a grand slam home run! So the score is now 8-7.
But alas, this just wasn't Morris' day. The Spartans' three runs in the top of the fifth were all unearned. That episode "sealed the Eagles' fate," Carrington bemoaned.
Carrington delivered an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth. The tying run was at the plate - the same situation as in the Rosen game - but the final batter struck out.
After all that offense, the Eagles just couldn't scratch out a win on this day.
Eric Riley took the pitching loss. He and Carrington each pitched four innings.
Craig Knochenmus pitched the ninth and he got all three outs via strikeout.
Looking at the boxscore, Beyer certainly delivered the way the No. 3 battter in the order is expected. He had three hits in five at-bats, scored two runs and drove in five.
Ross Haugen and Chris Boettcher were the other Eagles with multiple-hit games.
Morris outhit Monte 11-10. But Monte had just one error compared to that glaring total of six for Morris.
The final Morris won-lost record for 2011 is 12-10.
"See you next year!" Carrington enthusiastically says.
- Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Does everyone realize Spartans are gone?

The Spartans are gone with the wind. I'm not sure the import of this has sunk in with lots of people.

There ought to be a wave of sadness passing through us all. Even if you never attended a game involving the red, white and blue Spartans, you should take a moment and feel regret as to their extinction.

The full weight of this should sink in soon. With the start of the new school year, all Chokio-Alberta sports will be paired with Morris. I jotted down this information from the kmrs-kkok website (the news page) a while back.

The item reported that the Morris Area school board OK'd a cooperative pairing agreement with Chokio-Alberta for football. The next sentence then reported that all C-A sports were now assimilated here.

I also jotted down how the Breckenridge school board had decided to donate services. Budget difficulties prodded that move obviously.

You can only imagine the pressures on the C-A district if there was no alternative there but to zip up the long, colorful history of C-A Spartan sports and say "that's it."

Again I'll quote a fellow who was in the audience for the Driggs lecture at UMM last year. In the Q&A, he asserted the changing demographics of western Minnesota, how, frankly, the decision to build UMM likely wouldn't even be made today.

Why? The drastically altered demographics.

This fellow in a loud, captivating voice talked about the time "when all the little towns out here had their own football and basketball teams."

I guess I'm getting to an age where I shouldn't assume everyone remembers that.

You could drive through these small towns on an autumn Friday night and see the flickering lights where the local football team was playing. It wasn't just a sports event, it was a social gathering.

I have to chuckle writing that because for many people, the social aspect ruled. Life was rich in those days when the day-to-day mindset seemed more relaxed.

I covered the C-A Spartans in the media for many years. To say that experience was rich is an understatement.

I covered graduations at the Alberta school building. I understand that building is now abandoned for school purposes.

I remember proms, spring arts festivals and basketball games there, in addition to graduations which were always held on Sunday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend. I gave up free-time stuff in order to make the commitment to be there most years.

A smile crosses my face as I remember Lyle Hettver proclaiming "Thank God for small schools!"

Small schools really need some divine support now.

In Breckenridge the leaders are apparently working gratis.
At C-A, not only is there sadness and humility over losing sports teams, an individual has been caught doing untoward things with money ($).

I don't think it's a coincidence that such a crime happened at a small school on the fringe for survival. When any institution begins to grope for survival, systems break down. The resources aren't there anymore.

The incident (teachable?) perhaps points to a need to have less of the human element in the directing of funds. Systems could be modified toward having this done electronically. We are so human an animal.

If the incident expedited the decline of Chokio-Alberta programs, it's oh so sad.

The extinction of C-A sports has a net negative effect for the Morris area (with a small "a").

Morris advocates would be happy that C-A paired here rather than with, for example, Clinton-Graceville.

This misses the point, because in an ideal world the Spartans would survive.

It's often futile to fight change. That fellow at the Driggs lecture made a point bluntly that a lot of us are hesitant to acknowledge.

Tom Brokaw has been known to make this point bluntly too. Brokaw talks about the "de-populating of the Great Plains states."

He talks about how you still find "courthouses 35 miles apart each with its own auditor - a system that might have made sense in horse and buggy times."

But the times have changed drastically.

We still have the Hancock Owls in Stevens County. I don't hear any panic rumors from over there, so the Owls would appear to be viable a while longer. Their girls basketball team reaches super heights.

Coach Jodi Holleman does as much as anyone keeping Hancock on the map. The Owl football team plays on a good old-fashioned small town football field.

Morris has moved on to the new age with its Big Cat Stadium. Take a look at Big Cat and you can't help but feel impressed.

But it's a far cry from the informal atmosphere of the old small town fields where people gathered, wandered and jabbered while the football seemed very often obscured. It was an excuse for a "town square."

A friend remembers "the junior high girls walking around the track" at our old football field here.

Football actually seemed more exciting at C-A because it was nine-man rather than eleven-man. The nature of nine-man football seemed to encourage more scoring. It was also the kind of football where a very talented individual could stand out more.

Yes, I know the Morris Area Tigers scored over 60 points in a game last fall. But I seem to recall some rule changes enacted through the years to help prep football offenses.

I remember a time when eleven-man high school football seemed boring much of the time. Too many of the plays just ended up as "a pile of guys out on the field." When it's cold out, this becomes humdrum quite fast.

Nine-man football seemed pretty fast and exciting even before those rule changes.

Coach Neal Hofland was a rock at Chokio-Alberta. I wonder if Neal saw the end coming through the years. Eventually C-A got paired with Herman-Norcross. But they were still the Spartans.

Who can forget those Friday nights in Chokio for home football? Who can forget the special atmosphere for Homecoming?

Such activities gave outstate Minnesota much of its personality. Now we're following the trend that iconic journalist Brokaw talked about. The "depopulating" leaves a discouraging silence in its wake.

I remember attending football games in Herman. And in Hoffman where Morris native Keith Swanson reigned as coach just like Hofland.

There will come a time when relatively few people have these memories. It's extremely important to preserve them.

Some museum space somewhere ought to be set aside, devoted to the rich memories of the C-A Spartans.

I attended many Homecoming pep rallies at the Alberta school. I found them refreshing in that they seemed 100 percent traditional. The Morris school by contrast, at least in a subtle way, seemed to exude more of what might be called a "deconstructionist" air.

Morris was eventually steered back in a more traditional way and that's good. If you're going to have Homecoming at all, there's a right and wrong way to do it.

The class-by-class Homecoming pep rally skits at C-A were priceless. I remember a skit inspired by a TV commercial starring Bob Uecker. It was complete with an actor proclaiming "I must be in the front row!"

Let's tuck away these memories and never let them die.

"Thank God for small schools."

It's early August now which means high school football workouts are about to start. No longer will we be able to drive past Chokio and see the Spartans being put through their pre-season paces.

No more festive air for the C-A football opener where everyone has adrenalin pumping for the new school year, feeling maybe a slight nip in the evening air because fall is near.

Again, tuck away those memories.

It's gone with the wind.

- Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

When time doesn't draw a misty curtain

I once visited a typical small-town VFW club to unwind with some soft drinks after an evening of playing tennis. The town had some nice well-lit tennis courts.

Tennis seemed popular among adults at the time, much more than seems the case today. Today we have thriving school-sponsored tennis programs. That's great but it might be nice to see a bump upward in unstructured tennis among older people who really could uses the exercise.

I'm not exactly setting the best example myself. Today the example I'm following is more like Bryant McKinnie, the just-released Minnesota Viking. He's big but doesn't that make him hard to run around if you're a defensive lineman?

Apparently the new Vikings coaching regime felt Mr. McKinnie needed to be more of an athlete. He could have used some rigorous sets of tennis on those lighted courts in Benson. This was in the early 1980s.

I remember they also had a lit basketball court where the light switch could be flipped by users - an honor system. I remember thinking this whole facility for tennis/hoops enthusiasts put forth a great example.

I played tennis there with a high school classmate. The classmate (initials A.C.) was an electronic media worker who started out in Benson and moved on (upward) to Willmar.

Benson is smack-dab in between Morris and Willmar. So Benson continued as an appropriate meeting point.

I'm sure we drank pop at the VFW even though the fear of God had not yet set in regarding DWIs. I'm not sure if it was a case of penalties not yet being real severe or of law enforcement not being real vigilant in enforcement.

Whatever, I think I was at an age where the novelty of alcohol consumption, at least for me, had worn off. So we probably sipped on Coca-Cola and listened to the kind of "juke box" music that gave the essential backdrop to these charming gathering places.

Of course we noticed those rows of framed photos of "past commanders" and "past auxiliary presidents" that provide terrific Americana at these purely American institutions.

Such people represented the heart and soul of these communities.

My tennis partner and I noticed some blank frames along the rows.

"Those are the ones who voted for McGovern," my friend chortled.

That was quite the quip. It also said a lot about the public mood of the time. It assigned George McGovern a place on the fringe for no good reason.

McGovern was the Barack Obama of his time without the baggage of being outside the Caucasian mainstream. Another difference is that he didn't get elected, at least not as president.

He was caricatured to a large extent. This is always a peril for Democrats who must defend government intervention as a way of assuring continuity and a safety net in our lives.

Richard Nixon sold himself as a conservative but was far more a centrist or pragmatist. Nixon had also deteriorated badly as a human being.

Gerald Ford would later say Nixon was a "sick man" at the end of his presidency.

Republicans really had no choice but to say this. Nixon's paranoia couldn't be defended on any political grounds.

And McGovern? He became a tragic hero in the eyes of a huge portion of the boomer generation.

He was the skeptic about our war-making. He connected with the less-well-off and wanted to be an advocate for them. This was a time when boomers were idealistic. Later they would become "yuppies" and finally worship at the altar of money as bad as any previous generation.

But in the '80s we still saw ourselves as different and as especially blessed with an altruistic disposition.

I was in Salzburg, Austria, when I saw the Time Magazine cover that had McGovern and Thomas Eagleton together. It was a star-crossed campaign. The two were coming out of the kind of tumultuous Democratic convention that marked those times.

National conventions in fact had much greater importance than they do today. The Democrats had a terrible time getting their act together in 1968 and '72.

McGovern gave his acceptance speech at an ungodly hour in '72. His choice of Eagleton as runningmate became doomed when it was learned Eagleton had a background of mental health treatment. Those were much less enlightened times when it came to such things.

Nixon put together a criminal enterprise to crush the Democrats. Odd, because Nixon was the overwhelming favorite vs. the "dove-ish" McGovern anyway.

Nixon drew people into his organization who should have known better. Most of them would have known better had they not been drawn into the human trap of deferring to authority figures.

Ford proclaimed Nixon "sick" but apparently Nixon wasn't too sick to write several books post-presidency.

Nixon did the David Frost interviews but at that point, who really cared anymore? Nixon was just part of a bad dream that us boomers had awakened from. Nixon seemed embittered.

No so McGovern. He came from the Dakotas which are hardly a hotbed of left wing thought.

McGovern entered the national picture when the U.S. was going through very turbulent times. The clash of generations was painful and unfortunate.

The boomers weren't just different, they were oh so plentiful.

"We didn't know what to do with all of them," was a quote I remember reading from an older person about the kids of the '70s.

At my church in Morris, the kids were arranged in rows for our confirmation photo. Today that church only has three or four confirmands in many years.

We rejected war and racial prejudice and felt government had more altruistic aims than to try to apply the hammer to Communism.

Somehow McGovern got enmeshed in our values and there was a schism where our elders shunned him. Thus my friend's quip "Those are the ones who voted for McGovern."

It seems tremendously silly now, how political figures were so caricatured as to reflect the culture clashes of the time. Someday when McGovern passes on to the next world - his next convention stage - I think we'll see a spasm of affection and nostalgia among people my age. It will take us back to a time when we did things we would never confess to our own children.

Those were peccadilloes, many of which became an odd sort of badge. We'll try to overlook those while embracing memories of crusading against war and for justice - yes, even "social justice" of the kind that the Glenn Becks of the world decry as being "socialism."

And look out, world, as we age further and become more conscious of the need for a social safety net, we'll be a force that you cannot stop. No one has ever been able to stop the boomers.

We've been lying in the weeds for a few years but you'll hear from us again. We are fickle and revisionist.

So when we start needing help, we'll be sure and get it. We'll revert back to the McGovern-ish style of thinking.

Yuppies? What's that? We'll re-kindle the values that went contrary to materialism.

We'll remember when McGovern was a beacon for the better way.

You see, time doesn't really draw a misty curtain.

- Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Two big innings buoy Morris Eagles

Ross Haugen bats for the Morris Eagles in this photo taken on July 24. (B.W. photo)

Montevideo got the early lead at 3-0 but it was Morris getting the win in the end, 11-3 on Saturday. Morris enjoyed big innings in the fourth and sixth, surging ahead to stay.
The July 30 win gave Morris the #1 seed for the Canvas Division in 9C.
The indications of late have been encouraging. Fans of the Morris town team can be optimistic looking ahead to this weekend.
The Eagles hope to parlay all their recent success into another "W" come Saturday (8/6). The site will be Wheaton. Game-time is 1:30 p.m.
The opponent will be the Rosen Express, the No. 2 seed out of the Teal Division.
"The Eagles are peaking at the right time," spokesman Matthew Carrington proclaims.
Montevideo had a long day (lots of innings) on the 30th, initially playing Appleton before taking on our Eagles. Monte downed Appleton 3-0 to assure themselves a berth in Regions.
Monte rallied quickly vs. Morris to take that 3-0 lead. But the Eagles owned the rest of this game, excelling under the relentless July sun. (Did we really get tired of winter?)
Morris got on the scoreboard with one run in the third, on a Ross Haugen RBI single.
Momentum picked up in the fourth. Dusty Sauter drove in a run with a single. Craig Knochenmus worked the pitcher for a walk with the bases full.
Ryan Beyer hit a grounder that drove a run in. Montevideo committed an error that spelled another Morris run.
The Eagles led 5-3 at the end of four innings.
If there was any doubt as to this game's outcome, it was erased in the sixth. Doubles resounded off the bats of Sauter, Chris Boettcher and Ross Haugen.
Carrington described these doubles as "booming." Two runs came in in the process.
A walk and a hit-by-pitch set the table nicely for Carrington himself when he came up to bat. Carrington tore into a Monte delivery to produce the rally's fourth double. It got two more runs in.
We all need to root for veterans like Carrington these days, because we want to see the Minnesota Vikings succeed this fall with (fossil) Donovan McNabb.
The success kept flowing as Eric Riley lofted a sacrifice fly and Sauter was hit by pitch with the bases loaded.
In all, six runs scored for Morris in the sixth and the game could for all practical purposes be tucked in the "win" column.
Eric Riley, an up-and-comer at the town team level, was handed the ball for his second start on the mound. He did give up those three Monte runs in the first but he put up zeroes after that.
He gave up only four hits while working six innings. He fanned five batters and walked three.
The greenhorn gave way to the veteran in the seventh and it was Carrington pitching the last three innings to get the save. Carrington allowed just one baserunner and even this minor blemish was negated thanks to a double play in the ninth.
Carrington fanned one batter, walked none and gave up one hit.
The Eagles will visit the home of the world's largest mallard (Wheaton) this weekend owner of a 12-8 record. Remember, the Eagles were a mere 3-7 at one time.
Here are the teams that are "in" for the 9C affair: Chokio (those Coyotes), Dumont, Rosen, Canby, Ada, Bemidji, Montevideo and our Eagles.
Which two teams will advance to state? It will be exciting to watch. There's a double-elimination path along the way.
Carrington predicted "the Eagles will have to stay hot."
Morris put up a line score Saturday of eleven runs, 12 hits and three errors. Monte's numbers were 3-5-2.
It was "another day at the office" for Dusty Sauter offensively, as this Eagle produced up to his standards from the leadoff spot: two-for-four, three runs, two RBIs.
Other Eagles with multiple hits were Ross Haugen, Eric Riley and Tony Schultz.
Sauter, Haugen and Riley had stolen bases. Eagles with two RBIs were Sauter, Haugen and Carrington.
Morris Eagles baseball is plunging into August with a firm focus!
- Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com