Chasing Vinatieri

After reading the last post, a faithful follower informed us that there are a couple of other NFL players with connections to Brookings.  They happen to be brothers, Kevin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_McDermott_(American_football) and Conor McDermott (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conor_McDermott).  Their father Kevin graduated from BHS in 1971, while their mother Deb (Kneip) graduated a year later.  Kevin's family moved here in 1968 when his father Bill became head of the South Dakota Press Association.  Kevin was a sophomore when he sat beside me in typing class our senior year.  His mother passed away in March of 2017  (http://rudesfuneralhome.com/memsol.cgi?user_id=1931946).  Conor was in attendance at the funeral, while Kevin the younger was unable to attend.  Conor is one big boy, but yet seems very humble.  It was enjoyable talking to him, his parents, and other relatives.   Kevin the father was a key player on the 1971 BHS basketball team that placed third in the state "A" tournament that year (incidentally, in those four years from 19968-1971, BHS placed first, second, and third in the tournament.  Not a bad run.).  He earned a basketball scholarship at SDSU, but unfortunately blew his knee out after a few seasons.  He and his wife Deb have had much success in Nashville, and have raised two fine young men who are blessed with outstanding athletic ability.  Congratulations to the whole family.

The Sunday edition of the August 26, 2018 Argus-Leader had a special section on the upcoming college football season.  One article highlighted the kicker for SDSU, junior Chase Vinatieri.  He is not the son of Adam Vinatieri, but his nephew.  He grew up in Sioux Falls and player for Roosevelt High School. His coach at Roosevelt was Kim Nelson, nephew of Roger Nelson (http://rudesfuneralhome.com/memsol.cgi?user_id=1753454), who graduated from BHS in 1954 and was a member of the 1958 USD national small-college basketball champion team.  Kim just happened to be the coach at Rapid City Central when Adam Vinatieri was on the squad.  In addition to being a kicker in high school, Chase was also a gifted receiver.  That skill came in handy in an exciting game about a year ago, as  he scored his first collegiate six-pointer when he "took a pitch from holder Brady Hale on a fake field goal and raced 31-yards (sic) for the game-winning touchdown."  Chase has picked his uncle Adam's brain about the mental approach to kicking, as Chase has aspirations of following in Adam's footsteps.  "His strong leg and name alone will almost certainly draw interest from NFL teams when his career is over.  But he wants to earn an NFL gig, and eventually have a long career similar to Adam's."  Best of luck to Chase in pursuit of his goals.

The Rest Of The Story

 

Was this phrase the trademark of radio commentator and personality Paul Harvey (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Harvey)?  According this this article,  "Harvey added The Rest of the Story as a tagline to in-depth feature stories in 1946."

As promised, below is the article that appeared in Register from November 25, 2017.  It was written by Zak Keefer of the Indianapolis Star.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope I haven't broken any laws by copying this.  I haven't meant to.  

Revisiting Those Knee "Injuries"

Recently a follower of this blog sent me a picture about the previous post concerning the passing of David Steen.  The picture he sent was from Facebook. The original picture was somewhat cropped and used as the introductory page to the Junior High section of the 1966 Bobcat yearbook.  In the yearbook, only one dancer (Jean McCone) is shown.  The individual on the left is not shown, nor is the other "go-go" dancer.  It appears that the cropped picture in the annual is meant to highlight the boys playing:  Marty Johnson on drums, David Steen in the middle, and Gordie Bortnem on the other guitar.  Patty Mehegan is the other dancer on the left.  This dance would have been held in the "Pit."  A previous post  (http://classof69bhs.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-pit.html) gave a little history of that gymnasium.

 

 

While looking at some old Registers for some other information, this picture also came up.  Pete Retzlaff (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Retzlaff) played at State in the early 50's, and then went on to become a stellar receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles.  Incidentally, another receiver for State, Dallas Goedert (https://www.profootballfocus.com/news/draft-dallas-goedert-is-the-nfls-next-mismatch-weapon), was selected by the Eagles in the recent draft.  He was greatly sought after for his receiving abilities.  He did not even have a scholarship when he arrived on campus as a freshman, but obviously earned one for his last few seasons.

 

The picture below shows Pete Retzlaff on a return trip to Brookings after making the Eagles' roster. This issue of the paper was dated Jan. 12, 1958. 

 



 

 

 It appears that Dallas Goedert (2014-17) has an extremely good chance of making the Eagles' roster.  If you're a fan of the NFL, you may have to keep his eye on him.  Today's Register had its second in a weekly series of articles on Jackrabbits in the league.  In addition to Goedert, Jake Weineke 2014-17 and thus Goedert's teammate) is another rookie receiver trying to make the Minnesota Vigings roster.  There are three other Jackrabbits who have NFL experience.  Zach Zenner is a running back for the Detroit Lions (Wayne Rasmusses of State played for them in the 60's, and actually had a very brief appearance in the film Paper Lion).  Bryan Witzmann (2010-2013) is an offensive lineman (left guard) for the Kansas City Chiefs.  (Is there a Left Guard deodorant, or would he have to use Right Guard?).  Adam Vinatieri (1991-94) is still alive and kicking (literally) for the Indianapolis Colts.  Adam became well-known when he kicked for the New England Patriots.  He has played in 337 games since he made the Patriots' squad after playing a couple of seasons in Europe, which indicates the determination he had to make it to the pros.  There was an article in the Nov. 25, 2017 Register entitled The kick that saved Adam Vinatieri's career.  Briefly, the coach (Bill Parcells) gave him a chance to make a meaningless field goal in a pre-season game in which the Patriots were easily defeating the Arizona Cardinals.  Parcells "wanted to know if Vinatieri was clutch."  He made the field goal, and was able to stay around another week.  Had he missed that attempt, he would have been released, and may never have played in the NFL again.  Supposedly Vinatieri had been told by Parcells that if he missed the kick, there would be no reason for him to return to the locker. 

 

That one successful field goal led to a career in which Vinatieri (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Vinatieri) has been: a four-time  Super Bowl winning place kicker; two-time all-pro selection; nomated as the NFL's 2000's All-Decade team; and several NFL records.  His name is in the record book for: most seasons with 100-plus points (20-1996-2008, 2010, 2012-2017); most post-season field goals in a career (56); most consecutive games in a single post-season with three or more field goals (4); most career points in post-season (234); most points in a single post-season (49); most field goals in a single post-season (14); most field goals in Super Bowls (7); most extra points in Super Bowls (13); most field goals in overtime (12); most consecutive field goals in NFL history (44); most Super Bowl wins by a place kicker (5); most Super Bowl appearances by a place kicker (5); and most play-off games by a place kicker (30), which also ranks second of any position (Tom Brady has 37).  When I get the time, perhaps I will be able to figure out a way to copy that half-page article and post it on here.   

 

At his age (he will be 46 in December), does he still have the ability to function at the levels demanded by the rigors of pro football?  He recently tied his longest field goal ever with a kick of 57 yards, so it appears that still has plenty of power and strength in that right leg of his.  He needs only 58 points to become the all-time scoring leader in NFL history (https://www.thefalcoholic.com/2018/8/22/17766108/patriots-kicker-adam-vinatieri-will-try-to-dethrone-falcons-alumnus-morten-anderson-in-2018).  Here's hoping that Adam, Dallas, Zach, and Bryan can all have successful seasons this fall. 

 

The Unhappy Triad of O'Donoghue

When taking a Prevention and Care of Injuries class in college, we were introduced to the term "The Unhappy Triad of O'Donoghue."(https://radiopaedia.org/articles/odonoghue-unhappy-triad-1)It's a fancy way of saying that an individual blew one's knee out.  Recently, the Brookings community was hit by the loss of three well-known individuals who were quite active and respected in their efforts to make Brookings a special place. 

The first individual to pass away was Leroy Voss, the brother of Doug Voss of our class.  http://rudesfuneralhome.com/sitemaker/sites/RudesF1/obit.cgi?user=80876628_LVoss  Although I did not know Leroy personally, he was known by some of my older siblings, and it was my privilege to have his three children as students when they were in the 6th grade.   

Emmett Early had told me that Leroy had not been in the best of health recently.  He was rushed to the heart hospital in Sioux Falls, where he was resuscitated a few times.  However, he succumbed after a day or two. 

Leroy was a regular at the Brookings Speedway in the late 60's, early 70's, as the picture below indicates.   Many of the "old-timers" recall him as doing quite well and holding his own against the more well-financed cars. 

It was great visiting with Doug after not having seen him since graduation.  He seems to have overcome some health problems, and is still keeping quite busy working for a number of engineering firms in the Denver area.  Perhaps we can see him next year at our 50th reunion. 

Our condolences go out to Doug and his family at this time. 

 

The passing away of the second individual was quite unexpected and shocking to the community.  That person was David Steen (http://rudesfuneralhome.com/sitemaker/sites/RudesF1/obit.cgi?user=87596644_DSteen), who was a year behind us in school.  His brother Craig was a year ahead of us, while his brother Gary was two years ahead of us, and is married to Mary Moulton of our class. 

 

Craig and David ran Steen Bookkeeping, and had numerous clients, including my oldest brother, who had them do his taxed every year.  When Bob Adams and I were at the visitation, the lines extended out the doors of Rude's Funeral Home, an indication of the respect that the Brookings community had for David

 

Dave and his wife Julie also had three children, and it was not only my privilege to have them as students, but it was also rewarding to me to have Julie as a colleague in the science department at the middle school. 

 

The fisherman's prayer above is the same one that was on the obituary for the father of Stan Lorenz (http://classof69bhs.blogspot.com/2018/01/big-northerns.html#comment-form)

 

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Dave's family at this time. 

 

The third individual that had a large impact on the Brookings community was LaRayne Wahlstrom (http://eidsnessfuneralhome.com/memsol.cgi?user_id=2122212).  Her eldest son Rick was year ahead of us, but was among the younger students in his class, as he played on the same little-league baseball team, the Dodgers, as Jim Kortan, Lonnie Heeren, Jim Egeberg, and John Iverson when they were all 12 years old.  Brian Johnson was also on our team, but he was only 11, even though he was in our class.  Like Rick, he was one of the younger ones in our class. 

 

 

We had a really good team that year, and had good chance to win the championship.  When the play-offs started, we played the pirates in the first game.  They, too, had a talented team.  Jerry Tordoff and Tom Roe were two players who readily come to mind, probably because they were two really good pitchers.  We started off by getting some timely hits off Jerry, and built a rather substantial lead after only a couple of innings.  However, with the bases loaded and Jim Kortan coming up to bat, the rains came, cancelling the game and wiping out the score.  The game was rescheduled for the next day.  We had to start all over with the score 0-0. 

 

Knowing that we were able to score a number of runs with Jerry Tordoff pitching, the Pirates' coach, Marv Hochstetter, started Tom Roe instead.  Perhaps because Tom was a lefty, we were unable to get any runs in the three innings that he could pitch (a pitcher could only pitch three innings, according to the rules).  Jerry matched Tom's performance.  Our pitchers almost equaled their efforts, also.  However, we allowed one run, thus losing 1-0.  The Pirates would go on the win the championship. 

 

What is memorable about that game is that one of the players on the Dodgers was a sore loser.  He could quickly excoriate his teammates when they were failed to live up to his expectations and made a mistake (he learned that behavior from some of his older brothers).  After the game, Mrs. Wahlstrom rightfully let that player know that his sportsmanship was atrocious, and that he acted like a spoiled brat, which he may have been at the time. 

 

When we started college in the fall of 1969, Jim Egeberg became good friends with Mrs. Wahlstrom's nephew (Rick's cousin) Rob, also a freshman.  "Wally," as he became known, was an outstanding quarter-miler on the track team.  At the visitation, Rick told Bob Adams and me that he still had the school record for the 440 yard dash.  Rob was also on some gifted mile-relay teams that placed high nationally in the championship meets.  A few years later, the schools in the United States joined the rest of the world and switched over to the metric system for all track meets.  All the records set in imperial distances (yards) back then are still standing because they are not run anymore.  Officially, all track records are now listed only for metric distances (the only exception is the mile, which is contested in some select competitions:  https://www.bringbackthemile.com/home)

 

After college, I was fortunate to be hired to teach and coach in the middle school here.  On a few occasions, Mrs. Wahlstrom was the substitute when I had to leave for an athletic contest.  She always did a fine job and handled the classes exceptionally well, probably even better than the regular teacher.

 

You may have noticed that the visitations and funerals for Dave Steen and LaRayne Wahlstrom were scheduled for the same time.  Fortunately, we went to Dave Steen's visitation before the crowds gathered, and were able to talk with some of the family (Dave's mother is still around).  By the time we arrived at Mrs. Wahlstrom's visitation, we had to stand in line for quite some time, again indicating the respect and admiration that the community had for her. 

 

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Wahlstrom family at this time.