A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
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It is quite remarkable to have two state high school champions from the same Cloquet household, but especially rare in the world of ski jumping, in particular because it's no longer a sanctioned high school sport here. Tim and Gene Schilling both won ski jumping titles - Tim in 1965 and Gene in 1972. There were state jumping competitions from 1932 to 1978. For nearly three decades, the field of champions was dominated by athletes from Coleraine on the Iron Range and Duluth. That changed in 1958...
In my many years of coaching, I’ve heard some great unrehearsed lines from our local young athletes. My coaching officially started while I was in college at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Jerry Erickson was Cloquet’s varsity boys basketball coach and asked me to coach fifth- and sixth-grade boys at Washington Elementary. He also took me to a few coaching clinics and had an outline of potential practice drills and schedules. I felt prepared. But some things you just can’t predict, and i...
I was sad when I learned that baseball legend Henry Aaron had passed away. He was one of my favorite baseball heroes from the 1950s, '60s, and '70s. I read now and am reminded of the terrible discrimination he faced his entire life. His death occurring near Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the Presidential Inauguration just heightened the awareness and challenges facing all of us and the need for social change. Aaron grew up in the Deep South in Mobile, Alabama. He was 86, so his roots go back...
Reminiscing. It can be very somber and thought provoking wondering about what could have been. Newspapers, magazines, and television programs often give quick snapshots of those who died the past year. In 2020 we lost Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Lewis, Kobe Bryant, Sean Connery, Al Kaline, Gayle Sayers, Paul Hornung, Chadwick Boseman, Alex Trebek, Carl Reiner, Kirk Douglas, Joe Morgan, Whitey Ford and, recently, Dawn Wells (Mary Ann on TV's Gilligan's Island). Wells was 82 and joined the long...
Fifty years ago, I had my first worksite mentor. He and I didn’t choose each other; it just happened that way. As you read this, think of your potential role as a mentor or mentee. It is an important function, now and always has been, at in our worksites and in the community. I thought about the crucial subject when I was interviewing Dakota Koski, executive director of REACH mentorship, for another Pine Knot exclusive story. My story begins in 1970. I had just proudly received my driver’s lic...
When I was growing up in Cloquet and Carlton county in the 1960’s, basketball was, in popularity, definitely the king of winter high school boys sports. Most of who were considered each school‘s “best athletes” played hoops (OK, I might get a few arguments here and slightly I’m looking through rose colored glasses as I played basketball). However, for the majority of county players, and for sure all females, there wasn’t a sports option. Basketball was the only winter sport offered at many of...
Gauge your sports knowledge with Pine Knot News writer Steve Korby’s quiz. 1) Minnesota Wilderness hockey roster players with ties to Cloquet/Esko include: a) Christian Galatz b) Dominkis Marcinkevics c) Gavin Rasmussen d) Dane Stoyanoff 2) the winner of the November 2020 Masters golf tournament was: a) Dustin Johnson b) Jason Day c) Bryson DeChambeau d) Rory McElroy 3) the champion at the 2020 and 89th Cloquet Invitational golf tournament was: a) Jamie Langenbrunner b) Brent Smith c) Alex Kolqu...
The return of 70-degree days during the first week of November was a real blessing for many golfers. Although they had moved the parkas and snowblowers to the front of the garage after 6 inches of snow on Nov. 11 and again on Nov. 15, the shorts and golf clubs were pulled out of storage for one last hurrah. It was terrific. In reviewing the 2020 season, try to think of a sport that is the focal point or backdrop to nonprofit organizations, charity events and community causes, both financially...
Deer hunting season starts tomorrow, but the signs have been there for weeks. Behind shoppers' masks at the Super One grocery store, I've noticed more patrons (men, I think) sprouting beard growth and buying a lot of meat. It has been a cold October. Already in northeastern Minnesota, there has been snow staying on the ground for a few weeks. Now a warmup is upon us for opening day. The annual deer harvest ritual -some call it a Minnesota state holiday or vacation - runs Nov. 7-22 for most...
When sports columnist and celebrity Sid Hartman, of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune and WCCO radio, passed away last week, it pushed me to pause and reflect. Sid was 100 years old. He had an article that he had written printed in the newspaper on the day he died. He had more than 20,000 articles published in his 70-plus year newspaper career. He was friends with Bud Grant, for God’s sake. Didn’t matter your sport of choice or gender, most Minnesota athletic enthusiasts had heard of the inf...
Jim and Colleen Myhre have purchased the 29 Pines Golf Course in Mahtowa, closing on Sept. 4, and have renamed it Rugged Spruce Golf Club. "We had planned to keep the original course name," Jim Myhre said. "Outside experts" advised that it would be a good idea to change the 40-year-old name to better signify a fresh start. Roxanne Olson was the previous owner of the course. Jim grew up about two miles from the course. He thinks he first played there in about 1980. He played in a league there...
Pete Tomhave was on a lunch break at the Cloquet Country Club in the maintenance building, looking at an aerial view of Cloquet Country Club. He asked his boss, superintendent Jud Crist, if the picture was taken from a plane or a drone. It was a plane, Crist said. That's when Tomhave mentioned that he had a drone and might be able to take some new pictures of the golf course. When he showed Crist how the drone could perform, the boss got board approval to make a "virtual tour" of the course...
Gerald Anderson recently called about a column I wrote about the 1955 Esko basketball state tournament team. Of the starting five that year, Jerry is the only one still alive after he lost friend and fellow starter Don Terwey, who died on Sept. 30. Jerry said he met Terwey when Terwey moved to Esko in the fourth grade. They were lifelong friends and had a hunting shack together for many years, Jerry said. Jerry was one of the starting guards on the 1955 team. He offered some of his memories of...
Athletes who played for Cloquet, Barnum, Proctor, and the University of Minnesota Duluth are likely to tell you they've never forgotten fiery redheaded coach and teacher Jerry Erickson. He was my former coach and I recently caught up with him in his retirement from teaching and coaching. He grew up in Poplar in northwest Wisconsin, a baseball haven. It was the favorite sport for both kids and adults. Sunday afternoons in the summer meant families going to the ballpark to support the town team....
The end of August and Labor Day weekend usually signify the beginning of the end of summer in northeastern Minnesota. It is also the scheduled time for the Dan Sheff Memorial Parent Child Golf Tournament at the Cloquet Country Club. This year, 79 teams and nearly 150 golfers participated in the annual event during the last weekend of August. Covid-19 restrictions were prevalent and perfect outdoor weather helped make the tournament safe for entrants. Don McKay and his son Anthony won this...
This year marked the 65th anniversary of Carlton County's first foray into the Minnesota State High School Basketball Tournament. Led by superstar Harold Bergstedt, Esko qualified for the tourney in March of 1955 at Williams Arena on the University of Minnesota campus. Bergstedt passed away at age 82 in February. The state basketball tournament began in 1913 and no team from Carlton County was able to win Region 7 and advance to the tourney until Esko's achievement 42 years later. The region...
Cloquet High School senior Sam Baker made history on a cloudy day a couple weeks ago, when he set the course record at the Cloquet Country Club on Aug. 12, shooting a record 62 on the par-71 course. With the completion of the new nine holes at Cloquet Country Club in 2001, the course record of 63 was tallied quite a few years back by local amateur great Don McKay. Now it is Baker's record to break. Golfing with Sam was his dad, Bruce, and his twin older brothers, John and Nick. Mom Pam Baker...
After a few years of absence, John Sheff came back to win his 14th Cloquet Country Club men's championship and make history last week. Sheff had been in a tie with Butch Newby for the most wins in the club's nearly 100-year history, with 13 titles each. Sheff's daughter Arica Sheff won the women's championship and Bob Neve won the senior flight. Other flight winners were: First flight - Dustin Nelson Second flight - Matt McClincy and Chris Chartier (tie) Third flight - Adam Hanson Fourth flight...
Julio Enrique Gotay Sanchez … ever hear of him? According to Wikipedia, Julio Gotay was a “Puerto Rican professional baseball player, a shortstop and second baseman who played all or parts of ten seasons for the St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Los Angeles Angels, and Houston Astros of Major League Baseball.” He passed away on July 4, 2008 from prostate cancer at the age of 69. It fails to mention in his biography that he was the heralded home run champion of the Scanlon Dice Baseb...
Remember William Cadreau? He was featured in a Pine Knot story last fall. He's the baseball player who grew up, and is buried, on the Fond du Lac Reservation and pitched one game in Major League Baseball. Cadreau was the starting pitcher for the Chicago White Sox in October of 1910 in the team's final game of the season. The game was at what was then the new Comiskey Park in Chicago against the Detroit Tigers. In a tribute to Cadreau's accomplishment, a display is being developed in his honor...
Despite pandemic restrictions and a monster storm last week, the 89th Cloquet Invitational was declared a success and Alex Kolquist its winner. Kolquist won by two strokes over Travis Blais from International Falls, who was in the group ahead of him. Dan Moline was third. Jamie Langenbrunner finished in a three-way tie for fourth. Kolquist , a Hermantown native, was the leader after Saturday's round, with an even par score of 71, and also after 18 holes on Sunday. The changed format called for...
The 89th Cloquet Invitational is on. The golf tournament began Thursday and will run through Sunday at the Cloquet Country Club, weather permitting. Due to the pandemic, the format has changed. Typically a three-day tourney, this year the first through seventh flight participants will be competing on Thursday and Friday and the senior and championship flights will be conducted on Saturday and Sunday. Club pro manager Bill Manahan said more than 175 players are playing in this year's event. Some...
It was a beautiful June day at the Cloquet Country Club with very little breeze, and temps in the mid-70s. My son Ryan and I were just about to embark on the back nine course challenge, standing on the tee at No. 10. We had a twosome in front of us riding in carts at just about an identical pace as us walking. They seemed to be enjoying themselves and not traumatized in any manner from teeing off on 10. Ryan hit first and cranked a picturesque draw down the middle of the fairway about 275...
The Cloquet Library has been blessed with tremendously dedicated staff and volunteers over the years. One of those was Helen Jensen, a 40-year employee of the library, whose name would be near the top of any hypothetical list of dedicated community contributors to this resource. Jensen was hired as the library's first children's librarian in 1936, and was appointed director in November 1944. She would serve as director for 32 years, until December 1976. Kathy Blais, a fellow library board...
It's one of my favorite sports stories. It's also a golf story that shows a little of the craziness, stubbornness, and sisu of golfers in northeastern Minnesota. For many years, I played in a two-man golf scramble in Eveleth, home of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. It's about an hour's drive from Cloquet to the eastern side of Minnesota's famous Iron Range. This is mining country and the weather can be as tough as the ore dug out of the earth. The Eveleth golf scramble tournament is scheduled in M...
