Korby's Connections: Cromwell's basketball history is legendary

I attended the annual Harvest Festival at the Cromwell pavilion a few weeks ago. Scheduled for the first weekend after Labor Day every year, the festivities drew a good-sized crowd. Area residents were happy to get together and laugh, especially with the construction and its detours on Highway 210 now completed for the year.

My resistance level being low, I sat next to my Eagle Lake neighbor at a picnic table to get details about the piece of pumpkin pie and ice cream he was sampling. It looked great. Then the guy across the table asked if I authored a recent Pine Knot story about Cromwell basketball about the controversial finish between Cromwell and Silver Bay. I told him, "yes."

The guy happened to be the Cromwell assistant coach at that very game, Oscar Eliason. He said he reads my Pine Knot articles all the time, which made me feel good.

Oscar was the Cromwell boys basketball coach under head coach Bill Hoppe in 1967 in the tournament game.

"We had a great team ... it was an unfortunate finish to the playoff game," Eliason said. "We had the momentum, and I thought we were going to pull it off."

Eliason grew up in Brookston. He had a long career as a Cromwell teacher and coach, also for girls basketball. Carlton County's 2019 Outstanding Male Senior Citizen, Eliason volunteers as a driver, taking seniors to doctor and dentist visits, the grocery store, and for other errands and appointments. It was a privilege meeting him.

Another lady at the picnic table, Deb Switzer, told me I was sitting next to a "Cromwell Basketball Legend" and that he should be part of a newspaper story. I met and shook hands with Dan Kempi. Dan and Deb are brother and sister. They grew up on a dairy farm, with four other siblings, a half-mile north of Cromwell on Highway 73. Their former farm is the present site of the Villa Vista and Cardinal Court Assisted Living Center, where Dan is a resident.

Kempi graduated from Cromwell High and was a hardwood scoring phenom. In the opening three games of the 1956-57 basketball season, he tallied 9, 34, and 54 points - 97 in all. I asked him how he scored all his points at just 5-foot-8. Was he a long jump shooter or a hard driver? He just clapped his hands together, symbolizing that he was quick and nobody could catch him. With Dan having some communication limitations and memory issues, I followed up with sister Deb.

As in the movie "Hoosiers" - also set in the 1950s - I pictured Dan shooting set shots outside on a rim attached to the barn. Not quite, Deb told me, but they did have a rim inside a hay barn on their farm, where Dan and others could shoot in the winter when there was time, or they'd run to the school in town. The dairy farm kept all kids very busy with chores.

There is a big difference in age between Dan and Deb, and she never saw him play, but grew up hearing of his legendary career. The hoop records from this era are nowhere to be found since the new Cromwell gym was remodeled and built, so Deb is trying to reconstruct the record books and reaffirm her brother's impressive scoring totals. I followed up with her later with a phone call.

Switzer shared newspaper clippings stating Dan had 34 points against the Askov Danes and the aforementioned 54 against Hermantown. Searching bound volumes of newspapers at the Carlton County Historical Society, I found two Cloquet Pine Knot stories from the 1956-57 season that showed Dan Kempi scoring 30 and 17 points against Esko, their biggest competitor. Esko went undefeated and won the Polar League title, led by Davis Helberg and Sherm Johnson.

Searching sports stories records nearly 70 years old is no easy task, but Deb said her brother told her he had 54 points in another game and was pulled in the waning moments by Coach Mancuso.

"You don't need to break your own record," the coach told him. I couldn't verify that game total.

His life story is just as interesting. Dan told me that he worked at the Cromwell feed mill after high school and then at "factories in Cloquet." From there, he moved to raising race horses in Arizona. When Deb was a little kid she'd go with her dad to visit Dan at his feed mill office; his work area was covered with drawings Dan had made of horses. Kempi also experimented with various grain combinations that proved effective for race horses.

Deb said her brother went from Arizona to Longacres Race Track near Seattle to train and breed fast horses. Boeing bought the property in 1992 and shut down the famous racetrack; Dan then found a job as a middle school custodian. Watching kids in the playground roaming with no direction, Dan decided to teach kids how to shoot and play basketball. School officials witnessed this and hired him as the fifth-grade coach. His team went undefeated the following season.

Dan also taught kids school pride and about cleaning up after themselves in the lunchroom and around the facility. Even in his maintenance school position, Dan was chosen "Educator of the Year." As an honor, he was asked to throw out the first pitch at a Tacoma Rainiers minor league baseball game. Kempi still has that ceremonial ball in his Villa Vista room.

Dan retired to his Arizona home, and recently moved back to Cromwell to get specialized medical care close to his sister and family. He can now see his former farmland from his Villa Vista home.

It was a privilege to meet this Cromwell basketball legend and hear his wonderful life story from his sister. Hopefully, his basketball records will, someday, be recognized.

Steve Korby's interest in writing goes back to when he was in the fourth grade and editor of the Scan-Satellite school newspaper in Scanlon. He welcomes ideas for human interest stories and tales regarding Carlton County residents, projects, history, and plans c/o [email protected].