Fifteen below last night with a foot of snow on the ground. A Minnesota winter has come to town. It reminds me of the late 40s and 50s when “snow drifted deep along the roads” and the same drifts were as high as your garage.

The biggest sporting events during winter were the Minnesota Gophers and high school basketball games. In my small school the lettermen that lived in town would gather in the school kitchen Friday night after class to pop popcorn, which the non-basketball playing lettermen would sell during the game for a dime a bag. You wouldn’t think that would raise much money, but the games were well attended and the profits were enough to pay for lettermen sweaters. They were given in the following manner: one letter paid a third, two letters-two thirds, etc. At the beginning of my junior year there was controversy over the sweaters. Some of us wanted jackets, but others wanted to stay with the sweaters. The vote was 10 to 10. Legendary Burt Munson, our advisor, (Mt. Lake’s athletic field is named Munson Field), broke the tie saying that we should stick with tradition. I still have the sweater.

There was another sporting event that came to our living rooms those cold winter nights via the radio. The Minneapolis Lakers. The team of George Mikan, Jim Pollard and Vern Mikkelsen. I remember listening to the Laker announcer describe the games against the Rochester Royals, Syracuse Nationals and Boston Celtics.

This article comes about not only because the new year is a nostalgic time, but also because two members of the Syracuse team died this past year: Johnny (Red) Kerr and Al Cervi. They gave the Lakers all they could handle. However the Lakers, much like the Celtics in the 60s, were the NBA’s dominant team in the 50s; won five championships and made the playoffs every year they were in the league.

The three Lakers mentioned earlier and Slater Martin became Hall of Famers. Mikan was voted the best basketball player of the first half of the 20th Century. Pollard was considered the third-best player during his era after Mikan and Bob Pettit, and Mikkelsen initiated the NBA power forward position. Then to provide the icing on the cake, they had Slater Martin bringing the ball up the court.

Even though I lived only 150 miles from Minneapolis, I only saw them once and that was after Mikan retired. In those days you normally did not take that long a trip in the winter to see a basketball game. However, I did get an invitation from a classmate, his brother and wife to go see the Lakers and their new star Elgin Baylor. He, Jerry West and the L.A. Lakers became bridesmaids to the Boston Celtics for a decade. The second-best team in the NBA.

This was to be Pollard’s last year and I looked forward to seeing “The Kangaroo Kid” as well as Baylor. Pollard was known as a nice guy and during the summer played baseball for the Jordan town team. A person might drive through Jordan on the way to the cities, before the days of interstates and look down on their pretty as a picture baseball diamond. Pollard was a powerful hitter and it has been said that he hit the longest home run in history as one landed in a railroad car on its way to Chicago.

The game was well attended, probably due to a dance afterward featuring Swing and Sway with Sammy Kaye and his orchestra on the auditorium floor. I enjoyed the game and probably the best forward of the 60s, Elgin Baylor.

It was a long time ago, but I can say that I saw the Minneapolis Lakers play.