Sports Memories by Tom Jones

 

This week I have decided to write my column about sports memories with my dad, who passed away Nov. 27 at the age of 90.

On the day my dad was born on Aug. 14, 1928, there were many sports headlines in the Albert Lea Tribune, including “Mack beats Tigers 7-1 to gain on idle Yankees,” “Barbers swamp Methodists by 21 to 5 count,” “Rockne guides grid activity at St. Thomas” and “St. Louis Cards are alarmed over slump in play.”

Spin the clock ahead to June 19, 1962, on the day I was born, and you read, “Twins Down As, move on to Chicago,” “Austin clobbers Albert Lea 14-5,” “Thorson hurls Grace to victory” and “Vikings sign two draft selections.”

From about the time I was 6 years old, my dad and I created many sports memories.

We were part of the 17,967 fans attending the Twins-Red Sox game on Aug. 25, 1969, with a group of local Kiwanis Club members when it was announced we had to leave the stadium for a bomb scare at Met Stadium. I remember how fascinated I was with the whole thing.

Dad took our family to Williams Arena on the campus of the University of Minnesota, where he had graduated from college, during the Bill Musselman era to see the men’s basketball team play, including getting to watch their fabulous pre-game “Magic Circle.” We had the worst seats in the upper corner of the lower deck, but what a thrill it was.

We started attending one Vikings game a year with friends and relatives at Met Stadium in the 1970s and continued on through the 1980s, when the Vikings moved downtown to the Dome. I loved the pre-game tailgating.

As a 1947 Albert Lea High School graduate, my dad was always a Tigers fan. I have vague recollections of going to a football game at the old Abbott Field as a kid. He told me he and a bunch of his buddies drove to Fort Dodge to watch the Tigers play football in what was probably his senior year in the fall of 1946. We went to many football games all through my school years, including a game at Duluth Denfeld on Friday of Labor Day in 1976, where the Tigers took it to Denfeld 46-0. He loved listening to our Friday night broadcasts I was a part of on the radio.

We went to many Tigers basketball games over my childhood years. I especially remember going to Friday or Saturday games in Rochester, where we would eat at Wong’s or High Forest Truck Stop before the games. It was so fun to watch Orrie Jirele’s team clash with the Rochester teams over those years.

He also took us to Lea College hoops games at what is now City Arena, where his longtime friendship with coach Al Arends developed. I especially remember a game against the Swedish All-Stars and how tall they all were and getting the autograph of Lancers star Howie Wilkens.

We also went to a few hockey games together at City Arena when the Noon Kiwanis Club he was in would sponsor a holiday classic tournament during the Christmas break.

As Dad became older, as did I, we didn’t go to many games. When we adopted our children in 2006, I couldn’t wait for my kids to hopefully get into sports so my dad and mom could see their grandchildren play. We were so fortunate they lived long enough to see both kids play in traveling basketball tournaments and in softball and baseball games. It was truly special a few years ago at my daughter’s softball game in Kasson-Mantorville, when she could see Grandpa’s car parked well beyond the outfield fence, watching the game while she played and I coached.

Our last high school game we watched together was a Tigers boys’ basketball game last year, when Matthew Hurt and the John Marshall Rockets came to town. He was extremely impressed by the Rockets star.

He watched my son Spencer’s first seventh-grade football game of the season at Austin with me this fall, and that’s the last game we went to together.

When we had our last father-son talk in the days before he passed away, he told me he wished he had been more of a sports dad for me. As I write my column, I realize what a wonderful sports dad I actually had, and I’m sure he would feel the same.