Sports Memories by Tom Jones

 

50 years ago

• Minnesota Twins pitcher Dave Boswell was reported to have 20 stitches to close the facial wounds he received in a fight with manager Billy Martin in Detroit.

Martin was quoted as saying, “I hit him five or six times in the stomach, then I hit him in the head. When he came off the wall I hit him again and he was out before he hit the ground.”

Martin ended up with a badly swollen hand that required seven stitches.

• For the first time since 1947, there would be no pheasant hunting in Minnesota. Severe blizzards the previous winter had virtually wiped out the pheasant population in some areas of the state.

• Dr. Jarvis Knutson collected the first hole-in-one in his 42-year golf career when he aced the 155-yard fifth hole at Albert Lea Country Club.

 

25 years ago

• Steve Petersen of Albert Lea became the first ever repeat winner in the championship flight of the Albert Lea City Golf Championship played at Edgewater Golf Club. Virginia Hanson of Albert Lea claimed her third straight Albert Lea City Golf Championship and fifth overall title in the annual event, also at Edgewater Golf Club.

• Max Jeffrey and Eric Nyquist, co-captains of the 1989 Albert Lea Tigers football team that had a 7-3 record, were set to join Roger Zeman on the Tigers B-squad football coaching staff.

 

10 years ago

• The Minnesota Twins reached an agreement with 21-year-old right-hander Kyle Gibson, their top pick in the 2009 draft, that included a 1.85 million dollar signing bonus. He was the 22nd overall pick in the draft.

• Grant Stadheim of Albert Lea won the championship flight at the Green Lea Junior Golf Tournament. Lucas Peterson captured the first flight, Adam Syverson the second and Lukas Severson the third.

• It was announced that Brett Favre would join the Minnesota Vikings after arriving in a private plane from Mississippi with team owner Zygi Wilf and team president Mark Wilf.

 

This year

• Tom Kvamme, the sports editor of the Albert Lea Tribune from 1976-82, is now semi-retired and living in Milica, where he writes a column for a newspaper in Williston, North Dakota, and also does some freelance writing. He is very active in the winter entertaining people as Santa, an interest he began in 1976 at the Herberger’s store in downtown Albert Lea.