Sports Memories by Tom Jones

 

50 years ago: 1969

• The Albert Lea basketball team opened its season under head coach Dick Nielsen with a 63-40 win over Fairmont. Dan Fahrman led the Tigers’ scoring attack with 19 points, with Jerry Sallee adding 14 and Bill Nelson 13.

• Greg Shoff’s 14 points and Roy Page’s 11 led the Albert Lea Tigers B-squad basketball team to a 44-33 win over Fairmont in their season opener. The team was coached by John Heidal.

• Darrel Gavle, a junior end from Albert Lea, caught two touchdown passes as Dartmouth defeated Cornell 24-7 in Ivy League football action. He caught eight passes for 114 yards on the season with three touchdowns for Dartmouth, who finished 8-1 on the season. In his three-year collegiate career, he caught 24 passes for 281 yards and three touchdowns.

 

25 years ago: 1994

• The Albert Lea B-Bantam hockey team improved to 4-0 on the season with a 4-3 win over Worthington. Collin Bryant, Nick Flugum, Ryan Hansen and J.P. Neilon scored for Albert Lea.

• Sophomore Brandi Loos was named to the Big Nine All-Conference volleyball team for the Albert Lea Tigers. The setter connected on 1,151 of 1,184 set attempts on the season and had 309 set assists.

• United South Central’s Steve Burns was inducted into the Minnesota State High School Coaches Association’s 25-year club. Burns had coached for 27 years, including 22 years at Wells-Easton and United South Central.

 

10 years ago: 2009

• It was announced that the Minnesota Twins were teaming up with the Minneapolis Downtown Council to place life-size statues inspired by Twins stars Harmon Killebrew, Kirby Puckett and Joe Mauer around downtown Minneapolis.

• The Albert Lea girls’ hockey team fell 6-2 to Faribault at Albert Lea City Arena. Sam Stanley and Kaley Waldemar scored goals for the Tigers, who were coached by Brian Blatti.

• Albert Lea freshman Chrissy Monson, a member of the Tigers girls’ cross country team, ran in the Nike Cross Nationals Championships in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She placed 23rd overall in the 5k race.

 

This year

• Mitchell Kleinschrodt, a 2008 graduate of Alden-Conger High School, recently completed his first season as head coach at Ellsworth Community College in Iowa Falls, Iowa. He came to Ellsworth after spending one year as director of recruiting at the University of New Mexico in 2018.