Mayasich finally recognized by U of M
John Mayasich — hero for the ages
By John Gilbert
Up North Newspaper Network
John Mayasich remains the greatest hockey player to ever come from the state of Minnesota. Period. End of discussion. Everyone who ever saw Mayasich play at Eveleth High School, where his teams won four straight state titles, or at the University of Minnesota, where he was a three-time All-American, or on the gold-medal 1960 U.S. Olympic team, will attest to that claim.
Mayasich said he was honored, and it was obvious he was moved, and maybe a little bit embarrassed at all the ceremony surrounding the official retiring of his hockey jersey this weekend by the University of Minnesota. If John had his way, there would have been a subdued, tasteful ceremony, with an old Gopher jersey with the No. 8 on the back raised to the rafters at Mariucci Arena. Then he could enjoyed a hockey game while cherishing the renewal of acquaintances with teammates from high school, college and the 1956 and ’60 U.S. Olympic teams.
“It’s great to get the chance to have a reunion with old teammates,” said Mayasich, who, at 65, could still take a few twirls on the rink and show these young pups some tricks. “And to figure this is the first hockey jersey ever retired at Minnesota, with all those who preceded and followed me…I can accept and share all of this with all of them.”
Instead of a simple ceremony, the procedure has been stretched over the past month or so, leading up to this weekend’s gala affair at Mariucci Arena, where the scene had glitz better suited to a rock ‘n’ roll show, and the “world’s largest jersey” added a show-biz flair.
“Merchandising and marketing is everything, but that stuff doesn’t bother me,” sighed Mayasich, always showing his class.
He exudes so much class that it even supercedes the commercialism and hype. The University of Minnesota has chosen to inflate an enormous, yellow, 30-by-30-foot Michelin-man-like balloon that is supposed to resemble a jersey, with a large No. 8 on it, and “Mayasich” emblazoned across the top. Hopefully, most people will overlook the 3-foot-square green patch on the lower right — about at eye level for youngsters — that is a logo that says “Surge,” which is a new soft drink from Coca Cola.
This is not a Mayasich jersey, it’s a Mayasich dirigible, but at least the market-crazy U of M did not wait 40 years too long to recognize Mayasich while waiting for a corporate sponsor. In truth, it wasn’t even the university’s idea. Bruce Telander, a long-time booster who used to be extremely close to the program, came up with the suggestion and pursued it behind the scenes.
“The first I heard about this was about two months ago, when Bruce Telander, Wendy Anderson and Stanley Hubbard met with me,” said Mayasich. “I think they were afraid I might turn it down or something.”
Mayasich’s scoring tallies from the 1951-52 season through the 1954-55 season speak for themselves. His 32 goals as a freshman, his 144 career total goals and his 298 career points all have remained Gopher records for 44 years, even though his closest challengers play almost twice as many games each season, allowing his other single-season marks to fall in the last two decades.
To best appreciate Mayasich’s impact on the game requires going back to Eveleth, where Mayasich was thrilled to find family and close friends turn out to greet him at a quiet gathering last Monday at the U.S. Hall of Fame.
“I’m happy for tonight,” Mayasich said, while standing in the hall at Monday’s gathering. “Because this is where it all started. I lived about six blocks north of here.”
John had six brothers and five sisters, from oldest to youngest: Mary, Annie, Frank, Lucy, Rosie, Katherine, Joe, Edward, Bernard, and twins John and Jim. All but Rosie are still living, and several of them gathered Monday in Eveleth, where the Mayasich family lived nearby, in the 700 block of Summit St. If you combined the 600, 700 and 800 blocks of that street, you could count 13 boys from those three blocks who went on to play major college hockey.
“I saw where Don Lucia, the Colorado College coach, said he recruited ‘rink-rats,’ but I don’t know if we have rink-rats any more,” Mayasich said. “That’s something for you people to answer. We used to play hockey in the streets, where we’d cut goals into the banks on both sides of the street, then pour water on ’em so they wouldn’t fall apart. On Saturdays we’d play 10-12 hours on the outdoor rink at Lincoln School. We’d put our skates on at home and skate six or seven blocks to the rink.”
Unlike the vast majority of players from kids to pros who wrapped black tape around their stickblades, Mayasich always used white tape. He claimed it felt lighter, but that night in Eveleth he disclosed the real reason for his preference.
“We’d play floor hockey, using rolled up socks, Mason jar lids, anything we could find,” Mayasich said. “At night, after my mother and father went to bed, I’d put Jim in the doorway between the kitchen and living room and I’d shoot at him.
“We were about 6 or 7 years old, and it was easier then, because he was skinny,” added Mayasich, glancing to make sure his twin brother was catching the heckle. “When my folks would come down in the morning, and see the black tape marks on the tile floor, we’d have to scrub and scrub to remove them. That’s why I started using white tape. It wouldn’t leave a mark.”
Mayasich learned to love the game by walking to the indoor Hippodrome and sneaking in to watch the games of the city team hired to entertain the iron-ore mining families. He thanked all the heralded players of his era who made his high school team’s toughest games the intrasquad practices in daily scrimmages. Most of them went to Michigan, and John thanked his wife, Carol, for making all this ceremony possible.
“If Carol and I weren’t real steady at the time,” Mayasich confessed. “I’d have gone to Michigan instead of Minnesota.”
John Mayasich’s University of Minnesota career totals:
Year Games G-A–Pts
1951-52 26 32-30–62
1952-53 27 42-36–78
1953-54 31 29-49–78
1954-55 30 41-39–80
Totals 114 144-154–298
Lefty Curran overwhelmed by Hall pickBy John GilbertUp North Newspaper NetworkMike (Lefty) Curran never has been one to avoid letting his views be heard in any discussion. He also is an extremely proud person, and one of his toughest chores over the ye
Curran overwhelmed to join Hall
By John Gilbert
Up North Newspaper Network
Mike (Lefty) Curran never has been one to avoid letting his views be heard in any discussion. He also is an extremely proud person, and one of his toughest chores over the years might have been to keep that pride bottled up inside.
Now it can bubble over, because Lefty Curran has been inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.
Curran is the lone Minnesota native among four new entries in the hall, where he is joined by former Gopher and North Stars player, coach and general manager Lou Nanne, just-retired 502-goal NHL scoring star Joe Mullen, and the late Bruce Mather, a Massachusetts amateur and Olympic star of the 1940s. The foursome swells the total to an even 100 for the hall’s 25th anniversary year.
Curran was a star goaltender wherever he played, from International Falls’ dominant high school teams in the early 1960s, to the University of North Dakota, to the 1972 silver-medal U.S. Olympic hockey team in Sapporo, Japan, and the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the old World Hockey Association, which was a godsend to American-born players who routinely were overlooked by the Canadian-dominated pro NHL.
“I won’t give you a lot of false humility,” said Curran. “I think I accomplished some things in hockey. The goals I accomplished were pretty much the goals I set out for, and right now, I’m very happy. Just a very proud American boy. ”
The official induction ceremonies were set for Thursday night at Planet Hollywood, a glitzy night spot at the Mall of America in Bloomington. It seems astonishing that the actual U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in Eveleth, just reopened after nearly a half-million-dollar renovation, would be bypassed on the occasion that is certain to draw its largest crowd. Lefty understands. He would much prefer to be inducted at the actual hall in Eveleth, because he has never forgotten his roots.
While he lives in the Twin Cities now, Curran still makes frequent trips Up North to “the Falls,” his beloved International Falls. On one such trip last summer, he realized that in all those treks through the Iron Range, he had never, ever met Frank Brimsek, Eveleth’s legendary “Mr. Zero,” whose NHL achievements into the kind of legends young goaltenders could strive for.
“I looked at goaltenders like Frankie Brimsek, Sam LoPresti, Mike Karakas and Willard Ikola, and I thought, ‘That’s what it’s all about,’ ” said Curran. “Frankie Brimsek was my hero, so I put in a call to Dave Hendrickson, and he set me up with the chance to stop by and meet Franie last summer. We talked for a long time. I made him tell me about what it was like to play for the Boston Bruins in those days. What it was like to face ‘The Rocket’ [Maurice Richard] coming down the ice at you.”
Curran still vividly remembers highlights from all phases of his career.
“I remember playing for Larry Ross at International Falls,” he said. “Duluth East took us out in the Region 7 final in 1961, but we came back and won the state title in 1962 by beating Roseau 4-0 in the final.”
The Broncos came back the next year but had an undefeated season ruined when St. Paul Johnson beat them in a spectacular 4-3 overtime final. The legacy remained, as Falls won the next three titles in succession after Curran moved on to North Dakota where he was coached by Bob Peters and then Bill Selman. Twice he took the Fighting Sioux to the NCAA final four, and both times they came up short by the slimmest of margins.
“We went to the NCAA final four in Syracuse and lost 1-0 to Ken Dryden’s Cornell team. The next year, we made it to the final four in Duluth, and we beat Dryden and Cornell 3-1. But that was in the semifinals, but we lost 4-0 to a great Denver team in the final.”
Curran played on the U.S. National team in the 1971 World Tournament, but was forced out by a knee injury that required him to use crutches off the ice, and pain-killers to go on it. When the team lost to Sweden and Finland, Curran told the team doctor he couldn’t perform at his best and would rather not play. Coach Murray Williamson didn’t understand.
“Murray said, ‘OK, then you don’t need to be on the Olympic team,’ ” Curran recalled. “And I said, ‘Well then, whoever you have in goal will be second best.’ ”
The two stayed at odds throughout the next season, with Curran playing for Green Bay in the old semipro U. S. Hockey League, while the U.S. team toured, and struggled. Players like Keith (Huffer) Christiansen and Tim Sheehy from International Falls, plus Henry Boucha of Warroad, Craig Sarner of North St. Paul, Ron Naslund of Minneapolis, Mark Howe — Gordie’s son — and Robbie Ftorek were on that team. Some of them, most notably Christiansen and Sheehy, pestered Williamson to add Curran. At the last moment, he did.
“Murray was just like me – we’re talking about a couple of stubborn guys,” said Curran, still feisty after all these years. “I joined the team just a couple of weeks before the games began in Sapporo.”
The rest, as they say, is history. The key game on the way to the silver medal was a 5-1 upset victory over Czechoslovakia, when Curran made 51 saves.
“But the team played well,” Curran insisted. “I’ve got to admit, I had a great time showing ’em I deserved to be there.”
Curran’s appreciation for drama and the historical perspective goes beyond stopping in Eveleth to meet Frankie Brimsek. There are people who think he and Murray Williamson might be enemies for life because of their feisty personalities, but that isn’t true. “I have a great deal of admiration for Murray,” said Curran.
He proved it, when, after being named to the Hall of Fame, Curran had to pick somebody to present him. His first call was to Murray Williamson.
And while the glitter of Planet Hollywood might be like taking the baseball hall of fame from Cooperstown to Manhattan, the actual enshrinement will put Curran in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, right there in Eveleth, where he joins Brimsek among the 100 best Americans forever in hockey lore.
Dardis draws pro, college scouts to Proctor
Dardis draws focus to 0-2 Proctor
By John Gilbert
Up North Newspaper Network
CLOQUET, MN.—Things don’t always work out the way you’d like. The new and almost perfectly efficient Cloquet hockey arena is nestled down behind the Super One store, adjacent to the old arena, and it drew quite a crowd Tuesday night — among them UMD coaches Mike Sertich and Glenn Kulyk, St. Cloud State coach Craig Dahl, and about a dozen NHL scouts.
The occasion was a neighborhood rumble between the Class A Proctor Rails and the Class AA Cloquet Lumberjacks. The primary object of their attention was Jay Dardis, a tall, lanky centerman on Proctor’s impressive first line. Dardis is definitely big enough, although his 6-foot-2 height almost makes his 190 pounds look skinny. Not that it matters. Scouts imagine what 20 pounds in an advanced weight-training scheme would do for him.
Being stronger won’t be a problem, and would help him battle through the congestion opponents are sure to create, as long as it doesn’t do anything to interfere with those soft hands. There are a lot of players who can skate and play the game, but the discerning scouts look for those special players who can handle the heavy traffic and still make clever, creative plays. Dardis has that deft touch that almost seems radar conrolled.
Dardis put his hands to work after 13:24 of a scoreless first period at Cloquet, when he reached to retrieve the puck deep on the left side and made a quick and perfect pass to the slot. Aaron Slattengren shot it as quickly as it arrived, depositing his one-timer into the lower right corner for a 1-0 Proctor lead.
Slattengren, a quick, darting junior, didn’t play here as a sophomore because his mother and stepfather moved to Pittsburgh. But he moved back home for his junior season and his goal and quickness are big assets for Proctor. Especially when his skills get better coordinated with Dardis’s hands.
As it turned out, a strong and impressive Cloquet club ultimately whipped Proctor 5-1 with a 4-goal third period. In the closing minutes, having played to near exhaustion, Dardis faced a 1-on-3 in the slot but twice poked the puck through traffic to get a good shot away, then he fed Slattengren, whose shot was blocked by Joel Pykkonen.
“We played pretty bad,” said Dardis. “I didn’t think I played well at all, but Cloquet is tough. They’re not real big, but they’re quick and move the puck well.”
Proctor coach Bill McGann said: “A lot of colleges are watching Dardis. Whoever gets him will get a good one.”
Dardis chose to pass up a chance to play junior hockey.
“I went to Waterloo’s training camp, and I made the team,” said Dardis. “But I wanted to play football and enjoy my senior year at Proctor.”
A wide receiver and tight end in football, Dardis and the Rails beat Hermantown 14-7 to reach the state football tournament. His strong showing at Waterloo’s camp attracted some pro scouts, his play when Proctor tied Silver Bay 3-3 in the Jamboree attracted more attention, and scoring two goals and an assist in the opening loss at Forest Lake helped lure the scout turnout at Tuesday’s game at Cloquet.
Cloquet’s superior depth, and its future, prevailed, as all five goals were scored by juniors. But it wasn’t easy. Steve Abrahamson got the tying goal by playing a rebound off the end boards and beating junior goaltender Cory Lonke to the far post late in the second period, and it stayed 1-1 until Cory Lennartson scored on a breakaway at 2:02 of the third, just after the ‘Jacks killed a penalty. They killed one even better at 8:22, when Eric Laine scored on a shorthanded breakaway. Ryan Langenbrunner broke in for another at 9:34, and Lennartson got his second into an empty net.
The ‘Jacks have only four seniors — forwards Dennis Lennartson and Miah Snesrud and goaltenders Adam Laaksonen and Pykkonen — but coach Tom MacFarlane’s Lumberjacks are going to have a voice in whatever happens in Section 7AA this season.
“We’re just trying to find our identity,” MacFarlane said. “In this game, we knew their first line was a problem and we thought if we could hold that line to two goals or less we’d be OK.”
McGann was disappointed at his club’s 0-2 start, but he knows losses to Forest Lake and Cloquet both were against AA schools, and he looks for better things, possibly as soon as this weekend, when the Rails face Ely on Saturday. With the first line of Dardis, Slattengren and hard-shooting senior Richie Upton, plus Lonke’s solid goaltending and a rugged defense, the Rails will be a threat every game.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do yet, but I’ve heard from St. Cloud, Alaska-Anchorage, UMD and North Dakota,” Dardis said. “I’m just thinking about this year. I think we have just as much potential as my sophomore year, when we made it to the state hockey tournament.”
Hawks fly high in ratings
Just as the season’s first cold snap envelopes the Up North region, four of the state’s hottest high school hockey teams are sailing into their Christmas break. One of them, Hermantown, might feel as though its wish-list was answered early.
The Hawks, who suffered their only setback of the season against Eveleth-Gilbert two weeks ago, seem to have discovered that the loss was just what they needed to raise their game to a higher level.
Playing without star J.R. Bradley, who is out with mono, the Hawks played well enough in sweeping past Chisago Lakes, Two Harbors, Mesabi East and Chisholm-Cook. Then came the jolt of the 4-2 loss to Eveleth-Gilbert, the region’s No. 1 ranked team.
“Since then, we’ve played our best of the season,” said coach Bruce Plante. “We beat Virginia 6-1, then beat Cloquet 6-2. Against Cloquet, we were ahead 3-0, then it was 3-2, but nobody panicked.
“We needed to get more scoring than just our first line, and we got three goals each from our first and second lines against Cloquet. I’m really happy with the way we’re playing. We lost 13 guys from last year, and I didn’t really know what we’d be like this season. As it turns out, I think our better players are better than our best players were last year.”
The Hawks sail into a Wednesday date against International Falls with a 6-1 record, jumping into the Up North Network’s state top 10 at No. 8, and rising to No. 4 in the regional top 10.
The three teams ahead of Hermantown are the other three red-hot clubs, although they couldn’t all stay that way until Christmas.
Eveleth-Gilbert and Hibbing open the week ranked 1-2 in the region, and 3-4 statewide. All Eveleth-Gilbert wanted for Christmas might have been to stay undefeated until Christmas; all Hibbing could hope for was to ride the momentum of a solid victory over archrival Greenway of Coleraine last Saturday into the unofficial season midpoint of Christmas.
Problem was, Eveleth-Gilbert had to play at Hibbing, which had lost only to Roseau, on Tuesday night.
Duluth East, which started slowly but has been mobilizing for a second-half rise to prominence, brought a 5-game winning streak into the week, good for a No. 3 regional and No. 6 state rating. But the Greyhounds also had a severe Tuesday test at powerful Edina before they could enjoy Christmas.
The ‘Hounds last week burst Silver Bay’s unbeaten bubble, and were showing their class after a rugged 2-2 start that included losses to Elk River and Hill-Murray — still the state’s No. 1 and 2 teams.
Other semi-hot area teams include Greenway of Coleraine, which was stung 5-2 by Hibbing in Saturday’s IRC showdown, but bounced back Monday night against Denfeld. The Hunters had jumped to an early lead at the DECC, and had a 3-2 edge until the Raiders found the range and piled up the game’s last four goals for a 6-3 victory.
The last four teams in the regional ratings are all at a crossroads. Cloquet, Superior, Denfeld and Marshall all had even-.500 records, but with strong second half potential. Superior’s Spartans suffered from the Wisconsin rules which don’t allow the early-practice time scrimmages Minnesota teams can indulge in, but the Spartans showed their ability by playing East tough and last week whipping Denfeld.
At the top of the state boys ratings, Elk River stayed unbeaten by beating Coon Rapids 5-2, while Hill-Murray emerged from a 2-2 tie to thump White Bear Lake 6-2. Unbeaten Eagan and once-beaten Hastings are other worthy top 10 teams. Roseau and Warroad, leading up to their traditional pair of January meetings, both are once-beaten and deserve their tie for No. 10, which leaves traditional powers Bloomington Jefferson, Edina and once-beaten Anoka are ready to jump in for anyone who slips.
The Duluth Dynamite held its ground in the girls statewide top 10 with an impressive 4-0 victory against Bemidji, which beat Hibbing 3-2 on Friday. One of the highlights of Hibbing’s season was Saturday’s rematch of last spring’s state final against Apple Valley. Both are rebuilding this season, and fittingly they played to a 4-4 tie.
At the top of the girls rating, Roseville’s Curtin sisters continued to score plentifully to keep the Raiders undefeated. Eagan and Park Center foes missed their chance to knock off those two powers when the U.S. National team took Eagan’s Natalie Darwitz and Park Center’s Krissy Wendell for two weeks. Their teams survived without them, and they celebrated their return Saturday, Darwitz with two goals to lead Eagan to a 4-2 victory in a battle of unbeatens with Bloomington Jefferson; Wendell with five goals in a 7-0 Park Center romp over White Bear Lake.
[week 5…]
Up North Hockey Ratings
BOYS/STATE
1. Elk River, 7-0
2. Hill-Murray, 6-0
3. Eveleth-Gilbert, 6-0
4. Hibbing, 6-1
5. Eagan, 7-0
6. Duluth East, 7-2
7. Hastings, 6-1
8. Hermantown, 6-1
9. Greenway of Coleraine, 4-2
10. (tie) Roseau, 5-1
and Warroad, 6-1
BOYS/REGIONAL
1. Eveleth-Gilbert, 6-0
2. Hibbing, 6-1
3. Duluth East, 7-2
4. Hermantown, 6-1
5. Greenway of Coleraine, 4-2
6. Silver Bay, 6-1
7. Cloquet, 3-3
8. Superior, 3-3
9. Duluth Denfeld, 3-3-1
10. Duluth Marshall, 4-4-2
GIRLS/STATE
1. Roseville, 9-0
2. Eagan, 10-1
3. Park Center, 11-0
4. South St. Paul, 10-0
5. Bloomington Jefferson, 9-1
6. Rosemount, 8-2
7. Duluth Dynamite, 7-3
8. Edina, 7-3
9. Burnsville, 7-1-1
10. Anoka, 7-4
BIR future in turmoil
The entire operational staff of Brainerd International Raceway has either been terminated or resigned after an internal explosion with chairman and major shareholder Donald J. Williamson. The effect, coming on Christmas week, throws the future of the Brainerd-area motorsports facility into uncertainty, if not chaos.
The situation arose when Williamson declared void all contracts orchestrated by Dick Roe, whom he disputes was ever the track’s manager. That includes long-standing and extended contracts with the National Hot Rod Association, R.J. Reynolds (Winston) that sponsors the major NHRA event at BIR every August, Coca-Cola, Tires Plus, in a sweeping notification that ranges from major sponsors to the local Brainerd Lion’s Club, which handled on-track camping. Williamson said all such entities can resubmit offers for new contracts to the board of directors.
When Roe questioned the move of terminating those contracts to the board of directors, he said that Dick Schoenfeld, operating as Williamson’s agent, contacted the track and offered Roe the option of resigning or being terminated. Roe said he discussed it with an attorney and chose termination.
“He gave me two options, to resign or be terminated,” said Roe.
Williamson claims he simply suspended Roe until Jan. 18. Roe said that after he had decided on the termination option, Williamson’s order was changed, saying Roe would go 90 days without pay, and a third call notified him that he would be suspended until January.
“Dick Roe was supposed to follow company policy,” said Williamson. “He was never the manager. To my knowledge, Dick Roe was the maintenance manager in charge of keeping the track up and cutting the grass. Dick Roe committed one-million-fifty-thousand in signed contracts he had no authority to sign. So every contract he signed — we don’t care what they were — must submit new contracts if they want to continue working with us.”
The track started as Donnybrooke Speedway in the late 1960s, but it closed for financial reasons in the 1970s. Roe started at BIR as an associate with Jerry Hansen, who took over and reorganized the combined road-course and dragstrip, and turned it into a public entity in 1986. A later group of investors led by drag-racer Gene Snow took command and held it until 1994, when Williamson bought majority interest from Snow for a figure some estimate at about $1 million.
For most of his 25 years at BIR, Roe has negotiated contracts with racing organizations such as the NHRA, always with approval of a board of directors official, most recently BIR president Ron Brown, who no longer operates in that capacity. Under Roe’s operation, the track was used for races or rented to private organizations nearly every weekend from May through September.
The crown jewel has been the annual August NHRA National event, which has grown in stature by the year. This past August the event drew a record 110,000 fans for its four-day run at the track, which is located six miles north of Brainerd. That ranks it fifth among all NHRA National sites.
Williamson, who said he runs 29 companies from his base in Milan, Mich., became chairman and major shareholder of BIR in a 1995 takeover that allowed him to make public some of his other private holdings, insists there is no problem and that the track will be open year-round, “bigger and better than ever.”
If so, it will apparently be with an entirely new staff. Along with Roe, the remainder of the staff — including 10-year business manager Bev Heilicher, 20-year drag racing coordinator Bob Van Houten, Danny Roe, Roe’s son who coordinated events and hospitality functions, Danny Roe, and Heather Johnson, Dick Roe’s daughter, who worked in the office, all were either terminated or resigned in the aftermath. Several other regular part-time employees also have resigned, leaving the track without any functioning people.
Dave Ferroni, who has been track public relations director for 17 years, resigned in October, but he completed one last function by releasing a statement on behalf of the staff upheaval. It says: “Due to operational disagreements with the executive management of BIR, the employees (salaried and contracted) of BIR announced that they have been terminated or resigned.”
The release specifies that personnel no longer associated with BIR includes the track’s concession and events coordinator, security director, and ticketing staff.
“Dave Ferroni never worked for the track,” said Williamson. “I personally told him in August we’d never use him again. He wouldn’t follow instructions, and he wouldn’t follow company policy. To my knowledge, he never worked for the race track, he worked for an ad agency. I never heard of the guy; he was not an employee. I fired him. We got another ad company.”
Asked what ad company the track would now work with, Williamson snapped: “I don’t think it’s any of your business.”
Williamson said he foresees no problems, even if the entire staff quit. He said the track will reopen, year-round, on Jan. 18, and phones will be answered six days a week. He said he would have a new manager in place by then. If Roe was suspended until Jan. 18, and returned, Williamson said that wouldn’t be a problem, because Roe wasn’t the manager. He became increasingly hostile as the telephone interview continued, until he hung up on his inquisitor.
“Dick Roe was not a star employee,” Williamson said. “If he wants to follow company policy, he’s got a job; if he don’t, his ass is gone. A lot of people don’t understand English. We don’t fire nobody, but we do try to make bad employees into good ones. What do you think we’re running here, a ma and pop shoe shine operation?”
Williamson was hesitant to concede that he first ordered Roe to choose between being terminated or resigning. “I’m not aware he accepted a termination. Why would I suspend him if I was aware he’d done something else? That’d be a little foolish, wouldn’t it? I don’t know if you’re a goddam moron or not, follow me?”
When asked again, specifically, if there was a point at which he offered Roe the choice of being terminated or resigning, Williamson said: “Probably was. What’s the difference?
“If the whole staff left, it’s not a problem to me. I don’t have no major disagreements with nobody. If they all resign, who cares?
“Whatever Dick Roe does will not affect Brainerd one way or the other. What makes you think the track was run pretty well? When we bought the track, it was in a shambles. I mean, deplorable. We’ll have a new manager in place Jan. 18, and we’ll be open bigger and better than ever.”
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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