[Katie Schumacher, Wisconsin History Museum]

Today, we are pleased to introduce Steven D. Schmitt as part of the Wisconsin Historical Museum’s History Sandwiched In lecture series. The opinions expressed today are those of the presenter and are not necessarily those of the Wisconsin Historical Society or the museum’s employees.

Steven D. Schmitt is author of “A History of Badger Baseball: The Rise and Fall of America’s Pastime at the University of Wisconsin. Steve has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and he used to broadcast Wisconsin baseball games on a campus radio station as a student. He has published several biographies for the Society for American Baseball Research, including former U.W. captain Johnny Gerlach, former U.W. and Milwaukee Braves player John DeMerit, and former – former Milwaukee Braves Ty Cline and Ken Johnson.

His Chicago Showdown article is included in the S.A.B.R.’s “A Pennant for the Twin Cities: The 1965 Minnesota Twins.” He’s also a former radio news reporter and play-by-play announcer for Wisconsin radio stations and a former newspaper reporter for daily and weekly newspapers in southern Wisconsin. He currently resides in Madison, and he has a daughter, Natalie, who’s completing her bachelor’s degree at U.W.-Stevens Point. So here today to share a history of Badger basket – Badger baseball, please join me in welcoming Steven D Schmitt.

[applause]

[Steven D. Schmitt, Author, A History of Badger Baseball: The Rise and Fall of Americas Pastime at the University of Wisconsin.]

Thank you all for coming. And this was seven years’ worth of – of work with other things – other distractions, like some of the works that were mentioned in the presentation that Katie just gave. The idea for it really came from Steve Vaughn, who was my graduate adviser at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I had written other history in – of baseball papers in his class, and we’re both very much into the game. And when it came time to discuss possible book topics, he said, “You know, baseball was Wisconsin’s first intercollegiate sport and nobody has written a book about that.” And so, that’s how it got started, and I want to, first of all, thank the University of Wisconsin Press. They have been excellent to work with throughout the entire process of this. And the Wisconsin Historical Society for having so much of the microfilm that I needed to look at over 120 years to collect information. And, finally, to the more than 100 baseball players that I talked to, to produce this work that played everywhere from the ’40s to the end of the program in 1991.

So, we’ll go beyond the title here –

[slide titled, The Spirit of Badger Baseball, with the bullet points – Baseball became the U.W.s first intercollegiate sport in 1870; The Camp Randall Fairground became the home field in 1881; Wisconsin won six Northwest College Baseball League championships from 1883 to 1892; Joined the Big Ten for the 1896 season; and Won the Western Conference title in 1902]

– and first intercollegiate sport in 1870. Pitchers threw the ball underhand. Players did not wear gloves. A baseball team was literally a nine, and then you had a substitute and a scorer, if you were lucky. And that’s why some of the Badgers – they weren’t even called the Badgers then – they were called The Mendotas and then the University. The first Badger reference I saw was in 1894.

But they, in their first game, they just played a local team. They played wherever they could whenever they could and beat a team called the Capital City Nine 53-18. And you get those kinds of scores when you pitch underhand and don’t have any gloves.

[laughter]

The Camp Randall Fairgrounds became the home field in 1881, and, basically, the Fairgrounds is generally the area where the Camp Randall Athletic Complex is now. And at one time, as many of us know, it was a Civil War installation where even slaves were brought from the south to Wisconsin and to other states in the Midwest.

Wisconsin won six Northwest College Baseball League championships during that 10-year period, joined the Big Ten in 1896. The president of the university at the time, Charles Kendall Adams, was the chair of a meeting of seven schools –

[Steven D. Schmitt]

– to form what was then the Western Conference, and then we became to know it as the Big Ten later on. And their basic concern at the time was that people were paying football players to play on various teams, whether they were in school or not, and they wanted also to have academic requirements and then look at the football rules to try to make the game safer.

First Western Conference title was in 1902. Here is the first picture of the –

[slide featuring a team photo of the U.W. baseball team in 1884]

– these would be the players on the 1884 champions. And it says University of Wisconsin baseball team, 1881 to 1885, because all of them were part of that class. And, as you can see there, they were rather limited in equipment and apparel.

[new slide featuring a team photo of the U.W. baseball team of 1886-1887]

1887, this team went 7-1, and they had such a big celebration throughout the city of Madison. What would happen when the word would come by telegraph that they won a league championship, the students would organize a torchlight parade that would begin on the campus. They would go, the band would come with them, it would start off with the cannon being fired off of University Hill –

[Steven D. Schmitt]

– which we know of as Bascom Hill. So, if you can imagine that, somebody shooting a cannon off. Nobody has done that for one Rose Bowl that I know of.

[laughter]

And they would march all the way to the downtown railroad depot. And you can see where that is now, where some of those railroad cars have been refurbished, where you go around the bend on the way to the Capitol building. And they would meet the train after the players had arrived from wherever they were, even if it was from Racine or from Northwestern or someplace like that. Northwestern was in the league with Wisconsin at the time, along with Racine and Beloit College.

Now, what happened then, when they would come back, the players would be carried on the shoulders of the fans. They would go through the campus area, pass by the U.W. president’s house. They would go by a Ladys Hall, which is where Chadbourne is located now. And it was – they would end up celebrating until the wee hours of the morning because this baseball team had won a championship.

There’s the 1902 –

[slide featuring a team photo of the 1902 Big Ten championship baseball team]

– champions with the first African Americans. In the third row in the back, there’s Julian Ware of Evansville, Indiana, who played first base, and in the middle is Adelbert Matthews, who was the star pitcher on the team, and his grandparents were slaves who were liberated at Camp Randall. And they ended up moving from Cairo, Illinois, to Fox Lake, Wisconsin.

[new slide titled, To Japan With the Ball Team featuring two photos, one a full length portrait photo of the pitcher, Charles Peck Nash, and a second of an action photo of a player sliding into third base]

To Japan with the ball team. This was the most fun because the Badger baseball team made a 7,000-mile journey to Tokyo, Japan, in 1909. They left here in August, went to Minneapolis by train, to Seattle by train, and then by steamship from Seattle to Tokyo, Japan.

And I want to pass along, if you want to look at this issue here. That is of the Independent, December 30, 1909. And there’s an article in there, “Wisconsin vs. Japan in Baseball,” that was written by David Joseph Flanagan, who played for the Badgers, and there were three articles, in fact –

[Steven D. Schmitt]

– that were printed by players who would actually experience this trip. And they talked about what it was like to ride a rickshaw, to go through the business district, how the fans behaved at the ballgames, and the fans even got upset at the fact that the Wisconsin team enjoyed doing the typical infield chatter. You know, the “Hey, batter, batter,” or “Come on, fire it in there.” And the fans in Japan were shocked, [whispering] because you’re not supposed to make any noise during a baseball game. [whispering] Not supposed to distract anybody.

Over on the left, a postcard of Charles Peck Nash –

[return to the To Japan With the Ball Team slide]

– who won one of the games in Japan. And here’s a Keio player sliding into third base. This picture is from the article that –

[new slide titled, Wisconsin and Keio University baseball teams, Tokyo, 1909, featuring a combined team photo of the teams that played on the Tokyo trip]

– I’ve passed around, as is this one, the Keio team was considered the best in Japan. And there they have a picture with some of the Wisconsin players.

They had banquets for them, everything, gave them a huge send off. The trip, all told, went from August until Halloween, and then on November 1st, they had a big reception for them at the Armory. And everybody gave speeches and thanked the guys for their participation really in international relations.

[new slide titled, 1912 Champions, featuring two photos, one of Eddie Gillette (in a football throwing stance) and John Keckie Moll in his baseball uniform]

1912, Wisconsin won the Western Conference in baseball, basketball and football. Eddie Gillette and “Keckie” Moll, both baseball and football players, in 1912.

[new slide titled, Guy S. Lowman 1921-32, featuring a triptych of portrait photos, one of Coach Lowman, one of Rollie Barnum, and one of Llyod Larson (in catchers gear)]

And before I get to talking about Coach Lowman here, one thing that happened during World War I, Wisconsin, the university –

[Steve D. Schmitt]

– was very active in its support of the U.S. involvement in World War I. And Charles Van Hise made some trips over there to see what was happening on the front lines in the other countries. And the sad part is, when he came back, about the time they were ready to sign the armistice, the became ill and he died shortly after returning from Europe.

But during World War I, many campuses across the country said military training is more important than any sports, so they dropped their spring sports so that all of the men could train to fight in World War I.

The Badger baseball team had already been on their spring trip in April when President Wilson declared war on April 6, 1917. So, when they got back, they said, “Okay, now everybody’s done.” So, there was no conference record at all. Guy Lowman, though, because other coaches were serving in World War I, he coached the football, baseball, and basketball team in 1918. And I used to hear, when I was growing up, that, “Gosh, the Badgers haven’t beaten Ohio State at Columbus since 1918.” And then they finally did it, I think, in 1982. And the football coach who pulled that off was Guy Lowman, who’s over on the left. Rollie Barnum became the first Badger to win nine athletic letters. He participated in baseball –

[return to the Guy S. Lowman 1921-32 slide featuring the three photos]

– football, and basketball and was a Big Ten official for about 30 years. And Lloyd Larson, rough picture there, but Lloyd Larson became the sports editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel and was president of the National W Club at one point in time.

[new slide titled, 1930 Western Conference Champions, featuring a team photo of the championship Badger baseball team of that year]

1930 champions. Here’s Coach Lowman at the end of the first row there. That was his only championship. They had a number of near misses, and one thing that gave me a lot of pleasure was reading an old Roundy Coughlin’s column after the Badgers had beaten Michigan to win the 1930 championship. He said that it was so exciting for Wisconsin –

[Steven D. Schmitt]

– to win the championship, but he said to do it at old Ann Arbor, his last word, Enjoy!

After Guy Lowman –

[slide featuring a photo from the U.W. Hall of Fame of the Diamond Doc, Bob Poser who played for the St. Louis Browns and Chicago White Sox]

– and John Falk, “Bobby” Poser took over, and his relatives founded the Poser Clinic, which is in Columbus, Wisconsin. It is still there. Fourth generation of doctors. They’re still practicing there. I met Ralph Poser when I took this picture, which shows what Bobby Poser did at the university and with two professional teams.

He went on to coach the Badger baseball team while he was doing his medical studies to become a doctor. And then, event – he did not stay long with those teams and then was at the clinic for many years.

[new slide titled, Trivia Question – Which one is the coach?, featuring a photo of two baseball players in consultation with one another who look to be about the same age]

Then the next question here – apologize for the pixelated picture – but trivia question: which one’s the coach, the guy on the left or the guy on the right?

How many votes for the guy with the glasses?

[wide shot of the audience with a couple of hands raised]

A couple.

No, that’s Bob Henrichs, a pitcher for the Badgers, who, in his very last game, hit a home run and beat Michigan State, and the sportswriter, Henry J. McCormick said that he rounded the bases with a grin a yard wide. The guy on the right was Lowell “Fuzzy” Douglas, who came from Baylor, coached the Badgers. They were just going to have him there a year and then they were going to find somebody else. He stuck around for three years. And Johnny Gerlach, who was mentioned in the opening, who practiced law here in Madison until he passed in 1999, and now his son is in a law office up here on the square. Johnny Gerlach was twice the Badger captain.

And Dynie Mansfield took over, and for the next 31 years, “the Bear” was –

[slide, titled, Coach Arthur Dynie Mansfield (1940-1970), 441 victories, 2 Big Ten titles and U.W.s only College World Series appearance, featuring four photos – one portrait photo of coach Dynie Mansfield, one of pitcher Howard Boese, one of Frank Granitz who had a batting average of .463, and one of pitcher Gene Jaroch who was 6-0 as a starting pitcher. Additionally, noted is that the 1946 undisputed championship team consisted of veterans Howard Boese and John Kasper, talented Freshmen Chick Lowe and Thornton Kipper, and played their games at Breese Stevens Field]

– Wisconsin’s head coach. Why’d they call him the Bear? Because sometimes the guys made mistakes, they’d get hollered at or he’d take his hat off and throw it on the ground and stomp on it. And later on, I’ll talk about the Rockhead champs who won a Big Ten Championship, and that was because of the Dynie Mansfield: “You rockhead!”

If somebody made a physical error, okay – minimal errors, forget it. Howard Boese, he is alive and well in Glendale, Wisconsin, at the age of 96. I told him about the book coming out and sent him a copy, and he said, “Oh, so it finally happened, huh?”

[laughter]

And we went to his house and looked through his scrapbooks, got the 1946 Western Conference Championship picture out. He named every single player in that picture.

He was a pitcher in 1942. His claim to fame, though, was getting a base hit when he was called on to pinch hit at the end of a game against Illinois after he had wrenched his ankle fielding a bunt against Western Michigan. I read about this on the microfilm at the Historical Society. Called him up and said, “What happened?” He said –

[Steven D. Schmitt]

– “I tried to field a bunt and I turned around and I wrenched my ankle.” And then what happened is Dynie Mansfield tells him, Okay, you’re probably going to miss the Illinois doubleheader. Come to the game, be in your uniform, bring your crutches along. Gets to the last inning and Bob Sullivan, the right fielder, is on second base. Dynie looks down the bench and says, “Boese, I want you to hit.” So, he comes up, hits the ball, and he told me, “It would have been a triple for anybody else.” But instead, he hopped to first base –

[laughter]

– on his good foot. And Bob Sullivan, who is from Ojibwa, Wisconsin, way up in the Northwoods, came around to score the winning run.

Then he became the center fielder on the Western Conference champs in ’46 after he came back from the war. He said he went into the Air Corps, “I got my pilot’s wings and all the sudden I was a flight instructor. You know, Why me?! He said, “I’m somewhere down south. Here, show them how to fly planes.” And he went, “Okay.”

Frank Granitz –

[return to the Coach Arthur Dynie Mansfield slide featuring the four photos]

– he was a long-time head coach at Manitowoc Lincoln High School, and a number of Badgers, who you’ll hear about later, played for him.

And Frank really, you know, what a puny batting average for Big Ten play. Only .463. And he was from Milwaukee and Gene Jaroch became the first pitcher in the history of the Western Conference to go undefeated and win six games in the same season. And at that time, the Badgers played Friday night games at Breese Stevens Field, and then they played Saturday afternoon at Camp Randall Diamond, which is now where the Engineering building, that was built around 1950, sits. So, just north of the football stadium was the baseball park.

[new slide featuring three baseball portrait photos of Chick Lowe, the 1949 captain, Red Wilson (in catchers gear), who had a .426 batting average and 17 stolen bases, and Shelley Fink, who was the 1951 M.V.P. Additionally, it is noted that – Lowe was a P.O.W. who returned from World War II and enrolled at U.W., Robert Red Wilson enrolled in 1946 and was Big Ten football M.V.P. in 1949, and Shelley Fink played three positions in three seasons, third base, shortstop and second base]

Chick Lowe, he is now at Oakwood East. I went and talked with him. He was a prisoner of war. He showed me communications that he had sent and received from home while he was in a prison camp in Germany. Showed me the map where they took everybody after they were captured, and then, when he got back from the war, enrolled as a freshman at the university, played on the championship team in 1946 and played for four years. Once played a doubleheader with a broken ankle.

Red Wilson, who I’m sure more baseball fans are familiar with because he spent 10 years in the Major Leagues – .426 average in 1950 when the Badgers went to the College World Series. 17 stolen bases, and for all you baseball aficionados, catchers don’t steal very many bases. And Red, when he went on to the Tigers, when I asked him about this, I said, “I looked you up in 1958 when you were with the Tigers. The stolen bases is 10 stolen bases and caught stealing zero. I said, “How’d you do that?” He says, “I don’t know, I had a manager who let me run.”

[Steven D. Schmitt]

And what – what he did there is that Bob Shay, who was All Conference for two years and played first base, he was a tackle on the football team and Red was the center and then switched to tight end his last year. And Shay was a left-handed batter, had big shoulders, so he said, “I was ahead of him, and I’d be on first base and the catcher can’t even see me because Shay is such a big guy.” And so, he was able to steal a lot of bases.

And Shelley Fink, he played from ’49 to ’51, every year a different position. And then he was the most valuable player –

[return to the slide featuring Lowe, Wilson, and Fink]

– on the team in 1951.

[new slide titled, 1950 College World Series, Rosenblatt Stadium, Omaha, Nebraska, June 14-16, featuring a team photo of the 1950 U.W. baseball team]

Here is the team that made it to the College World Series. And they even have a picture of the manager. I was football manager at West High School when I was a senior, and so, I like any picture that has the manager included in it.

And that was when they played – they went through a playoff system. They had district playoffs, and this committee would decide from a certain region. This was District 4 in the Midwest, you know? And they’d pick from Michigan, Michigan State, and Wisconsin. And before the Badgers were able to get to the College World Series, they had swept Michigan and Minnesota –

[Steven D. Schmitt]

– to tie for the conference title. And these guys still said, “Well, look, it’s a tie so we should have another game between Wisconsin and Michigan to decide who gets to go to the playoffs.” And Shelley Fink, whose picture I just showed you, said, “Well, we thought that was ridiculous because we just beat them twice. And so, we always thought we were the ones who were the champions.” So, they ended up going. They beat Ohio University and Michigan State to qualify for Omaha, and then beat Colorado A&M, lost to Rutgers, and then beat the University of Alabama, whose starting pitcher was Frank Larry, who was a teammate of Red Wilson on the Detroit Tigers.

And then they lost to Rutgers again because they were manage – the manager, or I guess I should say coached, by George Case. I read that name and I said, George Case, George Case. He was the guy who stole all those bases for the Washington Senators in the 1940s, right? And so, what he did is he brought his own style of stealing bases and running, hit and run and bunt, to his coaching. And the Badgers in the second game lost 16-2. They just fell apart because these guys are running all over the place. They’d throw the ball, it would miss the guy at second, miss the guy at third, and it was a nightmare. And so, that’s why, by the way, hope we get baseball back while Rutgers is still in the Big Ten because I want to get back at them.

[laughter]

[slide featuring an action shot of pitcher Thornton Kipper with the additional info that Kipper won 11 games and lost only one as well as won two College World Series games and then signed with the Philadelphia Phillies and played there from 1953-1955]

Thornton Kipper, cup of coffee in the Majors with the Phillies. 11-1 record. Won both of those College World Series games. He was a Second Team All-American. What? How about a first? 11-1.

[new slide featuring two photos of Ron Unke, one in uniform with a mitt on holding a trophy, and one of Unke signing a contract with the St. Louis Cardinals. Additionally, it is noted that he pitched for Milwaukee Industrial League Baseball]

Ron Unke, I still see him. He was telling – was bragging to somebody once he was 7-2 in his first year with the Badgers, and “I only walked 11 guys.” And I said, “That’s because Dynie wouldn’t let you walk anybody.” He used to keep track. Pitcher walked a guy; he would keep track how many times they came around to score. And if it was happening too often, he would have a little skull session with his pitchers and say, “You got to cut this out.”

Anyway, he was in the industrial league – notice he had the latest equipment with Tanner Paull. And he and Harvey Kuenn played for Highway beers. And there he is signing a contract with Dick Sisler of the Cardinals.

[new slide featuring the baseball card for Harvey Kuenn when he was with the Detroit Tigers and the baseball card for Red Wilson when he was also with the Tigers. Additionally, it is noted that Harvey Kuenn set the Badger batting records, played 15 M.L.B. seasons with the Tiger, Indians, Giants, Cubs, and Phillies and that Wilson joined Kuenn in Detroit in 1956 and were teammates from 1956-1960]

There’s Harvey. See, Ron Unke and Harvey Kuenn both came from Lutheran High School in Milwaukee, which is now Wisconsin Lutheran High School in Milwaukee. And Harvey came on a basketball scholarship. And then he ended up playing for the Badgers. Rewrote the hitting record book, had nine triples in a season where they played like 28 games. You figure that out to the length of, like, a major league season, it’s a lot of triples. And the – the story that Ron Unke told me, though, about he and Harvey and Ron Barbie and another guy from Milwaukee who sadly passed away recently, but I had a chance to interview him.

They were in a spring training game in Memphis. And Harvey Kuenn comes up to bat, hits a line –

[Steven D. Schmitt]

– shot at the third baseman. He thinks the guy is going to catch it, he drops his bat, he walks back to the bench. The guy dropped it. Picked it up and threw to first base. And you can bet that he heard about that – about, you know, you always run the ball out, right? Then there was a pop-up and Unke and Barbie and the first baseman come over. “I got it.” “You got it. ” Plunk. Then Unke is pitching late in the game, Badgers win 12-11 because Dynie says to Unke, “I’m not taking you out until you get the side out.” After the game, he gets the three guys together. He says, “All right, you hotshots from Milwaukee, we’re going to have a team this year whether you’re on it or not.”

And, by the way, there is Red with Detroit. That’s Harvey’s rookie card, by the way.

[slide featuring an action shot of John DeMerit hitting a bat against Northwestern. With an additional note that the scoreboard in the photo is being operated manually]

Then John DeMerit was our second bonus baby. Harvey being the first. Signed for a – a bonus. It’s going to say $50,000 on the next slide, but it was more than that. It was $100,000 to sign with the Milwaukee Braves. Now you’ll see the old Guy Lowman Field. You can see the trees and you can see the lake. And look at the manual scoreboard.

And DeMerit, of course, he was not expected to make the team originally, and then he set a school record with 12 home runs in a season. The reason why is because they used to pitch batting practice at the field house or later on at the Camp Randall Memorial Shell. Shelley Reusch was pitching –

[Steven D. Schmitt]

– threw him some curve balls, and DeMerit kept missing them.

And so, then they’re trying to decide who’s going to go to Arizona, John DeMerit or a guy named Carl Tegum. And so, Dynie says to the two guys, ” Well, neither one of you guys deserve to go, but I got to pick one.” So, he decides to flip a coin. Flips the coin, he points to DeMerit and says, “You’re going.” He points to Tegum and says, “You’re staying.” And, as you can see, John, wearing number 53, was not, you know, considered a regular –

[return to the slide with the action shot of John DeMerit]

– when he first joined the team. He sent me this picture, by the way.

[new slide featuring the front page of the Milwaukee Sentinel sports page from May of 1957 with the headline, Braves Sign U.W.s DeMerit For Reported $50,000 Bonus]

There it is with Sentinel sports, May 27, 1957. John, his dad, another guy that they don’t identify, and then Ed Dansesack, on the right, was the Braves Midwest scout.

[new slide featuring a photo of an elderly Ron Nieman at home noting that he is only one of three first team All-American U.W. baseball players – the others are Harvey Kuenn and Rick Reichardt]

John DeMerit and a pitcher named George Schmidt are very good friends with this man, Ron Nieman. When I talked with him five years ago, he had had five strokes over a period of 15 years after a long and successful career in education in Wisconsin, at Deforest and at Monona Grove and at Sheboygan North. When he led Sheboygan North to their first winning football season in 1963 in years, the legislature honored him as the coach of the year in high school football in Wisconsin.

That’s my picture of him from five years ago. He was the third First Team All-American baseball player from the University of Wisconsin. Harvey Kuenn and Rick Reichardt were the others. And you’ll notice the W hat. I got that at the Dugout Club. I gave it to – to Ron and my understanding is he still has it.

[new slide with a phot of Jim OToole in his Cincinnati Reds uniform noting that he pitched for 10 M.L.B. seasons]

Jim O’Toole of the Reds, 10 Major League seasons. Pitched for the Badgers for one year. Could throw the ball very hard.

[Steven D. Schmitt]

Wanted to come here. Knobby Kelliher, who played for the Badgers and later coached at Madison Central, Madison East for a number of years, went to Dynie after catching him and said, “Listen, if he wants to come here, you got to get him.” And the problem was he was always a little bit wild, but people – Branch Rickey even said once he had a million-dollar arm. And Dynie didn’t like the attention O’Toole was getting for a guy that had an average record and was only around for a year. But then, when I talked to Jim, he passed away December 26th of 2015. But I had talked to him a couple years prior to that. And he said, “Well, I went up to him and he said, ‘Dynie,’ if some guys are coming in here and they want to give me a boatload of money, I’m out of here.’ There was no question about it. In fact, one of the things he did, before he left school, is he coached the eighth-grade baseball team at Blessed Sacraments School, for all you Madisonians that might be familiar with that.

[slide featuring three photos of Dale Hackbart, one in a baseball batting stance, one in a football uniform holding a football, and finally an action shot of him running in the Rose Bowl for U.W. football. Additionally, it is noted that he starred in baseball and football at the U.W. and led the Badgers to the 1960 Rose Bowl]

And then to follow him is the Hack. Dale Hackbart, he and I did two interviews, one about baseball, one about football. He was determined to be on the baseball team in 1960. He could have gone into professional baseball but thought they could win the Big Ten, and if it wasn’t for a whole bunch of rain outs, they may have. But one of the things he told me about was when Milt Bruin, the football coach, was recruiting him. He said to Hackbart, who’d been recruited by Minnesota too.

[Steven D. Schmitt]

He says, “Look, you’re a Madison East kid, you’re a Wisconsin kid, this is where you belong.” And then Milt leaned over his desk at the old coach’s office and looked Dale Hackbart right in the eye and said, “You are not leaving this room until you commit to the University of Wisconsin.” And then, of course, he led the Badgers to the Rose Bowl.

[return to the slide with the three photos of Dale Hackbart]

The outcome wasn’t so good, but this was the game against Minnesota. And I love those big Ws. Those are the helmets they ought to use now.

[new slide featuring two photos of Pat Richter, one from 1961 of the Badger baseball bench with Richter waiting to enter the game, and one of Richter as Athletic Director with Michigans Dick Honig on the sidelines of a Badger football game. Also noted is that Honig remembered the Richter blast that beat Michigan in 1962 that knocked the Wolverines out of first place in the Big Ten]

Pat Richter, of course, another East High kid, followed. There he is, the first guy at the end of the bench at Guy Lowman. Everybody’s enjoying the nice weather on an April day in 1961. 1962, the Badgers beat Michigan, the eventual National Championships, in a doubleheader. Pat Richter hit a home run in each game to lead the team to victory. The shortstop was the guy on the left in this 2011 picture – picture, Dick Honig. They’re recalling Richter’s home run that went out of the ballpark at Guy Lowman Field, like, within a second, over the center field wall. So, he’s giving them the, you know, “Geeze, look at that thing.” And before he passed away, I did get a chance to visit with Don Lund –

[Steven D. Schmitt]

– who was the head coach at Michigan in 1962. And I asked him, I said, “Well, what do you recall about Richter’s home run off of Fritz Fisher?” And he said, “He started the space program.”

[laughter]

And there they are. Pat is on the left –

[slide featuring a photo of the 1962 baseball heroes taken in the 1990s, Pat Richter, Ron Krohn, Dave Tymus, and Stan Wagner at a golf outing]

– Ron Krohn, pitcher, Dave Tymus, a pitcher and first baseman, and Stan Wagner, who actually won both games of that doubleheader against Michigan. Pitched a complete game, wins the first one, goes into the bleachers, gives his mom and dad his glove. They were living in Sun Prairie and Stan lives there now. So, he figures, you know, I’m done for the day, you can take my glove home. They get into the second game. And the Badgers go in, they’re down one. Richters home run was a two-run homer to win the game in the bottom of the seventh. Top of the seventh is coming up. Dynie says to Wagner, “Warm up!” He goes, “What? I pitched the first game. I barely, Me!?” So, he had to borrow someone else’s glove because his parents had taken his glove home.

[new slide featuring a photo of Rick Reichardt in uniform in a batting stance as well as that same photo interpreted as a painting at the College Baseball Hall of Fame in Texas. Also noted is that Reichardt was the 1964 Collegiate Player of the Year]

And our National Collegiate Player of the Year, Rick Reichardt, who had an 11-year Major League career, was also a great football player, led the Badgers in receiving in 1963 and was actually drafted in the 17th round by the Baltimore Colts a year after he signed with the Angels because Johnny Unitas thought he would fit the Colts offense just in case baseball didn’t work out. They used a low round pick. And there is his plaque from his induction into the College Baseball Hall of Fame in Texas, which happened now two years ago.

[new slide featuring two photos of Harold Brandt, one an action shot of him hitting a ball for the Badger baseball team and another action shot of him playing quarterback for the U.W. in 1963-4]

This guy, Harold Brandt, used to throw the ball to Reichardt. There he is, the starting quarterback, missed spring practice to play baseball and led the Badgers in runs-batted-in in 1964 and played first base. Sue Brandt was great in sending me this picture and talking about him –

[Steven D. Schmitt]

– because, sadly, he passed away from cancer at the age of 45. But amazing athlete, Hal Brandt.

1966, Paul Morenz, he was the baseball and basketball Most Valuable Player in 1966. On the basketball team, he scored the winning points against Iowa, Purdue, and Marquette. He wasn’t even a starter. He wasn’t one of the starting five, but they chose him as the Most Valuable Player. It’s the only time in the history of the basketball team that a reserve has won the –

[slide featuring two baseball portrait photos, one of Paul Morenz, and one of John Poser. It is additionally noted that Paul Morenz was basketball and baseball M.V.P. in 1966 and that John Poser was a second-generation Badger and lead the Big Ten in E.R.A. in 1967]

– Most Valuable Player Award from his teammates. And if he had been able to make one catch, he would have saved a no-hitter for Dave Timis.

John Poser, second generation Badger. Yeah, the son of Bobby. And he was a pitcher. Why is he, if he was a pitcher, led Big Ten in E.R.A. in 1967. Any guess about what the figure was? 0.97. But why has he got all that equipment? Well, they used to stick him in the outfield if they needed him, and they used him as a pinch hitter once in a while.

[new slide featuring baseball portrait photos of Bruce Erickson and R.D. Boschulte, nicknamed The Keystone Cops and played together from 1968-1970]

And The Keystone Cops of the ’68-’70 team. There’s Bruce Erickson. He told me that was an ugly picture, and he was right. And R. D. Boschulte. And Bruce, of course, coached many years at three Appleton high schools, won 20 conference championships in 30 years. A couple stories about him. One, they were playing a doubleheader –

[Steven D. Schmitt]

– and they started a double play. Gary Wald fielded the ball to first base. He’s covering second. Ball hits him in the nose. He breaks his nose. So, Bobby Poser, John’s dad, is watching the game. Comes out of the stands, between games he set Bruce Erickson’s broken nose, and Bruce played in the second game of the doubleheader.

R. D. Boschulte hit a home run to win the last game of Dynie Mansfield’s career in 1970. And he actually came to Wisconsin to play hockey for Bob Johnson. And he still said he was – that Bob Johnson was the best coach that he ever had. And the era comes to an end, Fritz Wagner on the left and Dynie on the right, after 34 years.

Fritz played pro basketball as well as playing baseball for the Badgers. He played for the Oshkosh Pros –

[slide featuring a photo of coaches Fritz Wagner and Dynie Mansfield in uniform standing side-by-side, noting that they coached together from 1937-1970]

– of what became the N.B.A. back in the 1930s, but I imagine that if you were watching a game last night, the two styles were immensely different, I would imagine, with an 80-year difference there. Dynie, I met at the 19 – at a 1967 doubleheader against North Central College of Illinois because my dad and my dad’s uncle knew him very well. And, of course, this was the day he walked out to the field, you know, and he comes up to my dad, and my dad’s nickname from his years at W.M.T.V. is Windy. And Dynie comes out, “Hi, Windy.” You know? And then my older brother and I are with him, and so I get to shake Dynie’s hand. He’s got his big W jacket on and his cap and everything and the white hair –

[Steven D. Schmitt]

– and it’s like meeting somebody’s grandpa, you know? These guys talked about how tough he could get on them, and I thought, Jeez, he’s the nicest guy in the world.

Okay, Lon Galli won two M.V.P. awards, 1969 and 71. Living in South Carolina now. He has a red room. That is his Wisconsin room.

[slide featuring two baseball portrait photos, one of Lon Galli and one of Greg Mahlberg in a catchers stance. Additionally, it is noted that Galli won two M.V.P. awards (1969,1970) and that Mahlberg made the major leagues and was a manager in the minor leagues]

Everything in it is red or something about Wisconsin. He beat Dave Winfield when Dave Winfield was pitching for Minnesota. And then he has the bat that he used to get two hits off him in a display case in his red room. Greg Mahlberg, another Lutheran High guy, played briefly in the Majors.

[new slide with two more baseball portrait photos, one of Mike Adler in a pitching stance and one of Daryl Fuchs in a catchers stance. It is also noted that Adler once blanked Michigan 1-0 and that Fuchs caught for Adler and many others in four seasons with the Badgers and then coached for Tom Meyer and Steve Land]

Mike Adler shut out Michigan. Darrell Fuchs was a catcher for four years, and then coached until the end of the program.

[new slide featuring a photo of Dynie Mansfields replacement as head coach, Tom Meyer with then U.W. System President John Weaver chatting at a game]

Coach Tom Meyer replaced Dynie, and he always told me the number one fan of the team was U.W. President John Weaver.

[new slide featuring two baseball portrait photos, one of Andy Otting in a pitchers stance and one of Tom Shipley kneeling with a bat. In addition, it is noted that Otting was Wisconsins winningest pitcher and that Shipley graduated high school from Madison Edgewood and won two M.V.P. awards as well as broke the single-season hit mark for the U.W.]

Andy Otting is Wisconsin’s winningest pitcher, 21 games. Tom Shipley won two M.V.P. awards and broke Harvey Kuenn’s single season hit mark.

[new slide featuring two photos, one an action photo of Steve Bennett hitting a ball at the U.W. – Milwaukee Brewer exhibition game at Country Stadium in 1973, and the other a photo of U.W. System President John Weaver standing between U.W. coach Tom Meyer and Milwaukee Brewer manager Del Crandall. It is also noted that the Badgers and the Brewers held two exhibition games, one in 1973 and one in 1974]

Badgers played the Brewers. There’s Steve Bennett, Madison West grad, at the top, and there’s Coach Meyer, President Weaver, and Brewer Manager Del Crandall.

[new slide featuring four photos, one an action shot of Andy Otting pitching against Notre Dame at Guy Lowman Field, one of a baseball portrait photo of Duane Gustavson who set the Badger career mark for triples, an action shot of Steve Ploetz playing first base with a runner on, and a baseball portrait photo of John Nelsen who was the Badgers career E.R.A. leader]

There’s Otting pitching. Duane Gustavson. He was in the Pan-American games and signed with the Cubs. Steve Ploetz, he’s now the C.E.O. of the Bank of Prairie du Sac, so you can go up and talk to him any time you want. John Nelsen led the team in earned run average and has the career mark of 2.23.

[slide featuring a team photo of the 1979 No-Bid Badgers who finished second in the Big Ten with an overall record of 31-17 and a conference record of 13-5]

The 1979 No-Bid Badgers. Look at that record. Second in the Big Ten. The N.C.A.A. picks Michigan, who finished third, and Michigan State, who finished first, to go to the N.C.A.A. tournament.

[new slide featuring two baseball portrait photos, one of Jim Vinny Van Proosdy who had a record of 7-0 and one of Mike Zimmerman who lead U.W. hitters while he played]

“Vinny” Van Proosdy, great guy. Works for Virbac. They make all kinds of money on pet stuff. 7-0 record. Mike Zimmerman, this is his batting helmet. And he was a top hitter even though he looks like the –

[new slide featuring three photos, one an action shot of then Freshman Dean Rennicke pitching, one an action shot of Craig Zirbel catching, who set 1980 hits marks, and one of a poster for Badger Baseball 1980 featuring the Badgers celebrating a win over Ohio State]

– kid next door in the picture.

And Dean Rennicke, he was a freshman, worked for the Brewers after graduating, was a Minor League pitching instructor for the Dodgers. Craig Zirbel, I had been in school with him. He’s organizing the reunion of the varsity players. Hit in 30 consecutive games, and that remained a record. Here’s the celebration from the sweep of Ohio State in ’79. Why? Because they thought they’d made the N.C.A.A. tournament. They didn’t think they were going to get shafted like they did.

[new slide featuring two baseball portrait photos, one of Joe Scime who batter .400 twice, and one of Mike Hart, who played for the Twins and Orioles in the Major Leagues]

Joe Scime made .400 twice, was M.V.P. twice. Mike Hart was a big star for the Badgers, had cups of coffee with two teams, and if any of you have seen the movie “Major League, you know –

[Steve D. Schmitt]

– that’s got Bob Uecker in it, and they filmed it at – at County Stadium. The guy Burton, who hits the home run in the playoff game for the Yankees, that was Mike Hart. He got it on the second take.

And, again, multi-sport athletes Scott Sabo, Terry Kleisinger, and Tim Sager of the –

[slide titled, The Meyer Tenure Ends, featuring two photos one of the trio of Scott Sabo, Terry Kleisinger and Tom Sager, who while in baseball uniforms are holding hockey sticks as bats, another combined baseball portrait photo of Mike Verkuilen, Mark Doran, and Jim Barwick]

– 1981 champion hockey team and the last outfield of the Meyer era, Verkuilen, Doran and Barwick. Barwick is also in “Major League” trying to steal a base for the Indians.

[new slide featuring a photo of Steve Land and Joe Armentrout as Dugout Club directors in 2010, Steve Land takes over as head coach after Tom Meyer]

Steve Land takes over. His best player may have been Joe Armentrout.

[new slide featuring two photos, one baseball portrait photo of Tim Eichorst who set R.B.I. records, and one of an action photo of Brian Wegner swinging a bat and noting that Wegner played in more games than any other Badger with 206]

But Tim Eichorst set the R.B.I. record. He had 60 R.B.I.s one year, batting third, but they said his mechanics were the worst that they’d ever seen because he always shuffled his feet when he tried to hit the ball. Brian Wegner, the consecutive game record, 206 despite breaking his nose at the Metrodome.

[new slide featuring four action photos of the pitching staff in 1986, Lance Painter, Paul Quantrill, Tom Fischer, and Tim Roman]

Here’s the pitching staff that they had in ’86. Lance Painter, 12 years in the Majors, Paul Quantrill, 14, Tom Fisher struck out 19 of 21 batters against Iowa in 1988, and Tim Roman from Stevens Point. And there you get an idea, a little look about the background at Guy Lowman.

[new slide featuring action photos of Mike Barker, who ranked 9th in batting in 1987, Scott Cepicky, who set a career home run record of 38, and catcher Craig Brown]

Mike Barker was ninth in the nation in hitting. Scott Cepicky broke Richter’s home run mark by a lot. And there’s Craig Brown, who’s a lawyer in Chicago. And he told me to use that picture in the book because he stopped a rally with it.

[new slide titled, Saying Goodbye to Baseball, featuring three action photos of Badger baseball including a photo of Jason Schlutt who pitched the last Badger baseball game]

And, yes, there were pleasant moments, as you can see, at the end there. The guy down here is Jason Schlutt, who pitched the very last Badger game in 1991, and they lost to Purdue 1-0.

[new slide featuring a photo of the Badger bench after the last game with the Badger players wearing black hats]

And there is Tim Ulatowski sent me this picture. That’s after the last game.

[new slide featuring the team photo of the last Badger baseball team]

Pastor Trap is in the back. That’s his picture of the guys who wore the black hats. They got them from Iowa to wear – to wear on the last day. The sleeves and the shoes are all black.

[new slide titled, Where They Played 1870-1991, featuring a photo of the Camp Randall Fairgrounds in the 1880s]

And, briefly, where they played. There is the Fairgrounds. You can see the baseball diamond.

[new slide featuring action shots taken at the Camp Randall Fairgrounds, U.W. versus Waseda in 1911, and a photo of the Camp Randall diamond in 1927]

There’s Wisconsin and Waseda inside of Camp Randall. There’s Camp Randall diamond a little bigger, from the ’20s.

[new slide titled, Camp Randall Athletic Complex circa 1942, with and aerial shot of Camp Randall with the ball diamond in the upper right]

Here’s the athletic complex. You can see the Camp Randall diamond in the background, and then the field house and the stadium.

[new slide titled, Breese Stevens Field, U.W. baseball home field from 1949-1951, with an action shot taken from inside the stadium]

Breese Stevens was the home field when the Engineering building was being built.

[new slide titled, Guy Lowman Field 1960, with two photos, one of the Badger bench during a game there and one of the Tarp Crew in the 1970s, noting that the players also collected rocks in their helmets when the Guy Lowman Field opened in 1976]

There’s Guy Lowman Field in ’60. The truck, again, was the – was the – for the scoreboard. Okay. And there’s the Tarp Crew. The players, if you were a freshman, you’d get stuck on the Tarp Crew.

[Steve D. Schmitt, holding up an old Badger batting helmet upside-down]

The Rock Crew, they filled up their batting helmets, just like this. Once they filled up their helmets with rocks, then they could leave practice.

[slide featuring an action photo of batting practice taking place in the U.W. Shell, noting that the Shell opened in 1957]

There’s batting in the Shell, if you could see the ball.

[new slide featuring a team photo of the 1991 Badger baseball team taken in the McClain Center]

And there is the 1991 team in the Kohl Center.

[new slide titled, Dugout Club, 1970-present, featuring a photo of Mil Flaten, the founder of the club as well as a photo of Brewers G.M. David Stearns speaking at the 2016 Dugout Club banquet with an inset of a U.W. baseball ring]

Or not – or McClain Center, I’m sorry.

Milo Flaten, the Dugout Club founder, and then at the banquet, which they still hold to support baseball, David Stearns was there. Not this past year but the year before, the G.M. of the Brewers.

[Steven D. Schmitt]

And that’s what I’ve got, and it was a lot of fun. I’m glad to be able to present all this to you today.

[applause]