11/21/2023
A look back at NLS football’s soaring sixties
By Bruce Strand
Sports Reporter
Football has been a strong sport for New London-Spicer in recent years, which brings to mind an era in the early 1960s that I’d like to tell you about.
The years that my class attended NLS was by far the best six-season stretch of football in Wildcat history, at least in terms of winning percentage.
The 1961 team went 9-0 and won the first conference title in many years, followed by 7-2 in 1962 (conference runner-up), 8-0-1 in 1963 (champions), 6-3 in 1964 (runner-up), 7-2 in 1965 (tied for second) and 8-0-1 in 1966 (champions) in my class’s senior year.
That adds up to 45 wins against seven losses and two ties.
And how many playoff wins, you youngsters may ask?
Well … none.
They didn’t have playoffs then. Not until five years after we graduated, and then only for conference champions. Even with that restriction, three of these teams would have qualified.
For this article, I asked some of the sixties players about their reaction when they heard about football having playoffs like all the other sports.
“I wish we would have them then,” said Dave Lohn, all-conference lineman on the 1966 team that crushed Belgrade 39-14 in the championship game. He was a three-year starter in football who also played basketball and baseball.
“The team we had when we were seniors, I’m sure, would have done pretty well,” said the 74-year-old lifetime resident of New London. “We had a big line, some really burly guys, and a lot of speed in the backfield. When we opened a hole, they got through it fast.”
Larry Poe, an all-conference center on the unbeaten, untied 1961 team, was also a bit envious when he heard the playoffs were added.
“I would like to think we would have done well,” said Poe, 79. “It would have been exciting to try it, absolutely. We had Skip Strehlow, who was a really good player. We had an excellent pair of pulling guards, Harvey Mead and Paul Wohlin. We had a lot of good players. Our coaches were expecting it (a great season).
“But back then, the only thing you were trying to do was win the conference championship. Then it was all over.”
Conference football championships were a big deal, though, especially with football being the only fall sport at the time.
“The community was really excited about it,” said Poe. The 1961 team got some more love in 2021 when the Wildcats honored them at a game on their 50th anniversary. “About eight or nine of us were there,” Poe said. “That was nice.”
A couple other guys I contacted were a bit dubious about the idea of playoffs. After all, wintry conditions are setting in that time of year.
“I would have probably just as soon stopped,” said 1966 lineman Paul Hjelle, laughing. “We had a game in Murdock, the coldest game I ever played in my life. Snowing and raining. We were behind. Weather was a contributing factor. Coach (Sid) Vraa gave us a helluva speech. ‘You better start producing!’ We were so ticked at Vraa that we went and won the game.”
Jerry Poe, Larry’s brother, a guard and linebacker on the 1966 team, also shuddered to remember one frigid game in particular. “I’ll never forget that,” he said. “I don’t know if I would have wanted playoffs.” But they probably would have welcomed the chance if offered. “We had to play some cold games anyway,” said Lohn, “so why not continue.”
I myself had nothing to do with the football success, other than reporting for the NLS Times during high school. I played baseball and a little basketball. My older brothers were starting linemen, though: Dave (Class of 1963) and Dick (1965).
The conference situation then was drastically different than now. West Lake Conference rivals were Atwater, Belgrade, Brooten, Kerkhoven, Murdock, Paynesville and Eden Valley. School pairings were decades away. All those towns were surrounded by family farms with large families, so enrollments were more than enough to go solo. Brooten and Murdock were smaller. Brooten never had much in football, but Murdock dealt NLS one crucial loss.
For this report, I visited the Minnesota Historical Society’s Gale Library in St. Paul, which has every issue of every newspaper in the state on spools of microfilm. I found every game except one.
1961
The 1961 team, with 19 returning lettermen from a .500 team, were expected by coach Curt Pederson to make a big splash, and they did.
The football field then was located on the west edge of town by the fishery and pond and was also the outfield for the fence-less baseball field. “It wasn’t much of a field, certainly compared to what they have now,” said Poe, remembering his 2021 visit.
The Wildcats beat Hancock 27-0, Long Prairie 13-7, Raymond 27-6, Belgrade 32-7, Brooten 19-7, Raymond 26-0, Eden Valley 46-0, Murdock 65-6, and, in the championship game, Atwater 34-19. Strehlow, who led the WLC with 19 touchdowns, tallied two against Atwater and Steve Almer, Roger Bengtson, and Gene Lund one each.
The NLS-Atwater showdown was billed by the Willmar paper as Strehlow vs. Ramey. Deryl Ramey was a great all-around athlete who went on to play for the Gophers and had a long, distinguished career coaching Willmar. Ramey started his coaching career at Atwater and got some revenge on NLS in his first year by beating the Wildcats to cap a championship season.
Strehlow was good-looking, personable, fun to be around, but not particularly reliable or honest. He lived up to his nickname a few years later by skipping town with the bank account of the County Line League, which regretted appointing him treasurer while he caught for Norway Lake.
“After a couple years, we never saw Skip again,” said Poe. “It was like he fell off the face of the earth.” Poe has kept track of departed teammates at the class’s frequent reunions, such as Roger Bengtson, Craig Nelson, Steve Peterson, and Steve Almer. Skip can be added to that list. My Google search found a 2021 obituary for Lyle “Skip” Strehlow Jr. in Madison, WI, in 2021. The obit described Skip as a nice fellow who loved animals, sports and camping, his days as a football hero long forgotten.
1962
The 1962 team was a start-over unit, except for a few regulars back including Steve Almer at quarterback and Paul Doty, who emerged as a star halfback as a junior.
They lost to Dassel 26-13 (Doty returned a fumble 98 yards for a score), beat Ortonville 12-7 on a 42-yard run by Doty, then Eden Valley 12-7, Murdock 26-0, Brooten 32-7 (four TDs by Doty), and Atwater 32-7 (three more by Doty). The Wildcats then lost to Kerkhoven. That’s the only game I could not find in the archives at the History Center; the sports page that Saturday was missing from the West Central Tribune files. Kerk had a great all-around athlete named Gary Lottman, and NLS presumably couldn’t stop him. The finale was a 21-7 win over Paynesville.
Almer, blond and movie-star handsome, also star of the choir with a marvelous tenor voice, went into TV news reporting. We used to see him on a Twin Cities channel. He passed away in St. Louis in 2022.
1963
The 1963 team had Scott Nelson taking over as quarterback, Paul Doty again leading the offense, and a new coach, Sid Vraa, after Pederson survived a heart attack and became athletic director.
NLS tied Ortonville 13-13, then ran the table in conference. They beat Murdock 36-0, Belgrade 6-0 (with Glen Dengerud, a guy from my church, East Norway Lake Lutheran, scoring on a 48-yard interception return), Brooten 14-0, Atwater 33-0, Eden Valley 33-7 and Paynesville 32-6. Eden Valley was the big game; the Eagles had a blazing sophomore named Ron Papesh who ran for one long touchdown before leaving with an injured ankle.
Five years later, the Vietnam War claimed Scott Nelson, who was piloting a helicopter that crashed into the Saigon River after hitting high tension wires, according to the Army’s report. Scott was 23. He was a cocky, outgoing, handsome, well-built fellow, a merciless teaser of friends.
Doty, who went on to play for Concordia in Moorhead, settled in Willmar and owned a sanitation business. Doty passed away in 2011. He had the great pleasure of watching his grandson Jayme Moten quarterback the 2009 Wildcats to a state championship. I found him at the Prep Bowl in the Metrodome that day, and he proudly showed me his game-day text exchanges with Tony.
1964
The 1964 squad was powered by two guys who were tremendously muscular in an age when nobody lifted weights: fullback Bob Peterson and fullback/tackle Larry Lundberg. The star athlete of my class, Dwight Stenbakken, was the QB as a sophomore.
The Cats started poorly with losses to Bird Island 7-0 and Ortonville 9-0, but came within a yard of the conference title. They beat Brooten 13-0, Paynesville 45-14, Eden Valley 20-12 (overcoming Papesh’s 64-yard run and 82-yard catch for TDs), Murdock 19-6, Belgrade 20-7, Atwater 31-0. But they lost in mid-season at Kerkhoven 18-13. After scoring late in the game and recovering an onside kick, NLS had first-and-goal at the two. But Kerkhoven’s massive defensive line stopped the powerful Peterson on four straight plays.
Peterson, who led the West Lake in scoring in both football and basketball, took over his family’s resort on Nest Lake from 1976 to 2005. He passed away in 2020.
1965
By mid-decade, the Wildcats were playing on a new field located halfway up the hill to the new school, with fans lounging on a massive grassy bank.
The 1965 team was the only one during this stretch with two conference losses. They tied for second after losing the finale at Belgrade 13-12. Stenbakken returned opening kickoffs for touchdowns in wins over Sauk Centre, 30-0, and Brooten, 15-6. They beat Eden Valley 29-14 as Papesh again stung us for two long TD breakaways, but Dwight ran for two TDs and passed for two more. But NLS was tripped 21-13 by little Murdock, which had two of the best athletes in the area in Chuck Kavanagh and Ken Gregoire.
1966
My senior class was looking forward to their final season, and it was a doozy, marred only by an opening 6-6 tie against Sauk Centre. That team had a terrific line and speedy backfield that included Stenbakken, who moved to halfback with junior Lyle Hudson at QB. Two teammates who’ve passed away are end Mark Anderson and powerful tackle Larry Van Eps.
The tie with the Mainstreeters was followed by an 18-3 win over Ortonville, featuring the first field goal we had ever seen, by a German exchange student named Hans-Peter Hoffman (at a time when European soccer players were starting to show up on NFL teams.)
NLS crushed Atwater 45-6 with Lohn scoring on a blocked punt and interception and Ronnie Manson on an 80-yard run. I asked Ronnie about that at a recent reunion. “Yeah, Jimmy Sandin just obliterated a guy, and I had an open field,” he said, referring to a Norway Lake neighbor of mine who was built like Tarzan. The next two teams to fall were Kerkhoven 25-14 and Paynesville by the same score.
We had a fullback, Dale Manson, nicknamed “Squirrel,” who went on a rampage late in the season, scoring three TDs in a 33-0 win over Eden Valley, two in a 21-6 win over Murdock, three in the big 39-14 win over Belgrade, and two in a closing 26-0 win over Brooten. “Sure, Squirrel had a lot of yards,” said Paul Hjelle. “He had me and Chopper (Lohn) blocking for him! The 33 cross. We called that play a lot.”
The romp over previously-unbeaten Belgrade at home, before a huge crowd, to sn**ch the title back from the Redmen, was the crowning achievement for my class.
And after that? Well, with nothing else to play for, everybody took a couple weeks off, then laced up their sneakers for basketball or wrestling.
Note: The above-article has been republished to correct several names and details that were printed in last week's paper.
