Live at 5 p.m. Wednesday: Who are Minnesota's most iconic athletes?
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With the fifth pick in tonight’s Happy Hour draft, I select…Patty Berg and can't believe she was still left on the big board.
Patricia quarterbacked a sandlot football team with a blocker named Bud Wilkinson in south Minneapolis on the 50th Street Tigers.
“We didn’t have any tight ends or wide ends,” she said once upon a time. “We only had loose ends.”
She also did track and field, speedskated, played basketball, volleyball and softball before she became a defining figure in the rise of women’s sports and professional women’s game.
She was a founding member of the LPGA and had a nearly lifelong sponsorship deal with Wilson Sporting Goods, for whom she once estimated she did 10,000 or more clinics. I had a set in our garage right next to a set of Mickey Wright’s.
A 1941 car accident and World War II service sidetracked her career, but she still won 88 amateur and pro titles, including 15 majors.
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Speaking of "I can't believe he/she was left ...'' It is a Miracle that Herb Brooks is still available. Now, he isn't, because I'm picking him. It was already decided that Herbie counts as an athlete, thanks to his time as a St. Paul Johnson Governor, a Gopher and a U.S. national teamer. He became an icon as a coach. If you asked a random sampling of people to name a famous Minnesota sports figure, a huge percentage would name Herbie. That's as good a measure of icon status as there is.
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"If I was playing right now, I think I could probably hit 20 home runs"
Harmon Killebrew said this sometime in the 1990s and you now what? Even 20 years after hitting the last of his 573 home runs I believe him. Never saw Killer play live but one look at that swing - that iconic swing - is all you need to know. That, or stand at the bronzed home plate at the Mall of America (when it reopens ...) and stare at the seat on the wall 500-something feet away near that log chute ride. That's the kind of pop Killebrew had for those great Twins teams of the 60s. (Side note: Killebrew was also a heckuva nice guy. I somehow got hold of his number for a Page 2 story one summer filling in for Mr. Rand who was on a baseball road trip vacation. I had to call Killebrew twice to get what I needed. Killebrew answered on the first ring both times).
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Back in 1999, the Star Tribune published a list of the 100 biggest sports figures in Minnesota history. The millennium was a big deal. It was going to mess up all our computers and systems, or at least make us do a lot of lists.Kirby Puckett was No. 1 on the list, as he should have been.But I've often wondered how that list would look if it was updated to include the next 20 years of Minnesota sports. I think Kirby stays at No. 1. But I think the highest-ranking new entrant on the list is a kid from Hutchinson who changed not one but two teams in the state.Johan Santana was the Cy Young in 2004. KG was the MVP. But Lindsay Whalen was the Sportsperson of the Year as chosen by the Star Tribune. That was the year she took the Gophers to the Final Four. And oh, by the way, she helped the Lynx win four WNBA titles and hung gold around her neck a couple times at the Olympics along the way. A steal at No. 8. Coulda gone higher. But I'll take her!
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My first pick in the Minnesota icon draft for athletes is maybe the best all-around athlete on the list so far. Mr. Dave Winfield. Also, he's homegrown like Lindsay.
From my story on Winfield this spring: "On a June day in 1973, Dave Winfield and the Gophers were gearing up for baseball’s College World Series when the coaches announced the San Diego Padres had selected him fourth overall in the MLB Draft.
“That was my hope and dream” to play professional baseball, Winfield said. “But it wasn’t like everybody sitting at home and getting ready to watch the draft show.”
The Padres joined the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings, the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks and the ABA’s Utah Stars in selecting the St. Paul native for a pro sports future.
All within six months."
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Can't forget to mention that the 6-foot-6, 220-pound Winfield, a former St. Paul Central standout, started on the Gophers 1972 Big Ten championship basketball team. Bill Musselman who coached him in college wanted him to play for his ABA team in San Diego in 1975. The St. Paul native was a 12-time MLB All-Star and Hall of Famer. Here's my story about being drafted in three sports by four pro sports teams (never been done) in 1973. He was kind enough to talk to me about that moment he called "not a big deal!" https://www.startribune.com/for-dave-winfield-four-pro-drafts-in-three-sports-no-big-deal/570013582/?refresh=true
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Part of my definition of an icon is someone larger than life. So with the 10th pick, I am going to go with Bronko Nagurski. A guy from International Falls grows up to be an inaugural member of both the College Football Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame (hope Wikipedia has that right). Grantland Rice: "Who would you pick to win a football game -- 11 Jim Thorpes, 11 Glen Davises, 11 Red Granges or 11 Bronko Nagurskis? The 11 Nagurskis would be a mop-up." The name itself is storybookish. He sounded like one tough dude, playing both ways in football. And after he football, he wrestled.
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