1965 Basketball Tournament Memories from Small City (Town) Faribault - The evolution of the English Meaning of "Gay"

Celebration and Rememberings of Small City Faribault in the Minnesota State Basketball Tourney

Faribault High School 1965

"Tom Weaver lives in the schoolboy celebrity's gay world of lockerroom nonsense and tournament championships without being tilted by either." Jim Klobuchar 1965 March Minneapolis Tribune commenting on MN Basketball State Tournament

This quote is from the 7th paragraph in this article by Jim- hope it is legible.  The paper is deteriorating with the acid inherent in the paper. So I scanned it....grateful there is so much better understanding about gay men and gay athletes today.  Less fear and terror for being attacked and losing our lives.. 

 

Back to 1965 ------

  To set the stage, Faribault won the Region One Title the week of March 17- 20th 1965, with first a victory over Rochester John Marshall who had 17 straight wins, and were the Minnesota State Runner up in 1964, on Wednesday March 17, at Mayo Civic Auditorium.  Final Score Faribault 71 Rochester JM 65.   Back in Rochester Saturday March 20, Faribault played perennial powerhouse, Austin whose Big 9 Conference leading scorer, Wayne Lerud was held to 21 points by defensive ace, Jim Ohnstad  Final Score Faribault 61- Austin 55.

During the weekend leading up to the State Tournament, some interviews happened in the town of Faribault. 

 

It has been 48 years since I played center in the Minnesota State Basketball Tournament for Faribault High School.  Jim Klobuchar, the sports writer for the Minneapolis Tribune in 1965, had a lot of colorful words as the result of his interview with me as an 18 yr old senior. Interesting that his daughter Amy Klobuchar is now a US Senator from Minnesota.  Roots in the Minnesota Iron Range.

How prophetic his words land on me now, as I look back with clearer eyes on that time in rural American history.  He certainly used the word "gay" in the context of the times   

 

This may well be on the same day, Jim Klobuchar was in town with Fred Zahn, Tom Weaver, Todd Andrews ---Don Somers? --Paul Dragsten and Jim Ohnstad with George Boosalis of the Olympia serving us sundaes!

 Back in 1965, I sense this was the time that Maynard Siemers was around coach of the 1945 team and this guy with us at the soda fountain with George Boosalis may have been Don Somers.  Hard to say...

In my dad's handwriting March 23, photos of the team being feted at the Olympia.

Faribault Daily News Sports Section Covering the build up to the. State Tournament in March 1965 I am cutting into the blueberry pie and the bromo selzer must be hidden.

Coming to the big city of Minneapolis.  We stayed at the Curtis Hotel which was next to the Lemington Hotel back in the day.  Here is the flyer that greeted us in the room, as kids from rural Minnesota.  Note the skyline, where the Foshay Tower is still the tallest building in town.

 

Note the skyline, where the Foshay Tower is still the tallest building in town. 

 And on the back side

Notice the venues for culture in the day...outdoor Baseball at Met Stadium before it was imploaded!


 We played three games, three days in a row, Thursday March 25 against undefeated Virginia from the Iron Range, then, Friday March 26 in the semi finals, Luverne, the 1964 state champion with 35 straight wins, and in the finals Saturday March 27  Lake Conference power Minnetonka.

In the first contest, Faribault won 60- 50 over an undefeated team couched by Richie Olson who had coached the famous small town tournament champion, Egerton in 1960.

Most memorable to this player, was our victory over the state champion of 1964 in the semi-finals, something I could not quite believe at the time.  Here is how our local Faribault Daily News captured the headline.....that Saturday morning. 

 

One of the fun benefits was the ongoing celebration in Faribault.

Here are some of us at the local Chicken Koop restaurant. Note the classic juke box record player in the background.


This was published for the Sunday paper, which is traditionally a larger paper for families to read on the weekend.  Jim Klobuchar had come to visit my hotel room in the Curtis that I shared with Paul Onkka our manager.  

Jim K did talk about my relaxed demeanor and how I fend off stress.  I was rather embarrassed by my thin frame at age 18, and it has taken me a while to fill out and have my center of gravity move down ward.  Have felt a lot more "grounded" in my body for the past 10 years or so.....

A lot of friends seemed to remember this photo, as it makes my legs look even more out of proportion...and they have served me well over the years.  I am very grateful for my health...my current sense of humor has me quipping "Kareem Abdul Jabbar and I are the same age.  He has been a millionaire and I still have my knees". Very grateful I played Div III NCAA and for the balance that Carleton College provided me to play varsity sports and prepare in a balanced way for a very interesting arc of my life........

I I so remember the voice of Jimmy Lundquist, who I believe is the L, in the DHL, Dragsten, Hyde and Lindquist who own the local AM station back in the 1950's. 

Al Wold and me having a steak training meal together.   He was a great mentor and coach.  I very balanced and level headed guy. 

Addenda Here on Aug 21, 2014.   I visited the Faribault Parks and Recreation office yesterday and talked with Jeff Jarvis who writes about Faribault History.  He mentioned that Pat White, now 90 yeaers of age, lives in the senior living building nearby which has been the Armory when I was a kid and went to Cub Scout and Boy Scout events there, in the 50's and 60's. Pat White taught me wood working in the old Junior High Building and was a fire starter for our 9th Grade Basketball team, as with the recent addition of Jim Ohnstad moving to Faribault from Montevideo, he challenged us that we could aspire ot make it to the Minnesota State BB Tournement. Well, history did show we made it.  Thanks Pat White, for seeing in us, what I sense we did not see for ourselves. 

Christmas Seals - Paul H Weaver MD City Health Officer and keeper of the City Communicable Disease Records

Christmas Seals - Communicable Diseases in Humans - Dr PH Weaver City Health Officer

 Stamps of all types, with their colors, perforations, water marks, we always part of the Weaver household that I was born into in 1947 in Faribault Minnesota.   Never a dull moment it seems.  Now I reflect back, archiving what is worth noting, and selling a few things that no one of the next generation might appreciate.

I remember that Christmas Cards in our family often had the Christmas Seals added and it now occurs to me, that my dad, being the City Health officer, in those days, monitors the infectious diseases in the small city of Faribault.  The days of diptheria, whooping cough, mumps and measles, chickenpox...when immunizations were new and the scare of polio was around....so this 1945 colorful stamp brings warm memories back of addressing the cards to friends and relatives around the world!

 

I discovered a box (add Robitusun cough preparation line with a train on it, gift of AH Robbins) with a label in my mom's pen, "Old (TB) Xmas Seals this week, and these are the examples of the Christmas seals I remember as a kid...1937 -1957)  This was the time of the Weaver stamp collecting hobby and in the early 1960's my mom, got curious about mushrooms and decided to go to graduate school in mycology at the U of Michigan in 1962, the summer after my 9th grade year.

 This photo is labeled April 18, 1952 as the Shattuck School Infirmary, and my dad, PH Weaver with his signature white shirt and bow tie, of that era, with tow of the nursing staff (unknown to me) and a Shad looking at the camera.  Likely the the middle of the era when statistics of city infectious illness was important for epidemiology and learning how to avoid epidemics.  

My dad began his general (family ) practice in Faribault the summer of 1939, taking over for Dr Charles Robilliard for his summer vacation after completing his Swedish Hospital Internship. 

 

Here is my dad's letter of resignation as City Health Officer in 1976, after nearly 37 years of practice in the prairie lakes area of southern Minnesota in and around Faribault.

 Here is the response from the city administrator, also noting that with the change in state law reflecting the change in keep vital statistics, that the job of city health office was being phased out!
Interesting to reflect on my dad's impact during this interesting time in history and medical history as well.

 

I well remember the plethora of First Day Covers in our home. In Stamp Collecting there is special value to have a envelope canceled in the exact day of issue of a new stamp.   Here are Charlie and Will Mayo with the 5 cent stamp cancelled in Rochester MN Sept 11, 1964.

 When order of his colleagues received such a cover, like this one to Dr Bill Furlow, somehow my dad ended up with this one too.  

1939 Year of Decision and Transition for Pete and Peg Weaver - Move to Faribault from Minneapolis

While looking through her papers and files (she was always very organized and kept lists), one day she decided to show me the stash of letters from 1939, from April to May when she and Pete, my dad, had decided to stay in Minnesota, rather than move back to Ohio.  On P 40 + of her memoir, this is how it occurred to her, by 1994, when she chose to share this openly and in writing:

"WE SETTLED IN FARIBAULT, MINNESOTA Where to settle after Pete's internship? A question occupying our thoughts more and more. For many reasons we chose Minnesota. Minnesota was not densely populated and had many beautiful lakes. For me, the prime reason was to be away from my parents, which sounds awful. But after the recent episode in Chicago when my parents decided that we couldn't go to Europe, I didn't want to live close to them where they would try to control the rest of my life. 

Distance from them seemed to present a better solution than living near by.

As we anticipated, our decision to settle in Minnesota caused a big storm with my parents, with angry Special Delivery letters (15c at that time) from my father saying: that we it owed to our parents to settle in Ohio; that I was very thoughtless, after all my mother had done for me; that I was certainly a spoiled, only child not giving my parents' wishes first consideration. Letters from my mother were tearful, but not resentful and angry. I felt hurt and sad to receive such letters from my parents. (For some reason, I've kept the letters we received from our parents and copies of those we sent.)

My letters to them explained that we did not mean to be ungratefull, but wondered how much we had to conform to their desires in order not to seem ungrateful; that we didn't think that proximity needed to be the way to express our appreciation; that we wanted to cut the apron-strings and become more independent.

But my parents, especially my father, expected us to not only return to Ohio, but specifically to Findlay. They tried to lure us with an offer to build us a house in Findlay and suggested that Pete practice dermatology part-time and work at the Glessner Company part-time. That was an awful idea that didn't have any appeal to either of us. Pete didn't want to specialize in dermatology; he wanted to be a GP (General Practitioner, Doctor of Family Medicine in today's terms). I couldn't imagine him working for my father. My parents had our lives planned for us, expected us to agree and couldn't understand why we wouldn't accept their ideas.

I tried to imagine what our lives would be like living in Findlay with my parents keeping close watch on our activities, making their disapproval evident if we didn't perform according to their expectations. I tried to imagine bringing up a family under their noses. I was most apprehensive. I didn't want that kind of friction-filled life for any of us -- both my parents and we would be unhappy.

 My mother and father drove to West Carrollton to enlist the help of Pete's parents to persuade us to return to Ohio, reporting to us that his parents agreed with them., that we should settle in Ohio. However, a letter that Pete received his mother didn't voice such strong opinions, although she had hoped that we would live closer. Pete's mother wrote that even at such a distance, she would feel closer to us than to Esther, her sister, who lived only a few miles away.

S

Selecting a town where we would want to live and that would be good for Pete's practice was fun, as well as a responsibility. We knew that we wanted to live in a small town, but not a hick town. Receiving tips from drug salesmen about small towns that needed a doctor, we looked at several. Faribault was the most appealing, with three state schools (Blind, Deaf and Feeble-minded, as it called then) and three private, Episcopal schools (Shattuck, St. Mary's and Saint James). A town with people affiliated with schools, college graduates, appealed to us. Northfield with two colleges, Carleton and St. Olaf, was very attractive, but didn't need another doctor.  In Faribault, Pete was referred to the Faribault Clinic, where he interviewed the doctors, being favorably impressed with them and the offer they made. Those in the Clinic were: Walter Rumpf and Charles Robilliard, GPs; Frank Stevenson, specializing in Ear, Nose and Throat. (Carl Stabbert, a dentist, had his offices with the Clinic group.) Faribault was our choice. Upon the suggestion of Dr. Robilliard, we contacted John Foster to help us find a house to rent. The Fosters, John and Bern, took us under their wings. They found us a house to rent and took us out to dinner at Mrs. Crossett's Bluebird Inn south of Faribault, where John ordered braised chicken livers. In a month Dr. Robilliard was going on a vacation and wanted Pete to take over his practice during that time. We returned to Minneapolis delighted with our prospects.  However, having to be in Faribault in early July for Pete to meet his obligation to Dr. Robilliard, we had to forego a western camping trip we had planned with Bitty and Bill Biel, hoping to take a trip before Pete became tied down with a medical practice. We had substitute this for the European jaunt that we were forced to cancel.

The first of July 1939, we moved into a small house at 520 Tatepaha Boulevard (See pictures #5 & 6, . 135.), a bungalow with a porch across the front, a very small living room, a large dining room with a wonderful view of sunsets across a golf course, a kitchen, one bedroom, and a small room next to the living room where we placed the second-hand piano which we had bought in Columbus. The Columbus icebox had been replaced by an automatic refrigerator, but we needed a stove, purchasing a Tappan gas range "on time" from Donaldsons Department Store in Minneapolis, paying two and a half dollars a month. We were excited when the moving van arrived from Columbus with our belongings. Our furniture fit in, though the dimensions of the linen curtains had to be adjusted.  Being very friendly to us newcomers, our neighbor, Claude Hunt, publisher of the Faribault Daily News, gave us a handsome big walleye that he had caught. Knowing absolutely nothing about cleaning and preparing fish, we invited the Fosters for dinner, preceded by John's fish cleaning and Bern's assistance in cooking.

Here at the 520 Tatepaha rental home in 1939 are Peg, Noah Elwood and Edna Eicher Weaver and there son, Paul Henry "Pete" Weaver in their first Faribault digs.

Edna E Weaver at Cannon Lake during an early trip, 1941?

This is the earliest photo I found of the Glessner's Inez and Harry, Peg's folks visiting.  They are celebrating Christmas in 1942 when their first grandchild, Jim (James Cowles ) Weaver was about 2.
This is at 201 4th Ave SW, later the Estabrook Home, 

1956 Construction of the Faribault Medical Center through the lens of Paul H Weaver MD

My dad, Paul H Weaver, MD,  born Paul Henry Weaver in rural Ohio 24 Dec 1910, I experienced as a talented artist, historian and lover of nature.   This, I sense, is the first photo he took (not dated) when ground was broken for a new clinic on Faribault's east side .  The doctors of the group, Rumpf, Orr, Weaver, I sense, with no elevator (there was a single long stairway), they were learning to  work with other doctors, pharmacists, dentists to create a new vision for Medical Care in Faribault,  Dad left no notes or comments for these images, and perhaps those living in Faribault, who connect to the current medical  have access to the more legal and financial aspects (justifications ;-) of this transition.  I hope this inspires comments from others. 

Someone once reflected "Those who do not learn from the past, often are destined to repeat certain patterns" I come from a place of not knowing AND welcome others view and perspectives.  My comments are only what occurs to me in Jan 2014.  Open to other impressions and experiences.  I work to make "I" statement so share my experience, strength and hope! 

My intent here, it to share photos, that reflect the lens and vision of my dad, then 46 yrs of age and in the middle of his career as a general practice doctor, what today would be more like a family practice doctor.   Enjoy the visuals and my attempts to make sense out the times, though the eyes of his only son, who studied medicine at any depth, and I look forward to seeing how this occurs to others in Faribault who lived and experienced the times, including my brothers, to who I will share this link.  Thanks for considering commenting below....Only need some sort of google identity I recall.  Welcome to the 21st century and on line sharing and presence!!!

I can just hear the heavy breathing of those with any disability clunking up those long, creaking wooden stairs of the office, at 8-A, 4th Street Faribault.  The Medical group, created  a larger vision at the times, To attract more doctors, be closer to the hospital, envisioned moving from the second floor set of offices, above Payant Drug Store, NW corner of 4th St and Central, in the heart of commercial Faribault in the late 30's, 40's and early 50's to the east side I sense for many reasons. 

 I remember the  warmth of the small downtown place, easy for me to visit  for a boy of 7 in 1954, to visit my dad on bike likely after school.  A typewriter and writing by hand was the state of the art for keeping a medical record in the office.

Note too, in 1954 when he corresponded with Bud Goldsmith current headmaster of Shattuck, the US Mail was the started to have something in writing . This is the envelop sent from Shattuck on the east side to my dad, confirming both he and Dr Walter Rumpf, his senior partner, were still valued to do sick call on the Shattuck Campus 

Signage early in construction Sept 1956.

The lone tree, oak, from its profile...and perhaps a maple  I know my dad helped create a drainage topographical solution to honor the trees roots and need for water.   Not sure how long the tree lived after 1957 when the building was occupied, and I honor my dad for his teaching about nature and respecting the environment  He was very sensitive at heart and was quite visionary and his environmental awareness even in 1956, in noticing how the building was built.

Cement blocks going up.

Old school bus for construction crew.

 BH Heselton, a local contractor, lifting steel with current technology.  Anyone know the men here?

 Another view of the men working. This one guy looks quite tall.  Anyone know about the crew back then?

Suns rays make the floor joists/rafters create a pattern on the cement blocks early in construction, likely mid Sept 1956. Photo by PH Weaver. Note the robust tree on the N side. I remember it was protected for years, my dad being partial to that big tree...I recall it may of been an oak, possibly a maple. Anyone remember out there. ?

Another shot with the tree in the background in Sept prior to the leaves falling. If in color would get if it is an oak or maple. 

Here is the crane from BH Haselton again.

 

Framing up the second floor in October with workers cars and truck. 

 

Second floor framing looking west back side.  Notice the old school truck. 

 

Moving soil for landscaping around the front 

Sept 1956 Jim Weaver with his mom, Mrs Paul H Weaver, AKA Peg Weaver during construction  

 Beginning of planking outside of upper floor with workers cars in front, Oct 1956

 

Framing view from the east with old school bus parked.

 

More of a finished look with siding in October

With the 1956 construction, I imagine 1957 was the first year of operations.  

 

Me, Tom Weaver in 1959, age 12 in my dad's waiting room he shared I think with Dr Burt Orr.