Les Knutson: WHS athletes shined in the late 1940s – Daily Globe

Several exceptional all-around athletes graced the halls of Worthington High School during the late 1940s, including nine who are members of the Trojan Athletic Hall of Fame.

Five of those nine honorees graduated from WHS in 1949, 70 years ago. Four of those played basketball as seniors for first-year Trojan coach Ken Thompson. That team claimed the 1949 District 8 championship and earned a Region 2 overtime victory over East Chain before being edged by Mankato in the Region 2 finals at St. Peter (one game shy of a state-tournament trip), finishing 17-6 overall, including five tournament wins.

Clarence Benson, David Fagerness, Donald Frerichs and Russell Rickers were all fine WHS three-sport athletes who are enshrined as Hall-of-Famers. I wrote a story in March of 2016 about Rickers for this paper’s annual review edition. A life-long community member, Rickers contributed a lot to Worthington after his playing days as a Trojan — as did several of the others.

Five more Hall members from those days of the late ‘40s are Willis Rohwedder (Class of 1945), Bob Ludlow (Class of 1947), Richard Duba (Class of 1947), Tom Nystrom (Class of 1949) and Dale Peters (Class of 1950).

Rohwedder won a state championship in the mile run in the spring of 1944 as a junior and followed that up by winning the state cross country meet as a senior in the fall of ’44, leading the Trojans to a third-place team finish. Willis also lettered two years in both basketball and football.

Ludlow and Duba each played on Worthington’s undefeated football team as seniors in the fall of 1946 and excelled in gymnastics for the Trojans, while also lettering in basketball. Ludlow had a lot of success in track and field, winning district gold medals in both the 100-yard dash and pole vault. He once placed second in the pole vault at the state meet.

Duba was the Trojans’ football captain for two years and played two more seasons for Worthington Junior College when Lem Herting was coaching the Bluejays with his XYZ offense. In state-meet gymnastics competition, competing as a Trojan team participant, Richard placed individually on the Horse.

Like Duba, Nystrom starred in football at both WHS and WJC. Tom also played baseball for the Trojans.

Peters followed Ludlow as an accomplished pole vaulter for WHS, competing in two state meets and holding the Trojan school record for 15 years. Dale played three seasons of football for WHS and later became the long-time Nobles County Sheriff. He was an avid fan of Trojan basketball, watching many games from his perch above the east basket.

Nystrom, Fagerness, Benson, Rickers and Frerichs were all Trojan football players in the fall of ’48 — months after 17-year-old California school-boy wonder Bob Mathias won the Olympic Decathlon in London. In the spring of ’49, Benson, Rickers and Nystrom each played baseball, while Fagerness (high jump and hurdles) and Frerichs were starring in track and field.

My plan is to research the success of those two a bit more — especially the collegiate career of Frerichs, who excelled as a broad jumper and sprinter at Mankato State. Don held the college’s record in the broad jump (known today as the long jump) for many years and earned NAIA All-American honors in that event. A dual-sport star, Frerichs was also All-Conference in football for the Indians. As a senior at WHS in ’48-49, Don was All-Conference in football, basketball and track.

Recently, thanks to former Windom High School athlete Shannon Purrington (Class of 1996), I have been able to research a most interesting website: http://www.mnpreptrack.com/# which lists the results of all the state cross country meets dating back to 1943.

Rohwedder’s 1944 victory is highlighted as is the Trojans’ Jim Halma who won the 1945 one-class state meet race at the Lake Nokomis 1.8-mile course in Minneapolis, giving Worthington distance runners back-to-back individual state titles in the first three years of the event. In ’45 the Trojans, coached by Jack Curran and paced by Halma’s first-place performance, finished as the team runner-up with 65 points (behind Duluth Central’s winning score of 46).

The state meet was a one-class event through 1974 and shortly after moving to two classes, a pair of area runners won back-to-back Class A championships. Slayton’s Mark Zinnel won the small-school boys’ three-mile race at the University of Minnesota’s course in both 1976 and 1977. Lamberton’s Kristin Asp finished first in the Class A girls’ two-mile race in 1979 and 1980.

Windom’s Doug Purrington finished 13th overall in the 1962 one-class state meet, clocking a dandy time of 9:10 over the 1.8-mile distance. All 12 runners ahead of him were from big schools. If there had been two classes, Doug would have been the Class A state champion as he was the only one among the first 25 who was not from what would be a Class AA school today.

It was fine climb up the ladder for Purrington, who later coached at both Gaylord and Windom. As a sophomore in the fall of 1960, he placed 62nd at the state meet, while running with the 10th-place Eagles in their first-year of cross country competition. Qualifying as an individual, Doug finished 53rd (9:42) as a junior in ’61 prior to slicing off 32 seconds and improving 40 places as a senior in ’62, leading Windom to another 10th-place team finish (270 points).

Westbrook’s Gene Takle was even more impressive, earning fourth-place overall honors as a junior in 1960, running the Lake Nokomis course in 8:57.5. The three runners ahead of him were from Hibbing, Edina-Morningside and Austin. So, if there had been two classes in 1960, Takle would have the Class A state champion. The Westbrook ace would have made it two in a row as a senior in 1961 when he finished 10th overall with his time of 9:07. But again, all nine ahead of him were from what would be Class AA schools today.

An interesting area item from the late ‘50s is that Slayton Wildcat three-sport teammates Tom Pryor and Phil Frerk (Class of 1958) both became Hall-of-Fame high school basketball coaches. Pryor coached boys and girls basketball in California for 40 years, while Frerk coached girls’ basketball at St. Louis Park for several seasons, winning Minnesota Class AA state championships in 1986 and 1990.

Frerk and Pryor, who is back in Slayton and still helps coach the Murray County Central boys every winter, were teammates on some fine Wildcat teams back in the ‘50s. When those two were freshmen B-team players, the Slayton varsity — coached by Duane Baglien — won the 1955 District 8 basketball championship.

Baglien left the following year for Fergus Falls and a decade later coached Edina to three straight state titles (’66-68), which included a 68-game winning streak.

I may have more on several of these topics — and others — in the future.