The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1939-03-16
Sport
Wags-
BY Chuck Rattle
HotshOts From A

never use q pen. The last time ]
did, it blotted, and a guy said,
Look, the dope can't even sign his
name. He puts his mark"
That hurt my pride. So now I just
bang the daylights out Of the type
writer keys. So we'll just barge
around this district tournament for
A lot went on at that old meet
this year. saw boys utterly tired,
battle on nerve and heart give
the best they had. :. saw others,
with physical disadvantages, battle
gamely against odds. Others
who fell to pieces before a terrific
onslaught; and still all were In
there playing the best they knew
how at the moment. I saw others,
with high hopes of being the team,
stake it all and lose by slim mar
gins, lose heart-breaking rounds. -.
History, heart breaks, exultation-
it all ran thru this meet. But
over it all was this premise: crowds
or not, those lads on the floor, for
no matter what town, gave lot
all they had. >.
Best quip that came out of
the dressing room came before
that Sank Centre-Alexandria
finalist round. TOftness had
just said, eff you win they'll
give you Sank Centre on plat
ter" Quipped Etkun, "Sil-
That Long Prairie game took
about ten years off every Sank Gen.
tire fan in the house. Long Prairie
made a tremendous bid, led by a
fighting boy, Blake, to dethrone
these defenders. Might have
done it if-but that would be a
different story. /. The thing OF
it is that Sank Centre first smack
ed of championship calibre-call 1t
luck if you within that game with
a terrific comeback pace. Just
how hard it was to watch that mar
row squeak is best summarized by
Billy Brown, substitute, Its the
hardest game I ever sat-"
Hmm, wouldn't call it super
stition, but it smacks of carrying
good luck pieces. Frinstances,
There was Toftness in his tourna-
ment shirt. Now I'll have you know
this is no ordinary shirt. True,
it has tails and buttons and collar,
is plain white-yet it has different
quality about it. II. It's the shirt
he wore to win last years tourna-
ment, and it encased him again this
year for the duration of tourna-
ment play. Noncommittal, as
usual, said Toftness, TITS only a
1.5O white shirt" And these
lads had the right side of the bench
too each night. That was part OF
the formula for last years success.
Doggone, they got me dom 1t
too. T wore the same shirt and
the same set of whiskers. Was
I a mess. One girl said, you got
dandruff." -.
There were some nice ball
players in that district meet.
Perhaps among outstanding
ones were: Blake, of Long Prai-
RE; Erickson, Hardin, of Alex
andria; johnson, of Deer Creek;
Eckstein, of GlenwOOd, and Lee,
too; and there were others.
But one boy stuck in my crop.
1t was HagstrOm, from obscure
Upsala. This boy is a sOphO-
more, a fine scorer, an excellent
defensive man who continued
to make life miserable for both
Long Prairie and Sank Centre.
:. He may have future.
Upsala sported another guard,
Nauss, who showed some fine
basketball timber as well.
Jackson became the handyman
for this Sank Centre club. Jack
son, who as a sophomore last year
got in on that finalist battle with
Melrose, has been doing some nice
workhorse assignments. In the
tournament, while the five seniors
were most often used, he spelled
off in either guard or forward spot
And the rest of those boys on
the bench were working as hard
for that championship. Now
the squad will be pared to eight
men for the regional. Probably
surviving the pairing will be Jack
son, Deziel, and Brown.
Tip to TOftness: See where
Verndale trained on cod liver
oil. But I see now where they
got beat out. So skip 1t. -.
When they needed it most, these
lads from Sank Centre had it. For
instance when Long Prairie scared
the socks off Sank Centre (Which
is a neat pun), Pangburn was pref.
ty effectively stymied on scoring
Two men trailed his coat tails
So what happened. Kringen
jumped into a new assignment and
for. the first time all season was
high point man. That speaks
This much not so much that Kring-