Chippewa Marines Football

first football game. The paper also told about the death of Nate Delong, Jr. I remember as a ninth grader trying on Nate’s letter sweater while he was playing tennis in Irvine Park. That was probably the summer of 1943 before Nate went to River Falls. I have memories of the Chippewa-Eau Claire 1942 football game when Nate, Bergee Bergerson, Gene Cardinal, Richard Erickson and others were victors. Then in the fall of 1943, Jerry Miller, Roger Fort, Bob Brunstad and Butch (Harmonica) Cardinal defeated E.C. Life was good even though all my relatives lived in E.C. George Gehweiler was a great runner for the Chi-Hi football team from 1944-46 but we couldn’t beat E.C. Coach Paff, who coached Nate, went to Neenah High School in 1943. In the 1960s, during a visit with him, he told me that George reminded him of All-American Red Grange, since they both worked for their dads on ice trucks. Bob Kleinhentz was the star halfback for McDonell during those same years. I often wondered what would have happened if George and Bob had been on the same team. During those war years the Chi-Hi football team ran from the Bridge Street H.S. to the fairgrounds for practice — no buses! My dad and “Red” Jolliffe (Jim’s dad) were garment cutters on the fourth floor of the woolen mill. They would hear our cleat noise on the wooden bridge over Duncan Creek and give us a wave of encouragement. Jim was a star football and basketball player at McDonell. Later he was coach at McDonell when they won their first state title. I grew up in the house, now hidden in the trees, behind the former Dairy Queen on Bridgewater Avenue. My parents had started the first root beer stand there in 1950. It was across the street from the present swimming pool. In the winters we enjoyed skating on the mill pond. Often a city truck cleaning the ice would sink though the ice before it was thick enough. The warming house was where the rose garden is now located. What a huge skating rink we had. The city flooded it every few days so we had new ice — no Zamboni in those days. During the summer of 1944, I worked on a Soo Line “extra gang.” Bob O’Neil, Don Laramy, BobKleinhentz and I were from Chippewa. We worked together with 40 other high school boys from Stevens Point and other cities on the Soo Line. We worked 10-hour days, six days a week raising the track between Sussex and Fond du Lac. One night several of us went roller skating. Don and the two Bobs got a ride back to our box-car home. The rest of us had to walk home in the rain. Later that night we learned that Don had died in an auto accident. We didn’t have seat belts or air bags in those days. As teenagers we learned that life could be cut short. That summer we also learned that Roman Catholic boys and Protestants could get along just fine — and make $18.17 a week after room and board were deducted. That was about 30 cents an hour for those 60-hour weeks. In the summer, Nate Delong’s dad often gave my dog, Tippy, a ride around town in a city truck. Tippy would entertain children at the beach in front of our house while on his back with a rock in his mouth. The children would run to our house to tell us that Tippy had a rock stuck in his mouth. When I threw a rock he would run off the diving board even when it was 10 feet down to the water. It seemed like the Mill Pond, Irvine Park, and Glen Lock were part of my yard. What a great place in which to grow up. Fair week was also a yearly highlight. Often “chorus girls” would rent a room from us. They were not from Broadway and New York City, they were high school girls from Chicago! And they were not as pretty as Dolores Lacina Lofthus, Yvonne Vincent Brunstad or Mary Lou Larson Leinenkugel. One year in the 1930s Ringling Bros. circus came to town. They unloaded at the Soo Line depot near the river. Then the wagons, animals and performers paraded up Bridge Street to the fairgrounds. We were “big time” for a few days. Fifty years later my son and I saw the circus at Madison Square Garden in New York. It wasn’t as exciting as that time in Chippewa. My friend, Vin Meagher, and I went fishing one summer at Glen Loch. We caught a good bunch of crappies and sunfish and put them on our stringer. When we pulled them out a few hours later only the heads were left. They surely had a good meal. Each year Memorial Day was another great experience with a parade down Bridge Street. In the 1930s, Civil War veteran Mr. Rankin, who lived on Bay Street, was often in the parade. WWI veterans also marched proudly down the street. Now probably all of them are gone. How fast life goes. In the fall of 1946 after graduation, I enlisted in the U.S. Army for 18 months. I was soon off to Korea for a year. Mark Emerson from McDonell was in a nearby barrack and Jim Monk worked at the Locks at Inchon. My time in the Army gave me 3 1/2 years at UW-Madison through the GI Bill. My friends from high school — Dick Stafford, Merlen Kurth, George Nabor, Bud Skoien and Merne Asplund — were already at the university. Judge Dick and Dr. Merne returned to Chippewa and Bloomer. Merlen went on to be executive secretary of the Wisconsin Mental Retardation Association. George was a Purdue Ph.D. who was an oil mining engineer in Texas. Bud ended up a colonel in the Green Berets with two tours in Vietnam. Chippewa has given the country a lot of good exports. I’ve been serving congregations in Washington and Oregon since 1970. We had four wonderful years as missionaries in Ethiopia (1961-65). After my mother’s death in 1965, we accepted a call to a church in Escanaba, Mich., for five years. I saw my second Packers game in Green Bay in 1967 when I got tickets from Gordon Thorpe, who served a church in Green Bay. He later served Grace Lutheran Church in Eau Claire for 25 years. We return to Chippewa fairly often and we still own eight grave lots in Forest Hill Cemetery, so someday we’ll be back. In the meantime, I read the obits in The Herald and I’m ever thankful for those years growing up in Chippewa Falls. It’s the greatest small town in America. P.S. Remember those three months you can add to your life span! Read The Herald! Chippewa Falls native Roger Patrow lives in Mount Vernon, Wash. Player Profile:Dutch Hollen

Last modified: Thursday, April 19, 2007 10:19 AM CDT
Fundraising campaign for field kicks off today

By Rod Stetzer [email protected]

Dutch Hollen played football for both the Chippewa Marines and the U.S. Marines. He’s proud of his military service during World War II and the Korean War. But the 1938 graduate of Chip-pewa Falls Senior High School wishes that somehow his body would allow him to again play the game he loves.

“What I’ve got out of football has been nothing but fun,” he said. That’s why he recently walked up to Jake Leinenkugel and handed him an unsolicited $100 donation to renovate Dorais Field, which is adjacent to Chi-Hi. The contribution moved Leinen-kugel, whose wife Peggy is one of the co-leaders of a campaign to raise nearly $2 million to renovate Dorais Field. The fundraising campaign was officially announced today in a ceremony on the field. Hollen’s donation was appreciated by Chippewa Falls Superintendent Mike Schoch.

“It’s something. It tells me that people are understanding what we’re trying to do,” Schoch said. Hollen, who along with his wife, Geri, lives at 19412 57th Ave., said he hopes his donation will spur others. The renovation includes installing an artificial field at Dorais, meaning that other sporting and non-sporting groups will be able to use it.

“I think this deal is good, not only for football, but for other activities,” Hollen said. The artificial turf field would have sure come in handy when Hollen played his games. Before Dorais was built in 1976, all football games locally were played at the Northern Wisconsin State Fairgrounds in Chippewa Falls. Hollen recalls playing on the field after the fair’s stage shows were done.

“You’d find anything on that field,” he said. And landing on a portion of the field that extended into the fair’s race track stung players.

“It was tough landing out there,” Hollen said. It turns out the 1937 Cardinals team was talented, posting a 6-1-1 record under Coach C.B. Roels.

“We did a pretty good job,” he said. The team tied La Crosse Central, with no score, on a muddy field. Then, on the final game of the season on Nov. 11, the Cards lost their only game of the season to Eau Claire High School, 20-13, in a rivalry that dates back to 1911. Hollen, who played end on both offense and defense, went on to play football for the semi-pro Chippewa Marines team. The Marines have the distinction of being the second-to-the-last semi-pro team that the Packers ever played (a game the Packers won). The pros used to have to barnstorm to supplement their meager income. When World War II arrived, Hollen served the U.S. Marines aviation in the south Pacific from 1942-46. He continued to play football in the service and after the war ended. In October 1950, he was called back to the Marines during the Korean War. He played with the Marine team in El Toro, Calif. for the remaining game of that year and for the entire 1951 season. He also played football for the Chippewa Marines in 1952 and part of 1953.

“(I) called it quits in 1953,” he said. Hollen said he hasn’t been to a game lately at Dorais Field, but reads about the games in the Herald and listens to them on the radio. That’s why he decided to donate toward the field renovation.

“I hope a lot more people kick in,” he said. How to help

Send donations for the Dorais Field renovation to: Community Foundation of Chippewa County, PO Box 153, Chippewa Falls, WI 54729. Be sure to note on the check the donation is for Dorais Field. Or contribute online at the foundation’s Website: www.comfdncc.org. Ellie