A couple of years ago Don Swanson asked me to speak to a luncheon group that he was involved with. I almost turned him down because it’s a toss up as to what bothers me more: public speaking or having a car accident.
I accepted the invitation and I am grateful for that decision. I knew “Swannie” for 30 years and he did far more for me than I ever did for him. He used to emcee the prep all-star football game banquet in the early 1980s and never asked for compensation. Years later he okayed a consultant’s role that contributed to my income.
In recent years Swannie was supportive of my Web column. He took an interest in the column and what I was doing even though he didn’t have a computer. Swannie’s friend Jim Dotseth printed out the columns for him.
I was reminded of all this on Monday at Swannie’s funeral. I listened to his close friend Ron Stolski eulogize him. Stolski told a large gathering of friends and family at Mount Olivet Lutheran Church how Swannie, a former educator and coach in the Minneapolis public schools, gave to others. He listened to people, helped and encouraged them. “It was never about him,” Stolski said.
Reverend Paul Youngdahl reminded the audience that Swannie was a Minneapolis guy with a capital M. He was born in Minneapolis, attended South High and made much of his reputation at Patrick Henry where he was the football coach and athletic director. He regularly attended church at Mount Olivet in south Minneapolis and in recent years mentored city high school football coaches and players.
Each spring he helped organize a coaching clinic for prep coaches in the state whose roster of speakers has included the likes of Brian Billick and Tim Brewster. The clinic is promoted by the Minnesota High School Football Coaches Association, an organization that Swannie was helping when I met him, and he was still assisting in his final years.
Condolences to Swannie’s family including wife Barb, their children and grandchildren. Rev. Youngdahl talked about the importance of the grandkids on Monday. He was reminded that grandpa Swannie even took an unusual challenge once and ate a minnow.
Swannie was pleased, too, about his Swedish heritage and being a graduate of Gustavus Adolphus College. “He called me ‘Pollock’,” Stolski said. “I am half Swedish. I have never been prouder.”
The last time Stolski saw Swannie was on Saturday, September 12. Swannie was weak from his fight with cancer, almost unable to speak, and would pass away within a few days. Swannie asked Stolski, the head football coach at Brainerd High School, about the result of the game the night before.
“We lost,”Stolski said.
“Win the rest of them,” Swannie replied.
Always teaching and encouraging. Right to the end.
Thanks, coach, for your integrity, caring and devotion to football and beyond. You were, as Stolski said to Swannie’s friends and family on Monday, a “keeper of the game.”