David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Gopher Champs Celebrate 50 Years

Posted on May 14, 2017May 14, 2017 by David Shama

This is a year of celebration for the Golden Gophers’ last Big Ten football championship team. Members of the 1967 team were honored a week ago Sunday at the 10th annual Minnesota Football Honors event. In the fall there will be another celebration when the U athletic department honors the old-timers at Minnesota’s opening Big Ten football game in TCF Bank Stadium.

It couldn’t have been more appropriate that on Sunday, May 7 the Minnesota Chapter of the National Football Foundation honored the ’67 group with its annual Murray Warmath Legendary Team Award. Warmath, of course, coached the Gophers for 18 seasons and the 1967 team were his last champions.

The Gophers had been 4-5-1 overall and 3-3-1 in Big Ten games in 1966 but there was optimism going into the 1967 season. This was to be the last season of eligibility for a group of seniors who had come to Minnesota as a much hyped freshman class in 1964. Many of the players were from out of state and had been highly recruited including fullback John Williams from Toledo, who was coveted by legendary coach Woody Hayes and Ohio State.

Bob Stein, who became a junior All-American defensive end in 1967, recalled the team outlook going into the season. “The Big Ten at that time was the best football in the country, along with the Pac-10—so you never knew how things were going to sort out,” Stein told Sports Headliners. “…We thought we were going to be pretty darn good and we hoped for the best, but we didn’t necessarily think we were going to punch a ticket for the Rose Bowl.”

Stein, a St. Louis Park native who also was an All-American in 1968, was part of a formidable defense that held opponents to 12 points per game in 10 games. In the Big Ten it was just 10.6. Minnesota shut out two teams, limited another to three points and three times held opponents to seven.

Stein was the team’s only All-American, but he played down the honor. “I am not trying to be fake modest, but I always felt that a lot of the awards I got were on behalf of the team and the defense. We had lots of good players. You don’t play well in football unless you have good people around you.”

Warmath’s best teams prided themselves on physical football and that usually started with a punishing defensive unit. On the 1967 team was fullback Jim Carter, a tall, muscular and nasty runner from South St. Paul, who also was Stein’s close friend and fraternity brother. The two went head-to-head in pass rushing drills during spring practices and the memories are still vivid. Stein recalled going back to the fraternity house with headaches and in need of rest.

“It was the worst collisions I ever had in football,” Stein said. “First of all, he is a tough S.O.B. Secondly, when he is your buddy (it means even more). He felt the same way.”

During the 1967 season things were more challenging for the offense than the defense. The Gophers just got by Utah in the opening game, winning 13-12. Then came a big opportunity the next Saturday in Lincoln against No. 7 ranked Nebraska. The Gophers played like a national power defensively, but flopped offensively, losing 7-0 in a bitter defeat against a long time nonconference rival.

Warmath was enthralled with junior quarterback Ray Stephens, the younger brother of Sandy Stephens. Sandy was Warmath’s All-American quarterback in 1961 and was a big contributor to two Rose Bowl teams. Ray, who was from Uniontown, Pennsylvania, not only had the lineage, but he was also tall, athletic and built like Muhammad Ali.

Warmath committed himself to Ray early in the season, including the Nebraska game, but neither Stephens nor the offense achieved consistent early season success. Things changed when in the fifth game of the year Warmath switched running back Curtis Wilson to quarterback. Wilson, a senior from Lawton, Oklahoma, had been a quarterback in his previous seasons at Minnesota and he had a big day in his 1967 debut leading the Gophers to a dominant 21-0 win over a good Michigan State team.

After the win against the Spartans, Minnesota was 4-1 overall and 2-0 in the Big Ten with nothing but league games remaining on the schedule. The Gophers increased their Big Ten record to 4-0 with wins over Michigan and Iowa. Then came a trip to Purdue to face a Boilermakers team that was also undefeated in league games, and had only a single conference loss the year before.

Purdue was led by one of their all-time great quarterbacks, Mike Phipps, and tailback Leroy Keyes, who finished No. 2 in Heisman Trophy voting after the 1968 season. “They had some players,” Stein said. “We just stunk up the place (against Purdue).”

The Gophers played their worst game of the season on November 11 in West Lafayette, losing 41-12. “The roof fell in,” Stein said. “They beat us every way you could beat us pretty much. It was just one of those games we couldn’t get started and we couldn’t stop them.”

Minnesota won its last two games of the year, defeating Indiana 33-7 and Wisconsin 21-14. The Gophers finished with a 6-1 Big Ten record, and Purdue and Indiana also had the same record—creating a three-way tie for the conference championship. The Boilermakers went into the last Saturday undefeated in conference games but Indiana upset them to cause a traffic jam in the standings.

In the 1960s the Big Ten only sent one team to a bowl game and that game was the Rose Bowl. Indiana received the invite after the Purdue game because the Hoosiers had never been to Pasadena. The Gophers had the frustration of knowing how close they came to packing their bags for California because the Hoosiers almost blew the game against Purdue. A Boilermaker was running for the winning touchdown late in the game when he fumbled near the goal line and the Hoosiers recovered the ball. The Hoosiers had hung on to win 19-14.

A Purdue win would have given the Boilers a 7-0 record and the league title, while Indiana would have been 5-2. The 6-1 Gophers would have been sent to the Rose Bowl because Big Ten rules didn’t allow repeat appearances in the famous postseason game and the Boilermakers had played in Pasadena in January of 1967.

Asked about a dominant memory of the 1967 season, Stein said, “In some ways it was being pissed off we didn’t go to Pasadena.”

This was to be the last of Warmath’s great teams. He won the national championship in 1960 and shared the Big Ten title the same year. His 1961 team won the 1962 Rose Bowl. In the fall of 1962 he had perhaps his greatest defensive team ever and the Gophers should have been Big Ten champs but a controversial loss at Wisconsin cost Minnesota the title. The Badgers got the best of some home town officiating in Madison.

The 1967 team had no such problem with the Badgers, nor with Michigan or Iowa. Minnesota won all three of its big rivalry games that year and its overall record was 8-2. “This was one hell of a group of athletes,” said Tom Sakal.

Sakal, from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, was team captain, a defensive back and was named Minnesota’s MVP after the season. He talked about his team that was ranked as high as 11th in the country and had players from 15 states. Sakal, Stein, defensive tackle McKinley Boston and John Williams, who had been switched from fullback to offensive tackle, were named first team All-Big Ten. Nose tackle Ed Duren and tight end Charlie Sanders were second team All-Big Ten. Williams became a first round draft choice of the Colts and Sanders earned a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame after his NFL career with the Lions. Stein said 15 players from the 1967 team were either drafted by NFL teams or invited for tryouts at NFL camps.

Sakal said what his teammates have done in their post college life is even more impressive than their football careers. “We’ve got doctors, dentists, attorneys, CEOS, entrepreneurs, business owners,” said Sakal who is a retired executive with Prudential.

Sakal and many of his lifelong buddies will be in Minneapolis for a big celebration in a few months that will start with a Friday night gathering on September 29. The next day the former Gophers will sit in TCF Bank Stadium near the signage that recognizes them as 1967 Big Ten champions and they will watch Minnesota play Maryland. Sakal said he and his teammates hope to be on the field when the 2017 Gophers come out of the stadium tunnel to take the field.

Let’s hope this year’s team gets an opportunity to brush up against greatness. It’s something that has been missing far too long in Gophers football.

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‘Polish Eagle’ Flies High in ‘Nordeast’

Posted on May 8, 2017May 9, 2017 by David Shama

Dick Jonckowski’s dad told him to enjoy life–because no one gets out alive. Maybe that’s why he’s gone through life telling jokes and making so many Minnesotans laugh.

Nicknamed the “The Polish Eagle” long ago because of his fondness for the NFL’s Eagles, Jonckowski had the crowd roaring last Friday at Jax Café in northeast Minneapolis when he was honored by the Minnesota Minute Men. “You never have a bad day when you fly with ‘The Polish Eagle,’ ” sportscaster Mike Max told the audience.

Max was the emcee for a Jonckowski roast organized by the Minute Men to present him with the Courage Award given annually to individuals for outstanding service to the community. Jonckowski completed 31 years as the public address announcer for Gophers basketball games this winter. During his career he has also been the P.A. man for 29 years of Gophers baseball, worked in local radio, and emceed and entertained for decades at countless events in Minnesota and other parts of the country.

Past winners of the Courage Award include golf legend Patty Berg, former vice president of the United States Hubert Humphrey, ex-Gopher football coach Jerry Kill and wife Rebecca Kill, and NBA Hall of Famer Vern Mikkelsen. The award has been presented every year since 1979.

While the jokes came fast and furious from Max and the celebrity roasters, there were serious moments too. “You are a class act,” said former Gopher football player Jim Carter. “I am proud to be your friend.”

Jonckowski, 73, became emotional when recalling his recovery from cancer a few years ago. He talked about crying at the hospital and his gratitude for the many cards and phone calls of support he received. “Almost two and one-half years of being cancer free,” he told the crowd.

Arlene and Dick Jonckowski in their sports memorabilia-filled basement.

Jonckowski is planning to tell his story in a book with local author Jim Bruton. No doubt it will be a fun read from a man who has literally laughed his way through life and knows he has much to celebrate, including 51 years of marriage with wife Arlene.

Worth Noting

Jonckowski will entertain with his comedy routine on Saturday night at O’Gara’s Bar & Grill in St. Paul as part of a fundraiser for Mendota Heights youth baseball. More information is available at Mendotaheightsathletics.com

Marion Barber II, who was the Gophers leading rusher in 1978 with 1,210 yards, will receive his degree in youth studies from the University of Minnesota Thursday night during graduation ceremonies at Mariucci Arena. Marion wanted to earn his degree before son Thomas Barber, who will be a sophomore linebacker for the Gophers next season, graduates from college.

Former Gophers assistant football coach Dan O’Brien has accepted a position with Sun Country Airlines as director of airport customer experience. Mike Sherels, another member of last season’s staff, is on medical leave from the University and is undecided about future plans but will meet with Gophers athletic director Mark Coyle to discuss a position in the athletic department.

Former Washburn head football coach Giovan Jenkins is now a volunteer assistant at Hamline working with the cornerbacks.

Vikings radio play-by-play man Paul Allen admires coach Mike Zimmer and general manager Rick Spielman. Allen believes that after last season’s disappointing 8-8 record, the Vikings will have a comeback year in 2017, perhaps winning the NFC North. “Spielman and Zimmer like for the team to fly under the radar, and that’s exactly where we are right now,” Allen told Sports Headliners. “That’s what we’ll do, and I think Vikings fans will be very, very pleased with the 2017 team.”

The Vikings announced today that Tina Holmes is the organization’s new chief of staff & strategic advisor. Holmes has been chief of staff at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota. Holmes will work “closely with the team’s executive vice presidents and vice presidents, acting as an executive liaison, surfacing issues and facilitating solutions,” according to a team news release.

Former Timberwolves forward Anthony Bennett was cut by his Turkish team last Tuesday, according to a May 2 online story by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Bennett, who was a star player at UNLV, was the NBA’s overall No. 1 draft choice in 2013 when he was selected by the Cavs. He came to the Wolves from the Cavs in a 2014 deal that also brought Andrew Wiggins to Minneapolis and sent Kevin Love to Cleveland.

Bad timing for the Twins yesterday drawing one of their largest crowds of the early season (31,763) but losing 17-6 to the Red Sox in a game that lasted three hours and 46 minutes.

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Canterbury Park Launched P.A.’s Career

Posted on May 5, 2017May 5, 2017 by David Shama

Canterbury Park opens its live horse racing season at 4 p.m. today, and Paul Allen will be back for his 23rd season at the Shakopee track. Those who don’t know Allen may well wonder why the man who is the radio voice of the Vikings and a Monday-Friday talk show host on KFAN is also calling races as track announcer.

It’s pretty simple. Allen, 51, has a passion for racing and is loyal to Canterbury Park owner Randy Sampson.

Back in the 1990s, Allen was living in California and at a “tricky spot” in his career. Sampson had heard Allen via simulcasts call races at Bay Meadows in northern California. Sampson liked what he heard and hired Allen, who was on unemployment during the months when Bay Meadows wasn’t operating.

Allen’s first year in Shakopee was in 1997 and he had no idea Canterbury Park would be a catalyst to his career. He knew he wanted to call races or be in broadcasting. “The chances weren’t really emerging as quickly as I was hoping they would,” Allen told Sports Headliners this week.

During that first summer at Canterbury, KFAN’s program director heard Allen’s voice and was intrigued by it. He asked Allen if his general sports knowledge was savvy. Allen said it was and soon he was doing short updates on KFAN. That work continued into 1998 and by fall an opportunity emerged to host a regular show with Jeff Dubay.

The same fall found Allen hosting a Vikings fan-line show. “I fell in love with the team,” Allen said.

A few years later KFAN and the Vikings were looking for a play-by-play voice. Allen got the job, and in August he starts his 16th year calling games.

So now you understand the connection to the track. “If I don’t get the job at Canterbury, I don’t work at KFAN,” Allen said. “If I don’t work at KFAN, I don’t work with the Vikings.”

Allen raves about Canterbury, a clean and family-friendly track offering not only racing but live music and promotions galore. Racetracks in various parts of the country have struggled or even called it quits, but Canterbury is an industry success story that Allen is proud to be part of.

Allen said that each year when racing season begins, his “excitement is off the charts.” Part of the anticipation is the racing but a lot of it is relationships with people he has known for years, including Sampson and track publicist Jeff Maday who he has worked with for 23 years.

When Allen was a young teen growing up outside of Washington, D.C. he lived in an apartment with his single mom who worked as a waitress. The apartment was so close to a racetrack that Allen could see it from his deck. His mom took Allen and friends to the track. The whole experience of racing prompted him to bond with a sport that while declining in popularity even in 1979, still is the “Sport of Kings” to many.

By 1985 Allen was living in southern California and attending classes at Pasadena City College. He hosted a campus radio show, did publicity work for the basketball team and was editor of the school newspaper. He also interned at the Pasadena Star where after college he got a job covering both racing and prep sports.

Allen enjoyed betting the ponies and he became distracted from his newspaper duties, including showing up late for work at the Star. The paper terminated him. “Honestly, I deserved to get fired,” he said.

Allen was out of work for three or four months. Then he heard about an opening calling races at Bay Meadows. There were three finalists for the job and Allen told the track management he would take the position for even less money than they were offering.

Now days with his compensation from the morning radio show, Vikings broadcasts and the track announcing, Allen’s total annual earnings are well into six-figures, but money has never come first for him. In his early years at KFAN, for example, he made annual salaries of $27,000, $29,000 and $31,000. He prides himself on giving his employers “more than they expect.”

Allen is that competitive and he wants to deliver for his bosses. On the air, or behind the microphone at Canterbury, he is energetic, confident and sometimes loud. The passion for his work is always there and if he makes a mistake he is ready to move on.

“I don’t let it get me down,” Allen said. “If I make a mistake, I make sure that it’s gone from the time I call the next play, or I call the next race, or I do the next segment.”

Allen’s intellect and knowledge commands attention from listeners, and so does his sometimes flamboyant style, but he insists all of it is who he is. Yet away from work, he is a different guy, whether spending time with family, friends or by himself.

“You develop multiple personalities. When I am away from the Vikings and KFAN or Canterbury, I am a lot more introverted than people would think,” Allen said. “I am a lot more quiet.

“I don’t like being in places that are loud. I don’t like being in large groups where people feel because of what I do, I have to be that personality—when I am not that personality. I am much more withdrawn and subdued than anybody would ever think, and those closest to me know exactly what I am talking about.

“However, when it’s time to flip on that microphone, what comes out of me is who I am on the other side. God blessed me with a lot of adrenaline, a lot of energy and dedication to making those (who pay me)…a lot of money. I am a company guy through and through, always have been.”

Important, too, are the relationships and friends he has made, including those who sometimes told him things he needed to hear. “There have been people along the line of my career who have cared about me and have not been afraid to tell me what they truly think about who they felt I was becoming,” Allen said. “In the early stages of my career it was Dark Star and Chad Hartman. In the middle stages of my career it was Tom West, media relations guy for the Minnesota Vikings.

“(In) the later stages of my career, now it’s one of my best friends, and a man I just love so much more than anybody will ever know, former Viking safety Corey Chavous. Corey and I are very close on a personal level. Corey has a way of straightening me out that nobody has ever had.”

Allen’s many friends also include 49ers offensive lineman Brandon Fusco, Wild goalie Alex Stalock, Vikings trainer Eric Sugarman, and NFL coaches Norv and Scott Turner. They have a race horse ownership group that also includes Canterbury Hall of Fame trainer Mac Robertson. The group bought Skol Sister as a yearling in 2016 and she will run this season at Canterbury Park.

Skol Sister will add to the fun of another year at Canterbury, a place that Allen intends to stay at as long as Sampson is around. “We kind of have a handshake that I am not going to step away from Canterbury until he no longer runs the track,” Allen said. “We’ve had that handshake for about five years. The racetrack still keeps me attached to my childhood, and my dedication to my late mom.”

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