Published: Feb. 6, 2016
WHAT ONCE WAS ...
In 1960s, West Bend hosted Sports Show featuring sports
legends
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
The timing was just right for the Knights of Columbus in
West Bend.
In the late 1960s, the organization had meetings where they
could find a place, such as church basements — any place that had an opening.
“We were looking to raise funds,” member Dick Schacht said.
The group also hosted or sponsored softball tournaments and
bowling tournaments.
“We did just about everything to raise funds,” Schacht said.
In their 20s at that time, Don Baierl, a fellow organizer,
said the goal was to get a clubhouse. Today, that building is the Columbian on
Highway D on the northwest side of West Bend. The organization came up with an
idea to host professional sports figures for a fundraiser and it was held at
West Bend High School, which is now Badger Middle School. It was held in late
January, after the football season had ended. Schacht used a connection to get
the idea going: Green Bay Packers tackle Ron Kostelnik.
“I just made all these personal phone calls,” Schacht said.
The have times changed.
“You couldn’t get within 10 miles of them now,” he said.
It was at the height of the Vince Lombardi years with the
Packers. In the inaugural year of the event, the Packers were coming off the
NFL championship, beating the Cleveland Browns 23-12, on Jan. 2, 1966. The
inaugural Sports Show was 28 days later.
In year two, the Packers had just won the inaugural AFL-NFL
Championship Game, later called Super Bowl I.
“We had a captive audience,” Schacht said. “People would go
stircrazy. So they’d come to these. We had really good turnouts.”
Tickets were $1 for adults and 50 cents for age 12 and
younger. The event drew 1,500-2,000 people and took place from 1966 to 1970.
In a February 1967 West Bend News article about the show, Schacht,
one of the event’s organizers, said the mad rush for free autographs reached a
point where the format had to change. It was because the event was getting
top-notch athletes, future Hall of Famers, relatively cheap, even for those
days, compared to paying thousands of dollars for players of similar stature
making appearances today.
“The Packers were having some pretty good years at that
time,” Schacht said. “It was prime time for all of us here.”
“Our timing was good,” he added.
It was a relief.
“We were scared as hell because we were committed for all
these guys,” Schacht said. “I remember I was as nervous as all get out. ...
Were they going to show up?”
The only funds the organization had were membership dues,
which were $2 per person. It was a risk putting on an event like this.
The list of sports celebrities that attended the event
include the Packers’ Jim Grabowski, Kostelnik, Willie Davis and Elijah Pitts.
The list continued — Eddie Mathews of the Milwaukee Braves,
Ron Bull (Chicago Bears), Mike Ditka (Chicago Bears), Charlie Grimm (Chicago
Cubs and Milwaukee Braves manager), Frank Howard (Washington Senators
outfielder), Ray Krzoska (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee basketball coach),
Bob Long (Atlanta Falcons and former a Packer), Johnny Morris (Chicago Bears)
and John Powless (Wisconsin basketball coach).
The term “celebrity” was a loose one at that time, unlike
today.
It wasn’t hard to track down the phone number for an
athlete, call them and invite them to an event. Long before days of endorsement
deals and multi-million-dollar salaries, professional sports athletes often
made public appearances for a few bucks.
The asking price was around $50-$100. The most expensive was
Hall of Fame Notre Dame football coach Ara Parseghian — $500.
They were all household names then and most still are almost
a half-century later.
There was an attempt to get Hall of Fame Packers quarterback
Bart Starr.
Schacht remembered visiting Starr’s house, which was on the
same street as Kostelnik. He met Starr’s wife, Cherry. At the house, the garage
was filled with Coca-Cola because Starr was doing commercials for the soda
company.
There was also an attempt to get Gale Sayers, Hall of Fame
running back for the Chicago Bears (1965-71). Schacht said Sayers wanted to
come, but his friend, Brian Piccolo, who was the basis for the 1971 movie,
“Brian’s Song,” was ill.
“They were very open,” Schacht said of the athletes’ desire
to make public appearances such as these.
Schacht recalled a time when Grabowski visited a local child
in the hospital. The child saw Grabowski as a hero.
The event went away because it had “run its course,” Baierl
said. The organization had what it wanted. The hall opened in 1973.
“The money we used from all these events was used as a down payment
on the building,” he added.
Other communities were catching on and began doing the same
thing. And because of that, the price tag on the athlete appearances went up.
“They weren’t going to come for $100 anymore,” Baierl said.
Fifty years later, as Super Bowl 50 will be played Sunday,
the memories of this event are once-in-a-lifetime.
“We raised a lot of money,” Schacht said.
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