Da Yoopers - Wall of Fame Page 2 of 2

Ward Quaal
Ishpeming
Broadcasting


An Ishpeming native who got his start in broadcasting at a Mining Journal owned radio station in the 1930s recently was recognized as one of the 20th Century's leaders in the field. Ward Quaal, retired president of WGN Continental Broadcasting Company, was recently listed among “Broadcasting and Cable” magazine's 100 Men of the Century. Leading the list of men who made significant contributions to the industries is Bill Paley and Ted Turner. An article about Quaal in the Dec. 20 edition of “Broadcasting and Cable” reads: “(He) rose through the ranks to become one of the industry's most influential and respected statesmen. “Quaal earned that status by being one of (the industries’) hardest working and most successful station executives at Chicago's Tribune Broadcasting - as the company was later renamed - in the 1940s, 50s, 60s and 70s. Quaal said the key to his success has been making the most of opportunities as they were presented to him. “Only in American can such big things happen for a boy from a small town,” he said. Quaal’s career in broadcasting began in 1936 when he was hired as an announcer at WBEO (now WDMJ) radio station. The station was owned at the time by the Mining Journal and located in a third floor studio on Washington street in Marquette. Quaal was a junior at Ishpeming High School when he began working 12 hour days seven day a week as a radio announcer, sports writer and salesman at the station. Through the remainder of his high school years and throughout his four years of college at the University of Michigan he spent summers at WBEO working toward and dreaming of bigger and better ventures. At the beginning of his freshman year at college, he listed on a questionnaire that his goal after graduation was to be an announcer for the Continental Broadcasting Company's WGN radio station in Chicago. WGN’s 50,000 watt system heard throughout the nation overpowered the local station's 250 watt capabilities. At 18 Quaal had started along a path that would take him straight to the top of WGN’s corporate ladder. Through a competitive announcer's competition in April 1941, he was given a position on the WGN announcer's staff. He graduated from college two months later and started work at the Chicago station the next day. Quaal said he began receiving mail and telephone calls from former neighbors and college classmates now scattered across the country “People couldn’t believe a kid from Ishpeming was broadcasting on national radio,” he said. One opportunity that holds a special place in Quaal’s heart is the friendship he formed with former President Ronald Reagan. The two met when Reagan was working as an actor and did radio commercials for WGN. Quaal had known Nancy Reagan before the two were married. He and the former first lady were classmates at the University of Michigan. Quaal left WGN briefly and served four years in the United States Navy in Word War II. He returned promptly, however, and began climbing the executive ladder. As a special assistant to Continental's general manager in 1945, Quaal was instrumental in the development of WGN-TV, which went on the air in April 1948, according to a biography provided by his staff. Quaal said most radio announcers were afraid of television, so he had to work as a broadcaster from time to time. In 1956, he was named vice president and general manager of WGN, Inc. “Under Quaal’s leadership, the company's radio and television properties were elevated to positions of national prominence for quality programming, integrity in their business relations and dedicated involvement with the communities they are licensed to serve,” his biography says. Today he said he continues to work 10 to 14 hour days as a management counselor for Tribune Broadcasting. Among the long list of distinguished awards Quaal has been honored with throughout his 50 plus year career are: the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ Silver Circle Award, for his devotion to the television industry; and induction in 1991 into “Broadcasting” magazine's Hall of Fame, for his lifetime contributions to radio, television and the allied arts. As taken from an Mining Journal article.

With 16% of the area's population of Finnish descent -- down from about 25% in the 1960s -- WLUC produces the only Finnish-language program in the United States, "Finland Calling" ("Suomi kutsuu" in Finnish). The station started the show March 27, 1962 at the suggestion of a local travel agent who sought to boost travel to Scandinavian countries. Since its beginning, the show has been hosted by Carl Pellonpaa, then a newsman at the station. Pellonpaa has retired from the station but still hosts the show. Early programs were produced live and featured books, photographs and Finnish music. Camera operators had to learn a few words of Finnish just to be able to follow the show. The one-hour weekly Sunday morning program regularly features Finnish visitors to the region including two Presidents of Finland, the Prime Minister of Finland, a number of Ambassadors, Consul Generals of Finland, members of the Finnish Parliament, numerous entertainers, choirs, teachers, students, and many, many others. Pellonpaa has hosted 22 tours to Finland and dozens of dances featuring Finnish music. In 1988 he was awarded the Order of the White Rose in 1988 from then President Mauno Koivisto for hosting the program and for the number of tourists that the program inspired to visit Finland.

   Scott is currently the Sports Director at WMAR-ABC2 in Baltimore and the play-by-play broadcaster for the Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens. He started his career at age 19, broadcasting Ishpeming and Negaunee High School sports for WJPD Radio.
   He broke into TV at WLUC-TV and spent 4 years in Marquette before becoming sports director of KGGM-TV in Albuquerque. His big move to Baltimore was in 1980.
Scott can boast many professional honors, including an Emmy, being five-time winner of the National Sportscaster and Sportswriters Award, and the State Sportscaster of the Year Award. Professionally, his career has allowed him to travel all over the country, covering the world’s biggest sports events and the people who make the headlines. Some of his favorite moments include spending two days in the Arizona Mountains with Muhammad Au as he prepared for a title fight with Ken Norton broadcasting this year’s Super Bowl... .being part of the Orioles TV crew for twelve years, and covering Cal Ripken’s career from his first game to the night he broke Lou Gehrig’s unbelievable iron-man record.
   Scott says, “I have been very fortunate to live out my childhood dream, and have never taken that good fortune for granted.

Dr. Glenn Seaborg was born in Ishpeming on April 19, 1912. Nobel Prize winner, the Buck Rogers of the world of nuclear science, Dr. Seaborg was appointed to the President's General Advisory Committee by President Truman in 1946. He was named one of the Outstanding Young Men in the Nation in '47, and received the Nobel Peace Prize in Chemistry in 1951. He was named Chairmen of the Atomic Energy Commission in 1961 and remained there for 10 years. That body honored him with the Enrico Fermi Award in 1959. He was made a member of France's Legion of Honor in 1976 and he received over 60 high awards since then in Sweden, Poland, Argentina, Scotland, England, East Germany, and Spain.

Sam Cohodas, Ishpeming, started out in the produce business in Ishpeming and supplied produce to the U.P. and Northern Wisconsin. The Cohodas Brothers, with Sam as their leader, specialized in apples and had orchards in the Midwest, Yakuma Valley in Washington and California. They began producing Apple Keg Apple Juice and became one of the biggest apple producers and distributors in the country. He owned the First National Bank in Marquette and the Ishpeming Miners Bank as well as others across the U.P.. Sam was a regular guy.

Sam Cohodas, Ishpeming, started out in the produce business in Ishpeming and supplied produce to the U.P. and Northern Wisconsin. The Cohodas Brothers, with Sam as their leader, specialized in apples and had orchards in the Midwest, Yakuma Valley in Washington and California. They began producing Apple Keg Apple Juice and became one of the biggest apple producers and distributors in the country. He owned the First National Bank in Marquette and the Ishpeming Miners Bank as well as others across the U.P.. Sam was a regular guy.

Cyrus McCormick and Cyrus Bently had a summer lodge up on the Peshekee Grade north of Champion, Michigan for many years. They traveled here and stayed to enjoy the U.P. summers.
Cyrus McCormick was the son of Cyrus Hall McCormick, inventory of the reaper in 1880.
Cyrus Bently was the lawyer that represented the McCormick interests in a merger between the John Deere Company, The Deering Company, the Milwaukee Harvester Company, Champion and International Harvester Company.

Louis Kaufman, Marquette, was owner and president of the First National Bank of Marquette. He engineered the merger of two old and respected banks, Chatham National and Phoenix National making the new Chatham and Phoenix National one of the largest in New York City. He also backed Willy Durand in his Chevrolet venture and got him back into the very competitive auto business. Kaufman and Dupont put up enough money to take over GM, reorganize it, and reinstate Willy Durand as president in 1917. The Chevy was then added to GM's line. Kaufman's banks were the first to develop branch banking. In 1925 the Chatham and Phoenix Bank consolidated with Metropolitan Trust and was the first in the world to have "and Trust" added to its name. His First National in Marquette was the second. The trust system has spread worldwide. He was the first person in the country to be president of two banks in different states at the same time. He was Director of Chicago and Erie Railroad and had his own private car. His personal worth was estimated at 150,000,000 during World War I. The plans for the Empire State Building were reviewed at Louis Kaufmans summer home, Granot Louma, on Lake Superior. Granot Louma Farm was originally owned by the Kaufmans, it later changed hands. Muhammed Ali was going to buy this place as a training camp in 1977. Paul McCartney of the Beatles was also looking into buying the place.

   Louis Kaufman, Marquette, was owner and president of the First National Bank of Marquette. He engineered the merger of two old and respected banks, Chatham National and Phoenix National making the new Chatham and Phoenix National one of the largest in New York City. He also backed Willy Durand in his Chevrolet venture and got him back into the very competitive auto business. Kaufman and Dupont put up enough money to take over GM, reorganize it, and reinstate Willy Durand as president in 1917. The Chevy was then added to GM's line.
Kaufman's banks were the first to develop branch banking. In 1925 the Chatham and Phoenix Bank consolidated with Metropolitan Trust and was the first in the world to have "and Trust" added to its name. His First National in Marquette was the second. The trust system has spread worldwide.
   He was the first person in the country to be president of two banks in different states at the same time.
   He was Director of Chicago and Erie Railroad and had his own private car. His personal worth was estimated at 150,000,000 during World War I.
   The plans for the Empire State Building were reviewed at Louis Kaufmans summer home, Granot Louma, on Lake Superior.
   Granot Louma Farm was originally owned by the Kaufmans, it later changed hands. Muhammed Ali was going to buy this place as a training camp in 1977. Paul McCartney of the Beatles was also looking into buying the place.

Kelly Johnson was from Ishpeming. He was the designer of the P-80, the Navy's first jet plane. He also designed the famous double fuselaged P-38 Lightning. He designed the wind tunnel which lead to his design for the now famous twin engine Electra. He contributed significantly to no less than 40 different aircraft types. He designed the F-104 which was the first jet fighter in the world capable of level flight with top speeds in excess of Mach 2, twice the speed of sound. The U-2, the first manned airplane capable of sustained level flights at altitudes in excess of 70,000 feet, was his creation. Designs for the A-11, F-2 and SR-71 series were the first in the world for manned flights in excess of Mach 3, three times the speed of sound, and sustained flight altitudes in excess of 85,000 feet.
In 1956 Kelly Johnson was named Aviation's Man of the Year and in 1975 he was elected to Aviation's Hall of Fame.

Gustav Sonnenberg, the oldest son of Fred and Caroline Sonnenberg, was raised on a farm in Green Garden, Michigan, went to a little country school, and later went to live with an older sister to attend Marquette High School.
Gus's football career began at Marquette High in 1912. That year he played right guard on the gridiron and the following season, he held down the same position.
Then came 1914, when E.D. Cushman came here to become Marquette High's first full-time physical education instructor. "Cush" promptly switched Gus to tackle, a change that paid dividends immediately.
In 1915, with Sonnenberg's work at tackle a big factor, Marquette High won its first U.P. Championship, undefeated for the first time in history. They won six games, scoring 211 points to their opponents' 7.
Aside from his accomplishments on the football field, Gus also starred in basketball and was a member of Marquette's first U.P. Championship team during the 1915-1916 season.
After his graduation in 1916, Gus was offered scholarships at the University of Michigan and the University of Minnesota, but he decided on Dartmouth.
He arrived in September. It was said that he came clumping into Dartmouth college with a battered violin case under one arm, a book of Browning's poems under the other, a cap perched on his scalp, and wearing a pair of pants that looked like the back legs of an elephant. Just a few weeks later, the news came that for the first time in five years, the freshman class was victorious in the traditional football rush, which takes place between the freshman and sophomore classes at Dartmouth. At the crack of the gun, Captain Gerrish, of the varsity, tossed a football into the two awaiting classes, and the fight for possession of the ball was on. After forty-five minutes of mad scrambling, Sonnenberg, a candidate for a tackle position on the freshman football team, succeeded in ascending the Webster Hall steps and presenting the ball to Captain Gerrish.
That was only the beginning of Sonnenberg's rise to fame at Dartmouth. He won not only a regular tackle position on the freshman team, but also a place on the Eastern All-Frosh team.
As the football season started in 1917, Gus was back in Marquette, holding down the fullback spot for the Northern State Teachers College squad. That year, under coach L.B. Gant, Northern had a successful season, losing just one game.
Gus also played on the Teacher's 1917-1918 basketball team, and in his spare time, coached the Normal high school team.
On January 1, 1919, Sonnenberg accepted a position as coach of Escanaba High School.
The 1919-1920 season found Gus back at Dartmouth holding down a regular tackle position.
In 1920 the sports writers association of the East picked Sonnenberg and George Gipp of Calumet for that group's All-America Team. It was the first time a Marquette athlete was chosen on any All-America team and also the first time two U.P. players were chosen on the same squad.
Gus transferred from Dartmouth to the University of Detroit where he starred during the 1921-1922 seasons. He graduated with a law degree.
During his college days, he had some rather remarkable experiences. One year he blocked nine punts and all of them, except one, would have been good for touchdowns. Once in a game at Franklin Field, Philadelphia, he booted the ball eighty yards in the air for the longest kick ever made at the University of Pennsylvania's field.
Sonnenberg played in the infamous Coaldale, Pennsylvania game. Sonnen-berg explained, "There was great spirit in Coaldale. The local gamblers were backing the team to the last penny, betting even their homes and shirts. Why, I saw $60,000 in cash on a blanket on the sidelines. Well, we beat them 10 to 7. It was a terrible game. After it was over, the crowd mobbed us. They threw stones at us as we ran for our special train. We got on the train and dropped to the floor to escape the rocks that smashed nearly every window. As the train of thirteen cars pulled out of the town, they commenced to shoot at the cars. Of course, we were all on the floor, but one fellow was wounded in the eye by a shot.
"Another game, in Shenendoah, found the gamblers losing and they came on to the field in a rush and refused to get off the field so the game was postponed and all bets were off."
Following his graduation, he was sought by many pro teams, including the Green Bay Packers. He signed with the Columbus, Ohio Tigers. Later he played with the Detroit Panthers and Providence, Rhode Island Steam Rollers.
Gus was picked as "all-professional" tackle by the managers and owners of the league. One night he went with a newspaper man to see a wrestling match. The newspaper man said, "Why don't you get into this game? It's as easy as pro football anyway, and there is more money." Gus, just recovering from two broken ribs, thought nothing could happen to him on the mat like the riot that followed the clash in Coaldale.
Before long, "Dynamite" was the nickname given to him as a new wrestler. He was described as five foot seven inches tall, weighing 200 pounds, possessing extra large feet, the chest, arms and shoulders of a bull gorilla, not very much neck, and a round face.
Other descriptions said he looked just as good in his green trunks as he did in a tuxedo. He used excellent English, speaking in a deep baritone, danced well and played a great game of bridge.
In his wrestling matches, Gus let his head hit his wrestling opponent with great force, and as the man went down, he would nail him in the stomach with another head-on smash. As for Sonnenberg's "flying tackle" and the rule book, inasmuch as he used his hands as well as his head, it couldn't be barred under "butting." Sonnenberg's constant habit of playing football without a helmet had been great training for his wrestling game.
It was not long before Paul Bowser, the Boston wrestling trainer, got in touch with Sonnenberg. A match with Mayne Munn was scheduled, and if Gus won that match, he would give up professional football for a career in wrestling.
Sonnenberg was seventy pounds lighter than Munn, and nearly one foot shorter. Gus threw his huge opponent twice, once in a minute and nineteen seconds, and again in twenty-five seconds. This was the twenty-eighth consecutive match Sonnenberg had won, having not been defeated since he started his new career on the mat.
Gus Sonnenberg had the heavyweight wrestling championship of the world in the palm of his hand when an unexpected and disastrous accident sent him to the hospital. On June 29, 1928, he had tossed the champion, Ed "Strangler" Lewis for the first fall with his famous flying tackle. His head butted Lewis in the stomach, and the champion was lifted from his feet with the flying tackle and slammed to the mat. The time of the fall was thirty-seven minutes, thirty seconds. Lewis was out for five minutes.
The crowd of 10,000 fans went wild at the Boston Arena. Gus was sure to win. Never had such a wrestling match been staged. Sonnenberg had sailed into Strangler's stomach with his bullet-like head so many times that many thought Lewis would not be able to re-enter for the second fall.
When Lewis, still all but helpless from the battering he had received, returned to the ring for a second round, Sonnenberg, amid cheers that rocked the arena, started out for a second fall. With blood in his eyes, he butted Lewis around and it looked like sure victory for Gus. Suddenly Gus went sailing into a whistling flying tackle, missed his target, and shot like a bullet at least fifteen feet through the ropes, beyond the row of reporters, landing on his head on the concrete floor of the arena. He was picked up unconscious. The crowd was thunderstruck! He was given fifteen minutes to return to the ring and continue the match, but at the end of that time he was still unconscious and Lewis was given the fall and the match.
Sonnenberg was examined by physicians and found to be suffering from a concussion. He was taken to Trumbull Hospital.
Sonnenberg had been a great drawing card, attracting immense crowds every time he had battled. Sonnenberg received $7,500 for his work and Lewis $15,000, the highest sum every paid a champion matman.
The story of Gus Sonnenberg, however, is more than one of human strength, and speed. He brought to wrestling the color and dash of American football. He promoted his first show in Boston at the old Grand Opera House. The gate was $85. On January 7, 1929, 20,000 people jammed the Boston Garden and paid $75,000 to see the "Strangler" Lewis vs. "Dynamite" Gus Sonnenberg show.
Another article states.... "Two of the most surprising things about Sonnenberg were his strength and speed. He launched his tackle at the most unexpected moments and from almost any angle and position." The tackle which really cost Lewis his crown came as a bolt from the blue. The Strangler had brought his locked arms up under Gus's chin, not only snapping the challenger's head back but lifting him off his feet and dumping him heavily on all fours near the ropes. Strangler leaped forward to clamp on the finishing headlock.
But from this seemingly defenseless posture, Sonnenberg instantly uncoiled and shot from the floor, hitting the champion squarely a little above the knee. A quick jerk of his powerful arms, the final flying lunge, and the famous Strangler was flat and out.
The second fall and the championship was awarded to Sonnenberg by the referee when Lewis would not, or could not, re-enter the ring after having been repeatedly knocked through the ropes by the butts and tackles and Dynamite Gus.
After Sonnenberg's arm was raised as a gesture of victory, Paul Bowser, promoter of the title bout, came into the ring and presented him with the coveted $10,000 diamond championship belt, and announced, "Gus Sonnenberg... The World Champion Wrestler!"
The Championship Match was filmed by the Educational Film Exchanges, Inc. It contained 1,000 feet of film and most of the views were closeups…more thrilling action squeezed into those ten or twelve minutes than in any movie ever seen. The manner in which Sonnenberg finished off Lewis tells the story of his name "Dynamite." This thrilling one reel movie was shown at the Delft Theatre in 1929.
Just one year before, Sonnenberg was a professional football player drawing a few thousand dollars per season from the Providence Steam Rollers. He didn't know anything about wrestling and now he was the heavyweight wrestling champion of the world with $90,000 in the bank.
His mother had pictures of him all around her living room. On a sideboard a picture of him in a football uniform, another in the uniform of a member of the Student Army Training Corps, another of him showing him wearing the $10,000 diamond studded belt, symbolic of the heavy-weight wrestling championship, and in a corner one of his violins, waiting for his return home. She said, "Every time he writes, he sends money home."
His mother, at age sixty-seven, drove to Milwaukee with her other son Carl, to see her first wrestling match, and last. She was in agony and couldn't bear to watch. When finally opening her eyes, she said, "Mein Gott, He'll kill him!" She buried her face again and was shaking all over. "My heart,"she said, a hand at her throat, "It's right here." Finally, when it was over, she picked up her hat, a shapeless pulp from her worried hands, and said, "My boy Gus, I knew he'd get him. But for all the money in the world, I wish Gus wouldn't wrestle."
In August 1929, the U.P. hosted a match between Sonnenberg and Stanley Stasiak, the Wrestling Champion of Poland, at the Palestra in Marquette. The bout between Sonnenberg and Stasiak was listed as a "two falls out of three" finish match for the championship of the world. The match was probably the biggest professional sporting event the U.P. had ever seen, due largely to the fact that Marquette was Sonnenberg's hometown and he wanted to give his hometown backers a real show.
The bout between Sonnenberg and his giant challenger took place before a crowd of nearly 3,000 people. The spectators got an hour and nine minutes of thrilling entertainment as Stasiak fought hard before Sonnenberg finished him with a flying tackle.
Sonnenberg bought the wrestling mat from Ed Butler of Ishpeming after using it for the bout with Stasiak. He said it was one of the best wrestling mats he had ever seen. The mat had been the property of the Ishpeming Theatre for twenty years and now would be used in all of Sonnenberg's matches. Gus had sustained many infections from wrestling on the dirty, blood-stained mats that were usually provided.
Gus had trouble on the matrimonial scene. He married a movie star, known as Judith Allen in 1931, and that marriage only lasted a few months. He later married Mildred Micelli, who left him, Gus says, because she was embarrassed by the "shiners" he got as a wrestler. Gus said, after waiting all evening to introduce her husband to the girls as a hero, he would come limping and lurching in after a wrestling bout, sometimes with one eye painfully swollen and closed, or perhaps both would be that way, or so black and blue as to be ghastly. One arm might be bandaged and in a sling, and he didn't look much like a hero. And so a second divorce came.
Gus died September 9, 1944 at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland, of leukemia. He is buried in Park Cemetery in Marquette. He was selected for induction into the U.P. Sports Hall of Fame in 1972.
A champion in a game played by giants, a lover of poetry, an outstanding performer in professional football yet a student of the violin, a squatty winner of wrestling rounds yet a graceful dancer. He wore $150 suits and turned up Panamas, and a big rock on his finger. That was Gus Sonnenberg, Heavyweight Wrestling Champion of the World.

Dominic Jacobetti of Negaunee had been in the State Legislature longer than any other legislator in the history of the state.

**Nels Flodin**
**(If you have an image or know the source of one please email me (Jim Bellmore) at: youguys3@charterinternet.com**
**Marquette**
The first outboard motor in the world was invented by Nels Flodin in 1896 in Marquette, Michigan.

**Olympic Ski Jumpers**
**(If you have an image or know the source of one please email me (Jim Bellmore) at: youguys3@charterinternet.com**
**Ishpeming**
United States Olympic Ski Jumping team members from Ishpeming include - Walt Bietila(1936), Roy Bietila(1940), Ralph Bietila(1948), Joe Perrault(1948), Wilbert Rasmussen(1952), Rudy Maki(1950), Jon St. Andre(1960), Jack Bietila(1960), Jerry Goyen(1964), and Jim Grahek(1980).

**T.E. Deegan**
**(If you have an image or know the source of one please email me (Jim Bellmore) at: youguys3@charterinternet.com**
**Marquette**
Captain T.E. Deegan was in command of the Marquette U.S. Coast Guard Station for 43 years. No one else in the U.S. Coast Guard has commanded a post longer.

Hunk Anderson
Hancock, MI
Height / Weight: 5-11 / 170
Position: Guard
Years Played: 1918-1921

1974 inductee into National Football Foundation Hall of Fame . . . first-team All-American as senior in '21 on teams named by International News Service (INS) and Football World Magazine . . . four-year starter at left guard for Irish, playing on Knute Rockne's first team and blocking for George Gipp . . . blocked two punts and recovered both for scores as senior vs. Purdue . . . helped Irish to four-year mark of 31-2-2 . . . served as Irish assistant coach under Rockne while also playing professionally for Chicago Bears from 1922-26 . . . coached at University of St. Louis in 1927-28, then returned to Rockne's staff in ?30 . . . Irish head coach from 1931-33 following Rockne?s death, with three-season record of 16-9-2 . . . spent 1934-36 as head coach at North Carolina State, then coached at Michigan in '37 and Cincinnati in '38 . . . spent 11 seasons as assistant with Chicago Bears . . . retired from football in '51.

As taken from the Notra Dame Official Athletic Site.

The Healy brothers
("Boots" Bob, Jake, Tim, and Pete Healy)
(If you have an image or know the source of one please email me (Jim Bellmore) at: youguys3@charterinternet.com
Eagle Harbor, MI
Inventors of Guts Frisbee
and founders of
The International Frisbee Tournament

  Ever wonder how scary it would be to have an 80 MPH Frisbee® flying straight at your face from only 15 yards away? Think you could catch it with just one hand? Well that’s what it’s like to play Guts Frisbee, the original extreme sport for flying discs. This high-speed game of throw and catch has now been played for an amazing 50 consecutive years at the International Frisbee Tournament, being held this June 30th and July 1st in Hancock, Michigan.
   The International Frisbee Tournament is the oldest and most prestigious flying disc tournament in the world, dating back to 1958, when the Healy brothers at a family picnic in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula took a Pluto Platter—the direct ancestor of the modern Frisbee—and invented a simple game of throw and catch between two teams standing about 15 yards apart. They called it “Guts Frisbee” because to score a point, you had to throw the disc so hard that the opposing team couldn’t catch it cleanly in one hand—then have the guts to try catching the screaming-fast disc when it was thrown back at you. The Wham-O® company—fresh off their success with the Hula Hoop®—acquired the rights to the Pluto Platter around the same time, renamed it the Frisbee, and launched a major fad that swept the nation.
    This IFT promises to be the biggest, most historic, most competitive Guts Frisbee tournament ever, drawing players old and new from all over the United States and Canada. And for the first time ever, two strong teams from Japan—including “Katon”, the World Flying Disc Federation World Champions—will be joining the intense competition. The sport’s official sanctioning body for North America, the United States Guts Players Association (USGPA), is also planning to induct some of history’s most outstanding players into the Guts Frisbee Hall of Fame at their Saturday night players’ banquet. New inductees George “Thor” Anderson, Bill Begoske, Dave Bradshaw, Tom Field, Bill Hodges, and Gerard Newman will join the ranks of such flying disc legends as Fred Morrison, the inventor of the original Pluto Platter, the Healy brothers who started the IFT and the sport of Guts Frisbee, and “Steady Ed” Headrick, the visionary who won two IFTs and is credited with inventing the standard “pole hole” basket used on modern disc golf courses.
   As the years went by and millions of Frisbees were sold, that humble family picnic grew and grew, until tens of thousands of people were attending what had become known as the International Frisbee Tournament, or IFT. By the early 1970’s, the game of Guts had spread across the country, then around the world, with coverage on radio, television, major newspapers, and even TIME magazine. (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,877893,00.html)

The Original X-treme Sport
As Guts Frisbee evolved during the 1960’s, players started throwing faster and faster, until it wasn’t unusual to see presumably unbreakable Frisbees traveling at 60 or 70 mph shatter on impact with some unlucky defender’s hand. Catching the speedy disc—either straight on or after a teammate deflected it into the air—now really took Guts! With over 60 teams at a tournament, matches became knock-down, drag-out affairs, as everyone tried to battle their way into the Finals and a chance to win the IFT’s coveted Julius T. Nachazel trophy. One player even required 15 stitches to close a gaping wound across the palm of his hand after repeated pummeling by one of the world’s fastest throwers. With radical curving shots, deflected Frisbees bobbled frantically among teammates,and spectacular diving catches, Guts Frisbee had become an extreme sport demanding lightning-quick reflexes, physical endurance, and steely concentration.

Guts Frisbee Rebirth
Since its heyday in the 1970s, when even ABC’s Wide World of Sports was televising Guts action and tournaments were springing up everywhere from Toronto to Chicago and Los Angeles, the sport has gradually declined in popularity in America. Guts had been introduced in Asia by Wham-O in the 1970s, and by the 1990s it had become even more popular in Japan and Taiwan than in the U.S. Recent years, however, have seen pockets of strong, young American players who are taking the sport to an even higher competitive level. Plenty of older players have also stirred from retirement to revel in the game’s rebirth and take part in this historic 50th IFT. Organizers anticipate the largest turnout in decades, with both players and spectators from the past fifty years converging on the Driving Park fields in west Hancock for two days of the most thrill-packed Frisbee action imaginable.

As taken from The 50th IFT Organizing Committee

Paul Kangas
Houghton, MI
Miami-based Anchor and Financial Commentator
for public television's Nightly Business Report and television's leading provider of daily stock market information.

  Paul Kangas is the Miami-based Anchor and Financial Commentator for public television's Nightly Business Report and television's leading provider of daily stock market information. A former stockbroker with more than 12 years experience, Kangas joined Nightly Business Report when it began as a local program on Miami's public television station, WPBT2, in 1979.
   In addition to delivering the daily market summaries, Kangas conducts each Friday the "Market Monitor" interview with noted market observers. He is known for his fast-paced delivery, sharp wit and encyclopedic knowledge of the financial markets.
In 2003, Kangas' signature segment, "Stocks in the News," won a Financial Writers and Editors Award from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University as "best broadcast feature or series useful to investors."
  The media has noticed and praised Kangas for his expertise. The Detroit Free Press has dubbed him "the Walter Cronkite of business broadcasting" and the Village Voice has noted that Kangas is "not content to merely rattle off stocks and prices." Analysis is a key part of his presentation. Utilizing his extensive contacts on Wall Street, he has earned a reputation for ferreting out the hidden reasons behind stock moves. This prompted TV Guide to praise his "fine stock market coverage" and the Miami Review to comment: "How would brokers answer their clients' questions about the market without watching Paul Kangas' summaries?"
Kangas began his career in business broadcasting at the Miami CBS Radio affiliate, WINZ. He was actually a stock broker at the time, but his biggest client owned the station and asked Kangas to do a stock market wrap-up segment. He gave up his work in the stock market when he joined Nightly Business Report in 1979.
  In addition to his duties for Nightly Business Report, from 1985-1989, Kangas hosted a five-minute weekly wrap-up of U.S. financial markets for distribution on cable television in Germany (originating in Munich and Dusseldorf). The segment was part of a program entitled Economic Magazine and was distributed by Handelsblatt, the business news publications group.
Kangas also previously authored a syndicated weekly column in Cox Newspapers. He is a frequent speaker to seminar and convention groups.
  Kangas was born in Houghton, Michigan and is a graduate of the University of Michigan. He earned his brokers license after studying at New York University's Graduate School of Business.
  An avid golfer and ham radio enthusiast, Kangas and his wife, Peni, live in Miami.

As taken from Nightly Business Report - www.pbs.org
Read Paul's exclusive column, Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News

  "Nanook of the North" (1922) has a place in cinematic history as the first feature-length documentary, shot and directed by Robert J. Flaherty of Iron Mountain, near Inukjuaq on Hudson Bay in the arctic part of Quebec, Canada. A former explorer and prospector in that region, Flaherty decided to document the lifestyle of the Inuit, with funds provided by the French fur company Revillion Freres. The result was an early opportunity for people to see a movie that showed that a distant place and a foreign culture, rather than something staged on a set in a studio. Focusing on the title character and his family, "Nanook of the North" showed the traditional Inuit ways of hunting and fishing, building igloos, and other cultural aspects. Consequently, Flaherty's film is considered a prime example of what is called salvage ethnography, which had to do with capturing a record of a culture before it disappeared.
  This film is credited with being one of the first documentary films. When first released it became known worldwide. Although the film was staged it is partially accurate. At the time of the film was being made, Inuit society was beginning to modernize and the film was made to portray traditional life for the Inuits.
  To this day the film remains one of the most famous documentaries ever made.
The film is well photographed and is the first silent film the Criterion Collection has released on DVD. The new musical score is excellent and often appropriate for the particular scenes. This film is generally appropriate for all ages but near the end of the film there is a scene of brief female nudity.
  The 1922 documentary runs 79 minutes and remains in fairly good condition, with a passable chamber music score. There is also a brief interview with Flaherty's widow from the 1950s and a selection of still photographs from both the "Nanook of the North" shoot and some of Flaherty's other trips through the Arctic north.
  The Criterion Collection has resotred the film to its original frame rate and the special features include photographs of the region where the movie was filmed and also inclused a rare interview with the director's widow.

As taken from reviews by
Ted Merriman and Lawrance M. Bernabo