Wayne Eddy Affair interview with Stu Voigt, January 8 2007, part 1

              Stu Voigt, Narrator Wayne Eddy, At KYMN Radio Station Northfield, Minnesota January 8, 2007 WE: Good morning and welcome back to the Wayne Eddy Affair on KYMN Radio, a friend you can count on. We are located in our studios on Divison Street in downtown Northfield overlooking the Northfield Public Library, Carnegie Library, also looking at the Carleton campus, and enjoying our studio guest today who’s Stu Voigt. Before I forget, let me tell you, tomorrow’s guest is going to be Professor and Poet Steve Swanson part two and on Thursday I’m going to have a former professor from St. Olaf, Stan Frear as my guest here on KYMN and on Monday it’s going to be Mike McGovern, former football coach for the Northfield Raiders. Eddie Sharockman is going to be on. Do you know Eddie? SV: I know Eddie; I played with Eddie two years, he’s a wonderful guy. You’ll enjoy him. WE: “Bozo,” I asked him if he minds being called Bozo. That was his nickname back then. Do you remember that? SV: Well, exactly because his nose has been broken and flattened so many times there’s a little resemblance to Bozo the clown. WE: He’s actually looking forward to doing this. SV: Ahh, he’s wonderful. He’s terrific. WE: You know who else I want to get on here with me: Mick Tingelhoff, Dave Osborn, Paul Krause, Wally Hilgenberf, Jim Marshall, Carl Eller. SV: Well, I can help you because the first four you mentioned it’s a home game for them. They live in South Lakeville, so that’s ten minutes away for those guys. All good guys, I think that’s what I really treasure is the fact that I really played with all guys I remain friends with today and are wonderful guys. I think that’s part of the reason for our success. I think we were talented athletes, maybe not the most talented, but I think the Vikings in those days really played as a team and enjoyed each other’s company and enjoyed the hard work you did side by side and the victories and the losses. There’s not a clinker among those guys. WE: And the best motto that ever came out of any sports I think…SV: Forty for Sixty. WE: Absolutely. I thought that was so cool and now they what, have fifty-five for ten? SV: [Laughing] Yes, well, if they want to play ten, it depends on how they feel that day. WE: Oh man, I’m going to come across a subject that I’ve always wanted to about, I’ve never heard it talked about on television or radio but I’ve seen articles in the paper, and that is today they say the NBA is millionaire black men playing for billionaire white men. And in the NFL, it’s a way out, they say, for those individuals that are economically deprived, becoming great athletes. And what do you think the percentage of the NFL black players compare to white players of today? SV: I would say sixty-five percent black, thirty-five percent white. WE: I think it’s more like eighty. SV: It could be, it’s…WE: You know, you’re probably right, excuse me. But you know when you watch the line up and they always show the offense and then the defense and all of that on both sides, it always seems like there are all blacks on some starters, one white. No more than four have I ever seen. SV: Yes, and they keep statistics on them, I’m sure the players association should have that. But, I think maybe I’m not up on my statistics but I’d say maybe seventy-five, twenty-five or something like that. WE: Now, what about that transition as you as a professional? You started in what year as a professional? SV: 1970. WE: Ok, 1970 through what year? SV: ’81. WE: 1981? So, you got your ten years in. SV: I got eleven years. WE: Ok, but I mean you got your ten for your…SV: Oh, yes. Well, actually the pension starts its four, it used to be five years, but now you get on the pension with four years. You can take it as early as forty-five and there are different kinds of…there’s almost like a cafeteria style; you can choose the way you want to take your pension you don’t have to at forty-five or you don’t have to take  it until you are sixty-five. They adjust the numbers accordingly. WE: And we’ll talk about that when we’re done here but it was during your career through the 1970’s that you saw a dramatic increase in black players becoming the more dominant and the black quarterbacks. The guy from Tampa Bay. SV: Doug Williams. WE: Doug Williams, the first quarterback. Boy, I remember that game. You were in Tampa and Doug Williams was the quarterback and I remember I took the sidelines that time rather than the press box in the last quarter. Boy, was that a ferocious game! You’re standing on the sidelines and see you guys hit each other. I’ll tell you who was on the team: Fred McNeill, number fifty-four, Fred is just a nice mellow guy; he’s an attorney now. SV: He’s a lawyer in L.A., yes. So is his brother Rod. WE: Anyhow, he nailed some guy who played a defensive back; he nailed some guy right where I was standing and when he got up he just looked at me and smiled and said, “Hi Wayne.” And the size! I always saw the guys in the locker room, socially, and the size of them in their uniforms. SV: In their pads, yes. They are pretty menacing. WE: Holy Moly! I go, “Wow! These guys are big!” You get hit, it hurts. But, you saw the transition and I mention Doug Williams because he was the first black quarterback. SV: Right. WE: And now, they’re probably forty, sixty on black quarterbacks? SV: Yes, again there are a lot more black quarterbacks I think. When I started there were none and now up at thirty, you know, a third. So, it’s changed. I mean, the whole game has changed. WE: Black coaches. SV: Oh absolutely, black coaches. And actually, through the players association they encouraged the hiring of black coaches, they almost insist that black… WE: Well, they have to interview them. SV: Yes, exactly because they have to be interviewed and I think it’s all still you want to put the best team on the field. You see now, NBA basketball, boy there used to be no foreign players; now, there are Russians and Spaniards. WE: Chinese. SV: Yes, Chinese, Yao Ming. It’s the same within hockey. When I was, I’m not a big hockey fan, there was Canadians and a few Americans then there were more Americans. Now, there are Russians and Swedes and Czechs. WE: And no blacks? Or one or two blacks? SV: Yes, there are blacks now. Also then you get in Major League Baseball, for years there were no foreign players and then the Latins and then all of a sudden you get a sudden influx of not just Japanese but Chinese coming in to play baseball. So, it’s an international and of course the world is shrinking as far as we can communicate much faster and some of these people want to play at the highest level so they come play in the United States. But, it’s all changed and I think it’s all good as long as you’re trying to put the best product possible on the field. Whoever’s best should play, there should be no boundaries or limits or quotas or anything like that. WE: Well, you know, as an observer, I would say that when you want a guy like Tony Dungy, you don’t think black or white. SV: No. WE: When you watch a guy like Dennis Green, you think black and white. Do you think there’s some prejudice with black coaches at all? SV: You know that’s a great question. I mean, Tony Dungy is a great friend of mine. WE: Can you get him to come on the show? SV: Oh I…and if he’s around he would be. They were trying to beg him to be the Gopher coach and he’d be wonderful but I mean he’s got a better gig there in Indianapolis and he’s still…looks like his hopes of getting a Super Bowl may be diminishing a little bit. But, Dennis Green, I did Dennis’ show for the whole stay he was in Minnesota. WE: What do you mean you did Dennis’ show? SV: I did Dennis’ radio show he would do before the games. When I was doing the games I would do the Dennis Green five minute before the game radio show. WE: He allowed you to do that? SV: Well, you know, Dennis played Iowa when I was at Wisconsin, in those days Dennis was good about letting early access to the team and all that. I didn’t know him any better from when I started doing the show until seven, eight, nine years later when I didn’t do the show and he was gone; he’s a tough guy to get to know and I think also he would bring on a lot of those problems he had himself. He could be very antagonistic, never with me but antagonistic with the press and get bent out of shape. I think, you talk about playing the race card, I think sometimes Dennis just to aggravate would do that from his end. He’s a guy that just was relieved of his duties up there in Arizona. That’s not going to be a warm and fuzzy guy no matter what color he is. WE: Well, he did get along with Larry Fitzgerald. SV: Ahh, senior. WE: And junior. So, I often wondered what players thought in that regards, if there was a reverse prejudice. Obviously there was prejudice at the beginning of the NFL and through the sixties perhaps and it started changing in the seventies. But you think about your teammates, your Super Bowl teammates, like Carl Eller and Jim Marshall on defense. SV: Alan Page. WE: Well yes, gee whiz I’m sorry. And Alan Page but other than that I can’t think of anybody on defense and now all cornerbacks are black. They are fast and swift. SV: Bobby Bryant, Eddie Sharockman. Well, we did have Earsell Mackbee. So, I think what’s interesting is that when I got done with my college career but when I was playing college football there still was a color barrier. They couldn’t, blacks could not play in the south. So the Big Ten whether it be Bobby Bell and Sandy Stephens and Carl Eller, all those players, who were great players, came from the south had to play in the north. Now, you see the power has shifted over the last years where the best football is being played in the southeast or southwest because they’re getting all the homegrown talent, you don’t have to come to the north to play football. It used to be the University of Florida; I had a buddy, in-fact I called him last night during the game, when he played there were no black players playing for the University of Florida in the sixties. Now, what great talent they have and I bet most of that roster comes from Florida. WE: Do you think that, that is because it’s a ticket out? Do you think it’s a social economic thing that black players dominate most sports teams? SV: Well, I think that it’s a smart way out of it. I would consider that one out of high school going to college is very expensive now-a-days; I think my scholarship to Wisconsin was worth about five thousand dollars a year, a package, and you only got four years in those days. So, it’s worth twenty grand over four years; now, I’m not sure what it is to get into Carleton or St.Olaf or even the University of Minnesota a year. WE: Thirty and more for Carleton, it’s even closer to forty. SV: Well, yes I’m sure. I mean these guys, anybody whether it’s black or white or Asian or whatever, getting a scholarship is a big deal. So, how do you get a scholarship? Well, unless you can play the viola or the violin you better think about being on the baseball team or the track team or the football team. There’s a lot of ways to get scholarships and boy that takes a lot of pressure off of mom and dad because you want to go to a school like Notre Dame or Michigan or Southern Cal., I bet that’s twenty-five, thirty grand a year. WE: Do you think the University of Minnesota since your association with…are you still doing Badger games? SV: No, I haven’t done those in probably ten years. WE: But your relationship with the athletic departments of the Big Ten, do you think that Minnesota will ever have any opportunity to have good ball players, excellent ball players, outstanding ball players want to come to the University of Minnesota? SV: It’s a little tougher; I’ll be honest with you that you go to the legacies and the Big Ten. Ohio State and Michigan just kind of reload every year because they can say, “We’ve got “X” amount of national championships, we produce so many All-Americans, you come here you’re going to play…,” you know, Ohio State and Michigan play before one hundred thousand people. If you’re a great athlete you want to go there. Wisconsin’s kind of turned the corner, they sell out and they make good teams; the rest of the Big Ten is kind of fighting over what’s left. I mean, Mason would say that why should he try to battle USC or Michigan or Florida, he’s not going to win those battles. But, I think he’d win enough of them and you get a couple of surprises so the bottom line is, yes I think it can be…I was talking to Jerry Burns, my old offense coordinator and former Viking head coach says, “This can be a good job, maybe not a great job because you’re coming up north, maybe the facilities are down a little bit. But, you get a couple guys, you get some in-state talent, which there’s not a ton of in-state talent but then you go out and comb the country side and try to get some guys. Maybe you can’t compete with the big guys but you get some of these guys that…and I’ve seen so many guys blossom from high school to college that you can be a winner her in both football and basketball.” Actually, they fired Glen Mason and he basically, I’ll bet, had at least a five hundred record where he kind of had those patsies at the start of the schedule, which all Big Ten teams seem to want to have now, but yes I think it’s possible. WE: Alright, you mentioned football talent and we have two young men from Northfield that are playing professional football. Mark Setterstrom is number sixty-six offensive lineman for the Saint Louis Rams. SV: Excellent player. He played with the Gophers. Yes, he started a bunch of games because of injuries to Adam Timmerman a former…he’s from South Dakota state but yes he did a great job. WE: And you know one of the things that I thought boy I’ve got myself some season tickets and they’re going to be really hot and it came to end and one of the football coaches, Mark Setterstrom’s high school football coach, was just a young kid, just turned forty I think. Anyhow, I told him, I said, “I’ve got tickets if you want to go to that game to see Mark play and here’s how much they are,” he kind of waved me off and says, “You know Wayne we’re kind of working on it.” Anyhow, everybody that I was trying to suggest they take these tickets because Mark Setterstrom, a local guy is going to be there went up and bought them for five, ten bucks. SV: Well, I was going to say, that’s a tip for all you people out there. A lot of times if you will hold on to your emotions about five minutes before the game right underneath that Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome sign, most of those games there’s some tickets available for a lot less than face value if you can wait until right around game time when those ticket scalpers and some of those late arrivals to the game want to get rid of a single or a pair of tickets. WE: Now, you were a rookie when you went to the Super Bowl? SV: No, I came in 1970 they went in January of ’70. I came from the ’69 season; I came right after the Super Bowl. WE: Ok, I’ve got to tell you the story about tickets if I may. Gosh, it’s so long ago, thirty-seven years ago. A former banker here in town and a guy that owned the most popular pizza place in town, friends of mine, I said, “Hey, I’ve credentials plus I’ve also got a couple of tickets,” and the game was in New Orleans so we had to stay in a rooming house set up, Roosevelt was full. So, anyhow somehow we were walking into the game and the closer you got to the stadium – by the way the tickets were fifteen dollars, fifteen dollars – and the closer we got to the stadium the cheaper they became and you could’ve had them for nothing at kick off at a Super Bowl! SV: The first Super Bowls the Packers played the Chiefs. I think they were like seven dollars and it was at the L.A. Coliseum and they were darn near giving away tickets, they wanted a big crowd there because it’s such a big place. My last Super Bowl I played against the Raiders in January of ’77 tickets were only forty dollars and there were plenty of tickets. WE: Rose Bowl. SV: Now, I think face value at least on Super Bowl tickets is five hundred. It might be six hundred or seven hundred by now and you can’t get those. WE: Well, let’s go Mike Tice them. SV: [Laughing]. WE: What do you think about that deal? SV: Well, realistically what I think about that, Mike is a very good friend of mine. He was, in the terms that we would use, he was the bag man for Denny Green doing those ticket transactions and that was going on before him, that wasn’t a one shot deal. I don’t think I’m letting anyone get some inside information; so, when he was assistant coach he kind of handled that, well when you get to be head coach, you don’t handle that, you have Dennis Ryan the equipment manager, you have Dean Dalton, who was assistant coach. Somebody handles that, that’s not what a head coach should do because I think it involved going to Chicago and making the switch. You know, suitcase full of money a lot of things sound pretty clandestine stuff but I think one of the disgruntled players kind of squealed on him. WE: Who was that? SV: Well, not out of school but I think it might have been Chris Hogan. WE: Oh yes, Chris Hogan. SV: And I don’t think I can confirm that but Mike shouldn’t have been doing that, it’s illegal. I mean it’s been done for years players have been selling their tickets to the Super Bowl. Each player gets two tickets to the Super Bowl and it used to be you just got them and in the locker room somebody would make arrangements and you sold them. Well, actually they didn’t get them during my time this was probably in the 1990’s and above. So, you got rid of them but then you made a couple bucks. Now, tickets are five hundred you can sell them for two grand. I mean if you get a couple it’s better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick but long story short Mike, as head coach, should not have been handling that transaction personally. WE: And how much money was Mike making at the time? SV: Well, probably nine hundred thousand. WE: Yes, I thought it was seven-fifty. SV: Well, maybe it was that because his last year I think he made nine hundred and he went last year down to being assistant head coach or line coach with the Jaguars and he was making a million, so. WE: You know what, he always lived humbly. SV: Oh he’s a very good guy. When he first came to town I would go to Mike to help me out with some player appearances and he’s a talker and a good guy and bigger than life at 6’8.” He’s very likeable and I thought by his last year was growing into to be a fair to mid-level head coach. I think he’ll get another…he’s rumored for that Gopher job the drawback is he doesn’t have a college degree, so he can’t technically be coach here with the Gophers. He would be a guy that loves this area and would probably be, because he’s a talker, a pretty good recruiter. WE: His wife had a business that they started, it was the cutest little name but I’m not going to remember it. So, do you know the story behind the pencil behind the ear? Was that like his signature? SV: Signature? I think so, yes. Near the end I think that might’ve backfired on him too. WE: Alright, we’re going to be back with Stu Voigt right after this important time out. [At this point there is a commercial break.] WE: We continue with our interview with Stu Voigt here on KYMN Radio. We’re talking about “My Life,” in his regard here. We haven’t gotten to your part two on here yet. You know, Stu, I might have to ask you to come back. I mean, we’re going off on these tangents. SV: [Laughing] I know, we’re having a ball. WE: Yes, I’m having a good time. Stu Voigt is my guest here on KYMN Radio. Stu Voigt graduated from the University of Wisconsin; he is in their hall of fame, a three sporter, the last one in America to letter in all three sports: baseball, track, and football. In addition to that he made the Minnesota Vikings squad and appeared in three of their four Super Bowls and then he went on into a broadcasting career and into banking and investments. And he got one time, and I’ve got the letter here, I showed him last time we were here, at one time was going to be my partner here at KYMN Radio and that fell through. We’re going to talk all about that stuff as we move along but I keep coming up with all these questions in regards to what is going on at the university, with the Minnesota Vikings, attitudes and platitudes, and all of that. I’m going to mention some names to you now and let’s see if you can remember these people. Grady Alderman. SV: Grady Alderman, number sixty-seven, the first along with Jim Marshall, Grady was co-captain of the Vikings for years and years. Undersized offensive left tackle but a real leader, a real kind of cerebral player. I think if you see the old book there but I bet he wasn’t much more than 6’3,” two hundred forty pounds. WE: 6’2,” two forty-five. SV: Ok, if that. Now-a-days and offensive left tackle would be one hundred pounds and five inches larger than that. And he manned the position, he’d go against guys like Deacon Jones and Merlin Olsen and held his own and now in-fact I got my start in broadcasting because he left. He was doing the Viking games on WCCO got the job as general manager of the Denver Broncos and went out there for a couple of years. I think Tarkenton helped mastermind that play, that plan. But he went out there and there was an opening. WE: He was an accountant? SV: Yes, he’s back into accounting which is great he’s got [unclear]. Some of these guys are probably seventy years old by now. WE: Hey, how about John Beasley? SV: John Beasley, the “Beas,” he lives down in northern Wisconsin; he’s the guy who took his position. Number eighty-seven, great guy, he was of course a character from southern California, he went to California Berkley. WE: Did you invest in his gold mine? SV: No, I didn’t and I heard…I was talking to Lurtsema and somebody that…Bob Berry, Lurtsema, Jim Marshall and a few others went in there and I heard it, according to Lurtsema, that it hit just lately and Lurtsema was talking to my colleague Dark Star in WCCO and they were just cooing that they thought they were in the money and I haven’t heard anything since. So, maybe they got a feeling that might’ve fallen through. WE: How’s Bill Brown doing? SV: Bill Brown had a tough go here lately. He lost his wife Kay of many, many years to…she suffered from diabetes and all of the complications that come from that. Then he had hip replacement that got infected, he had to be replaced. Billy is just the salt of the earth as you know. He’s around Viking games and he’s in the ring of honor as he should be, being an old fool back myself when I came to the Vikings in ’70 and there were Brown and Osborn. There couldn’t have been two guys’ better examples. You talk about real men; you talk about first Bill Brown and then probably in the same breath Dave Osborn. WE: Alright, one of the guys whose shoes I filled on one occasion Bobbie Bryant, one of my favorite Vikings. You know, I’ll tell you the story. SV: Skinny Minnie they called him because he’s not very big. I mean I’m sure he’s listed as maybe one eighty but he’s probably one sixty-five, one seventy. WE: He was listed at one seventy. SV: Ok, if that. He probably broke every bone in his body by the time he got done with his career. He had broken ankles and noses, broken shoulders. A cornerback and a great athlete, very good athlete and just anticipated things. He didn’t have the blazing speed but good quickness, good reactions, and I think he played cornerback for twelve, thirteen years which is no small feat. WE: And you know I don’t know when we talked when we were having lunch or if we did it on the air but I had him down for an all-star softball game against the Vikings and he had an extra pair of shoes and he let me wear them; and I always said I got to fill Bobbie Bryant’s shoes. He was a good guy. SV: Oh, real good guy. WE: I should mention Bill Cappleman, I don’t remember him; Vince Clements, I don’t remember him. SV: Oh, they were quarterbacks that didn’t last very long. WE: Ok. Fred Cox SV: Freddie Cox! Kicker, straight on kicker. You don’t see that anymore where a guy goes straight at the ball. Now, you have what’s called side winders or soccer style kickers but he kicked for fifteen years too. He was “Steady Freddie,” he would kick every extra point and any field goal within forty yards he’d usually nail. He’s a chiropractor up in Buffalo, Minnesota. WE: Yes, what about Gary Cuozzo, we mentioned earlier? SV: Orthodontist, lives on the east coast. He had some personal tragedy; I think his son died of a drug overdose or something. But he was a class act, I mean all the way. He was the quarterback. Actually, he split time with and kind of replaced Johnny, the great Johnny Unitas at Baltimore before he came to Minnesota. WE: Doug Davis, remember him? SV: Doug, offensive tackle at the University of Kentucky, I played with him for about two or three years. He gave way to Ron Yary, who just manned that position for about fifteen, sixteen years. WE: Was this guy the member of the Purple People Eaters, Paul Dixon? SV: The original. Paul Dixon is still around the cities and he’s getting up there in age but he was before Gary Larsen it was for a year or two Paul Dixon manning that defensive tackle spot. WE: Boy, there are a lot of names on here, I don’t remember the guys. Bobbie Grim. SV: Bobbie Grim, good wide-reciever; he was there early and then left and came back. I think he might’ve gone out there in the Tarkenton deal. He might’ve left and when Tarkenton came back in ’72. Undersized receiver from Oregon and he’s got a beer distributorship out there now, I think it’s Bend, Oregon and he’s a classy guy. WE: We’re talking with Stu Voigt, former Viking. Former three time pro Super Bowl player and an outstanding tight end, formerly a running back, fullback for the Madison, excuse me, Wisconsin Badgers. We’re just going over when he first was on the team from 1971’s season. Dale Hackbart, funny guy. SV: Dale Hackbart from my hometown Madison, Wisconsin. He was one of my idols growing up, he was a Rose Bowl quarterback for the Badgers and then turned into, actually he signed a baseball contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He played baseball and then came back to football and reinvented himself to be kind of a ferocious, nutty defensive back that ended up playing ten, twelve years in the NFL. WE: And briefly, do you remember Eddie Hackett? SV: No, he didn’t last very long. WE: Jim Hargrove? SV: Jim Hargrove was a linebacker that they called him “Red,” and he went down as you might imagine when the Vikings had some success they tapped Neil Armstrong, became coach of the Bears, Jack Patera became coach of the – these are all assistant coaches to Bud Grant – Jack Patera went out to Seattle and Bob Hollway went down to be the head coach of the St. Louis Cardinals at the time and took Hargrove and Mike McGill and Paul Dixon and Hackbart, took a bunch of the guys he could get from the Vikings and took them down there to St. Louis where he didn’t have much success. WE: But Hollway was a class act. SV: Oh yes. He died three or four years ago from cancer. Yes, classy guy. He was with the organization, kind of a lesser role a bunch of years. WE: John Henderson? SV: John Henderson, classy guy, number eighty out of Michigan, great friend of mine. We played tennis and racquet ball together in the past years and he just retired from Honeywell. John Henderson and [Unclear]. In fact John Henderson in the Super Bowl caught eight, nine passes for one hundred fifteen, twenty yards. He’s one of the real bright spots in that Super Bowl lost to Kansas City. WE: Wally Hilgenberg? SV: Partner, buddy. WE: Partner? SV: Partner in my bank, partner in all of my real estate deals. WE: I didn’t know that. SV: Oh yes. Wally and Bob Lee, we started buying real estate in the eighties. He’s a terrific guy, he’d be a great guy to have on the show. He lives there in South Lakeville on a nice spot where he’s got his own little lake there that he goes fishing every morning. He’s got kids and grandkids. Actually, his son Eric is a partner too. So, he’s been very successful in the bank related businesses. He sells plans to smaller banks around the state. WE: I think his wife had a sister that was a client in Laura Baker Services Association; I’m on their board of directors. I’m their golf chairman this year, Stu. SV: There you go and you should be, you’re a great golfer. WE: [Laughing]. SV: [Laughing] Inside joke. WE: Yes, we’re going to have to put together a bunch of guys to come on down and have some fun. SV: I love it, I love it. WE: You know what I was wondering, if I were to let’s say get Wally Hilgenberg, Paul Krause, and let’s say Mick Tingelhoff or Doug Sutherland; if I could get them to come on down and participate in our golf tournament, would you guys want to golf as a foursome or would you rather be with other people? SV: Well, you could rotate us around but I could guarantee that – well “Suths” lives up in Duluth, so it’s kind of an away game for him – but Tinglehoff and Hilgenberg and Krause all live in that South Lakeville area. Krause is an above average golfer, he’s very good and he spends most of his winters in Florida and of course his wife Pam got in that tragic car crash and things haven’t been the same for the family since. But, I think they’d love it and Wally and I play a lot of these charity golf deals together and have fun so yes that be something that would really be fun. WE: Ok, I’ll give them a call. Here’s a guy that I connected to and he was just one of the nicest Vikings I ever met ended up tragic, Karl Kassulke. SV: Oh, well, when I first came up in 1970 Kassulke and Hackbart both being Wisconsin guys. Kassulke was born in Milwaukee and actually started his career at Marquette, they gave up football, he went down to Drake. So, in the old days the deal was that guys with some Wisconsin ties would take a Wisconsin guy under his wing and Kassulke and Hackbart took me under their wing, so to speak. The good news was they were great guys, the bad news was sometimes, in those days, you had to stand on your chair and sing your college fight song and then you’d go down to the local establishments in Mankato during training camp and then have beer chugging and tequila drinking and these guys…the first two guys at every party were Kassulke and Hackbart and that was not a good thing for a young want-to-be tight end out of Madison, Wisconsin. We had a lot of fun and looking back I made it but those were two of the…you talk about what was fun in pro-football and I think my early years were the most fun because you had some legitimate characters who played football because…WE: This is what I want to do when you come back; obviously, we’ve got twenty minutes to go here. SV: Jeez, where’d the time go? WE: I know. I want to just focus from the time you joined the Vikings. SV: Sure. WE: So, right now we’re reminiscing. And for those of you who are just tuning in this is KYMN Radio, Northfield, Minnesota the home of cows, colleges, and contentment. St. Olaf and Carleton College and the Defeat of Jesse James Days celebration and the Wayne Eddy Affair on KYMN. Stu Voigt is my guest. Stu Voigt is an All-American from – well, I don’t know if you were an All-American but I’ll call you that – out of the University of Wisconsin who then joined the Minnesota Vikings and played with them for eleven years and three Super Bowls and went on to a broadcast career with WCCO and KSTP. He got his start on KYMN Radio way back when from his training camp in Mankato and also worked games for the University of Wisconsin. SV: Yes, that sounds good. WE: And we’re going down an old book that I’ve got, obviously you know I’m not popping these out of my head. I’m looking at various people, Kent Kramer, I remember him. He was your competitor wasn’t he? SV: Yes, in fact, when I came on the scene we all played together one year in 1970 and then by 1971 he went down and played a year or two with the Saints. Now, he’s in Dallas, Texas. He’s a good guy, it’s a little uncomfortable when you like guys but you realize, “Hey, there’s only two spots and I want one of them.” Beasley was there and Kent was the odd man out but has done well. He was involved with professional soccer for a while. I think when we had the Minnesota Kicks here he was involved with the team and the league and now is involved with sports promotion. I know he calls me about this time every year wondering if there’s any Super Bowl tickets floating around but Kent’s a good guy. WE: Yes, and he played for Minnesota of course. SV: Yes. WE: And then we mentioned Paul Krause. Gary Larsen? SV: Gary Larsen lives in the Seattle area, he was in the car dealership business and doing well, him and his wife Wendy. He’s another guy we call “Lars,” because he…if anybody looked like a Viking with that look and that cleft chin about 6’5” and about two fifty-five. When you’re a young rookie and you come in there and you see some of these guys, you run into Marshall and Eller and Larsen you go like, “Whoa, these guys look a little more mature and bigger and stronger than the guys in college.” Gary was very impressive, he of course was the original – well after Paul Dixon – he was kind of the…I think when you talk about the Purple People Eaters you talk about Gary Larsen. WE: And he went to Concordia here in Minnesota. SV: Yes. Well, he actually went to Concordia, I think that’s after he did a tour in the marines. He actually came to the Vikings late; he was in the Marine Corps also. WE: I bet he had been with the Rams too. SV: Yes. WE: How about Bob Lee a buddy of yours? SV: Good story on Bob Lee. Bob Lee is a great friend of mine, investor in a lot of projects and just got a call the other day his son Zach is following in Bob’s footsteps. Bob was mostly a back up but a starter down in Atlanta for a while; his son Zach just signed with Nebraska as a college football prospect and had a great junior college career at the same junior college Bob went to, San Francisco City College, where Bob, you talk about minutia, Bob was on the junior college team with OJ Simpson as the running back and Al Cowlings was the offensive lineman. And of course Cowlings and Simpson had some fame for some other things here in recent years. WE: Oh God, yes. Alright, how about Jim Lindsey? SV: Jim Lindsey ran for governor of Arkansas. He’s supposedly one of the bigger real estate developers and land owners in Arkansas. They’ve got a statue, he went to the University of Arkansas, they’ve got three statues out in front. They’ve got Jerry Jones, Jimmy Johnson, and Jim Lindsey. They all played football together at the University of Arkansas at that time and of course all gave a lot of money to the university and Frank Broyles was the coach. WE: He was called “Captain Crunch.” SV: Yes, he was one of the first special teams guys and late in his career became special teams’ captain. One of the first times when I first started special teams was when they didn’t pay the attention they do today; you just kind of get some guys out there and some guys kick off and some guys return it. I mean, now, you can really see that a lot of games are decided on special teams. WE: Going back two seasons, there was a guy on the Vikings that I always admired a great deal, a special teams player; I’m trying to remember his name. He just had just full of vim and vigor and leadership and devotion and hard work. He was a white guy and what’s his name? Do you know who I’m talking about? SV: No, this year it would’ve been that Farwell but I mean I’m trying to think. WE: Chris or something? SV: Oh, Chris Walsh? WE: Yes! I liked him. SV: Well he’s on there. He’s trying to hook on to coaching and Chris Walsh is another guy I loved it, he’s a pretty good wide receiver too. But, he was a special teams guy and would stick his nose in there and he again was a character. I think he ended up with a couple problems out there in Phoenix, where he did a little time in the…they’ve got that jail out there where they kind of work them when they’re in jail. WE: Oh, that sheriff that makes you wear pink underwear? Oh boy. SV: [Laughing] But now he’s out and I heard he was trying to hook on with an NFL team as a coach and he’d be a good one because boy he was…you talk about the best special teams guys over the years from playing and covering; Fred McNeill is one of the best, Joey Browner was probably…he was one of the best and Chris Walsh. WE: Hey, speaking about Joey Browner, I ran into him a couple of times. He was always an interesting guest and he married this gorgeous model. SV: Valeria. WE: Yes, he gave me a picture of her. Whatever happened? I know he was trying to hook up in broadcasting or business or something. He seemed to be kind of lost for a while. SV: Well he lives in Pierz. WE: Paris? SV: Pierz. WE: Piers, South Dakota? SV: No, in northern Minnesota he’s working for the casinos. Joey’s a fine guy and a great player and really, I think, whether he’s landed on his feet I think he might’ve bounced a little bit but the funny thing was when he had this super model Valeria, you say you’ve got a picture of her, he one day and I was around showed a picture of the super model to Jerry Burns and Jerry said something to the affect, “Well, so this is the Misses?” He’s got this eight by ten glamour shot and Jerry Burns had never seen a woman like that, you had to be there but Jerry Burns had a way of turning a phrase. WE: I can imagine. SV: But I don’t think…that was kind of a cross continent marriage that didn’t last long, a couple years. WE: Well, I hope he’s doing well. SV: Yes, good guy. He’s a wonderful guy and I don’t see him enough. WE: Ok, we’re going through the little book here and Dave Osborn of course. SV: Yes. WE: I always think of cutting wood when I think of Dave Osborn. SV: Well, he’s just a great friend him and his wife Bev. His kids are grown and he’s got grandkids. He’s an amateur pilot, so he likes to fly and he’s, like myself, he had a knee replaced. He retired from copy duplicating products where he worked forever and now he’s doing some landscaping out there in, he’s got a landscaping company out there in Lakeville, where there are a lot of new houses. He keeps busy as a hunter and a fisherman. WE: His auto dealership in Hastings? SV: Yes, well that’s long gone. So, he’s doing well. WE: I always called him Mr. Springboard because you know they’d hit him and he’d just would bounce right up and run back to the huddle. SV: Well and he did everything full speed, even at practice sometimes. You’d kind of go, “Ozzie, this is a half speed drill,” and he’d be running to the back of the offensive lineman. He could create some havoc even when we were practicing because he knew just one speed. WE: Speaking about Dave Osborn, you know we were talking about Wilf or Wif or whatever. SV: Zygi Wilf. WE: Zygi Wilf, who doesn’t really know much about football and then we’re talking about, we haven’t talked yet, but Red McCombs, who was an absentee owner and making money. But, you know who was the administration of the Minnesota Vikings they really kind of did diss Dave Osborn at his last year of the season. SV: Oh you mean when he ended up going to the Packers? WE: Yes. SV: Yes, that was unfortunate. That’s the business end of it, it’s a little distasteful. Talking to Dave he actually enjoyed his time with the Packers and that was he had kind of a detached retina and some things. So, it was time. Should they have kept him for another…either told him to retire or kept him with the Vikings, yes because he would’ve been a good back up. WE: You know this is back at the old Mets Stadium, I’ll never forget running into him there and he had on a Packer jacket. At the Viking game! Dave Osborn wearing a Packer jacket, it just wasn’t right, you know. SV: [Laughing] I’ll have to kid him about that. WE: Yes. Well, he was bitter. SV: Well, at the time that’s the thing with players whether it be myself or Dave or anybody, it’s tough to be at a stage when somebody’s telling you, “That’s all we need you for.” It’s pretty unceremonious. WE: Yes. They did that to Bobbie Bryant, they cut him on the last day of camp. They used him for fodder. SV: They let Alan Page go for a hundred bucks and he went down…WE: Because he wouldn’t gain weight. SV: Yes and by that time Bud and Alan had been getting sideways with each other, so. WE: Just quickly can you, Jerry Patton? SV: He just played; he was from Nebraska, played a year. A lot of these guys, you had the core of the Vikings in those days and they stayed together and you’re always looking for young backups. A lot of guys floated in and out. WE: Ted Provost? SV: My roommate at Ohio State, All-American, played with us just that one year and then went up to Canada and played a bunch and he’s in Ohio; I was in his wedding, good guy but you know. WE: You were in his wedding? SV: Yes. WE: Good for you. SV: If you couldn’t crack the line up you get about a year or two if you can’t make a move up the chart, they’re going to bring in somebody else. WE: Oscar Reed? SV: Oscar’s in the Twin Cities, great guy. “Give the seed to Oscar Reed and watch them bleed.” He was kind of in-between, you had the old guard Brown then Osborn then Oscar and then the new guard came in McClanahan and Foreman; so, Oscar ended up with six or seven years with the Vikings and maybe one year or two down in Atlanta. WE: How about Tim Sullivan? Do you remember him? From Iowa? SV: No, not at all. WE: Ok, how about Milt Sunde? SV: Milt Sunde. WE: The skinniest offensive lineman, I shouldn’t say that. SV: Milt was homegrown out of Bloomington, bulked himself up to about two fifty by he’d eat all these meals and drink this, I think it was called Metrocal, after practice to keep his weight up to be about two fifty at the most. Excellent offensive guard and then as you guessed today Milt weighs about one eighty-five. WE: Mick Tingelhoff the lightest center in the NFL? SV: He should be in the Hall of Fame. I mean the credentials; I’ve got buddies, my buddy Mike Webster is in the Hall of Fame, you look at Jim Otto, from Wausau, Wisconsin, great Raider, center Hall of Fame. Mick’s credentials other than not winning a Super Bowl are better than those guys and you know seventeen years like Marshall, never missed a game, he should be in the Hall of Fame. WE: Well, you know why they aren’t. SV: Well, because we didn’t win and because Sid’s probably the…WE: Sid Hartman, nobody likes Sid Hartman. SV: Well and he’s one of the voters and now-a-days and Mick’s now in the senior division which is tough to get in, you’ve got to, as my other roommate Ron Yary who’s in the Hall of Fame says, “You’ve got to mount a campaign. You don’t just say gee I’d like to be in the Hall of Fame.” You’ve got to campaign and call guys, send out – Ron had a brochure made up – and he sent it to all these guys because if Wayne Eddy’s on the committee and Wayne Eddy is thirty-three years old, Wayne hasn’t even seen Mick Tingelhoff play and they go like, “Mick Tingelhoff? What differs him from Dennis Swilley, from Kirk Lowdermilk?” WE: Boy, you’re mentioning some names here. SV: Yes. WE: But you know what, Jim Marshall his stats, of course they didn’t keep sacks did they? SV: Well, he’s got over one hundred sacks but another case I would say in that is probably Tingelhoff first but 1A [Here implies a ranking system] would be Marshall, record for games I think a punter from the Giants just beat that record, which is a punter, you know. WE: Sissy. SV: Most fumble recoveries in history, Iron Man, his leadership qualities; he was the best leader you could possibly have. WE: Most one-way touchdowns. SV: Yes. But what happened, we did not – four attempts at a Super Bowl, which is huge to be in it, four times is pretty cool – but you didn’t win, so to the victor goes all the spoils. So, all the Raiders and Dolphins and Steelers they are all in the Hall of Fame, but the Hall of Fame without Marshall and Tingelhoff just doesn’t seem right. WE: I remember a poster that was made of the, who was it, I think it might’ve been…did Mick go to the All Pro Bowl? SV: Yes. WE: Yes, of course he did. SV: Probably ten times in a row. WE: They had a poster of the starting Pro Bowlers and it was at a radio station in Tomah, Wisconsin and I remember the pride I had pointing out that that guy there is from the Vikings. SV: Yes, the great Mick Tingelhoff story, and every one of these guys has a story, but in those days defenses played a four-three. He would go against Nitschke, he would go against Butkus, he would go against Mike Lucci, Mike [Unclear] all these guys. That was his guy but the battles between him and Dick Butkus were epic because it looked menacing and it was menacing and a mean guy and it turned out as a broadcaster just funny and I got to be a friend with him when he did the Bears. Butkus was already coming to the line of scrimmage and the first thing he’d do, Mick would be over the ball, he would spit on Mick and he thought that was just funny and then he would curse him. And Mick as you know is a very mild mannered tough guy but I mean Butkus would do everything under the sun to get his goat; he’d kick him when he was down and they battled. I mean, Butkus is in the hall of fame but I always thought and I’d witness it that he would come up and the first thing he would do was clear his throat and just spit right on Mick. He just and his teammates, of course the Bears in those days were called the Mosters of the Midway, they would rather beat you up than win the game. If they won, eh that’s great but if they could get in a fight or foul you…they actually had pretty good teams and the games would always be pretty tight in the first half but they’d do something to screw it up in the second half, a personal foul or not enough guys on the field at one time or the quarterback at the time was a guy by the name of Bobby Douglass who could screw up a one car funeral. And so, so we’d win these games but you come out playing the Bears, it’s like man, one thing you had to do was be tough because these guys would rather foul you then make plays. WE: Was there any fear? SV: Oh there was. On my part, when I first started, the story I tell and used to say that or embellish a little bit, that on extra points Butkus and a guy named Doug Buffone would line up one either shoulder and they would curse and then they’d tell me what they were going to do to me and doubt my manhood all of this and then they’d run into you, they weren’t even trying to get the extra point but would try to really knock you around. I used to say that one grabbed me by one leg and the other guy grabbed me by the other leg and I heard Dick say to Doug, “Make a wish.” And that’s the way they were. We made the extra point which was the goal but if they want to knock your ass over a tea kettle, that’s what they did and they’d get up and laugh. WE: So, that’s your banquet story? SV: Yes, yes, yes. I mean it’s like the “Make a Wish,” story that was kind of true. WE: Halas was coach at the time? SV: Oh yes, George Halas and in those days another interesting thing was all the coaches, not Bud of course who just hates smoking, but in those days the coaches would have a coat and tie on, an overcoat, and a hat smoking a cigarette. I mean, Halas was the greatest for that. You’d think he was just going to go to a party or a funeral afterwards because all the coaches wore a suit, tie, top coat, and a hat and would smoke. WE: Ok, here’s one Jim Vellone, do you remember Jim? SV: He passed away; he passed away in probably 1972, 1973. It was the first time I had to experience the death of a good friend. He got, I want to say, leukemia or something else. He was a starting guard of the Super Bowl team, starting guard. He was a tough, tough guy; he missed one season and you kind of go, “Gee, what’s that illness?” and I think he probably died in ’73. WE: I’m sorry I didn’t remember that. SV: Yes. WE: Four minutes before eleven o’clock, Stu Voigt is my guest and who is Stu Voigt? Well, he’s a tight end out of Wisconsin, 6’1,” two hundred and twenty pounds, born on August 12th, 1948, and in 1971 he was in his second year, he was drafted tenth. SV: Tenth. WE: Overall? SV: No, no. The tenth round. WE: I was going to say, “Holy cow!” In 1970, active part time in ’70, most of the action was on special teams. College, he won three letters in football, two in baseball, and three in track at Wisconsin. Coach was John Coatta, who now is at Mankato state college, where the Vikings train. Personal, native of Madison, Wisconsin and lives there in off season. Single. Telephone number, 854-2534. Wayne interviewed him on October 7th, 1971. That’s an old book. SV: [Laughing] Don’t use it at home, don’t try that number. They didn’t even have the area code in those days. WE: Is that still your number? SV: No. WE: Alright, we’re almost to the end of this. Walker, Mike Walker, I don’t remember him. SV: No. WE: John Ward, we talked about him. SV: John Henry Ward, he came up the same year. He was first round draft choice. Of course that year the Vikings come to the Super Bowl only two guys made the team, John Ward and myself. WE: And he broke his leg. SV: Yes. WE: He was here for the Defeat of Jesse James Days; he played the role of the Swede that got killed in the crossfire in the James [unclear] raid. SV: Well, and you talk about one of the rougher more harrowing stories of pro-football, he broke his leg on a kick-off return and I was next to him. I heard that and it was a bad break and I heard. You know you heard the crack [at this point Stu imitates the sound of a breaking bone] or whatever the sound would be and then you heard the scream from John who was like a wrestler and a tough guy in college. Boy, you could just tell. Of a bunch of severe injuries that I saw that was the first one. You go, “Man...,” I mean. WE: What kind of an impact does that have on an individual who’s out there right next to that. Do you think what if that had happened to me? SV: You’ve got to. Yes, well, you think that for a minute but you realize that this is the way this game is played. Since then I’ve seen that Darryl Stingley was paralyzed and he was hit by Jack Tatum and George Atkinson. A lot of bad injuries, this struck close to home because John was a roommate at the time and a terrific guy and a big guy; you thought nobody could hurt him but boy just that leg got in a bad position. That basically spelled pretty much the end of his career because he could never get those legs back to where he had the movement he had before. WE: Well, I’ve got the remainders, we haven’t got time for it, but we would’ve talked about and maybe we’ll do them later: Lonnie Warwick, Gene Washington, and one of my favorite guys of all time Charlie West, Ed White, great guy, Roy Winston. SV: Loony Winston. WE: Yes, didn’t they used to tie a cow bell around his neck in practice so you could hear him coming because he didn’t let up? That was the deal. And then Ron Yary as we mentioned and then here are a couple that were brought in evidently after this book was made: Carl Winfrey, do you remember him? SV: I played college football with Chuck. WE: And Carl Winfrey? You called him Chuck? SV: Yes, he goes by Chucky. Yes, he’s now shot in an incident in Chicago, his home town. On the “L,” yes. WE: How about Godfrey Zaunbrecher? SV: Grew up with him, center from Louisiana State. I haven’t seen him. One year wonder. WE: Ok, this is fun but it’s over. SV: [Laughing] It was a great time Wayne, I really enjoyed going down memory lane. WE: Yes, well, we’re going to have to have you come back. SV: Sure. WE: And we’ve got to talk about…people want to know what it was like to go through the training camps and play. SV: I’d be glad to, you know, it’s fun. It’s a part of my life that when you get in the business world you go, “Gee.” But boy, you just look at that mug of yours and all of a sudden these memories come back because we shared a lot together and it’s fun to talk with a guy that was in the inner circle and knew the guys. None of us were perfect, none of us claim to be, but we had a lot of fun. WE: And I kept my mouth shut. Thanks, Stu Voigt has been my guest; we’ll be back with the Wayne Eddy Affair tomorrow on KYMN Northfield, Minnesota. [Transcribed 2015 by Rebecca Dau for the Northfield Historical Society]