Think back to the year 1960 and how much change was coming at us here in Minnesota. And, most certainly in our community of Morris.
It was so far-reaching. Is anything relatable today?
Certainly change comes at us today as in politics. Middle-age people remember a time when it was assumed that presidential hopefuls were fundamentally good people. We might reject them completely if we were to learn of any character defects. Ronald Reagan a divorcee? That was a touchy subject. JFK attracted a fair amount of suspicion for being a Catholic! Would the Vatican exercise undue influence? Such was the talk.
We learned of Richard Nixon's defects with time. But in the end he respected the rule of law, accepted his fate. He still waved his "V" for victory sign when boarding a helicopter at the end. Still, there was an assumption about the basic decorum around national politics. Nixon was made to pay a price, albeit with his "pardon" from Gerald Ford.
The "Q" word
You want to see the definition of the word "quaint?" You need only consider the presidential debates of 1976 with Ford and Carter. Total decorum. Disagreements but with no great hostility. Ford was a gentleman in defeat. Holy cow, quaint.
In 1960 JFK of the Catholic faith overcame that possible burden to defeat Nixon. Nixon had his suspicions about the election. He vented a little. Then we all moved on, because, this is America. Nothing like in the year 2023. And will the excrement hit the fan at some point, with all the dysfunction that we are allowing, countenancing? We seem hardly aware of the immense abyss we have fallen into.
Even with the scary revelations exposed right in front of us, we may select the "orange man" president again. We in Western Minnesota are hopeless about this. We have fallen in line with the Dakotas.
What theory to present? We have become embittered by "globalism," is that it? "The coasts" have reaped the benefits of globalism? While small towns have gotten boarded up across the Midwest? So, we need a despotic leader to lead us out of this?
Well in 1960, you might say we still had Norman Rockwell's America. Minnesotans had to live without big league sports teams before 1961. Isn't that hard to conceptualize? I gather that the U of M football team was our only real showcase for big-time sports. People my age have a faint recollection of when the Gophers with the likes of Sandy Stephens were truly big-time from that era. They fell several rungs after that.
Meanwhile my goodness, we got a full dose of major league sports entertainment! Twins and Vikings, both as newborn babies as it were. Well, the Twins were not a totally new franchise. Yes, we could have been assigned an "expansion" baseball franchise. It was definitely a possibility and hardly an appealing one. In those days expansion teams could be extremely bad news with their performance. Pro sports has seemed to lighten up in more recent times.
I think there was a fear that if Minnesota had gotten an expansion team, the people would have abandoned their support. Too much losing. Not that winning came easily for our team in the seminal year of 1961. I was six years old.
At the "micro" level for here in Morris, what drama: the School of Agriculture was phasing out. What on Earth was going to happen? Destiny smiled on us: the U of M with its considerable assets was branching out to this outpost on the prairie. Would the U make such a commitment now in the year 2023? Well I might suggest "h--l no." But it's here and the campus is fully developed, so it certainly will not be abandoned now. We might sense that the place is "in flux." It's hard to say what the true long-term prospects are.
Some smart people are going to have to weave some persuasive arguments with the state to keep UMM in a viable position. Let's do this with fingers crossed.
Bereft, yes
So before the fall of 1960, we in Morris were looking at a situation with no Twins, no Vikings and no U of M-Morris. Can you imagine it?
Our new baseball team was the former Washington Senators of the Griffith family. A rapidly-fading institution: the family-owned big league baseball team. Many people lamented the team having to leave the nation's capital. They lamented how the team started improving its won-lost fortunes too late. There were encouraging signs with the 1960 season, although fifth place hardly seems scintillating. By the standards of the franchise then, fifth was encouraging, it really was. But the strides were not happening in time for making the argument to stay in D.C.
The team would leave and be replaced by a true "expansion" franchise, the "new" Washington Senators.
The 1960 Senators of the Griffith family had a W/L of 73-81, good for fifth place in the American League. Their manager was Harry "Cookie" Lavagetto who would move here with the team. He would not fare well in Minnesota. Welcomed as a celebrity at the start, the promise faded and he and the Twins paid their dues in '61.
Minnesotans did not sense all that much futility. If they had, the bottom might have fallen out with enthusiasm and attendance. Fans saw more than a kernel or two of potential. They were right!
All this excitement was augmented by the new Minnesota Vikings with of course Fran Tarkenton and Norm Van Brocklin, the latter the coach who did not stay on good terms with the QB. There will always be drama with personnel.
It wasn't a dream
So just imagine: after the barren landscape with no pro teams and with our School of Ag in Morris biting the dust, look at the embarrassment of riches that blessed us! My father took his UMM men's chorus to two World's Fairs. The Twins surged to second place in the A.L. for 1962 with first baseman Vic Power. But the superb accomplishment of that team would be eclipsed in 1965: the pennant!
East coast provincialism
The great writer for The New Yorker, Roger Angell, wasn't sure how to present the Minnesota story of 1965. Condescending, yes. He felt he had to constantly remind us that our team was the "old Washington Senators." His frame of reference, you might say.
But what exciting times in the early '60s from our position here in Morris. Today we are totally in MAGA country. I am greatly concerned. We should just count our blessings.
Addendum: My father Ralph directed the first-ever UMM music concert at the old armory in 1960. That building was where the public library is today. The concert was for the Stevens County 4-H. What better way to tie together the U of M and community! My father was never a stuffed shirt academician type. He had grown up in rural Glenwood. He developed his big city "creds" in Minneapolis with the U, later to be music instructor at the U of M-St. Paul School of Agriculture. I was a preschool tyke then. Dad really became a big city guy over a considerable stretch of his life. He directed the Apollo Male Chorus of Minneapolis. You should see his scrapbook.
But he adapted back here totally!
Addendum No. 2: Angell rather notoriously described Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington as an "airy cyclotron!" Somehow when you read that, you never forget it.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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