Oct. 8, 2007
by Mike Korcek, SID Emeritus
With all due respect to Willie Stargell and the 1979 World Series champion Pittsburgh Pirates or rhythm and blues singers Sister Sledge, the legendary Northern Illinois University 1950 and 1951 championship baseball teams might have put its claim on the "We Are Family" act almost three decades earlier.
To a man, the members of the back-to-back Huskie Interstate Intercollegiate Athletic Conference kingpins would maintain today that the greatest trophy from those magical two springs would be the family values nurtured by Hall of Fame head coach Ralph McKinzie and the same team loyalty that has spanned nearly 60 years.
"Sure, we were happy about it (IIAC titles)," said Northern Illinois 1950 team captain and first baseman Dick Giudici. "You know, I think we got a ring. I don't know where it is. I don't remember a (league championship) trophy, if there was one. The thing I remember is the friendships, the lifelong friendships. Unity. We had good unity. We hung together."
Catcher-outfielder and 1951 team captain Bill Eiserman echoed his Huskie teammate's thoughts. "Yes, after all these years, each one of us has a game or two that stands out in our memory," Eiserman said. "But the big thing that remains for all of us is how `Coach Mac' treated us like family. It's magical. The miracle of bringing us all together.
"There was a family attitude from the start," Eiserman added. "We all felt responsible for each other and we still do to this day. It was a love of the game for all of us and magic that brought us together. `Coach Mac' brought us into this family circle."
With his personal baseball scrapbook and vintage Northern Illinois diamond memorabilia, Eiserman still treasures a rather unpresumptuous wooden Huskie dog cutout made by a jigsaw and inscribed with the word "CHAMPS" thanks to personal efforts by McKinzie and his wife, Betty. "Yes," Eiserman said with much Cardinal and Black pride, "I still have it."
"Family," said Northern Illinois southpaw pitcher Gene "Dad" Davis, "that's the perfect designation for us."
And it has been that way for decades. Long-time NIU observers---such as the late Hall of Fame sports information director Bud Nangle---knew of no more loyal Huskie team group ever. Since 1970, the 1950 and 1951 baseball teams have hosted an annual summer reunion---visiting sites such as Chicago, Denver, and San Diego. When Northern Illinois resurrected its baseball program in 1991, these alums proudly and diplomatically pushed for the school to name its baseball facility after their beloved coach. Ralph McKinzie Field became a reality in May, 1993.
This Huskie family could also play the game. In those years, Northern Illinois baseball finished 16-8 (1950) and 11-6 (1951). The 1950 IIAC crown marked the program's first conference baseball title since 1945. McKinzie's program led the league with six All-IIAC selections in 1950 and added the loop Most Valuable Player (Jake Stap) and five All-IIAC picks in 1950. These squads ultimately produced six NIU Athletics Hall of Famers---including McKinzie, a charter induction class member in 1978, plus Sam Bedrosian (2003), Fran Cahill (1984 & 1991), son Jim McKinzie (1991 & 1994), Stap (1998), and athletics trainer Al Kranz (1986, 1989, 1991).
Back in the day, the press clippings read like Stargell's in Pittsburgh. "Congratulations to Ralph McKinzie and his baseball talent on annexing the IIAC crown," wrote sports columnist Woody Hasemann in The Northern Illinois student newspaper in 1950. "This honor is well-deserved, for the conference is perhaps strongest in this sport than in any other. They play and defeat such outstanding squads as the University of Chicago, which can hold its own with Big 10 (Conference) schools, and Bradley, which is the Missouri Valley (Conference) champion."
Obviously, in this post-World War II / GI Bill era, many of the student-athletes were older, more mature. But the low-key, father-figure head coach McKinizie was the key to the Huskie success. Even though "Coach Mac" passed away at age 96 in 1990, his spirit lived on through his many pupils.
"With `Coach Mac' you were part of a big family," Eiserman said in 1993 prior to the dedication of Ralph McKinzie Field on the Northern Illinois campus. "He taught you the game, taught you how to live, taught you how to appreciate the game, and taught you to appreciate life. Here's a man who dedicated his whole life to young people and athletics. He was a role model."
When transfer student Stap needed a place to stay, McKinzie put his player up temporarily at his home on Normal Road---opposite Williston Hall where the Holmes Student Center is located now. Other Northern Illinois players often stopped by. "This is 1951 and television is pretty new," recalled the late Cahill in 1993. "I don't recall how we got in the house, maybe through Jimmy (McKinzie). But the day Bobby Thomson hit the home run to beat the Dodgers, we're watching and `Mac" comes back and says: `What the heck are you guys doing here---why aren't you in class?"
Ironically, at least 10 of the 1950 / 1951 baseball Huskies went into education after graduation.
On the field, Northern Illinois taught a few lessons, too. Wearing spiffy new uniforms, the 1950 Huskies were deep in pitching with Jack Brumm, Frank Marino, Cahill, Davis, and Stap. After a 4-2 start on its spring trip, Northern Illinois opened its IIAC schedule at Prayther Field on the north side of DeKalb in a doubleheader against always powerful Southern Illinois---then known as the "Maroons." Both Brumm and Giudici would play minor-league ball in the Chicago White Sox system.
The "MacMen" demonstrated title-caliber talent and heart in sweeping SIU, 12-11, and 3-2. In the opener, the hosts trailed Southern, 11-1, after five and a half innings. One frame, the gutty Huskies scored three times without getting the ball out of the infield. Eventually, Giudici's two-run triple and outfielder Bob Vidimos' single tied things at 11. In the 12th, second baseman Ray "Scooter" Meath doubled to push outfielder Grant Cummings home with the winning run. DeKalb native Davis---the only left-handed pitcher on the NIU roster---limited Southern to only three hits in the five-inning nightcap.
Northern Illinois would post a seven-game winning streak and finish with a 6-2 IIAC mark (ahead of second-place SIU's 4-3 loop record). Highlighting the league results that spring were the memorable 4-1 and 10-0 wins over arch-rival Illinois State as Brumm won both outings. At Normal and a pro-ISU crowd estimated at 4,000 spectators, Brumm pitched his "finest game of the season"---limiting the Redbirds to one run and two hits, plus fanning 15. The visitors never trailed as Bob Carlson singled and scored on Giudici's two-bagger for a 1-0 first-inning lead.
Northern Illinois would clinch the IIAC crown at Prather Field on Brumm's second two-hit mound performance in a week---a 10-0 whitewish against ISU in which the winning pitcher also went 2-of-3 at the plate. "Mac's Nine Undisputed Champs" read the three-column headline in the student newspaper.
Earning First-Team All-IIAC status in 1950 were Brumm, catcher Eiserman, Vidimos, and Meath. Davis and Carlson made Second-Team All-IIAC. Five Huskies batted .300 or better. Reserve outfielder Larry Leon topped the locals with a .364 average. Eiserman led the regulars with a .348 overall average (.462 in IIAC play) and won team MVP honors. Meath finished one point behind at .345 in all games and a "lofty" .500 in the league. Third baseman Carlson followed at .308 and led Northern Illinois in at-bats (104) and hits (32). Somehow Giudici missed the All-IIAC parade despite a .303 average, a team-leading 24 RBIs, and nine extra base hits. "Dick should've made all-league," said Meath. "His play at first base was inspirational to all of us." Vidimos (.277) banged out 11 extra-base hits and outfielder John Bednarcik belted an NIU-best four home runs among his 10 extra-base safeties.
With eight lettermen returning in 1951, the McKinzie "magic" worked again as the Huskies retained the IIAC championship with an 11-6 overall record and 7-3 in the league. After dropping its first two games on the spring trip, Northern Illinois produced another seven-game winning string, beat Mississippi State (2-1), and started 3-0 in the IIAC. The Huskies opened defense of their league title by literally overpowering Eastern Illinois in a Prather Field twinbill, 9-4 and 12-3, behind a combined 22 hits and seven home runs. Writer Jack Rumsa called it the HHC---Huskie Homer Club.
That spring the league expanded by two schools with the addition of Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan and Northern Illinois ruled in another close pennant race over WIU (4-2), SIU (7-4), and EIU (6-4). In the final IIAC weekend, McKinzie's Huskies beat CMU twice, 6-2 and 7-5, while last-place EMU helped by giving Eastern Illinois its fourth league loss, 7-4 in 11 innings.
Named the IIAC and team MVP, Stap---nicknamed the "Kalamazoo Kid"--- won the Central Michigan opener and wound up 5-0 with 36 strikeouts and a 2.19 ERA in a team-best 57 1/3 innings for the year. Cahill, Eiserman, and Stap received First-Team All-IIAC honors with newcomer Bedrosian and Meath on Second-Team All-IIAC. Three Huskies recorded three .300 or better averages---led by Eiserman at .355 overall (.359 in the IIAC), Cahill (.317 and a team-high 14 RBIs), and Leon (.312). On the mound, Bernie McCole went 3-1 with a 2.65 ERA and Marino wound up 2-2 with a 2.79 ERA.
Though many seasons have passed in the duration, the Cardinal and Black memories are many.
"One of my favorite memories is picking up `Coach Mac' at Still Gym and driving over to Prather Field to work on the field and drag it. Along the way, he'd light up his pipe," recalled Eiserman. "Another time, Gene Davis was celebrating the birth of his twin girls (Jennifer Lynn and Susan Jo)---that's why we called him `Dad.'" Added Davis: "It was 1950 and I was passing out cigars to my teammates in Still Gym, `Mac' comes by and says `Cigars! I don't want you guys smoking cigars.' Offered Giudici: "The entire team had so much respect for `Coach Mac' that we didn't want to smoke in front of him."
Prather Field---a former softball facility with a 260-foot wooden fence enclosing the outfield---elicited more memories. In 1948, Northern Illinois abandoned its idyllic baseball diamond on east campus near Glidden Field---the home of Huskie football, plus track and field. "It was a jewel," remembered Eiserman. "The (Kishwaukee) river ran behind the right field fence. You hit a home run, it went into the water. There was a lot of problems in the spring with flooding. Years before (Hall of Famer) Dick Williams would be playing baseball and in-between innings would go over to the track and throw the javelin. What a great athlete."
Being a softball diamond, the Prather infield needed some renovations for 1948. "The infield was all flat," Brumm said. "So I volunteered and told `Mac' that I would stay in town instead of making a road trip and build a mound. There was a big pile of dirt nearby and a wheel barrow. Heck, I didn't really know anything about building a mound. Took me all day and the next day when I pitched I didn't last two innings. I was exhausted," Brumm added with a laugh.
The spring trips and the annual Northern Illinois baseball excursion down south brought more memories.
"There wasn't a team bus back then so we would travel down south in private cars," said Giudici. "We'd take three or four cars. I had a car. For me, it was super. I got paid seven cents a mile and paid my tuiton---$25 for the quarter. What a deal. I was rich. Someplace down south, we were in a hotel. There was a rope tied to the radiator by a window. That was the fire escape."
In the end, Brumm summarized the success of the 1950 and 1951 Northern Illinois baseball squads the best.
`Coach Mac" indicated that we were family first and a team second. We worked as a family. Fifty-seven years later, we still are a family. That's the reason we were successful. We played together," Brumm said. "I played three years in the minor leagues and it was different. Everybody played for themselves. We're still together."
Editor's Note: The 1950 and 1951 Northern Illinois University baseball teams will be inducted into the NIU Athletics Hall of Fame Friday (Oct. 12) in ceremonies held at the Duke Ellington Ballroom in the Holmes Student Center. In addition, four individuals will be enshrined into the NIU Athletics Hall of Fame---Rodney Davis (basketball in 1984-88), Jerry Ippoliti (coach, administrator, and commissioner in 1969-75, 1979-99), Sue Kause (softball in 1984-88), and Mike Terna (football in 1977-80). To RSVP for the induction dinner, please contact Tara Hefter in NIU Athletics Development at (815) 753-5510.
