Fillmore County Journal

"Where Fillmore County News Comes First"

Lions Grinde, Solum are All-SEC, Gerard also honored

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Spring Grove guards Tysen Grinde and Elijah Solum were named to the 2022 All-Southeast Conference Basketball Team while Lion forward Carson Gerard received Honorable Mention. Among the 16 All-SEC honorees, Solum and Grinde were among the eight First Team selections. SEC West Division champion Lyle/Pacelli led with three players named All-SEC, including Player of the Year … [Read more...]

Al Lochner named State Assistant Coach of the Year

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Alan Lochner of Spring Grove was named a 2022 Assistant Coach of the Year by the Minnesota Basketball Coaches Association. The veteran mentor was one of only 10 statewide to receive the honor and the only one coaching in a smaller Class A school. During his 26 seasons as an assistant at Spring Grove, the Lions have won 16 Southeast Conference Championships, four … [Read more...]

Peering at the Past If you had horses and a wagon and were willing to work…

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Part 3 of a series Everyone owned them; many bought and sold them. Some bred them, but few caught and “broke” them. But Knute Lee did it all and even sang to horses. He was an extraordinary horseman of Houston County during the first two decades of the 1900s. Previous generations of the Lee family had immigrated from Norway to Black Hammer Township, where the family name … [Read more...]

Peering at the Past Everybody, every business needed a horse

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Part two of a series on horses By the mid-1900s, owning a horse had become a diversion or hobby. But in the early decades of that century, owning horses was a necessity. Horses and horse-drawn vehicles were the mainstays of not only farm work but also travel and transportation. After pioneering with oxen in the 1850s - 70s, there was a half-century of horsepower. Horses were … [Read more...]

24-win Lion boys were elite defenders, ball-handlers

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Before the turn of the century, Wade Grinde – the young Spring Grove head boys basketball coach - said the most important statistic was defensive shooting percentage or in other words, how difficult did the Lion defense make it for the opponent to take good shots - and score. In Grinde’s 27 years at the helm, his Lions of 2022 posted the second-best season for both field goal … [Read more...]

Peering at the Past Horse, farmer save each other when lives were threatened

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Topper, Trigger, Champion, Silver and Buttermilk were all television and movie stars in the 1940s-50s. They were horses, arguably as famous as their human riders (Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, The Lone Ranger, Dale Evans). And there were the four-legged comic book heroes Thunder and Papoose transporting Red Ryder and Little Beaver. Before their exploits in media … [Read more...]

Spring Grove boys turned away by No. 1 Hayfield in section semi-final

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The Spring Grove boys could not catch up after state-ranked No. 1 Hayfield (28-2) separated with an 8-0 first-half scoring spurt and went on to win, 54-40, during a 2022 Section 1A semi-final at Rochester. The Lions (24-5), state-ranked No. 10, with the No. 4 section seed, handled the ball better than they had the previous game, but not as well as they had most of the season. … [Read more...]

Leahy is all-conference Lion, McHugh also honored

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Spring Grove senior Jordian Leahy was a First Team selection on the 2022 All-Southeast Conference Basketball Team as determined by the SEC coaches. Lion junior Addyson McHugh received Honorable Mention. It was a second SEC honor season for Leahy who received Honorable Mention in 2021. Both were also Academic All-Conference. Leahy, a 5-fo ot-6 senior guard, led Lion … [Read more...]

Peering at the Past Homeless boy escaped servitude prior to prominence in Minnesota

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Part two of a series. Before saving the homes of fellow southeast Minnesota settlers and attaining his adult acclaim (as described in part one of this series) – O. W Streeter had been a homeless boy. About two centuries before this writing, Oscar Willard Streeter was born about 1821 in Syracuse, N.Y. Prospects were promising as the youngest son of Dr. Barton Streeter. But the … [Read more...]