Menominee High School Athletic Hall of Fame welcomes Class of 2024

MENOMINEE — A sold-out crowd of 250 made their way to the Pullman House for the sixth-annual Menominee High School Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday.

Over 100 years of rich history and tradition was celebrated as the Menominee High School Athletic Hall of Fame welcomed 13 new members into its ranks.

From football to basketball, track and field to cross country, nearly every sport was represented by one of the greatest student athletes to ever compete as a Menominee Maroon.

Every inductee spoke of gratitude and thankfulness to their families, friends, coaches and teammates for helping guide them down the path of success that ultimately culminated in receiving their Hall of Fame plaques on Saturday.

However, each inductee also spoke of what made them tick personally, and of what Menominee Maroon athletics means to them.

1929 Football TeamMenominee is the crucible of football in the Upper Peninsula, and one of the earliest teams to help forge that legacy was the 1929 edition of the Maroons.

Dubbed the “Point-a-Minute” Maroons due to the propensity for scoring, Menominee’s 1929 gridiron gang went undefeated at 8-0 and were never truly challenged throughout the year, outscoring the opposition by 404-12 margin.

“It’s my honor to be here tonight to accept this award for the Menominee High School 1929 ‘Point-a-Minute’ team,” Sally Kudlicki said. “They were a tough bunch. Remember, back in the day, they did not have the protective gear that they have today.”

Menominee averaged 50.8 points per game, pitched six defensive shutouts and obliterated Kingsford 150-0, a score that ranks third all-time in the state of Michigan.

“I’m glad that, back in 1979, I was able to attend the Menominee football game where they honored the 1929 team for 50 years,” Kudlicki said. “There were several teammates that attended the game back then, and the smiles on their faces were priceless,” she recalled. “Can you imagine, if they were here tonight, what smiles we would see? It would be the frosting on the cake.”

The 1929 Menominee Maroons were: Gilbert Stewart, Curt Smith, Eddie Enders (Captain), Jim Peters, Robert Rundquist, George Ockstadt, Bill Wanek, Cliff “Swede” Nyberg, Francis Tallent, Elmer Whitton, Jack Kreuz, Joseph Janquart, John Coman, Ray Delsipee, Cork Rauscher, George Staquet, Francis DeMarsh, Gerald Anderle, Virgil Maloney, Harold Janson, Ed Jubin, John Grun, Robert Tilley, Fred LaBrun, Harold Smith, DeForest Colburn, Fritz Cairns and Ray Roehl.

Len Umnus (1920 MHS graduate)Len Umnus was a man who preferred to go about his work quietly, which would no doubt be at odds with the nature of the Hall of Fame ceremony.

“Thank you very much for honoring my grandpa with this award. He would have absolutely hated this,” Susan Umnus Talo said to uproarious laughter. “He was a very humble guy that did not like a lot of attention. He was just doing what the Lord called him to do.”

It would indeed appear that the hand of God guided Umnus to a career in coaching after a fruitful career playing football for both Menominee and the University of Illinois, where he was a teammate of Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Red Grange.

Umnus spent 39 years coaching football, basketball, baseball, tennis and wrestling, often without assistance, at the tiny Northwestern College, a school for ministers. He compiled a record of 135-64-9 in football and won 11 conference titles.

“He did not accept losing. When guys thought he was being tough on them, he’d say ‘If you think it’s tough on this field gentlemen, just wait until you get out into the mission field and start dealing with God’s work,’” Umnus’s grandson, Dan said. “What he loved to do was go and watch his players preach.”

Benjamin Fernstrum (1938 MHS graduate)

Benjamin and William Fernstrum rewrote the track and field record book during their time at Menominee High School, so it was fitting that the brothers were inducted together.

“My father was a very gentle, kind and generous person,” Benjamin’s daughter, Joyce Fernstrum Peanosky, said. “His nickname was ‘Gentle Ben,’ and he would be thrilled and humbled by this honor.”

Running was a fixture in Ben’s life, from his days of setting the MHS school record in the 200-yard dash, all the way up to his later life.

“One month shy of his 80th birthday, my father, my sister, Judy, and I took a trip and stopped off at the Cut River Bridge. We decided to walk down the 231 stairs to view Lake Michigan,” Peanosky said. “Well, we viewed Lake Michigan and on the way back up, we somehow lost track of our father. I was the last one up and my sister was second. When we got to the top, he asked us ‘What took you so long?’ Guess what? He ran up the stairs.”

William ‘Bill’ Fernstrum (1938 MHS graduate)

William was certainly no slouch either.

“He would have been more than honored. He waited 100 years and five months for this award,” William’s daughter, Sheri Fernstrum Zorn, said.

The elder Fernstrum set the U.P. record in the 440-yard dash and was part of the U.P. record-setting one-mile relay team in 1938.

“Running was in the family,” Zorn said. “Dad ran everywhere. I can remember being six or seven years old, and our grandparents lived maybe about 1,000 feet down the road from us, and he would literally run to their driveway while I was trying to keep up, and I’d be left in the dust.”

Dr. Robert ‘Bob’ Theuerkauf (1970 MHS graduate)

Theuerkauf is a name that is synonymous with Menominee, and Dr. Robert Theuerkauf was one of the earliest in a long line of standouts to don the maroon and white.

A two-time all-conference and All-U.P. selection in football, Theuerkauf went on to play at Michigan State University, where he graduated with a doctor of veterinary medicine degree in 1977.

He opened a veterinary hospital in Macomb County, Michigan, and continues to represent the U.P. and Menominee as a yooper living under the Mackinac Bridge.

“When I talk about Menominee, people in Lower Michigan always listen. They have such respect for us down there,” Theuerkauf said. “The thing is, they’re afraid to play us down there. When we go down there, they know that we’re coming with guns ablazin’ and that we’re not going to back down.”

David Haglund (1969 MHS graduate)

Dave Haglund won a state title at Menominee in 1967 and scored the first-ever points for the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay men’s basketball team, but the All-Twin-City First Team point guard still shies away from the limelight

“I’d like to thank my son, Taylor, for giving me a little pep talk about coming up here because coming here really wasn’t my thing, but he said ‘Dad, you’re a Maroon, and now you’re going to be a Maroon forever,’’’ Haglund said.

Haglund was a 65-game starter for the Menominee basketball team and set three Great Northern Conference records during his three-year varsity career. He collected 286 assists during that time.

“I had a friend that I played a lot of ball with, and he said that my greatest asset was that I was an unselfish teammate and player. I never really realized it, because all I loved to do was play ball,” Haglund said.

Dr. Burnell Stripling

Dr. Burnell Stripling moved to the Menominee area in the late 1960s and never left, becoming a fixture on the sideline of every Maroon football game for nearly three decades.

“He always loved football, but he wasn’t allowed to play it. So, upon moving up to this community, he decided that he was going to be a Green Bay Packers fan,” Stripling’s son, Wesley, said. “Well, in the late 1960s and early 70s, they were pretty lousy, so he turned his attention to Menominee football and he never left.”

Dr. Stripling also served as a local physician for over 30 years and was Menominee football coach Ken Hofer’s personal doctor for several years.

“He loved his Menominee football and he had the best seats in the house,” Wesley said. “I can remember the falls when I was in college, and even after college, because I’d call home every few weeks and mom would take care of the business end of the call while dad filled me in how Menominee was doing, and I’m telling you that there was great joy in his voice.”

Michael Photenhauer (1980 MHS graduate)

Mike Photenhauer may not be as active as he once was during his heyday as one of the premier runners to come out of Menominee High School, but the mindset that turned him into a champion remains to this day.

“I don’t really have much to say on athletics because I don’t really participate in running that much anymore,” he said. “I am very competitive, and you can never take that away. As an athlete, you need to be dedicated and have a type-A personality sometimes.”

Photenhauer was a three-time U.P. champion in cross country, set the U.P. Class A-B records in the mile, two-mile and 1,600-meter runs and was the course record holder for every course that he competed in as a senior in 1979.

“Anyone who succeeds in life has to have a competitive drive,” Photenhauer said. “I’ve always had that since I was a young boy, I doubt it will ever stop, and I don’t have much more to say.”

Pete Pericolosi

“I just love basketball. I love the competition, but most of all, I loved working with the kids. It wasn’t all easy, but I would do it all again in a heartbeat.”

Pete Pericolosi’s name is as ubiquitous with basketball at Menominee as one person can be.

Pericolosi spent 30 years at the helm of the Menominee boys basketball team and helped build the Maroons into a consistent contender.

His Maroon squads won 11 Great Northern Conference titles, six district championships and one Class A-B regional crown. Menominee was named the U.P. Class A-B-C Team of the Year 13 times under Pericolosi’s watch.

“I coached from when I was 19 years old up until I retired. To be able to hang around for that many years, and to have 30 years as the varsity coach here at Menominee, you needed to have a lot of help from everyone around you,” he said. ”It’s easy to be a starter, or a sixth man or seventh man, but it’s not easy being someone who didn’t get into the game all the time. I was blessed to have a lot of people that played hard for me, and I thank every single one of my players for that.”

Pericolosi, who was named the U.P. Class A-B-C Coach of the Year twice, reflected on how difficult it could be coaching basketball in a football-mad town like Menominee.

“I always had to follow a Ken Hofer season, and how do you do that? You just don’t,” Pericolosi said. “After a loss, I wouldn’t sleep very much and the running joke in the teacher’s lounge was ‘Don’t worry Pete. There’s three sports that you need to worry about: freshmen football, JV football and varsity football.’”

Gary Stewart (1988 MHS graduate)

Gary Stewart may be known for his exploits in basketball and football, but Menominee’s career leader in assists recalled the culture shock he felt as a young boy after moving to the United States from Scotland.

“As a young kid born in Scotland and moving to the United States, all that my brother, Brian, and I knew was football, but it was the European version of football,” he said. “We had a lot of learning to do, and we quickly learned that ‘soccer,’ as the Americans called it, was not high on the Menominee sports totem pole.”

Stewart fought back tears as he credited his mother for providing he and his brother, Brian, with a support system during their hardscrabble upbringing.

“I said I wasn’t going to get emotional, but thank you Mom. We didn’t have it easy growing up, but there was always food on the table and I always had a clean uniform,” Stewart said. “It was pretty tough, coming from a single household, just having my mom there, but she was my rock. She was my brother’s rock. She was always there for me. She loved us, supported us and without you Mom, I would not be here today.”

Wade Hodge (1992 MHS graduate)

“I never imagined that I’d be up here for flinging myself into the air with a stick.”

Wade Hodge’s exploits in the pole vault were enough to make anyone believe that a man could fly.

The 1992 graduate still records the MHS school record in the event and established the U.P. record with a jump of 14 feet in 1992.

“I fell in love with pole vaulting from a young age, mostly because of my dad, Jim Hodge. He was a U.P. champion pole vaulter from Wakefield, and I idolized my dad, and because of that, I decided that I wanted to be a pole vaulter as well,” Hodge said.

Hodge was also a standout in the classroom, graduating with a 4.0. grade point average from both Menominee High School and Michigan Tech University.

“I was not the most naturally gifted or talented athlete, and for that matter, student, out there,” Hodge said. “I made up for it with a lot of grit and hard work. I couldn’t be any prouder to be a Menominee Maroon.”

Jason Boucher (1998 MHS graduate)

Jason Boucher’s nickname growing up was “Peanut,” but the diminutive point guard for Menominee played like a giant among men.

Boucher was the GNC Defensive player of the Year twice, and All-U.P. Dream Team selection and earned All-State honors before accepting a full scholarship to Grand Valley State University.

He needed to be tough in order to compete against others standing over a foot taller than him, and Boucher credited his older brother for providing him the grit to succeed.

“A lot of people ask me who my favorite player of all-time is, and the answer is my older brother, Eric. I wouldn’t be the player or man that I am today without him, probably because I got the crap kicked outta me every other day by Eric and his friends,” Boucher said.

Boucher also used his speech to show just how deep a student athlete’s impact can make on a young person.

“My all-time favorite Menominee Maroon is Gary Stewart,” he said. “I don’t know if he remembers this, but I was a six or seven year old kid, always going to the gym, hoping that I’d catch Gary and he’d give me a high-five. I’d go home sometimes and my mom and dad would ask if I was going to take a shower and I’d say ‘Nope, Gary gave me five.’”

Ashley (Taccolini) Hansmann (2003 MHS graduate)

Ashley (Taccolini) Hansmann excelled at athletics from the moment he stepped foot in Menominee High School.

Hansmann competed at the highest level in basketball and track and field all four years. She is the only female Maroon basketball player to earn All-GNC honors in four years.

Despite having a laundry list of accolades, Hansmann was always a team-first player.

“I am truly honored and humbled to stand before you all today. For me, Maroon sports was never about personal achievement. At the end of a game or a meet, I never knew how many points I scored, how many rebounds I grabbed or how fast I sprinted,” she said. “Playing and sprinting with heart, being determined and seeing my teammates succeed is what I prided myself on most.”

Hansmann also earned All-GNC, All-U.P. and All-State honors in track and field all four years, setting the Menominee High School record in the 100-meter dash, while racking up a total of 14 medals.

“There is truly something special about Menominee Maroons sports. The small town community backing is one-of-a-kind. I can only hope that someday my two little boys can experience something as special as the Maroon magic and spirit,” she said.

“Today, and always, I am proud to be a Maroon.”