Craig Ritacco has been working in the restaurant business in the Twin Cities for three decades. He's currently the regional manager for Hemisphere Restaurant Partners, with restaurants such as Mission American, Tavern on France and the Atlas Grill.
Enjoy it though he does in our bustling metropolitan mecca, Ritacco maintains a tremendous passion for his hometown of Eveleth, where he's known as "Figgy," as is his father, John, and as was his grandfather.
Why Figgy? "We don't know, because my dad never asked my grandfather, and now it's too late," Ritacco said.
Ritacco is a graduate of Eveleth's Class of 1985, where he played football, hockey and competed in track and field. His love for Eveleth athletics went back much farther, including listening as WEVE's Frankie Sherman described the Golden Bears playing Willmar for the Class A football title in 1973.
This was the second-ever Minnesota state football tournament, with Class A the second largest of five classes. Four teams were chosen per class by computer to participate, and classification was determined by average enrollment of a conference — not the size of an individual school.
That's how much-smaller Eveleth wound up playing Burnsville in the semifinals, then Willmar in the title game at Parade Stadium.
"I was 6 and my dad had to work his railroad job, so we couldn't go to the game," Ritacco said. "I listened to every play in the kitchen on an old transistor radio."
Dick Lawrence was in the 18th of 28 seasons as football coach and through it all ran a double-wing offense, most often with direct snaps through a quarterback's legs to a fullback, with wingbacks dashing hither and yon.
