Early friendships led to lifetime job

The big thing Sunday night was not that I was honored at my 90th birthday celebration held at Oak Ridge Country Club in Hopkins, an event to raise money for the Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota and the Jewish Family and Children's Service of Minneapolis. It was more about how lucky I was, from the time I started selling newspapers downtown as an 11-year-old, to having the support of so many people.

Without their support and help at a young age, I certainly would been involved in another occupation.

So in today's column, I am going to salute these people.

I'm sure I will forget some important people who have helped me a great deal. But the ones I'm going to mention are those who got me involved in the media business and were responsible for helping me get started.

Some names you will recognize. But most were not sport heroes, just adults who took a liking to a young kid who would ride his bike downtown five days a week to sell papers during the Depression and try to help in a small way a family whose breadwinner earned $12 a week.

Larry Voigt was a young man who lost a leg at a young age. He took a liking to me and allowed me to deliver papers to his customers, sell papers on 5th and Nicollet and eventually turn the business over to me.

Downtown Minneapolis has really changed from those days working for Voigt. The Leader department store was on one corner and Powers department store on another. We delivered papers in both of those stores.

Joe Katzman was the street circulation manager of the Morning and Evening Tribune who "adopted" me.

Newspaper street sales were big things at one time, and through Katzman I was able to get a couple of key corners like 6th and Nicollet, where a lot of people would buy three papers -- the Star, Tribune and Journal -- for a total of 6 cents.

While I waited for the final editions of the papers to come off the press, I would act as an intern without pay and do things such as paste different clippings in a scrapbook and run errands to pick up coffee.

Through Katzman, I got to know former sports editors such as Dick Cullum at the Minneapolis Times and George Barton at the Tribune, and it paid off in the future.

Even as a youngster, I was a big sports fan. I learned a lot from Katzman, who also was involved with a firm called Gorham Press that set the point spread nationally for all sports.

Back then, the Star operated in the same location as the Star Tribune is today. The Star's final edition would come out earlier than the Journal and the Tribune, so I would make sure I got to the Star early to do my intern work for Johnson, who at the time had a sports staff of four people.

Allowed me to work You couldn't sell newspapers downtown unless you were 12 years old and eligible to own a street badge.

Because I was only 11 years old when I started to ride my bike from 525 Humboldt Av. N. to downtown to sell papers, I couldn't qualify for the badge.

A man named Nathaniel Johnson was in charge of the street badges. He allowed me to keep working and on my 12th birthday, he was in the Journal-Tribune alley to present me with my street badge.

Quit school, got job Babe Bullis was a district manager for the Tribune who knew me as a kid. I was 17 years old when Bullis called to offer me a job distributing papers to boxes along the streets of an area from 26th Av. N. to Victory Memorial Drive. I quit high school to take that job.

Louis Mohs was circulation manager of the Times, a paper that survived after the Cowles family took over the Tribune.

My job changed when the Tribune moved. Mohs kept me on as a circulation employee who delivered papers to different outlets in downtown Minneapolis.

Cullum mentioned to Mohs one day that he was looking for a young man to work in the sports department. Mohs suggested me even though the only experience I had was working on the Lincoln Junior High Life and the North High Polaris.

Cullum was a great writer, and eventually he gave me an opportunity to write a short column. We had a great relationship and spent a lot of time together.

I worked both the circulation job and the sports job for a period. But then came my big break. The Times closed, and having that great relationship with Charley Johnson as a kid paid off. I was offered a full-time job at the Morning Tribune. I didn't have a high school or college degree, but Johnson took care of me. And for many years, he treated me like a son.

Got radio job While working for the Morning Tribune, I got a chance to do some Gophers football pregame and halftime interviews on WLOL. When WCCO took over the broadcasts, I was lucky enough to get a call from Larry Haeg, the general manager of the station, who offered me an opportunity to do what I had previously done for WLOL.

Thanks to Haeg, I was given a number of opportunities in broadcasting. My biggest break came when the Washington Senators moved here and became the Twins in 1961, and Haeg gave me the chance to do the manager's pregame show.

Chalfen and Berger In 1947, I convinced Morris Chalfen and Ben Berger to stage a couple of National Basketball League exhibition games, with the hope it could lead to bringing pro basketball here.

Eventually I learned the Detroit Gems franchise was available. Chalfen and Berger put up $15,000 to buy the franchise and relocate it to Minneapolis as the Lakers.

They also gave me the opportunity of my life to run the franchise, which was the most fun I have ever had. I have to thank Johnson for allowing me to be involved with the Lakers, the Twin Cities' first major league franchise.

Yes, I've had a great ride and nobody is luckier than me.