HUCKLEBERRIES: A Viking that's got it

It’s a sports movie cliché.

A star player visits a suffering child in a hospital and promises to hit a home run or score a touchdown to boost his spirits.

And then the hero follows through.

Coeur d’Alene had a similar moment 50 years ago when two-time Super Bowl MVP Bart Starr was the featured speaker at the 62nd annual Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce banquet.

Prior to the evening speech, Starr visited injured Coeur d’Alene Viking football player Todd Hedge at Kootenai Memorial Hospital. Hedge had torn his knee ligaments after making a game-saving tackle.

The Viking footballer greeted the Green Bay Packer quarterback with what Press reporter Robert Jones described as “a grin as big as the cast on his leg.”

“It would be easy for you to feel sorry for yourself and be defeated,” Starr told the Vik. “But how you react to this injury says a lot about you.”

Starr, who had become a CBS football analyst after 16 seasons in the NFL, also visited Hedge’s teammates, Mid High and Junior High football players, and some YMCA swimmers.

At the chamber banquet, he joked about his lack of pro football size to the packed crowd of 550 — medium build, 6 feet 1 inch, 195 pounds. When people see him for the first time, Starr quipped, they think: “There’s no way that little guy ever played professional football.”

Then, Starr focused on the importance of a good attitude in football and life, using wide receiver Max McGee, a former teammate, as an example.

During a tough playoff game with Los Angeles, McGee flubbed an easy catch at a crucial time. If looks could kill, Starr said, “(McGee) would have died 10 times.” When the carefree end returned to the huddle, he threw up his hands and said: “My (goodness), the smog is thick today.”

The comment cracked everyone up. The team relaxed. And drubbed the Rams.

Starr then complimented the city of Coeur d’Alene and the chamber for a positive attitude. Said he: “I salute you because you’ve got it.”

Topper that

G.A. Wardian’s Toppers are gone now — Topper In & Out at 1801 E. Sherman Ave. and Topper Too on what is now Government Way.

Opened in 1963, Topper In & Out was a perfect turnaround spot for teens cruising Sherman.

In an online discussion at Old School Coeur d’Alene, Darren Carkuff remembers Topper’s “great burgers, onion rings and the best fry sauce.” Tracie Olin of Coeur d’Alene recalls, “Everybody showed up eventually cruising Sherman.”

And retired Coeur d’Alene city clerk Susan Weathers said she learned “a great work ethic” at her first job from owner Wardian: “I remember being told to always be busy even if it meant cleaning the same counter over and over.”

She worked alongside some of the 10 children belonging to G.A. “Gil” and “Dottie” Wardian.

On Oct. 12, 1969, the Wardians held a grand opening for Topper Too along the old Highway 95 (current location of Les Schwab Tires). It didn’t have the cruising element. But it was popular, too.

Earl Pleger, of Hayden, and other members of the old Bethel Baptist Church men’s softball team will never forget a 1980s post-game incident there.

Players, their wives and kids were enjoying ice cream cones when they heard a scream from the men’s bathroom. Seems the left fielder’s 3-year-old son had caught his, ah, male appendage in his zipper. So the boy’s pop asked a worker for a knife to free the lad. Only to have the child misinterpret his father’s motive and shriek again.

The Toppers were an integral part of Coeur d’Alene’s version of “American Graffiti.”

Always a Viking

Nancy DeVoe wasn’t planning to meet her king the night she was crowned homecoming queen.

But she did.

In 1957, she was coronated as the first Coeur d’Alene High homecoming queen.

The high school, of course, had been around much longer. But the Vikings faithful didn’t embrace royalty until the fall of Nancy’s senior year.

The crowning ceremony during the 1957 football game was a precursor to bigger things that night.

John Runge, a soldier home from the Army, saw Nancy crowned and later asked her to dance during the homecoming dance. He was a few years older. And Cupid's arrows hit home.

Nancy graduated in 1958 and married John in 1959.

Sixty years later, she presided as Grand Marshal over the CHS Homecoming Parade, waving to the crowd, as John drove her car.

“I’m proud to represent Coeur d'Alene High School,” Nancy told the Coeur d’Alene Press. “And I’m very proud of being a Viking.”

Once a Viking, always a Viking.

Split the sheets

And the answer is: A truck. The question: Why did the Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce Commodores sever ties with the chamber and disband in October 2019?

Huckleberries has picked at this topic before (July 9, 2023). Some say the two entities were going in different directions. But a Coeur d’Alene Press story from Oct. 10, 2019, reported that the final straw involved the purchase of a truck to tow the Commodores’ prized Pirate-themed float in local and regional parades.

The money reportedly was promised to buy the truck and then withdrawn.

As in most break-ups, there were communication problems, too.

So, the Commodores, which began with 15 members in 1973 to boost convention business, made the hard decision to dissolve.

“We’re the face of Coeur d’Alene, and it just breaks my heart,” Commodores Chairwoman Patricia Richardson told The Press. “But it’s something that just needs to be done.”

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner: Some states protect/with brains and pluck;/in Idaho we/trust to luck — The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Initial Tests Say Aquifer Is Safe”).

• New Clues: In a major development into the disappearance of Ron and Rita Marcussen 50 years ago, searchers found the lower jawbone of Mrs. Marcussen, 20, near Athol. It was located about 30 feet from where her skull was discovered 10 days earlier. The couple had vanished Nov. 19, 1973. Ron Marcussen would remain missing another two decades before his skull with two bullet holes in it was uncovered. No one was convicted of the killings.

• Did You Know … That the Coeur d’Alene Kiwanis Club produced a Lake City version of Monopoly as a 1994 fundraiser? The Game of Coeur d’Alene sold for $14.95 and featured various town businesses. It included The Coeur d’Alene Resort in place of Boardwalk and Louisiana Pacific instead of Park Place. Good idea. Dunno how well it sold.

• Old But Unbowed: In a 1994 profile, tax activist Ron Rankin compared himself to his 1975 Lincoln Town Car, with 330,000 miles on it: “I’m old and beat up, but I still have a lot of miles left in me.” And he did. He traveled the state in his old Lincoln fighting for property tax relief and served two terms as county commissioner. He was 75 when he died Oct. 12, 2004.

• Famous Potatoes: On Oct. 8, 1959, Jack Holmes, of Post Falls, offered picture proof that North Idaho grew famous potatoes, too. He appeared in The Press with a basket brimming with Pontiac Red spuds, weighing up to 3.5 pounds. One hill produced 20 pounds of taters. At a cost of 39 cents, he mailed a 3-pounder to a relative in Deer Lodge, Mont.

Parting shot

The “Book Bandit” has gone missing for years. Remember? In October 2019, the cad made headlines by hiding “liberal” books in secretive spots in the Coeur d’Alene Public Library, especially those that criticized then-President Donald Trump. One of the books that received the sleight-of-hand treatment was “Whose Boat Is This Boat (Comments That Don’t Help in the Aftermath of a Hurricane).” Produced by Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” staff, the children’s book contains Trump quotes about hurricane relief. In spotlighting our vigilante censorship on his show that November, Colbert said to the culprit: “You’re not creating liberal angst, you’re just making the librarian’s job harder. In the ranking of library villains, you’re just below the toddler pooping in the puppet nook.” Then, Colbert introduced an oversized version of his book that was too big to hide. And donated it to the Coeur d’Alene Public Library, where it was displayed for a while. Today, in Idaho, of course, a Book Bandit is redundant. Why sneak around when you can get our local legislators to pass laws harassing librarians?

• • •

D.F. (Dave) Oliveria can be contacted at dfo@cdapress.com.

    In 1969, owner G.A. “Gil” Wardian opens Topper Too.
  

    In 2024, Ron Hotchkiss, retired Coeur d’Alene police lieutenant, still possesses the Topper Too sign he rescued when the eatery was torn down.
  

    In 2019, Nancy Runge waves to the Coeur d’Alene Homecoming Parade crowd while her husband, John, drives.
  

    In 2018, the flamboyant Commodores prepare for another parade.
  

    In 1974, detectives Les Routh and Earl Winans collect a human jawbone as evidence in the disappearance of Ron and Rita Marcussen.
  

    In 1994, Kelly Coon, vice president of the Coeur d’Alene Kiwanis Club, displays The Game of Coeur d’Alene.
  

    In 1994, tax activist Ron Rankin holds Proposition One petitions.
  

    In 1959, Jack Holmes displays famous potatoes from North Idaho.
  

    In 2019, Stephen Colbert of the "Late Show" targets the Coeur d’Alene Library Book Bandit. Librarian Bette Ammon appears in the inset photo.