Ettinger Field supports a century-old tradition
Tim Spitzack
Editor
As the sun begins to melt into the late-summer sky on Friday, Sept. 7, a group of chiseled young men will be milling about a locker room dreaming of greatness on the gridiron. Butterflies will flutter within as each looks inward to visualize the battle that stands before them. Some will be getting athletic tape tightly wrapped around their wrists, ankles or other joints, while others may smear on face paint or go through some private pre-game ritual. Minutes before the season’s home opener begins, they’ll lace up their cleats, strap on shoulder pads, pull a maroon and white jersey over top and get ready to sprint out onto Ettinger Field to carry on a century-old school tradition.
The playing field once was a cornfield and potato patch owned by the Mahoney family. It was Sam Ettinger who convinced the school to purchase the property, which sits in a natural bowl and is today one of the region’s most iconic high school sporting fields.
Ettinger came to South St. Paul in 1922 as the school’s athletic director. He was young, ambitious and fresh out of teachers’ college. He took over the sports programs – baseball and basketball – and quickly recruited 14 student athletes to form the school’s first football team. It was a rough and tumble sport in those days. Athletes played on both offense and defense, wore padded leather skullcaps without facemasks and practiced at Vets Field ballpark on Ninth Avenue North until the new field was created in 1930.
Ettinger coached until 1940 and remained athletic director until his retirement in 1968. During his coaching tenure he led three teams to the state tournament. In football, he topped a 70% winning average (61-22-3), won three conference titles and coached gridiron great Stan Kostka, who was an All American on the 1934 University of Minnesota team that won the national championship, and who played for one year in the National Football League (NFL). In 1977, the playing field was named in Ettinger’s honor.
Over the years, the South St. Paul football team has garnered 17 conference/district championships, been to the state tournament nine times, and captured the state championship in 1950 under Coach John Kulbitski. Two additional alumni played in the NFL.
Jim LeClair had the longest NFL career. He was selected in the third round of the 1972 draft by the Cincinnati Bengals and played linebacker for the team for 12 seasons. He was named to the Pro Bowl in 1976, and played in Super Bowl XVI in 1982, which the Bengals lost to the San Francisco 49ers, 26-21. He finished his football career playing two seasons (1984-1985) with the New Jersey Generals in the United States Football League.
Jim Carter was a legendary running back for the South St. Paul Packers and found success years later with a team that shared a name with his high school. After graduation, Carter excelled as a fullback at the University of Minnesota, and in 1970 was drafted as a linebacker by the Green Bay Packers in the third round of the NFL draft. He played nine seasons for the Packers, was defensive captain 1973-79 and made the Pro Bowl in 1973.
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