The Fond du Lac Panthers: Fond du Lac’s Professional Baseball Team
by Katerina Harrison

In the summer of 1953, the Fond du Lac Panthers played their last season of minor league baseball. Over a thousand fans filled the stands to watch their local team take on teams from other Wisconsin cities on most nights when the team was playing at home that year. The ballpark at the Fond du Lac Fairgrounds was one of the best in the league. Fans came to watch some of their favorite players, like former Goodrich High School star Don Jaber, who had a pitching record of fifteen wins and seven losses during that season. The games were always fun for both the fans and the players. The players were there because they truly took pleasure in playing the game of baseball, and the fans came out to support their hometown heroes. Nevertheless, fan support for the minor league team was insufficient to keep the Panthers in business.

“Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball, the rules and realities of the games,” wrote American author and historian Jacques Barzun in what has become a commonplace observation. ¹ Baseball, of course, has been embraced by many other cultures, including Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Japan, to name a few that have not necessarily been made more “American” by taking up the sport, but at a certain time, play of the game was certainly a descriptor for American life, however transient.

Baseball, often described as Abner Doubleday’s invention, evolved in the United States during the later nineteenth century. The Civil War aided in the spread and increased popularity of the sport. Many towns organized their own teams that played against nearby rivals. By the end of the nineteenth century, a professional game had emerged, with teams concentrated in the northeast part of the country. The game was played in small-town America as well, but the dominant forces shaping the game were always the professional teams in the big cities. In the twentieth century, baseball became a national pastime. Professional sports became increasingly important, supported by the rise in leisure time and improving transportation during the 1920s, and spectator sports assumed an important role in the American experience. Players such as Babe Ruth, a New York Yankee star, gave the sport national attention through his home-run hitting record. As enthusiasm for watching the game grew, additional professional athletic teams, less talented and less well financed than the big league franchises, emerged in smaller communities. Together with many other similar towns across the country, Fond du Lac eventually became home for a minor league professional baseball team.

The Panthers, Fond du Lac’s minor league baseball team, played during the 1940s and 1950s. They belonged to the Wisconsin State League. Fond du Lac was among one of six Class D teams composing the Wisconsin State League. This organization also included teams in Appleton, Green Bay, Sheboygan, La Crosse, and Wisconsin Rapids. The league brought baseball, often described as the sport of the common man and the blue-collar worker, to small cities across Wisconsin. During this era, baseball was the most popular sport in Wisconsin, even more popular at that time than professional football. It was played during the most enjoyable seasons in Wisconsin, spring and summer. And fans could attend a game at their convenience, for there might be games five or six times in a week when the team played “at home.” ² One could bring the family and take pleasure in eating a hot dog or peanuts, drinking a beer or a soda, and relaxing, all while watching a competitive game of baseball, and all at an affordable price. In Fond du Lac, students between fourteen and eighteen years old paid ten cents for a ticket; general admission was twenty-seven cents plus a three cent tax; and advanced sale tickets could be purchased for twenty-five cents at designated sites around town. The reserved seat tickets were forty-five cents, with a five cent tax. ³

Baseball was initially divided into the major and minor leagues as a result of organizational intimidation by the dominant major league owners. The hierarchy of the leagues was created mainly for commercial reasons, specifically the National League owners’ commitment to maintaining monopolistic control over the sport as a business enterprise. Today, there is a clear separation between the business structure of the majors and the minors. For the minors, the classification division is a ladder up which a player must move in hopes of reaching the major leagues. Major league players who fail to develop as ball players also might be “sent down” to the minors. ⁴ The minors were first classified into Class A, B, and C teams. Class A players were better than Class B and so forth. Later, as the number and talent of players increased, the league developed Class AA and AAA leagues, which were ranked above Class A. As baseball became increasingly popular in smaller communities, a Class D system was also developed for more marginal farm teams. The Fond du Lac Panthers fell into this last category, at the bottom of the professional baseball hierarchy.

Some of the minor league teams developed players for major league teams. As the game that ultimately “mattered” in terms of finances for owners and salaries for players was the major league, the minors aided in the stable growth of the majors. ⁵ Minor league teams also brought the game of baseball to fans who lived in small towns and communities and who could seldom attend a major league contest.

The Wisconsin State League began operations in 1940 and continued through 1942, when play was suspended for three years during World War II. The league resumed play in 1946 and continued until 1953, when it was forced to terminate operations because of declining revenues.

Minor league baseball gave players an opportunity to play almost every day, and the young men sometimes became hometown heroes. Such players might never be able to play in a major league atmosphere. L.H. Addington rather optimistically described the importance of the Class D baseball leagues in an article in Baseball Magazine in 1941:

They offer opportunities to the thousands of kids who want to be ballplayers. The AA’s and the A-1’s could not possibly take care of these boys until they have some of their rough edges sandpapered off.

The bigger fellows might go along for several years if there were no D’s, but the pinch would soon begin to tell. The score or more of the D leagues in baseball today, are lifeblood to the game. If they should disappear, the absence would be felt all up the line and would eventually reach the majors. ⁶

There was no need to go to college to play in these leagues. Before World War II, the players were usually recent high school graduates; the youngest were sometimes only seventeen years old. After the war, military veterans who were trying to resume their careers, usually without much success, filled the rosters. The aging ex-servicemen were sometimes maintained on the roster as mentors or drawing cards. In fact, players in Class D Baseball leagues had a 100-to–1 shot at making the major leagues, but lightning could strike. Don Jaber was one Panther who made it to the majors, and he enjoyed a brief career with the Milwaukee Braves.

The majority of Class D players were paid less than $100 a month. ⁷ Each class of baseball had a team salary limit and a limit on the number of players permitted to be on club rosters. The Class B league had a limit of seventeen players, and their salary was set at about $4,600. The Class C league had a limit of sixteen to seventeen players and a salary limit of $3,400. The Class D leagues, which included the Wisconsin State League, had a limit of sixteen players and a salary limit of only $2,600. ⁸

A Fond du Lac Panther like Don Jaber received $150 a month, with a “stay-on” bonus of another $150 a month. The “stay on” bonus was limited to certain talented players to encourage them to stay on the team and not jump to another team. The Yankees (the Panthers’ name in 1952) also provided about $2.50 for meals at away games in addition to the monthly salary. This was usually enough to support a player and his family. Most players did not have second jobs during the season. They typically worked at jobs like construction through the winter months until spring training began. Additional pay could come from some unlikely sources. For instance, teams traveled to away games on a yellow school bus, and often the driver was a player or coach who was familiar with which roads to take to get from city to city. A player or coach might be paid about $35 extra to drive the bus. ⁹

After World War II, there was a growing interest in baseball all over the country, including Wisconsin. “There was a period after World War II when every town big enough to have a bank also had a professional baseball team and the peak excitement was reached when a bank was robbed or the baseball team won the pennant.” ¹⁰

The Fond du Lac Panthers officially opened training on April 25, 1940. The team played fourteen home games and fourteen away games during their first season. They wore white uniforms with navy blue lettering and piping for their home games and a blue-gray uniform with blue lettering and piping for their away games. Both uniforms had “Fond du Lac” across the chest, and the players all had blue caps with a white “F” on the front. ¹¹

The Fond du Lac Baseball Park was the largest in the state baseball loop. The seating capacity of the stadium was about 7,000. The ballpark was located at the Fond du Lac Fairgrounds, off of Martin Street, in Fond du Lac. A lighting system was installed before the season began. ¹² When manager Ray Powell arrived at the park, in 1942, he said of the ballpark, “It is undoubtedly one of the best Class D parks I have ever seen and it has all the facilities for developing young ball players. I was happy to see that it is so large and the boys and I are very well pleased.” ¹³

The name “Panthers” was chosen as a result of a contest run by the Fond du Lac Reporter. Some other proposed names included: Cardinals, Black Sox, Green Sox, Mud Hens, Orioles, Bisons, Red Wings, Angels, Oaks, Beavers, Crackers, Barons, Lookouts, and Smokies. ¹⁴ The decision to name the team was made by team executives.

Opening day was on May 9, 1940. On that day, Fond du Lac Mayor Promen declared a half-holiday. Stores closed early, and there were no afternoon classes in the schools. The celebration also included a parade held to open the season. ¹⁵

In 1940, the team finished second in the league, a big league accomplishment in itself, because at that point the Panthers had no major league team to sponsor them. Instead, local businessmen and other local citizens who were interested in the team volunteered their time and money to sponsor the Panthers. This first effort was the most successful season record the team attained during its entire eleven seasons of existence. ¹⁶

Impending war and the advent of a military draft ensured that there would be no continuity for the team. During the second season of Panther baseball in Fond du Lac, the team lost nine of its players to defense work or compulsory military service. The manager, Harry Rice, played every position except second base and shortstop to help fill gaps as players departed. ¹⁷

Like many other members in the Wisconsin State League, the Fond du Lac Panthers became an affiliate of a major league team. The New York Yankees took on the Panthers as their Class D farm team in the Wisconsin State League. The Yankees provided financial support in exchange for the possibility of finding young talent on the team, and the major league club also paid for the uniforms, balls, bats, and other equipment.

During World War II, the league suspended play from 1943 until 1946. On May 15, 1946, when the league resumed, the Panthers played their first game against the Sheboygan Indians. Twenty-five men tried out for the team that year, but due to a limit set by the league, only eighteen could be offered contracts. ¹⁸

The Panthers continued to receive community support from 1948 through 1949, averaging 80,000 fans a year. In 1950, attendance declined significantly to 60,000. The next year 1951, was even worse as only 43,000 fans attended games. ¹⁹ During these years, typically, the Panthers finished somewhere in the middle of the league standings, never better than third after the 1940 season.

In 1952, in order to generate new interest, the Fond du Lac team, known for eleven prior years as the Panthers, became the Yanks. The name was changed to reflect their major league affiliate since 1942, the New York Yankees. As another device to hold local interest, the team had planned to name a “Yankee Queen.” Young women between the ages of 17 and 25 who were Fond du Lac residents were invited to compete for the title in a pageant scheduled to be held on opening day of that season. ²⁰

On May 4, 1952 at 7:00 p.m., festivities for the opening of the 1952 Wisconsin State League season began, featuring a variety of entertainment. Miss La Vila Gladis, a seventeen-year-old senior from Fond du Lac, was named “Miss Baseball.” Her prizes included a complete wardrobe, a portable radio, and she became a contestant in a further contest run by the Wisconsin State Loop. Raymond Jacobs was named the winner of the contest to pick a new name for the Panthers. His idea to change the Panthers to the Yanks won him a $25 government bond and two season tickets to the Yanks home games, a prize that was worth about $107. All the hoopla and merriment paid off for the team, for the opening game brought about 1,853 fans to the ballpark.

Despite the celebratory beginnings, the 1952 season was not a good one for the Fond du Lac Yanks. The team experienced financial problems and finished dead last in the Wisconsin State League. It seemed that the New York Yankees were little help to the local team, for the team performed worse with the New York Yankees as sponsors than it had in its first year with only its local business sponsors.

The team was deeply in debt, but fans campaigned at the fairgrounds to sustain the club. Midway through the season, a group of fans pledged $7,000 to keep the Yanks in operation. ²¹ The Yanks had experienced their worst season in the twelve years they had been members in the State League. At the end of 1952, a meeting was held at the Hotel Retlaw to decide if the Fond du Lac baseball team would continue to play another season as a New York Yankees affiliate.

There was a good deal of resentment aimed at the big leagues. One local fan writing to the local newspaper blamed competition from major league clubs for the Panther’s difficulties. “This is another nail in the baseball coffin. Let the major league clubs pay their fabulous bonuses. It doesn’t make sense. The major league clubs are to blame for the slow killing of minor league ball.” ²² Many fans felt that the New York Yankees were not aiding the Panthers at all. Instead, the major league affiliate was hurting the team due to its lack of interest in the Class D team.

Fond du Lac had been part of the Yankees baseball system since 1942, and fan consensus in Fond du Lac opined that the Yankees had not done their best to support the team. All the major league teams had “farm” teams all over the country. The New York Yankees sent scouts to watch the games and practices in hopes of finding some young talent on one of their teams. Many sports writers and baseball officials felt that successful operations were impossible without major league assistance. However, while these affiliates are willing to pay big bonuses to untried youngsters, their operation of the lower minor teams, on which they were dependent for many of their future players, usually were economically parsimonious and sometimes even ungenerous. ²³ Of course, it must be admitted that Class D baseball, the lowest of the categories, was by definition unlikely to provide many future major leaguers.

The President of the Board of Directors of the Fond du Lac Baseball club, H. R. Murphy, made an announcement on September 4, 1952, that it was the general consensus of opinion of the board that the Fond du Lac team would no longer affiliate with the New York Yankees. “We are not giving up baseball,” Murphy declared. The directors made plans to rejuvenate the club. They hoped to increase attendance at games. The new management had decided to run the club like a business in hopes of becoming a successful money making operation. Local businessmen like H.R. Murphy, owner of Edith’s Dress shop, Dr. Devine, a local physician, and Ernie Wonsloff, owner of Wonsloff Jewelers, decided to support the Panthers financially in their next and what would be their last season of play. ²⁴ Since 1949, when the team finished in fifth place, attendance had declined. Local leaders hoped that, with a better team, attendance might improve. ²⁵ But Fond du Lac was not alone in experiencing a decline in attendance at local baseball games, for this was a problem experienced by most minor league teams. During the decade of the 1950s, nationwide attendance at minor league baseball games declined from 42 million in 1949 to only 13 million in 1959. ²⁶ Clearly, the problem was systemic for the minors, and dropping their affiliation with the Yankees was unlikely to produce a reversal of the trend in Fond du Lac, even if the move appealed to local pride and sentiment.

In keeping with the clubs reduced finances, the 1953 opening day ceremonies were not as elaborate as they had been the year before. There was no naming of a new “Miss Baseball” for the rechristened Fond du Lac Panthers. Even the weather was uncooperative, for the official opening game was postponed due to rain. Two days later, when the team finally played, there were only 592 fans in the stands. The 1953 season did not run as smoothly as the directors had planned. Acrimony dogged the team. In June 1953, Fond du Lac’s pitcher, Johnny Williams, was ejected for “defacing the ball” during a crucial game that would have put the Panthers in third place, had they won. “Defacing” meant to scuff the leather cover of the ball, an action that gave the ball a special hop or twist when it was pitched, and this practice was outlawed. The rules stated that any pitcher found guilty of such tactics automatically was to be removed from the game and suspended for ten days. When the ejection took place, a fight erupted, because the Panthers manager was denied the right to see the ball. Home Plate Umpire Bob Willis waved three policemen onto the field to try and restore order. After the scuffle, Joe Consoli, the team manager, was escorted from the field. One of the officers reported receiving a knee to the stomach. Stan Gores, a reporter for the Fond du Lac Reporter, noted that this was “one of the wildest affairs in the state league in many years and certainly one of the noisiest of the current campaign.” Many attributed this outburst to the frustration the players and managers expressed toward the umpires. These officials were deemed to be unsatisfactory, and it was alleged that there had been numerous bad decisions on their part, including missed calls on balls and strikes by “laugh-provoking” margins, failure or refusal to notify public address announcers of changes in the lineup, and shrugging of shoulders after a call, indicating uncertainty as to what decision to make. ²⁷ As always, such criticism of officiating had no consequence other than to enhance the feeling of victimization on the part of the Panthers. The team still lost the game, and its pitcher was suspended.

The 1953 season was remarkable in another way. According to Don Jaber, the team was integrated for the first time, with several African American and Hispanic players joining the roster. Jaber was in a position to know, for he had served as a ball boy for the team for five years prior to pitching for the Panthers in 1953. ²⁸ The new players were drafted by the local businessmen, like H.R. Murphy, who had organized the team that year. According to Jaber, these players were accepted without the mayhem caused in the Major Leagues by Jackie Robinson’s 1947 debut.

1953 was the last season that the Fond du Lac Panthers played organized baseball. Attendance in Fond du Lac bounced back, although it came nowhere near the numbers recorded in the late 1940s. Local supporters’ efforts were to no avail, however, for statewide, the fans’ interest had shifted from their local minor league team to a major league team, the Milwaukee Braves, newly relocated from Boston. Some believe it was also the popularity of the new medium of television that caused the decline of minor league baseball. Pittsburgh Pirates General Manager Branch Rickey said, “Radio has made major league fans out of minor league fans and you can multiply the damage many times in considering the television effects.” ²⁹ Whether the cause was the Braves, in their easily accessible County Stadium, the lure of televised games, or both, or whether it was the persistent failure of the local team to win, the Fond du Lac club suffered a disastrous decline in fan support.

There was no 1954 Wisconsin State League season. On September 15, 1954, the Wisconsin State Baseball League voted to end its own existence. The league president believed that the State League ended largely as a result of the widespread frenzy manifested by the arrival of the Milwaukee Braves in 1953. The Wisconsin State League ended with an attendance record of 332,771 in 1953, down from 352, 000 in 1952. Ironically, this was still the highest attendance record for any Class D league in the country. ³⁰ Appendix 1 shows the decrease in attendance, reflecting both diminishing fan interest and also a decrease in the number of leagues playing the game.

Earlier in 1954, Wisconsin State League President Duane Bowman had considered forming a Class C league in the Wisconsin area. This league was to include Green Bay, Wausau, Appleton, and Wisconsin Rapids. Other possible cities that might form teams included, Winona, Austin, and Rochester in Minnesota; Madison and La Crosse in Wisconsin; and Dubuque in Iowa. However, Fond du Lac was not included in this plan, and H.R. Murphy, president of the Panthers, was baffled at Bowman’s announcement, for the Fond du Lac team had finished the 1953 season with money, unlike many other clubs. Fond du Lac was not alone in its exclusion. The perennial Wisconsin State League powerhouse Sheboygan Indians were also overlooked, despite their winning record. Probably Bowman’s strategy was to include larger towns at a greater distance from the Milwaukee area, on the assumption that there was greater likelihood to compete against the draw of the Braves. Neither Fond du Lac nor Sheboygan fit this concept, for they were both too small and too close to Milwaukee. Ultimately, however, the proposed Class C league did not materialize. ³¹

In 1955, there was still some interest in attempting to restart the league, but Duane Bowman believed that the “continued interest in the Milwaukee Braves has made the immediate future of the Wisconsin State League dismal indeed.” The Braves had set new National League attendance records; they continued to attract the largest crowds in baseball from the time they moved to Milwaukee from Boston until the end of the 1950s. “There did not seem to be any reason for it to fold,” Bowman said sadly, “not until that tremendous momentum came in here,” meaning the Milwaukee Braves’ arrival. ³² But minor league teams were folding across the country. The 1956 season began with 32 minor leagues, a loss of 27 circuits from the 1949 season.

Several suggestions have been advanced as to why minor league baseball clubs declined at this time as a focus for public interest, not only in Wisconsin, but all around the country. Several inventions and innovations of the times that were readily accessible to a growing middle class all figured in the decline in interest of the minor league sport.

Television, radio and air conditioning all helped keep previous supporters away from the ballparks. Television, a major new alternative leisure activity, and home air conditioning, which made summertime living rooms in front of the television more comfortable than a baseball park, were components that drew fans away from minor league baseball. The first televised major league baseball game was played between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers on August 26, 1939. At the time there were fewer than 400 television sets in existence. The results were not very impressive. It was hard to recognize the players and difficult, with few cameras of limited mobility and the tiny screens of the early sets, to see what exactly was going on during the game in those pioneer broadcasts. However, people gradually found it more convenient to watch from their homes. As the technology of television improved, the impact of the new medium on the minor leagues increased. On April 14, 1952 the United States government lifted a three-and-a-half year freeze on the development of new television stations. Up to that date there had been only 108 television stations in the entire United States, and they operated exclusively in big cities. Eventually, 2,000 more stations were built throughout the United States. ³³

Radio broadcasts also had posed some threat to minor league baseball. In 1926, American League President B. Bancroft “Ban” Johnson forbade broadcasts from American League ballparks out of fear that people would stop coming to the stadiums. “Ban’s” ban was lifted the following season, when it was realized that radio had actually generated interest, but of course broadcasts of major league games provided competition for the minors as well as support for baseball in general. ³⁴

Air conditioning was an invention that tempted people to stay indoors instead of going to the ballparks. By 1951, inexpensive window air conditioning units were available, and soon thousands of American homes had one of the units. In 1953, room air conditioning sales exceeded one million units, with the demand exceeding the supply. ³⁵

Improved technology was only part of the problem for these developments were compounded by a changing legal environment that opened minor league baseball to greater competition in the United States. A significant blow to the minor leagues came when the Justice Department rendered an opinion that the restrictions that small franchise baseball teams had placed on broadcasting might be in violation of existing anti-monopoly laws. Before 1950, baseball clubs of any classification held territorial rights to radio and television coverage within a 50-mile radius of their franchise, thus preventing electronic competition. ³⁶ With the disappearance of this protection, the Fond du Lac team had to face the full force of new competition, and consumers could choose between broadcast major league games and live minor league spectator sport.

The Fond du Lac Panthers brought years of entertainment and enjoyment to local residents. Many people who lived in Fond du Lac between 1940 and 1954 have at least one vivid memory of a Panthers game at the Fairgrounds Ballpark. The Panthers’ major leaguer, Don Jaber, said it was a fun experience to play for the Panthers, and he would do it over again if he could. His fondest memory was a double-header in Appleton, where he pitched and won both games. ³⁷ The Fond du Lac team was not one of the best in the league, but local support continued, regardless. Local radio station KFIZ helped to sustain the community’s assistance for the team both financially and in building fan support in order to keep the Panthers playing. ³⁸

Despite local efforts to support the team, a changing environment in the form of a major league team, technological innovations, and the loss of ability to control competition from broadcast of other games, took fans away from the minor league game. Support dwindled, and the team and the league were forced to terminate operations. Ironically, a year before Jacques Barzun penned his famous words about baseball, professional baseball ceased to be part of the “heart and mind” of the Fond du Lac community.

1 - Jacque Barzun, God’s Country and Mine: A Declaration of Love Spiced with a Few Harsh Words, (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1954, reprint 1973). return

2 - William F. Thompson, History of Wisconsin, v. VI: Continuity and Change, 1940-1965, (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1988), 281. return

3 - Fond du Lac Commonwealth Reporter, May 15, 1941. return

4 - Neil J. Sullivan, The Minors: The Struggles and the Triumph of Baseball’s Poor Relation from 1876 to Present, (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990), 15. return

5 - Sullivan, 165. return

6 - L.H. Addington, “Minor League Expansion” in Baseball Magazine, June 1941, 329. return

7 - Cliff Christl, “The Wisconsin State League” in Northeast Wisconsin’s Historical Review: Voyageur,” (Summer Fall, 2001), 22-27. return

8 - Milwaukee Journal, August 9, 1953 The Milwaukee Journal actually stated that the Class B league salary was $3,400 and the Class C league salary was $4,600. This is probably a reversal of the correct numbers in the article. return

9 - Don Jaber interview, December 6, 2002. return

10 - Sullivan, 167 return

11 - Fond du Lac Commonwealth Reporter, April 24, 1940. return

12 - Fond du Lac Commonwealth Reporter, April 26, 1940. return

13 - Fond du Lac Commonwealth Reporter, April 22, 1942. return

14 - Fond du Lac Commonwealth Reporter, April 26, 1940. return

15 - Fond du Lac Commonwealth Reporter, May 9, 1940. return

16 - See Appendix 4. return

17 - Fond du Lac Commonwealth Reporter, May 15, 1941. return

18 - Fond du Lac Commonwealth Reporter, June 6, 1946. return

19 - See Appendix 2 for attendance numbers. return

20 - Fond du Lac Commonwealth Reporter, April 22, 1952. return

21 - Fond du Lac Commonwealth Reporter, July 1, 1952. return

22 - Fond du Lac Commonwealth Reporter, July 1, 1952, Letter to editor from Nate Manis, Panther fan. return

23 - Milwaukee Journal, August 9, 1953. return

24 - Don Jaber interview, December 6, 2002. return

25 - Fond du Lac Commonwealth Reporter, September 5, 1952. return

26 - Thompson, 284. return

27 - Fond du Lac Commonwealth Reporter, June 26, 1953. return

28 - Don Jaber interview, December 6, 2002. return

29 - Fond du Lac Commonwealth Reporter, June 26, 1953. return

30 - Fond du Lac Commonwealth Reporter, November 8, 1954. return

31 - Wisconsin State Journal, March 31, 1954. return

32 - Fond du Lac Commonwealth Reporter, April 5, 1955 return

33 - Fond du Lac Reporter, April 14, 1952. return

34 - Baseball Stadium Technologies, available at www.colby.edu/~edkearns/basestadium/History2.htm (link no longer functioning 11/20/2006), December 10, 2002. Johnson was President of the American League from 1901 until 1927. return

35 - Cool Net Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute Website, available at http://www.ari.org/consumer/history/timeline.html (link no longer functioning 11/20/2006), Accessed December 9, 2002. return

36 - Allison Danzig and Joe Reichler, The History of Baseball: Its Great Players, Teams, and Managers, (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc., 1959), 130. return

37 - Don Jaber Interview, December 6, 2002. return

38 - Ann Kelly, “KFIZ: Fond du Lac County’s Original AM Radio Station,” in Clarence B. Davis, ed., Source of the Lake: 150 Years of History in Fond du Lac, (Action Printing, 2002), 282. return

39 - Robert Obojski, The Bush Leagues: A History of Minor League Baseball, (Macmillan, 1975). return

40 - Fond du Lac Commonwealth Reporter, May 2, 1952 and September 3, 1953. return

41 - Mike McCann’s Minor League Baseball Page, available at http://www.geocities.com/big_bunko/wisconsinstate4653.htm return

42 - Wisconsin State League Official Records, 1940-1942, 1946-1953, compiled by Otto Kaufman Jr., Sheboygan, WI, Fond du Lac Historical Society, Fond du Lac Panthers file. return

Copyright Clarence B. Davis 2005. Marian College Press, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin 2005.
Electronic publication by Fond du Lac Public Library has been approved by Clarence B. Davis.

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