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| Happy 41st Anniversary, Paul and Kris |
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Friday, April 4, 2014
Happy 90th Birthday, Coach Shipley
Coach Gene Shipley will have his 90th birthday this year on April 18th. This page is the beginning of a virtual birthday party. I am posting pictures and inviting comments from people.
Posted Online: April 02, 2010, 6:41 pm
Moline marks 50th anniversary of boys' track title
Comment on this storyBy Daniel Makarewicz, danmak@qconline.com
 More photos from this shoot |
| Photo: Dan Videtich Legendary Moline High School track coach Gene Shipley acknowledges the crowd after the track at Browning Field in Moline was after him during the Shipley Invitational Track and Field Meet Saturday. |
There was no parade or firetruck ride through the streets. The welcome-home ceremony was held two days later.
"I took the trophy and it was in my living room," said Moline coach Gene Shipley, who led the team to the single-class state title.
Some well-deserved recognition soon followed.
"People drove by my house and honked their (car) horns," Shipley said. "So I put the trophy on my front steps."
Fifty years ago this spring, Moline won the school's first state championship and the first in the Illinois Quad-Cities since Rock Island shared the 1936 tennis title. To commemorate the historical feat, the team will be recognized during today's Shipley Invitational at Browning Field.
Several members of that team, including Shipley, will be present as signs honoring the 1960 state champions, the 1962 boys' track state runners-up and the 1988 boys' third-place cross-country team are unveiled during an 11 a.m. ceremony.
"This will be great," said Shipley, 85, who coached at Moline from 1954-85. "I haven't seen some of those kids since that particular day (in 1960). It's just as fresh in my mind as it was 50 years ago. I can picture that final day."
On that day, Moline not only captured the team title by 3 1/7 points over Alton, but won the program's first relay title as the quartet of Kenny Carlson, Jim Cunningham, Louie Ritchie and Henry Ritchie won the mile relay over Chicago Heights Bloom Township.
That particular relay qualified eighth for the finals after dropping the baton on the third exchange in Friday's preliminary race.
"The next day, we had good exchanges," said Dick Schluter, who was a senior on the team. "That was pretty dramatic. The last exchange (between Carlson and Henry Ritchie) was right in front of where we were standing. We just couldn't believe it. To see that happen, our stomach just turned."
In those days, only five teams scored in each event -- as compared to nine in today's state meet. But the Maroons displayed their versatility to get the title. Schluter finished second in the 220-yard dash and third in the 100, giving Moline seven points and becoming the second athlete in school history with two All-State finishes in the same meet.
John Anders won the school's first discus title after throwing 162-feet, 10-inches and the 880 relay took second, pushing Moline's point total to 21. Dave Jackson's fifth-place tie in the high jump forced the one point to be split seven ways, giving the team one-seventh of a point.
"It was a great thing to happen," Shipley said of the title. "It happened to a great bunch of kids who really wanted it. I can't tell you the elation you get when you win something that big. It's stayed with me all these years."
The state title was just the beginning of a memorable season. During the postseason banquet, former U.S. Olympian Jesse Owens spoke to the team. According to Shipley, the four-time Olympic gold medalist was visiting a friend in Geneseo and eagerly accepted the invitation to attend the banquet.
"We were shocked and awed that he would be at our school and be the speaker," Schluter said. "I had the opportunity to have my picture taken with him. It was just fantastic. ... As you get older, you think back and say, 'Jesse Owens spoke to us.' That was quite an experience."
Ten years later, Schulter, who lives in Sycamore and is attending today's ceremony, said he crossed paths with Owens again while living in Chicago.
"The president of my company knew of my involvement in track and he invited me to lunch with Owens," Schluter said. "I reminded (Owens)that he had been at Moline and he remembered."
The whole experience, from making school history to meeting one of America's most iconic athletes, is still fresh even today. It hasn't faded even though the years have passed quickly.
"I was always very proud to be from Moline," Schluter said. "As you get older, you learn to appreciate it even more."
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Moline To Honor 1960 Track Team
Gene Shipley's "boys" are coming home Saturday.
"It's been 50 years, but I still picture them as young people even though some of them are probably 68 years old now," said Shipley, the longtime boys track coach at Moline High School. "It's going to be good to see those boys again."
Shipley's 1960 Maroons were the first downstate team in 25 years to win the Illinois state high school boys track championship and members of that team will be among those honored Saturday at the track meet that bears his name.
Signs recognizing three Moline state trophy winning teams - the 1960 state championship boys track team, the 1962 state runner-up boys track team and the third-place boys state cross country team from 1988 - will be unveiled at Browning Field at the Gene Shipley Invitational.
An additional sign listing all of the Maroons' individual state titlists is also scheduled be unveiled during a ceremony scheduled for 11 a.m.
"It's a great opportunity to celebrate some great Moline teams and some great individuals," said Jeff Quick, a former Moline athlete and coach. "It's recognition that is long overdue."
Shipley said he welcomes the chance to celebrate a team which ended a Chicago-area stronghold on the state title by halting a string of four straight championships by Chicago Heights Bloom.
"It was a special group. We had good sprinters, good quarter-milers, good field events and good luck and it took all of that to win," Shipley said.
A win by John Anders in the discus on a rainy, windy Friday at Champaign, Ill., then the site of the state meet, positioned Moline to chase a championship on Saturday.
Inclement weather continued on the final day of the meet, but second- and third-place finishes by Dick Schluter in the 220- and 100-yard dashes, a runner-up effort in the 880 relay and a seventh-place tie by Dave Jackson in the high jump - good for one-seventh of a point - positioned the Maroons to edge Alton for the title with a win in the mile relay.
Jim Cunningham, Louie Ritchie, Ken Carlson and Henry Ritchie won the event in 3 minutes, 30.4 seconds and Moline became the first team in Quad-Cities history to win the Illinois state team title.
"We went into state with the fastest time in the event, but we had a handoff problem on Friday in qualifying and were the eighth qualifier for the finals," Shipley said. "I was so nervous, I couldn't watch. I went to the washroom until it was over. Things turned out OK, I guess."
The Maroons celebrated their state championship in style the next week, welcoming Olympic legend Jesse Owens as the guest speaker at the team's season awards banquet.
"Jesse had a lady friend in Geneseo, and he was around here quite often at that time. That's how the group that hosted our banquet was able to secure him as a speaker," Shipley said.
"Our boys thought he would come in and pat them on the back for winning the championship, but he didn't. It was pretty straight stuff. I remember him telling the team that the only race that was important was the race of life."
A headline in the next day's Davenport Morning Democrat, a predecessor of today's Quad-City Times, illustrated the seriousness of Owens' message, reading, "Ex-Olympic star warns Maroons."
Owens, who still shared the world record in the 100-yard dash at the time, preached the value of higher education and was quoted as saying, "When the headlines are worn out, you're liable to become an athletic bum, jumping from one odd job to another. It happens to many stars."
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| With Santa, 1987. |
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| Coach Shipley, 2008. |
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| Dick Lewis, Mike Golding, Coach Shipley, and Wes Johnson |
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| Track helpers 85, Mr. Catterton, Coach Shipley, Mr. L., Mr. Edlund |
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| Coach Shipley being inducted into the Coaches Hall of Fame, with Jeff Quick. |
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| Last day of school, 1985. |
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| Coach Shipley by the M, 1985. |
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| Coach Shipley had a farm, 1970-1989, where many of the track members ran before school. |
Friday, February 28, 2014
MHS 66 Mini-Reunion, Saturday, June 7th at Mulligan's in Coal Valley.
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| Mulligan's interior. |
Mulligan's Valley Pub, 310 West 1st Avenue, Coal Valley, Illinois on Saturday, June 7th from 5:00 P.M. until the cows come home.
There will be plenty of food and drinks plus a 50/50 drawing.
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| Lawrence Eyre is coaching tennis at Grinnell College in Iowa. |
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Moline High Hall of Honor - Looking for Nominations
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| MHS Line 0 Type's Jann Carl? |
This is the link for the current Moline High School Hall of Honor recipients.
They are asking for additional nominees, as Facebook member Jeanette Donohue Wren wrote -
The Moline High School Hall of Honor planning board is gathering information you have a great candidate please forward the info to Jeanette Donohue Wren c/o MHS office you can pick up applications at MHS or contact me and I can get one to you.
The criteria for nominees--professional and career achievement, personal, and community any year - but 15 years out of MHS. Donations are eagerly accepted for this event..to go forward. It is a good cause to support. Checks can be made out to Moline High School Hall of Honor..and sent to the high school...
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| As in - Medal of Honor? Sgt. John Baker. |
Friday, February 14, 2014
MHS66 Ladies Will Have a Luncheon at the Crane and Pelican, Le Claire,
Thursday, June 5th.
Get Your Reservation Soon - Space Is Limited
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| The Crane and Pelican, Le Claire, Iowa |
Kym Dennhardt Whatley has organized a ladies' luncheon at the Crane and Pelican, Le Claire, Iowa, on Thursday, June 5th.
Reservations are limited to 25, so contact Kym on Facebook here if you want to attend.
Shopping is planned before and after the luncheon.
Additional activities are being planned, mostly informal. Stay tuned for the announcements.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Rest in Peace - Pat Sundine Edwards - Almost 92.
Host of Pioneering TV Show Especially for You
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| Stephanie Sundine and her mother Pat Sundine Edwards |
SARASOTA, Fla. — Pat Sundine Edwards died Feb. 6, 2014, at her home in Sarasota. She was 91.
Patricia Niemeyer was born Feb. 15, 1922, in San Francisco. She attended Max Reinhardt School of the Theater in Hollywood for one year, as well as San Francisco Junior College. She married John R. (Jack) Sundine in San Francisco in1946. Mr. Sundine was a captain in the Navy, and was later editor and co-owner of the Moline Dispatch. In Moline, they raised their three children, Stephanie, Krista and John. As Pat Sundine, she hosted her own television show, which broadcast at WOC in Davenport for 18 years, five days a week, as well as a radio talk show for 12 years. She interviewed many famous and interesting guests, and received honors and accolades.
She was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church and was very active in many civic and service organizations in the Quad-Cities. Awards included a Public Service Award from the State of Illinois for a television and radio series she initiated, “The Child Alone,” dealing with mentally ill children. She received special commendation from Iowa Gov. Harold Hughes for her work with the Governor’s Committee on Employment of the Handicapped. She and Mr. Sundine were divorced in 1973, and she moved to Naples. In Naples, she was the first development director of Avow Hospice, as it is now known. She was a founding board member and volunteer for the Shelter for Abused Women, and also for Fresh Start for Women of Collier County. She was a member of Unity Church of Naples.
She married David Putnam in 1980, a marriage that ended a few years later. In 1988, she married Fredrick Edwards in Naples. She is survived by Mr. Edwards; her daughter, Stephanie Sundine (Victor DeRenzi); granddaughters, Francesca MacBeth (Peter), Kate Laver (Adam), Stephanie Franks (Jeremy); her stepson, Sterling Edwards (Diane); step-granddaughters, Lisa Edwards and Lauren Maudlen; and several great-grandchildren.
There will be no funeral, and Mrs. Edwards is donating her body to the University of South Florida. A celebration of her life will be scheduled in March in Naples. Contributions in her name may be made to Avow Hospice of Naples, to the Shelter for Abused Women of Collier County, Fla., or to Unity Church in Naples.
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| Stephanie enjoys her grandson Finn. |
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| Pat admires her great-grandson, Finn. |
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| Francesca MacBeth, their son Finn and her husband Peter. Sarasota opera - Johann Strauss - Der Fledermaus: "DeRenzi will conduct the piece for the first time, and his wife, Stephanie Sundine, takes on the stage direction. Darko Tresjnak staged the company’s 2003 production, followed by Michael Unger in 2006.
The production is also something of a family affair because DeRenzi and Sundine’s daughter, Francesca, who grew up around Sarasota Opera, is working as the stage manager."
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Source of this verbatim quotation:
"As a third-grader in Moline, Illinois, Stephanie Sundine knew that she wanted to sing. In her interview with OperaMom, Sundine recalled sitting in her classroom enraptured, listening to the beautiful soprano voice of her music teacher. "I remember being so happy whenever it was time for music class, since we did a lot of singing. That same teacher became my homeroom teacher in fifth grade, and everyday I would go into class and say, 'Mrs. Leland, are we going to have music today?' She was patient for a while, and then finally told me nicely to stop asking her!" The daughter of supportive and high public-profile parents (her father, a newspaper owner/editor and her mother, one of the first women in the U.S. to have her own TV talk show), Sundine sang her first solos with her church choir when she was still in eighth grade. "I most admired my voice teachers and music teachers, and appreciated their encouragement and hard work with me." Her first opera recording, La boheme with Victoria de los Angeles, was evidence of her admiration for full-throated soprano voices, which grew to include Tebaldi, Freni, and Nilsson, among others.
After graduating with her B.M. from the University of Illinois, Sundine remained in the Chicago area for four years, performing regularly as a freelance artist with small opera groups as a lyric mezzo. For two summers she was an apprentice with Chautauqua Opera, and attended opera workshops run by Boris Goldovsky, the famed conductor and impresario. "I did three national tours with Goldovsky Opera, singing small roles as well as performing various roles with small companies in New York City." It was at an audition for one of these companies, New York Lyric Opera, that she met her future husband, conductor Victor DeRenzi. "I had seen Victor conduct a couple of performances for them. At my audition, totally unbeknownst to me, he decided he wanted to marry me, and made sure the company hired me for Meg in the Falstaff he was conducting." Very soon after rehearsals for Falstaff began, they got together - the beginning of a relationship which would have a profound and positive impact on her career and her future. "When I met Victor, he felt that I had much more voice than I was using. He encouraged me to change my vocal technique and helped me to develop a much more professional sound." Through the guidance of DeRenzi and her voice teacher, Sundine made the transition from lyric mezzo to soprano. "Over the course of a few years I went from singing Cherubino to singing Isolde, with lots of roles in between!" she exclaimed."
More Stephanie Sundine information.
Stephanie's website.
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GJ - The Sundines went to Garfield. Every so often we saw Pat Sundine in her TV makeup at the school. Mrs. Leland, one of our teachers, had an exceptional voice, so she led our Christmas programs. The teachers traded off certain classes, so we had Mrs. Leland for singing. I remember my mother saying in a hushed voice, "She was first soprano in the Augustana choir."
Augustana was known for its music program. Note the connection with the Moline Boys Choir and Dr. Fred Swanson.
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Captain Ernie has a great post on the TV show hosted by Stephanie's mother, Pat Sundine - Especially For You. I have copied a little from it:
However - on with the show. I simply adored being the on the air hostess of E for You! I had a completely fabulous time - George Sontag was a dear man (I called him "the chocolate bear") - why, I don't recall - I met and cherished many people, home grown and celebrities! - one of my most favorite segments was called "Fables of our Times" - I then had fascinating interviews with people about their lives, people who were then at my age now! The aim of the show was to entertain and inform - I guess we accomplished those goals - among the famous guests were; Pat Boone, Sebastian Cabot, singing quartet The Ames Brothers, Vincent Price, Duke Ellington, Clyde McCoy, orchestra leader Montavoni, actress Celeste Holm, famous orchestra leader Carmen Cavallero, film actor Joel McCrea, bandleader/singer Bob Crosby (Bing's brother), President Ronald Reagan (I filmed him when he was spokesman for General Electric), American society figure Perle Mesta, actress Sylvia Sidney, Lorne Green, Robert Young (several times - his doctor lived here), Mary Ann Mobley who was one of the Miss Americas and many others.
I had such a fine and rewarding time - I still dream about it!
I have been Mrs. Fredrick Jasper Edwards for 18 blissful years and I couldn't be happier - Jack Sundine is living in St. Petersburg, Florida - we see each other and talk often. My two daughters are a blessing to us - Krista Kruse lives in Moline and Stephanie Sundine lives in New York.
John Patrick Sundine, my son and their brother, died this past December due to complications from diabetes which he suffered from at the age of seven years.
I must mention Anita Sundin wrote commercials and when I was away, took my place on Especially for You. She was just awarded by the State of Iowa a prize for being the person in the whole state that for years has read books for the blind. Quite an honor and quite a gal!
Love, Patricia Sundine
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 | Stephanie Sundine (Class of 1965) --Stephanie Sundine’s remarkable international career in opera and stage directing began with her early love for musical experiences in the Moline School District. Sundine graduated with honors from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She began her professional opera career in Rochester, New York, and has since performed in principle roles across the globe. She retired from her vocal career in 1995. She continued her stage work as director in more than 30 productions across the United States. Sundine has also shared her talents through private studio coaching, guest teaching at Boston University and Catholic University, as a competition judge, and co-founder of Words for Music, a program providing translated subtitles for performances in other languages. |
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Regular MHS 68 Get-Togethers at Maid-Rite.
Others Are Welcome Too
Maid-Rite date reminder.
The next Class of 68 get together will be February 26th at noon. 16th street location.
It's a Wednesday and they have a special-2 for 1. See ya there!
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