A winning legacy
Anderson estimates that at the height of the sports program, 300 or more student athletes came to Normandale each
year. Most of those students came from the Twin Cities metro area, but some also came from Greater Minnesota to play
on the college's winning teams. Many football and basketball players went on to play two more years at Division I or II
schools, including the University of Minnesota.
Moyer has stayed in touch with many of the men who played on his football team--
including one who is now a transplant surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. Ruth
Lievense Finne still receives a Christmas card every year from one of the "kids" who
played on her husband's first basketball team in 1968. They both believe that many of
those athletes were given an opportunity they never forgot--and they are saddened that
such opportunities don't exist any more for the high schoolers not recruited to play at
Division I or II schools.
"For a lot of kids, this was a chance to play a couple more years of football,
basketball, or baseball," Moyer says. "For some, it was also a chance to mature and get
their grades up before going on to another school. That was the exciting thing for me,
to see kids turn the corner and become successful."
End of an era
The decline of sports at Normandale coincided with Lorenz's departure as president in
1990. The number of community colleges in the metro area fielding teams was
dwindling in the early 1990s, forcing the remaining teams to travel greater distances for
games. After investigating the situation, the new administration decided to start
eliminating the teams. By the spring of 1996, athletics at Normandale had officially
ended.
Some of the equipment was given to community programs, some was thrown away. The dozens of trophies that had
been won over the years were stored away, then eventually distributed among former coaches and players. Moyer and
Finne both have some of those trophies; they've been sharing them with former players as well.
But the legacy of athletics at Normandale lives on, both in the scrapbooks that Finne occasionally pulls out and in
the Ron Lievense Most Valuable Player award, which is given out at the Minnesota Community College Conference
basketball tournament each year. "There are many people who don't even know that Normandale ever had sports
teams," Finne says. "The award helps keep alive the memory of all of Ron's hard work."
Sara Gilbert Frederick is a Mankato-based freelance writer.
19www.normandale.edu
NORMANDALEFILEPHOTOS(3)
"For some, it was also
a chance to mature
and get their grades
up before going on to
another school. That
was the exciting thing
for me, to see kids
turn the corner and
become successful."
FRED MOYER

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