Upper Midwest College Clubs

[minnpolo]

Any school looking for form a new Collegiate Club team in the Midwest should contact the existing teams in the Region (Heartland, Great Planes, Great Lakes, Missouri Valley divisions of the CWPA) as most have equipment they will sell second hand and are very willing to help with clinics and scrimmage games.

[Torchbearer]

Minnpolo, it is good to see you promoting water polo in my ol' home state of Minnesota. Water polo in Minnesota dates back to at least the 1920s, when the Minneapolis YMCA and the Duluth YMCA played against each other annually. Minneapolis also hosted a team from Chicago that featured Johnny Weissmuller. After a long lapse, we picked up water polo again at the Minneapolis YMCA in the late 1950s. We had our own 4-team men's league and an 8-team Minneapolis and St. Paul YMCA boys' league, playing 5-per-side in the small 20-yard Y pool, using abbreviated rules, as Missy so wisely suggests on another WPP thread. We played against other teams from Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, and Winnipeg, Canada. In the 1960s, we started a men's club team at the U. of Minn. One of the Gopher players was 6-4 Steve Jackman, who at that time was the NCAA champion in the 50-yard freestyle (:21.2). I remember guarding him. I was 6-0, older, and a lot slower, but a much better ball-handler. Another Gopher player was Bob Gawboy, who was the national AAU champion in the 200-yard breaststroke. The U. of Minn. men's club team in those days was pretty good, and the University TV station even televised one game at the old Cooke Hall pool against visiting Des Moines. Eventually I moved away from the Midwest and came to Asheville, North Carolina, my present location, in 1969. We had some great water polo here in the 1970s and 1980s, winning a number of national tournaments. But that's another story.

[minnpolo]

Torchbearer, I sent you a private message, make sure you check it out