I graduated from Spring Lake Park High School in 1971. It’s only an 18-mile drive from where I live now, but that was a long time ago and that place sometime seems like a galaxy far away. I remember remarkable little from the days I spent in the classrooms of that school, but some of the the guys I hung around with (yes, only guys then — too afraid of interacting with girls) will be lifelong friends. A handful of us have gotten together occasionally over the years, but not nearly often enough.

Last June, one of my friends, Tom Oliverius, decided to do something about that. He invited us to stay at his cabin north of Brainerd, Minnesota. Since most of us are scattered far and wide now, we were only able to assemble four of the five old buddies for this little reunion. I was lucky enough to be one of them.

**(L - R) Steve Date, Tom Breyen, Steve Laskey, Tom Oliverius (Unable to make it - Steve Erickson) - Yes that’s 3 Steves and 2 Toms!**

A little background

While I was on the Jr. High and High School football and basketball teams, it was golf that I loved. The group of guys that became my best friends started forming in 7th grade, although I’ve known one of them, Tom Oliverius, since 4th grade. I went our for track in the spring of 7th grade, but didn’t enjoy it much (or do very well — although I did kind of figure our how to throw a discus about half-way through the season). So I tried baseball for about a week or so in the spring of 8th grade (again, mediocre at best) when my friends and I heard that one of the high school teachers was starting a golf team.

I had never actually played on a golf course, but I did have some clubs. I started watching golf on TV when I was 8 or 9 (what a weird little kid) and my Dad bought me a putter and a 7-iron for my birthday when I was 10. I putted in the living room and whacked the 7-iron around a nearby park. Three years later my Dad bought me a set of Sam Snead Blue Ridge clubs. He took be to a driving range a few times, and I was in love — not with girls, of course, but with Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, and a few other players of the ‘60s — but mostly with the game of golf as it appeared on our black & white TV.

So I had golf clubs. I knew the basics of how the game was played from TV. I was ready — and thrilled to hear there was going to be a golf team. Better yet, several of my friends wanted to try golf too!

We hacked and laughed our way through that first season. We were all beginners and it showed. But we had such a good time that everybody came back for another season in 9th grade, and we picked up a few more along the way. Because most of the guys on the golf team that first year were seniors who were mostly trying in just to screw around in their final weeks before graduation, that group of “seasoned” 9th graders pretty much became the SLP High School Golf Team for the next four years.

(Above) Tom Breyen (“honorary” golf team member) Here he’s standing — as usual — very close to the baseball coach.

(Left) 9 of the 10 guys on the 1971 Spring Lake Park Panthers Varsity golf team were Seniors.

We spent two nights at Tom O’s beautiful cabin on lake near Nisswa, Minnesota. We played a couple of rounds of golf on two great resort courses, The Pines and The Preserve — both Grandview Lodge courses. We had a great time together. It’s amazing how much we still have in common 52 years after graduating from high school and going our separate ways.

I hope we can do this again in 2024. It would be really nice to make this a yearly thing.

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