Yesterday in La Crosse

John Paul (the bishop, not the pope) gets a promotion, 52 years ago October 30, 2020
In 1968, the Catholic Diocese of La Crosse named Monsignor John Paul its temporary administrator, while Bishop Frederick Freking was recovering from an illness. Paul was rector of St. Joseph the Workman Cathedral at the time. He was an Aquinas graduate, and a former principal at Eau Claire Regis High School. The church said Freking […]
Martians were invading, but not on all the radio stations, 82 years ago October 30, 2020
On the night before Halloween in 1938, many Americans heard that spaceships from Mars had landed in New Jersey…but they only heard it, if they were listening to CBS. “The Mercury Theatre on the Air,” starring young Wisconsin native Orson Welles, presented a modern version of “The War of the Worlds” by H.G. Wells. Orson […]
What are you dressed as? What, a college debater? Halloween, 45 years ago October 27, 2020
On Halloween night in 1975, a Friday night, most UW-L students probably wouldn’t be caught dead…or alive…attending a college debate between teams from La Crosse and Japan. Especially a debate on the subject of whether the U.S. should withdraw all military forces from the Pacific basin. That event took place at the Annett Recital Hall […]
Trouble for the Catbirds, the new team in town, 35 years ago October 20, 2020
In the fall of 1985, the Catbirds basketball team of the CBA was about to play its first season in La Crosse, after spending two years in Louisville. But a Tribune story talked of trouble with the new team. In November, the players were still in training camp. Center Russell Cross had his right knee […]
Rice, or Coffey? Wisconsin voters were offered the choice in the 70’s October 19, 2020
In October of 1977, Judge James Rice of Monroe County launched a bid for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Rice said the main issue of his campaign was to promote judicial efficiency, to tackle problems of delays in the state court system. The judge was running for a seat being vacated by retiring Justice Leo Hanley. […]
Get your skateboard off the sidewalk, 33 years ago October 15, 2020
In October of 1987, the La Crosse city council passed an ordinance to ban skates and skateboards from city streets, parking ramps, and sidewalks in business districts. Skating would be allowed in residential parts of the city. The manager of the Village Shopping Center said the rule would help prevent skateboard users from crashing through […]
It’s hard to stop a campaign train, 72 years ago October 14, 2020
In October 1948, the president was traveling around the country, speaking to voters just before the election. Democrat Harry Truman had been president for three years, after the death of Franklin Roosevelt, and he crossed the U.S. by train on a ‘whistle-stop’ journey in the final weeks of the campaign. Truman did not give a speech […]
Hiawatha got a reprieve, 20 years ago October 13, 2020
The Big Indian statue was removed from La Crosse’s Riverside Park during the summer of 2020, but there was an effort to take it down in 2000. Some native American residents of the area thought Hiawatha was stereotyped and offensive, and wanted it removed from the park. The concrete man had been designed by local […]
The best place to watch a presidential debate? How about a bar, 36 years ago? October 8, 2020
In October of 1984, a Republican president who had been a TV personality in the past was running for a second term, and faced off in debates with the Democrat who had been vice president just four years earlier. Sound familiar? Ronald Reagan was the president, Walter Mondale was the former veep. For their first of two televised […]
La Crosse becomes an “All-America” city, 55 years ago October 5, 2020
In 1965, La Crosse became one of 13 communities to win the title of ‘All-America City’ for that year. Three towns in Alaska were included on the list, for their efforts to recover from a massive earthquake the year before. The 1965 flood of the Mississippi, which would be a record-breaker, caused some concern for […]