June 19, 2015 at 3:50 p.m.
Snowshoe baseball legacy lives on in Lake Tomahawk
Snowhawks season starts June 22
Snowshoe baseball legacy lives on in Lake Tomahawk
That tradition continues as the Lake Tomahawk Snowhawks kick off their 2015 season June 22.
Snowshoe baseball had been played all over northern Wisconsin on the frozen lakes during the winter months. Sloan's idea was to take snowshoe baseball and turn it into a summer sport by hosting games at the baseball diamond in town. To replace the snow, which is essential to running in snowshoes, Sloan had the ballpark layered with sawdust and wood chips.
Former Snowhawks coach and manager Don Hilgendorf spoke about how Sloan made the transition to summer snowshoe ball.
"Sloan said let's do something for the people who come up here, the tourists. They never get a chance to see snowshoe baseball. They hear about it," Hilgendorf said. "So he wanted to get something started in the summertime. So, what they did was they made the field here in Lake Tomahawk full of wood chips and sawdust ... it's probably about 10 inches thick and you can play on that with snowshoes."
Over the years Lake Tomahawk's summer snowshoe baseball events have grown in popularity. On average the games draw between 1,200 and 1,300 people every Monday. The biggest game of the year is on the Fourth of July when the Snowhawks play the Chicago All-Stars. The Snowhawks also play the All-Stars the Monday following, July 6.
Hilgendorf said the games against the All-Stars are always highly anticipated. The team is very talented and always poses a challenge. Hilgendorf said he thinks the Snowhawks have a home-field advantage in the match.
"It's so close in the competition as far as the talent goes. It's pretty close both ways, but with us having a little more experience on snowshoes...that's where we have the advantage over them," Hilgendorf claimed. "They (the All-Stars) only get to come up here every year to play this game, now they're playing twice a year but that's the only time they get to wear snowshoes. We're on snowshoes all year."
Hilgendorf added that once in a while the All-Stars get mixed up and have trouble running in snowshoes.
The Fourth of July celebration at the ballpark is one of the best in the Northwoods. Approximately 3,000 people watch the Snowhawks play the All-Stars. Fireworks follow after the game. Over the years the celebration has changed. Hilgendorf spoke of a time in the past when a skydiver would fly into the ballpark.
"They used to have a parade in town here where the merchants all had floats and everything. Then they had the Belles of St. Mary's out of Rhinelander and they would come up here and lead the parade. They'd go right on over to the ballpark," Hilgendorf said. "Then they had a skydiver that always jumped and was supposed to land in a big white circle close to second base. Some nights he didn't make it there."
Hilgendorf went on to explain that the sky-diving eventually became too dangerous to include in the festivities.
"They had that going on for a number of years that way until it got to be, safety-wise, there's too many power lines and that in the way. If you get any kind of wind at all he might end up in the lake instead of on the ball diamond so they stopped the sky-diving."
The more snowshoe baseball in Lake Tomahawk grew, the more attention the team received. Hilgendorf said the team has been featured in Sports Illustrated, Fox Sports and on YouTube in Japan. He also spoke of interviews he has participated in over the years. Hilgendorf's favorite interview was one done for a broadcast during the Olympics.
"Two years ago during the Olympics I was interviewed in the United Kingdom by a woman who had a sports show ... she wanted to know about snowshoe baseball," Hilgendorf explained. "She said we are picking a sport a day during the Olympics to see how everything developed and how they got to be popular and everything over the years. So I had a phone interview with her for 20 minutes, on the air ... I thought that fantastic!"
The highlight of Hilgendorf's 16 years with the team took place last summer when the Wounded Warriors amputee softball team came to town and played against the Snowhawks. Money raised during the event was donated to the Wounded Warriors. The event raised $60,000, which was the second largest donation the organization has ever received.
"They travel all over the world and we gave them a donation of $60,000 and they had never been this far north playing," Hilgendorf said. "They never played in a town this small and we gave them the second largest donation ever received and I thought that was really fantastic from the people up here in the Northwoods."
The Wounded Warriors team won't be back this year due to a full schedule but because the event raised such a large donation the team will be adding a game in Lake Tomahawk to their anniversary schedule in 2016.
Hilgendorf retired after last year to spend more time with his grandkids. Although he is no longer in charge of the team he said he plans to get to as many games as possible. He handed the leadership role over to Jeff Smith and has high hopes for him and the team.
"I hope that with Jeff running it now and taking over things, that he'll do a great job," Hilgendorf said.
Smith also has high hopes for his team this year. The squad has a few new players and Smith hopes to win at least nine of the 12 games on the schedule. He thinks the teams that will pose the biggest challenge for the Snowhawks will be the Chicago All-Stars, Dazzle's Demons, a group of hardball players from Rhinelander and Zimmy's All-Stars who Smith expects to put up a fight.
"They always give us a run for our money," Smith said.
Other notable games for the Snowhawks include when they take on TV and media personalities Aug. 3 and when they face a mix of Little League coaches and parents from the Minocqua area Aug. 24.
The Snowhawks play at 7:30 p.m. every Monday through the summer. There is no cost to attend a game but donations are appreciated. Donations collected at the games go to purchase snowshoes for home and visiting teams, as well as balls and help to pay utilities. The Snowhawks ball club also donates money collected during games to local charities and needy families in the Lake Tomahawk area.
Local non-profit organizations run the concession stand during games and Hilgendorf highly suggests getting one of the many homemade pies available for purchase.
"That's the highlight of the concession stand is homemade pies and people just rant and rave over it," Hilgendorf said.
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