‘Kickapoo Kids’ to gather in Wauzeka to celebrate accomplishments
The ‘Kickapoo Kids’ defied the odds, winning the state championship in baseball in the early 1950s. Some of them will be at Wauzeka-Steuben Schools May 24 to celebrate their accomplishments and talk about the book in their honor.
Many people know of the movie “Hoosiers,” which tells the story of a small-town basketball team in Indiana that won a state championship. In Wisconsin, there’s a similar group who defied the odds, called the “Kickapoo Kids.”
Author Paul Lagan wrote a book called, “The Amazing Journey of the Kickapoo Kids” that documents the Gays Mills’ baseball success.
On Wednesday, May 24, at 1 p.m., Lagan and several members of the Gays Mills High School baseball teams from the early 1950s will gather at Wauzeka-Steuben Schools to celebrate their accomplishments. Lagan will have books for sale and be autographing them that day.
Gays Mills made the WIAA state tournament three out of four years in the early 1950s. What makes it all the more impressive is they did it before there were divisions in high school sports. So these small school ball players were beating schools much bigger in size.
“It can never be equaled because there are divisions in sports now. We were what now would be considered the lowest division there could be,” said Lagan, who was a member of the baseball team.
“They used to kid us about the farm boys playing the city boys and it was kind of true, but the farm boys were pretty good baseball players,” Eli Crogan said, who played on Gays Mills’ baseball team.
“There were a lot of kids who wanted to work and have a work ethic. We loved the game, we loved the people who were around us and we really loved our coach too,” said Larry McGinley, another member of the team.
The public is welcome to participate in the gathering.
