2011

Osama bin Laden was killed. But, wow, that Arab spring didn't end up making the world a better place, I don't think.

But, in her second season with the Minnesota Lynx, Lindsay Whalen led the Lynx to the WNBA title. Seimone Augustus scored 16 ppg and 22 in the finals. She was the WNBA finals MVP but for Minnesota fans, of course, Lindsay was the superstar of this team. She scored 11 ppg with a league-leading six assists.

• St. Thomas won its first-ever NCAA men’s basketball championship, finishing 30-3 under coach Steve Fritz. The Hopkins boys and girls swept the state basketball titles with 61 wins and three losses between them. Rachel Banham of Lakeville North was Ms. Basketball.

#33 Coach

Steve Fritz

The MIAC kicked St. Thomas, a founding member in 1920, out of the conference in 2019 because they won too much. That doesn’t happen every day. But, it also doesn’t happen that a school has the kind of success that St. Thomas has had in the past 50 years. Steve Fritz was there almost every step of the way.

Fritz grew up in Blooming Prairie, where he led the Blossoms to the 1967 single class state tournament. He transferred to Rochester Lourdes for his senior season and led the Eagles to the state Catholic title. He went to St. Thomas in the fall of 1967 and played four years of basketball. The Tommies won just their sixth and seventh MIAC basketball titles in his junior and senior seasons of 1970 and 1971, and Fritz finished his college career with 1,944 points and 915 rebounds. 

Fritz stayed at St. Thomas for another 48 years, 52 all together. He took a job as an admissions counselor. Then, he was named assistant to president Fr. Terrance Murphy, and then as the director of the financial aid office. He also served as assistant basketball coach to Tom Feely from 1971 to 1980, then took over as head coach. He was MIAC coach of the year 14 times. His teams won 16 regular season titles. They made the playoffs 23 times in 24 years with ten titles and seven runners-up. He retired as basketball coach, but he also served as athletic director beginning in 1992 and retired from that position in 2018. St. Thomas now has 33 MIAC basketball titles, and Fritz helped the Tommies win 28. During his 27 years as AD, St. Thomas won 249 MIAC titles, won the conference all-sports title 21 times, and won seven national titles—two each in men’s basketball and softball, and one each in baseball, women’s basketball and volleyball.

St. Thomas won the national championship in 2011. In the final, Wooster took an 11-2 lead, but the Tommies roared back with a 34-5 run to make it 36-16. Wooster got within ten but St. Thomas answered with seven straight points. Their final margin of 78-54 tied the largest margin ever in the D3 finals. 

The Tommies are now attempting to jump from D3 to D1 in one year. Historically, the NCAA has mandated a ten-year transition. The idea that St. Thomas is uniquely qualified to make such a jump is testimony to the remarkable program that Fritz helped for 52 years to build and that he led for 27 years.

• Concordia (St. Paul) won its fifth straight NCAA Division 2 volleyball title. The Minnesota Gopher women’s hockey team lost to Wisconsin in overtime in the finals of the WCHA playoffs, 5-4, to finish 18-8-2. 

• The Hopkins girls and boys basketball teams combined to sweep both Class AAAA titles, which had only happened once before when Hopkins did it in 2004. Chisholm didn’t win the boys Class A title but the Bluestreaks did appear in their 19^th tournament and coach Bob McDonald his eleventh and final tournament over a 50-plus year career. His team beat Fosston 51-39, then lost to Springfield and MACCRAY to finish sixth. McDonald would retire the following year with a state record for any sport of 1,012 wins.

#32 Coach

Bob McDonald

Looking back over one of the state’s longest and more storied coaching careers, Bob McDonald said that the wins and losses didn’t matter. That’s something, coming from a fellow who won 1,012 games overall! But, well, here’s exactly what Bob McDonald had to say about 52 years of coaching boys high school basketball. “Losing doesn’t bother me, it’s the quality of the kids that keeps you going. I’ve had losing teams that were fine people. I could go off the court knowing we were competitive. We were good people. That is what I rest on.”

Well, that and 1,012 wins, eleven state tournaments from 1973 to 2011, and three state titles. The first came in that first appearance in 1973 as center Mike Kochevar played Mark Olberding to a standstill with 24 points apiece in the final, and made the game-winning bucket in the final seconds. Chisholm won 53-52 but lost the overall final to Anoka 63-56. Melrose got its revenge in 1974, beating the Bluestreaks in the semis 63-54 and winning the overall championship. In 1975, the Bluestreaks defeated New Ulm by eleven as #2 son Paul McDonald scored 24 points, DeLaSalle by seven as #1 son Mike McDonald scored 26, and St. Paul Mechanic Arts by eight as Paul scored 18. Little Falls beat Chisholm 54-50 in the last of the overall title games as Mike led the Bluestreaks with 14. 

McDonald’s 1981 and 1982 teams were favored, as #3 son Tom McDonald finished his career with 2,221 points, then third all-time behind Norm Grow and Bob Bruggers. The 1982 team was the highest scoring team in Minnesota history at 95.5 ppg (now #5) with record shooting of 58 percent (still #2). But, the Bluestreaks were surprised by Winona Cotter both times—in 1981 in the semis and in 1982 in the finals, and both games ended up 48-46. In 1991, Chisholm defeated Westbrook-Walnut Grove for McDonald’s third title as #4 son Joel McDonald finished as the top scorer ever in Minnesota with 3,292 points (still #9). 

McDonald’s final state tournament was in 2011, and the Bluestreaks took the eventual champion, Springfield, into OT before losing 63-55.

“As I look at the kids who played for me,” McDonald said on the eve of his retirement, “I revel in the fact that they’re fine citizens, and we’ve got another set of kids coming along to take their place. And that’s the way life is. Somebody will come along to take my place.” But, to win another 1,012 games? Probably not. 

Year	Athlete of the Year	Team of the Year	Coach of the Year	Event of the Year
2011	1 (tie). Siemone Augustus and Lindsay Whalen, Minnesota Lynx  2. Rachel Banham, Lakeville North girls basketball 3. Noora Raty, Minnesota Gopher hockey, G	1. Minnesota Lynx (34-8 including playoffs, WNBA champion) 2 (tie). Concordia (St. Paul) volleyball (34-2) St. Thomas basketball (30-3) (both NCAA D2 and D3 champions) 3 (tie). Hopkins basketball (31-1) Hopkins girls basketball (30-2) (both state champions)	1. Steve Fritz, St. Thomas basketball 2. Bob McDonald, Chisholm basketball 3. Cheryl Reeve, Minnesota Lynx	1. St. Thomas beat Wooster 78-54 to win its second NCAA basketball title. 2. The Minnesota Lynx beat San Antonio 85-67 to win the WNBA title. 3. Wisconsin beat Minnesota 5-4 in OT in the women’s WCHA playoff final.