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Alumni Profile Tim
Wolter ’78:
Augsburg alumnus Tim Wolter
wrote a book on this topic, which was published last year by McFarland & Company.
POW Baseball in World War II: The National Pastime Behind Barbed Wire
is the story of POW baseball. The book is divided into the various prison camps
and describes the types of prisoners held there and the degree to which baseball
was played. Wolter, a practicing physician who has written articles on the history of baseball and the philosophy of medicine, first investigated 19th-century war baseball. He discovered that even during the Civil War, POW baseball was played on maneuvers. Wolter received so many interesting clues and information from various calls and letters about WWII POW baseball, that what first appeared to be an interesting magazine article soon turned into a book. "The book turned out pretty well, although I can of course see a hundred ways I could have done it better," says Wolter. "But for a first book, it's not too bad." Wolter is especially glad to see the book published while some of the people he wrote about are still living. During the course of Wolter's research and writing, ESPN, the cable-TV sports network, heard about the project and asked him to help with a documentary on WWII and sports for the network's Outside the Lines program. The episode, "Fields of Battle, Fields of Play," premiered last December on Pearl Harbor Day. "They filmed me at Fort Snelling in a 19th-century limestone jail cell," says Wolter. He came away from the collaboration in awe of the enormous resources the writers at ESPN have at their disposal. "What would have taken me years to research took them months or just weeks." Wolter, who has lived in
Chippewa Falls, Wis., since 1985 with his wife, Laura (Kasdorf) ’81, and
their three sons, Matt, Karl, and Gus, is also a frequent guest speaker. He
recently spoke at the Baseball Hall of Fame on Memorial Day, and often speaks
to veterans' groups. "We first got interested in robotic combat a couple years ago on a trip to London," says Wolter. "While watching BBC we discovered Robot Wars, a program that had not yet crossed the Atlantic. 'How cool is this!' we exclaimed, and started to discuss ways to create our own 'killer' robots." Since then, they have built several 'battlebots' (as they are known in the U.S.) and have competed in various competitions. Their robots have featured garden gnomes, fruitcake, and bowling balls. New design ideas include the use of other cultural icons, such as the Teletubbies, a disco ball, or perhaps even lava lamps or Elvis. Sometimes, robots come home from competitions in pieces. "But that is part of the fun," says Wolter. "Then it's back to the shop to build something new."
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| Copyright 2007.
Augsburg College all rights reserved. |
During
the Second World War, nearly 130,000 American soldiers and 19,000 civilians
were captured and held in prisoner of war camps. While the conditions under
which they were held varied enormously, baseball, in various forms, was a common
activity among the prisoners. Not just Americans, but Canadians, British, Australians,
and New Zealanders participated, as well as Japanese and even some Germans.
