| Augsburg Now |
 |
| Augsburg College > Augsburg Now |
|
|
|
||||
|
|
by Don Stoner
At first glance around Johnny and Vesla Werket's home in Sun City West, Ariz., you wouldn't realize that you were sitting in the home of one of the best speedskaters in American history. A few black-and-white photos hang on the wall in a utility room. One crystal vase trophy sits on a mantel in the kitchen of the Werkets' retirement home in the Sonoran Desert. But the remainder of the memorabilia of his speedskating career—numerous world titles, three Winter Olympic Games appearances, his Hall of Fame citation from the Amateur Skating Union of the United States—are out in the garage. Deep inside a drawer and a storage locker. "All my stuff is dumped
in the garage," Johnny jokes, his ever-present smile beaming. And
that's just fine with him. For the 1949 Augsburg alumnus, his speedskating career is but one moment in a long and fulfilling life. But the career led to love and a marriage that has lasted for a half-century. The career gave him the opportunity to coach many American skaters who became household names with their Olympic triumphs. And the career gave him a chance to see the world. Not bad for a small, slender guy who never believed that all of this would happen to him. Werket, who grew up in south Minneapolis, began skating when he was 7. At age 14, he and a friend decided to try out for a speedskating team in Powderhorn Park, on the south side of Minneapolis. "The Powderhorn Skating Club was the dominant club in the United States at the time," Werket said. "It was a ways away from Longfellow Field by streetcar, or you had to walk to the park." The Powderhorn club was an American powerhouse, producing numerous world champions and Olympians. Werket, and three of his Longfellow mates, ended up qualifying for the team. He progressed through the ranks, even though his small size was a major hindrance. "I was always the smallest, the lightest, the thinnest. I was too little. If you bump me, I go down," he said. "I never had a uniform, the whole time I skated, that ever fit me correctly. Never. Everything was too baggy." International acclaim, lifelong love He left the sport, like many other young American men at the time, to serve his country as a paratrooper during World War II. But he returned to the Powderhorn club following the war, and eventually gained a spot at the 1947 Olympic trials, his first national competition. He won the 1,500-meter race and qualified for the U.S. team to compete at the 1948 Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, finishing sixth in the event at the games. A Norwegian newspaper funded a trip for Werket—a full-blooded Norwegian—to compete at the European championships in Helsinki, Finland. "At that time, they
had allowed Americans to compete in the European championships," he said.
"Right off the bat, I was one of the leading competitors in the world.
I was second in the
500 (meters) and the winner was Krudachev, a Russian guy. The first- and second-place
skaters from the 500 automatically qualified for the 1,500 (meters), and they
skated together. The Finns After the 1948 championships—part of a stretch where he won four world gold medals and four silver medals—he was invited to compete as part of an American team in a challenge meet against a Norwegian team in Hamar, in a nation that adored speedskaters and all winter sports athletes. A 16-year-old girl named Arnhild "Vesla" Bekkevoll was part of that adoring crowd. She had traveled from her hometown of Rena, Norway, across the mountains to Oslo. She was the chaperone for her older sister and her boyfriend. "I went because they were engaged to be married and you didn't go anywhere without a chaperone," Vesla said. "Those were the strict old days." She watched the meet, and took particular notice of the small American competing—and winning—the races against the larger competition. When she got back to her hometown, she returned to her school and faced an assignment of writing a letter to a famous person. "Everyone else chose to write to Norwegian athletes. But I wanted to practice my English. I had seen this guy skate in Hamar, and I decided that he was going to be my victim," Vesla said. "I wrote to him in Minneapolis. I think the address was 'Johnny Werket, Minneapolis, USA.' This was after the season, he had gotten back to the U.S., and I really hadn't expected to get a reply. But he replied and we started writing back and forth." Eventually, one of Johnny's replies mentioned that he would return to Hamar to compete in the winter speedskating season, and the two arranged a meeting. The meeting developed into a friendship, the friendship developed into a romance, and the romance developed into marriage. Johnny and Vesla were married in 1951 in Minneapolis. An Auggie world traveler Along the way, while competing
on a national and international level, Johnny found time to complete his studies
at Augsburg. He graduated in 1949, and like many Auggies In addition to his speedskating days, he also competed on Augsburg's fledgling track and field and cross country teams. The cross country team was a conference title competitor during the early days of the sport, and he credits the training he needed to compete as an Auggie as a big part of his success as a speedskater. "We've been close and remained close to Augsburg because, in our days, Augsburg was a family," said Johnny, crediting then-athletic director Dick Pautz ’37 for much of his Augsburg success. "There's a great group of people at Augsburg." "Augsburg is well known in Norway," Vesla said. "The first time I came to the United States, I came by ship, a 10-day trip. I got to know a group of Norwegian fishermen who were headquartered out east. They had just been back to Norway, and were returning to America for the season. I was 19 years old, all by myself, and some of the older fellows were concerned about me. They knew my destination was Minneapolis, and they told me that if things didn't work out when I got there, to go and see Gerda Mortensen at Augsburg College. I had only known Augsburg because it was Johnny's school. But they knew of Augsburg quite well, and they were concerned about me." Johnny qualified for the 1952 Olympic team for the Oslo games, and the newlyweds again boarded a ship to cross the Atlantic. The captain of the ship, who was a big speedskating fan, recognized Johnny and moved them from steerage class to a first-class cabin. He placed sixth again in competition at the 1952 games, after suffering from a severe case of bronchitis. Three years later, Johnny was part of a team that competed in Moscow, as the world championships were held behind the Iron Curtain for the first time. "We were some of the first Americans to compete in Russia," said Johnny, who took along a camera for NBC's Today Show with Dave Garroway. By 1956, when he qualified for an Olympic team for the third time and competed in Cortina, Italy, Johnny could tell that his competitive career was nearing the end. Though he qualified for the American team for the 1960 games in Squaw Valley, Idaho, he withdrew from the team. He was beginning his career at Northern States Power and Johnny and Vesla were starting a family; the stress had become too much.
Though his body was unable to compete at an Olympic level, Johnny was still able to remain close to the sport he loved. He began coaching young speedskaters, first at the Richfield Speedskating Club, and later as a coach of various junior national teams and Olympic teams. He coached several athletes who later became greats in the sport. In 1967, he was the coach of the American world championship team, where Mary Meyers won a gold medal. He guided Dianne Holum to a gold medal in the 1972 Olympics in Sapporo, Japan. Johnny coached Eric Heiden to medals in the 1975 junior world meet, and was a force behind his ascent to become a five-time gold medalist at the Lake Placid Olympics in 1980. Later, he was introduced to a young skater named Dan Jansen; he was a friend of Jansen's father. He coached Jansen as a junior skater; later, Jansen provided some of the greatest drama in Winter Olympic history, when he competed on four Olympic teams and finally won a gold medal in 1994, after several tragic falls in previous competition. "I guess I'd rather coach," said Johnny of his preference between coaching and competing. Along the way, he built
a 31-year career at Northern States Power, starting as a commercial lighting
business representative and eventually working his way into an executive position
as a trainer for the company. He retired in 1983. Tennis Talent Now, Johnny prefers to let his wife's athletic career take center stage. Vesla began playing tennis with Johnny and his friends 40 years ago, but back then, it was a hobby, she said. "I had never played before, but I really liked it," she said. "I've played ever since. Today, if I'm without a racquet and without shoes, I'm in bad shape." The two moved from Minneapolis to Arizona in the mid-’80s, after Johnny retired from NSP and Vesla retired after working for 12 years in Christian education at Diamond Lake Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. She began to play tennis with friends in the Phoenix and Sun City area, eventually joining the "Anything Over 50 Senior Tennis" club. She has become one of the top senior tennis players in the area, competing in several Senior Olympic events. Her tennis has taken them across the country, from California to Florida, for competitions, and she has earned dozens of medals and awards for her talent. "I'm blessed with good health, and I really enjoy tennis," Vesla said. "Between our church and our tennis group, that's our social life. The phone rings and we go out and play. We could play seven days a week if we wanted to." On a rating system from 2.5 to 5.0, Vesla is currently competing at a 4.0 level, two spots under the highest ranking possible. Their two sons, John Jr. and Jim, are grown and work in the Twin Cities. They have four grandchildren, one of whom may follow in his grandfather's Olympic footsteps. Youngest grandson Eric is currently a senior soccer player at Viterbo College in La Crosse, Wis., and has competed on youth Olympic development teams in the sport. The Werkets live by the mantra that being active is the key to being truly alive. "We're both good movers, and that's what it takes. We've never been laid up with illness or sickness," Johnny said. "Being active is the best thing for everybody. When you can be active, you can beat almost anybody.
Twenty years before
Johnny Werket's Olympic victories, Auggie hockey players were on their way to
St. Moritz for the winter games. In 1926-27, Augsburg started its men's ice hockey program, officially, though the Auggies had already dominated local hockey as an unaffiliated team for several years. The 1927 team won the state college championship and repeated the feat the next year, behind the play of the Hansen brothers—Oscar, Emil, Julius, Joe, and Louis—along with goalie Joe "Moose" Swanson. In fact, the 1927-28 team, coached by future U.S. Hockey Hall of Famer Nick Kahler, was considered the mythical "national champions" in the sport. The Augsburg team was selected from an impressive group of candidates—including Harvard, the University Club of Boston, and Eveleth Junior College—by the Amateur Athletic Union's Ice Hockey Committee to represent the United States in the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The only condition that the AAU set for the Auggie team to be American representatives to the Olympics was that the team would have to raise $4,500—half of the cost of sending the team to Europe. Kahler organized a fundraising effort, and along with friends of the school and the Minneapolis Southside Commercial Club, easily raised the money to send the Auggies to the Olympics. But, just days before the team was to depart for Europe, the United States Olympic Committee pulled the rug out from under the local boys, abruptly cancelling the Olympic plans. "After much internal wrangling with the United States Olympic Committee, General Douglas MacArthur, who served as the committee's chairman, came out and termed the Auggies 'not representative of American hockey,' and vetoed them as their choice," wrote local author Ross Bernstein in his book, Frozen Memories: Celebrating a Century of Minnesota Hockey. "As a result, no U.S. team was sent to the Olympics that year and a dark cloud loomed over amateur hockey in America. For the boys from Augsburg, the news was devastating. They had been deprived of their greatest opportunity for international fame, and the community was very upset as well." The reasons for the sudden rejection of the Auggie squad remain unclear. Perhaps it was because the Hansen brothers grew up in Alberta, Canada, before moving to the Twin Cities. Or the Olympic committee was influenced by a protest from a Boston amateur hockey group that wanted to face Augsburg in a challenge match. Whatever the case, despite the best efforts of Augsburg fans who protested the cancellation, MacArthur¹s decision stood. Oscar, Emil, and another brother, Emory, went on to play professional hockey. Oscar was a charter inductee into the Augsburg Athletic Hall of Fame in 1973, and Louis was selected in 1985. Two years ago, Kahler's grandson, Jerry Regan, donated Kahler's U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame pylon, which was removed when the Hall of Fame was renovated, to Augsburg, where it was placed on display in the Augsburg Ice Arena main rink. —Don Stoner is sports information coordinator
|
||||
| Copyright 2007.
Augsburg College all rights reserved. |
hated
the Russians, since this was when the Cold War was mighty cold. I
beat this Russian guy badly in the 1,500. The Finnish people were patting me
on the back so long and so hard that I wasn't sure I was going to be able to
compete in the next race." 
at the time, learning Norwegian was a way of life. It was also a necessity for
Johnny, who was competing often in Scandinavia. "The
Norwegians had a book on training for speedskating, but it was in Norwegian.
So in order to learn what was in the book, I had to learn the language. In three
weeks, I learned the language," Johnny said.
Coaching
career