FARWELL, Neb. (AP) - Randy Lukasiewicz believes the history of Farwell sports is worth remembering, and he’s collected as much of it as he can find.
That history is found in the old Strelecki Creamery building, which he owns. In the window of the building is a Farwell baseball uniform worn by the late Darryl Krzycki.
As part of Lukasiewicz’s efforts, he sells T-shirts that recall the Sherman-Howard Baseball League, which ran from 1912 to the 1970s. At one time or another, more than 40 Nebraska communities competed in that amateur baseball league.
He also sells shirts and other items emblazoned with the name of the Farwell Athletic Club, the Grand Island Independent reported.
Looking over an old photo that included his grandfather, Paul, Lukasiewicz noticed the athletes had the letters “FAC” on their uniforms. Although he has done a lot of research and talked to many people, he could never quite confirm that the Farwell Athletic Club existed.
But if it didn’t, Lukasiewicz decided the acronym might just as well stand for faith, attitude and community.
Those qualities helped build and sustain rural community life years ago, he said.
Lukasiewicz, 68, wrote a book about Farwell’s history in baseball “and so much more,” the cover states.
In the book, he writes, “whether you come from a big city or small village,” the need for those sustaining qualities of faith, attitude and community has not changed and might be needed now more than ever.
Lukasiewicz also associates an old Farwell baseball team, the Fence Busters, with the slogan “Whatever it takes.”
That motto governed their lives, he said.
“May it be an inspiration for you also, as you journey through your own fields, streets and challenges of life,” he wrote on posters he prepared.
Farwell, he said, produced many great athletes over the years.
The book includes photos of many of the town’s baseball teams, ranging from 1914 to the 1950s.
On the cover of the book, he writes that it captures a “magical and mythical time of town team baseball” in a small Polish village in central Nebraska in the 1950s.
He wrote that he was blessed to live in that era.
“I spent my Sunday afternoons chasing foul balls, hearing the sound of steel cleats and wooden bats and watching my heroes at the ole ball diamond,” wrote Lukasiewicz, who graduated from Grand Island Central Catholic in 1968.
When he was a kid, he had an Omaha World-Herald newspaper route in Farwell. He delivered papers to some of the town’s older residents. Later on, looking at the old baseball photos, he saw those people when they were younger.
In the old creamery, pictures pay tribute to old Farwell athletes. Lukasiewicz has a collection of old Farwell grade-school basketball uniforms.
An interesting item is an old stage curtain, which was used for generations. In the midst of all the autographs and messages written on the curtain is a note indicating that one play was presented the weekend Pearl Harbor was attacked. That curtain hung in Farwell’s old Modern Woodmen of America Hall.
Lukasiewicz, who lives in Omaha, opens his exhibit up to the public sometimes. He was on hand for four days last September during Junk Jaunt. He has also taken the town team baseball exhibit to other communities.
In past summers, a group of Farwell natives faced Ord in “vintage” baseball games in Farwell and at Fort Hartsuff. In Farwell, Lukasiewicz had the Ord players emerge from a cornfield, just as players do in the movie “Field of Dreams.”
One of the heroes of Farwell baseball is the late Howard Waltman, who played in the Sherman-Howard League for 30 years as a catcher. As a young man, Waltman played with Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth. When he retired, he and his wife moved to Crete, where they started a softball league for young people.
Waltman had such an impact on Crete that citizens named a softball complex in his honor.
Lukasiewicz finds it interesting that few people in Farwell know about the Waltman complex in Crete, and Crete residents don’t know about Waltman’s baseball past in Farwell.
George Dilla was one of the founders of the Sherman-Howard Baseball League. The last year Farwell competed in that league was 1963.
Leonard Williams of Grand Island played in the Sherman-Howard League for about 12 years in the 1960s and ’70s, pitching for Ord and Scotia.
Williams, 73, recalled that Boelus and Wood River fielded good squads.
“Greeley and Wolbach always had pretty decent teams, too,” he said.
Depending on which team you were on and facing, “it was kind of blood and guts when we played each other,” Williams said.
Playing was “a lot of fun,” he said. “We’d really go at it when the game was going, but once it was over, it wasn’t too bad.”
The old creamery building is not entirely devoted to sports. On the wall is a photo of Sir Ebenezer Howard, an Englishman who was the founder of the garden city movement. Howard, who died in 1928, lived for a time in Farwell.
The last year Farwell had a high school was 1968.
The school had a football team for one year, in 1960.
Farwell had great athletic success in 1955-56. The Panthers did well in volleyball, varsity basketball and reserve basketball. That year, Lukasiewicz was in kindergarten.
The Farwell varsity team, which fell to Holstein in the championship game, was led by “Tall Paul” Collison. The other Panthers included Darryl Krzycki, who put together a detailed book about the school year.
According to Lukasiewicz’s book, those players have since passed away. “Both have been called up to the Heavenly Big League,” he wrote.
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Information from: The Grand Island Independent, http://www.theindependent.com
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