The 2025 NFL Draft is over. Would this have been 2026,
Titletown would have celebrated the draft’s 90th anniversary. However,
before the draft came into play, players were free to sign wherever they chose,
or with a team that wanted them. That’s where Algoma fits in.
And, though nobody would believe it 94 years after the fact,
an Algoma city team beat the Packers, however it was the Big Bay Packers vs.
Algoma and that was a basketball game. The headline that February day screamed “BIG
CAGE GAME SUNDAY WHEN BIG BAYS COME: Packers to Mix With Algoma Quintet at
Dug-out”.
Editor Harry H. Heidmann’s article went on to say that
Sunday promised to bring the cage classic of the season. Packers’ offensive
lineman, Mike Michalske, running back Johnny Blood McNally, vagabond halfback Lavie
Dilweg, Boob Darling who started at center, half back Dave Zuidmueller, and
Arnie Herber who played tackle, defensive back, full back and quarterback would take on the Algoma city team. Manager
George Bohman said a good preliminary game was on tap while the preparations
were being made for the “big scrap” at 8:30.
In 2025, the Packers are among the NFL’s finest football
teams while in 1931 the Packers had lost one game and were among the state’s
best pro-basketball teams. Heidmann felt Algoma had a smooth functioning team
and - knowing the invaders were among the best in the state – a close game was
in prospect.
Manager Bohman said ticket sales meant a record-breaking
crowd was certain. The 35 cent tickets were available at Fluck’s City Drug
Store and Wheeler Recreation. Student tickets were 25 cents. Even though the
game was drawing such attention, admission prices were not raised. As the
Record Herald opined, “The game was a contest between speed on one side and
plenty of braun on the other.”
The February 13 headline didn’t scream after the game, perhaps because Algoma didn’t want the Packers to feel bad. The paper said the Wolves ran the Big Bay Packers ragged. It credited the Packers with “beautiful floor work” to bring the ball into scoring position, but they just couldn’t do it. The first quarter ended with the Packers ahead 3-2, and at halftime the score was tied at 4. Ahead at the end of the 3rd quarter, the Wolves had a one-point lead. During the 4th quarter the Packers “scored a tied field goal and a point on a gift shot,” while the locals scored 3 more field goals.
Speed and snappy floor work won the game for the Wolves.
How did the Packers ever take on a team from a city with a 2,202 population? It was because of Vincent Lyle Wheeler, mostly known as Cowboy. He was an all-around athlete who was born in a Northeast Wisconsin widening in the road. Who could have imagined the likes of Cowboy coming from an Oconto County place that is a mere flyspeck on a Wisconsin map? Though Stiles can lay claim to being Cowboy’s birthplace, he was two when the family moved to Green Bay. He was a standout athlete at West High School. The East-West high schools’ rivalry in those days was not much different than the Packers and “da Bears” in the years to come.
History says that Cowboy began playing with the Packers in 1919, two years before the team joined the NFL in 1921.Wheeler played his first game with the Packers on September 15, 1919, a day when the Packers played Menomonie North End and won big. Cowboy made one of the touchdowns that day. He played until the end of the 1923 season.
Cowboy was a multi-talented athlete. He not only played football with the Packers but played baseball for the Northern Mills basketball team in the 1920s, for Remier Weiners and the GreenBay Naval Reserves into 1925, and played semi-pro baseball in Green Bay. The Two Rivers newspaper said Cowboy was one of the best basketball guards in the country. After he married Thora Rasmussen, they opened Wheeler's in Algoma. It was a bowling alley, restaurant and bar that was a gathering place for Packer players who were still seen around town into the '60s. Wheeler's hosted some large state bowling tournaments
Cowboy was a community leader who had a significant impact as a player and coach in city sports and was a founder of the Hunting and Fishing club. Vern Lewellen and Ed Glick were on his baseball team that was called the greatest in community history. Lewellen was a punter and back in the first three championship Packer teams, 1929-1931, which was the first dynasty, while Glick played in 1922. The Press Gazette said Cowboy added public relations to his titles as Algoma was going to boom as a summer resort. Wheeler even founded a semi-pro football team in Algoma but it didn’t last, or maybe didn’t even get off the ground.
Then came September 1923 when one writing for the Record
Herald as Q. Kumber said fall weather brought thoughts of “the smell of
pigskin and the tumble and scrap of old football game.” Q. Kumber said it would
tickle the imagination to see some of the mighty-tug-of war stars and the
Hercules of Algoma “all togged up” in the striped jerseys and football togs
crushing the stone wall of the Packers or some other team worth tackling.
Writing that Algoma was full of powerful, blocky, strong,
and long fellows who could tuck the ball under an arm and crawl through the
Great Wall of China, Q .Kumber felt that men joining the team needed to be
married as a married man was “hardened to life and used to getting hit.” Had Q.
Kumber used his real name, the town’s wives would have probably strung him up
by the toes. Who needed a draft when Algoma had it all?
In picking left end, the Record Herald’s correspondent said they needed a fellow who could play the whole field, grab a forward pass at 50 feet, and have a long pair of legs. That was Ed Anderegg who was a terror for stopping end runs. Page Eleven (Knipfer) had to play right end so when he and Ed Andregg expected an end run, they’d cover the whole field and pick forward passes out of the air. There was not a better pair in Wisconsin.
Heinie Grimm could damage the outfield. He was reported to
be a full back who never got full. He wasn’t a farmer but he knew how to plow.
Some say he pulled on a rope like a 26-40 tractor. When Heinie got the pigskin
under his arm, and hit the line, “they’ll have to delay the game until
everybody gets back from the place he landed.” Louis Kammer could run and good
for left half. The fellows who tried to pull his wagons away on Halloween unfortunately
found that out for themselves, and the backfield needed that kind of speed and
weight.
Nobody had to think twice about Walter Knospe playing right
half. He had the weight and it was said he could run 30 knots an hour, giving
him time to cross the goal line before the fellow who hit him knew what
happened.
Constant LuMaye was ideal for quarterback. When Heinie’s
plunges move only a yard, the team could squeeze LuMaye through a buttonhole
for at least 10 yards. Max LeCloux chewed tobacco but he was springy, light, had
enough sand in him “to balance the Sahara and enough grit to tackle a gorilla”
with that chew of tobacco and was the choice for left tackle. Kumber said left
guard is a tough place, a place where you kill or get killed. That made butcher
Pete Kashik out to kill. He had both the weight and the beef.
Charlie Lindauer made a good center but he wasn’t married so was out of the
question. Bill White put up a bold front. He was heavy and could argue a game
in a pinch. Give him a jersey, head gear, and make him mad, said Q. Kumber, and
then call the ambulance to pick up the pieces.
Baloney Bill Krueger was the pick for right guard. Bill was
another butcher and it was said “you couldn’t get through him with a mower
cycle.” Kumber said he could stop a fullback by just looking at him and that his
mustache would save expenses because he wouldn’t need a nose guard.
A left tackle needed sand and a right tackle needed nerve.
Dentist Doc Melchoir worked for the position because everybody was afraid of
him. Kumber said Doc could drill through anything and always inflicted pain. Doc
Slaby might do but a long-legged half back could walk all over him.
It might seem surprising that Cowboy was not considered for the team, however he was playing with the Packers, and he was not married. The paper called Cowboy "sanguine" when he was pitching and "Prince Charming" when he was whacking home runs. When the Record Herald said, "Gururls, desist. Prince Charming is married," it didn't have to say who the prince was.
Cowboy was working the hull for the Wolves in 1925, playing with such guys as Harold Knospe on 1st base, Ferdie Zastrow at 2nd, Jingles Bohman at short and Bob Slaby and Bob Zastrow battling for the 3rd base job. A year later, he assumed charge of the Wolves, as captain-manager and was looking at Norman Weber, Ferdie Zastrow, Bob Slaby, Elmer Bohman, Merline Chadsey and himself for infield positions. Wallace Kashik, Miles Bruemmer, Joseph Hutter and Ed Zastrow were mentioned for the outfield.
Wheeler’s next job was securing funds to finance the team.
The Haucke Post of the American Legion offered to turn the Legion baseball
equipment to the team for the year. Wenniger Park was leased for the season and
was being put in shape for the opening game.
Cowboy was sleeping in his car next to the lake when he died
far too soon at 41 years old. Had he lived longer, who knows what would have
happened to with Algoma sports? One thing is certain – Algoma would never have
been the site of an NFL draft. If Cowboy had been in the 2025 draft, where
would he have ranked? Which team would have picked him? Local promoter that he
was, he probably would have wanted to stay in the area. He did. He rests in St. Mary's cemetery.