I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.
Nov. 7, 1998
By Devlyn Brooks and Ryan Thomas
Tony Price and Chris Meyer seemingly have nothing in common, but they do.
Price is a retired math teacher living in Burlington, Wis., with his wife, Evelyn.
Meyer is a junior at BSU from East Grand Forks.
But they do have one thing in common: Price is the Beaver football team's all-time rushing leader with 3,228 yards. Today, Meyer stands just 183 yards from breaking the 38-year-old record Price set from 1957-60.
"I enjoyed it. It was definitely a team effort. We had a really good football team that year," said Price, who was a third-team All America selection in 1959. "It takes more than one person, though."
It's a record Meyer could conceivably break today when the Beavers travel to Marshall to take on the Southwest State Mustangs. Meyer has four 200-plus rushing games in his career, and seems to be just hitting his stride.
"I don't want to get into that until the season is over," Meyer said. "The main thing is to worry about getting a winning season this year. It would be nice to get it out of the way this year, but I'm just going to take it one game at a time. It would be a great achievement, but I just have to wait."
Last week in a 48-18 smoking of the University of Minnesota-Duluth, Meyer had 200 yards and tied an NSIC record with six touchdowns, as the Beavers improved to 5-3 on the year.
"Usually records don't last that long," said Price, an International Falls native. "Although, Babe Ruth's 60 home runs did."
Much like Roger Maris breaking Ruth's homer mark, the powers that be may want to consider an asterisk for Meyer's inevitable feat. Meyer plays only offense, a luxury Price didn't have.
Price also played safety or cornerback during his days with the Beavers. However, he thinks it didn't hinder his offensive output, and actually helped it.
"I think it kind of helped to stay in the game and stay with it and stay warm," the father of five, and grandfather of seven, said. "I don't think it detracted me. Our front was pretty tough. So usually took care of everything."
Another thing that makes Price's long-standing record even more impressive is that the Beavers only played eight games a year during his stay. Now, the team plays 10 per season.
"I don't think it would have helped me to play later in November when it gets so cold there," Price chuckled.
Price, who has been retired for a little over a year now, was the offensive coordinator for the Burlington football team for 36 years after graduating from college. And during the two falls he has been retired, he's gone to family reunions that happened to fall on BSU's homecoming weekend. In other words, he's never been back for a BSU football game since he left Bemidji.
"I thought it would have been broken a lot sooner," Price said.
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