On April 11 & 12, 1958, Michigan State hosted the men's gymnastics NCAA competition in Lansing,
Michigan. For the past several years, Gene Wettstone's Penn State team and Charlie Pond's U of Illinois team dominated the conference; alternating winning the title almost every other year.
But in 1958, George Szypula's boys from Michigan State broke in and tied with Illinois
to share the conference title!
Take a look at the classic photo below of the University of Iowa team having just returned from the big competition - - it includes a number of stellar gymnasts, trampolinists and coaches.
Below, read a dose of Ted Blake's famous "dry humor" regarding the recent fire at John Smith & Company (London)...in response to the Cedar Rapids folk's apparent oversight!
Background note: Ted and my father had set up a special sub-contracting arrangement with John Smith's to use their facility as the U.K. base to manufacture trampolines.
This unfortunate incident in the midst of Kurt Baechler's big European sales blitz pushed the
Cedar Rapids factory to fill in the gap and double their production quotas.
Luckily, trampolines continued to be delivered without a hitch!
Visitors from New Zealand...Bob Bollinger completing plans to open his trampoline school next month...and we get to meet Bob Wright; who worked at Nissen's "before there was even a Nissen's!"
In 1944, he was the welder in the Chevrolet garage on First Avenue (Cedar Rapids) who helped assemble and ship out Dad's first big order of 30 trampolines for the Navy!
A great photo of my father with Irvin "Shorty" Bedard. The two shared the same nickname as my father was referred to as "Shorty Nissen" throughout his early school years.
Do these newsletters spark a memory for you? You are invited to share your own stories and comments below.
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"Nissen's - - A Great Place to Work!"
I first met Charlie Pond when I attended his summer camp "Pond's Paleastrum" located on Elk Lake near Traverse City, Michigan. He was a kind man who took the time to teach & motivate both those new to gymnastics as well as the campers with the better skills. I was hooked after my first summer there, and returned to Palaestrum for 8 more summers!
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