Bartlesville 8, Lawrence 3.
Who could have known that on July 3, 1959, that Bartlesville and Lawrence would meet again 54 years —and three days — later in the same tournament?
But, that’s the Glen Winget Memorial Tournament symbolizes — the linking of several past generations of baseball with the present.
This year’s 54th Annual Winget tourney is set to get underway next Thursday, at Bill Doenges Memorial Stadium.
While most other facets of American culture have been uprooted and twisted by the swirling winds of tumultuous change, baseball is still played with nine men, three bases, three strikes and your out, a pitching mound, glove, caps and bats.
And, the Winget tourney remains the centerpiece of Bartlesville’s local summer sports season.
It all started with Glen Winget.
He’s been gone now for 53 years — if he were alive, he would be 95. Who knows what he would think to know the tourney he began in 1959 would still be surging along in 2013.
“It means a whole lot to me,” his sister Iris Winget-Brown told the E-E, during an interview several years ago. “I can’t think of a word which would describe it. … I think he would be thrilled to know the young kids still have something to keep them occupied and to them from getting into mischief. … I think we would be really thrilled to know it was still going on.”
And, go on it has.
The new horror flick “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” shown on a local movie screen during that holiday week of 1959, when the Winget — then simply known as the Bartlesville July Fourth Tournament — was played.
A pound of hot dogs could be purchased for 45 cents at the Foodtown Market. To round out the seasonal meal, six 14-ounce bottles of catsup dented a shopper’s wallet for $1, and a 51-ounce of pork and beans cost 33 cents.
For those not in the mood for cooking, Johnston’s Drive-In offered a chicken basket for 69 cents, or a chicken meal for 89 cents.
To prove some things are just the same, Baldwin Rexall Drug Store advertised the vitamin packed supplement Slim-Pac, to help take off those nagging pounds.
But, the players at Bartlesville Municipal Athletic Field didn’t have hot dogs, or chicken or movies about killer dogs or losing weight (that would come later in life) on their minds.
All they cared about was baseball.
Glen Winget cared about saving his friends’ lives.
He wanted to stage a home tournament to keep people off the potentially-deadly holiday highways.
In fact, a sobering editorial cartoon in the July 1, 1959 issue of the Examiner-Enterprise depicted the Grim Reaper standing by a tombstone reserved for a holiday traffic victim.
Winget’s tourney plans became a reality when 12 teams — representing three states — gathered on July 3, 1959, to open the tourney, which actually was split between the Bartlesville and Dewey fields.
After the Doenges Ford Injuns (as they were then known; in the early-2000s the team would change its mascot to the Indians) and Lawrence tangled, Stillwater beat Neodesha (Kan.), 6-3, followed by Joplin (Mo.) outlasting Dewey, 4-2.
Rounding out the first day’s results were three more games: Tulsa J.D. Olds 2, Topeka (Kan.) 0; Springfield (Mo.) Hillcrest 8, Claremore 1; and Enid 9, Oklahoma City 0.
The format was straight double-elimination, with a total of 17 games played. In the final, Tulsa Olds knocked off Enid, 3-2.
The 2013 Winget lineup — which includes 10 teams — also depicts the ongoing tradition.
Springfield (Mo.) Hillcrest is back for the 54th time — the only team other than the Indians to have played every year in the tourney.
Also back are Enid — which has played in approximately 41 or 42 of the Wingets — and Lawrence.
And, Winget’s shadow continues to enhance the tourney — and the Bartlesville American Legion baseball program.
Prior to his ascendancy in the late-1950s to the head coach/manager position, the Injuns had had to share the summer spotlight with a very active youth baseball program, company softball and baseball leagues, the Bartlesville Pirates minor league (Class D) baseball team and several other worthy athletic endeavors.
But, Winget helped elevate the Legion’s status from middle-of-the-sports-page status to banner headline excitement.
“It was just a struggling program before he took over,” recalled Mike Vaclaw, a Bartlesville player in the 1959 tourney, during an interview several years ago. “When Glen took over, he started renovating the stadium a little bit, he got us more games and got some press coverage. He really put the program on the map.”
Vaclaw — who made Injuns/Indian history by slamming a homer at the first July Fourth tourney — recalled an instance from that first July Fourth tournament.
Between games, “Glen came out with a washtub and made lemonade for us,” he said. “We sat down and drank. … Glen was always very helpful and worked hard at coaching because he wanted the team to excel. … I remember him sweating during practice. He’d be up there just swinging that bat, while were taking infield practice, sweating like a stuck hog because he worked so hard. … He’d just bend over backwards to help us.”
But, Winget would die far too soon to see the fruits of his efforts.
In the summer of 1960, shortly after the legion season ended, he suffered stomach pains that put him in the hospital.
Winget-Brown visited him on a Wednesday, in the hospital, “an he was sitting up in bed and smiling and talking,” she recalled.
But, two days later Glen Winget died, as a result of complications from acute leukemia. He was 42 years old.
He left behind many memories — and his flame continued to burn in the hearts of his loved ones and friends.
“He was very dedicated,” another sister, Margie Maze, said during an interview several years ago. “He loved his family. I was a special guy. … I think the thing he was proudest of from coaching is that he got to participate with his son and all those other young boys. … I think the boys really admired him.”
Unfortunately, Winget’s family would be dealt another devastating blow eight years later, when his son Harold Winget — who had played Legion ball — died while serving in Vietnam.
Despite the loss of Glen and of Harold, other good men stepped up to call the cadence that helped the program march through the past 50 years — head coaches such as Al Solenberger, Tug Baughn, Carl Brooks, Mat Saddoris, Stan Walton, Rusty Zumwalt, John Pannell and current skipper Anthoney Towers.
During that time, only twice has the Winget tourney failed to crown a champion — in 1963, when it was not held, and in 2007, when a flood washed it out after the first round.
Solenberger took charge in 1964 of the Bartlesville Legion program and built on Winget’s vision.
The legendary parents’ committee was formed during Solenberger’s tenure, created an attitude of participation and custodianship, rather than just spectatorship, among the moms and dads, or guardians.
By the time he stepped away after 11 seasons, Solenberger had led the Indians to 363 victories and its only appearance – to date – in the American Legion World Series (1969).
During Winget’s tenure, the Indians won five Winget tourney crowns (1964, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1974). No other subsequent head coach has claimed more.
Baughn next oversaw the program (1975-78), averaging more than 50 wins a year and guiding the team to two state championships (1976, 1978). The Indians won the Winget twice during those years.
Carl Brooks filled the skipper’s spot for seven seasons (1979-85) and won more than 315 games — but seized only one Winget title (1979)
Saddoris led the team’s destiny for three years (1986-88). His 1987 squad broke an eight-year drought of also-ran showings in the Winget.
Walton — who had been an assistant for eight years — became head coach in 1989.
He would match Solenberger’s mark for five Winget championships (1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998), while capturing 470 victories in 11 seasons.
Zumwalt (2000-02) turned in some strong seasons but didn’t lead the team to a Winget title.
Pannell (2003-2010) navigated his 2003 squad to the Winget championship — the 17th in team history.
Since then, the Indians have been 0-for-9 — although they’ve been on the verge multiple times.
The Indians still own a big advantage in total Winget titles (17), followed by Springfield Hillcrest (six) and Enid (six).
Four of the last seven Winget title games have been decided by two-runs-or-less.
1959: Tulsa Olds 3, Enid 2
1960: Bartlesville Injuns 3, OKC Medley 0
1961: Enid 8, OKC Medley 1
1962: Tulsa Tillman 4, Springfield Hillcrest 2
1963: Not held
1964: Bartlesville Injuns 6, Durant 5
1965: Tulsa Oil Capitol 1, Waxahachie 0
1966: Enid 7, Tulsa Tillman 2
1967: Tulsa National Guard 6, Jefferson City 5
1968: Ponca City 4, Jefferson City 3
1969: Bartlesville Injuns 4, Jefferson City 1
1970: Bartlesville Injuns 3, Springfield Hillcrest 2
1971: Co champions: Bartlesville Injuns and Springfield Hillcrest
1972: Springfield Hillcrest 4, Jefferson City 0
1973: Springfield Hillcrest 10, Putnam City West 4
1974: Bartlesville Injuns 9, OKC Northwest 7
1975: Ponca City 6, Enid 1
1976: Enid 14, Bartlesville Injuns 0
1977: Bartlesville Injuns 14, Carthage 0
1978: Bartlesville Injuns 1, Alton 0
1979: Bartlesville Injuns 6, Springfield Hillcrest 5
1980: Nebraska Federal 7, Bartlesville Injuns 1
1981: Nebraska Federal 17, Enid 3
1982: Nebraska Federal 5, Bartlesville Injuns 4
1983: Omaha Northwest 3, Quincy 0
1984: Omaha Northwest 4, Bartlesville Injuns 0
1985: Lawrence 7, Bartlesville Injuns 6
1986: Springfield Hillcrest 17, Bartlesville Injuns 3
1987: Bartlesville Injuns 12, Springfield Hillcrest 4
1988: Springfield Hillcrest 19, Bartlesville Injuns 7
1989: OKC Reynolds 6, Springfield Hillcrest 5
1990: OKC Reynolds 6, Enid 3
1991: Enid 6, Elk City 1
1992: Bartlesville Injuns 4, Springfield Kickapoo 1
1993: Bartlesville Injuns 10, Enid 4
1994: Bartlesville Injuns 9, Elk City 7
1995: Shawnee Mission 14, Fayetteville 6
1996: Bartlesville Injuns 10, Springfield Hillcrest 3
1997: Enid 5, Lawrence 3
1998: Bartlesville Injuns 7, Elk City 2
1999: Ft. Smith Kerwins 8, Bartlesville Injuns 6
2000: Owasso 8, Bartlesville Injuns 5
2001: Bentonville 17, Springfield Hillcrest 8
2002: Springfield Hillcrest 12, Bartlesville Injuns 9
2003: Bartlesville Injuns 12, Ft. Smith 2
2004: Ft. Smith Kerwins 11, Springfield Hillcrest 2
2005: Ft. Smith Kerwins 4, Lawrence 2
2006: Lawrence 4, Bartlesville Indians 0
2007: Tourney flooded out
2008: Rogers County 8, Tahlequah 4
2009: Rogers County 10, Bartlesville Indians 9
2010: Emporia 7, Lawrence 6
2011: Emporia 8, Springfield Hillcrest 7
2012: Enid Majors 5, Rogers Optimist 1