Earl Baldwin  •  Caretaker, Laird Stadium

For the first time since the Hall of Fame came into existence, the selection committee voted to dispense with the requirements that a nominee must have competed in varsity athletics or coached at Carleton to be eligible for induction.

The committee could not have made a better choice than Earl Baldwin, officially the caretaker and custodian at Laird Stadium from 1926 to 1976. Supposedly retired in 1976, Baldwin continued to live at the Stadium and work part time for several years thereafter. His duties for fifty years included care and maintenance of the football, baseball and soccer fields, the indoor and outdoor tracks, and most of the intercollegiate athletic equipment.

Earl Baldwin’s optimistic outlook on both athletics and life, his quiet, dry humor and his knack for listening sympathetically and offering sage advice to coaches and athletes alike are much missed. In 1964, he was honored by the Carleton Alumni Association for “long and distinguished service to the College.” The Alumni “C” Club honors him now for his unselfish contributions to the life of Carleton College, and for having been the friend and confidant of three generations of Carleton athletes and a score of coaches.

 

Paul Marschalk, ’24  •  Basketball

Born in a log cabin on Lake of the Woods in Minnesota, Paul Marschalk graduated from Warroad High School in 1919. An economics major at Carleton, he was a good all around athlete, but his long successful coaching record eventually overshadowed his own playing career. He taught and coached at Madison, Minnesota for two years, then moved on to Pierre, South Dakota, where he remained for 18 years. His 1944 basketball team won the South Dakota state championship.

Marschalk taught and coached at Shattuck School in Faribault, Minnesota, and eventually moved to South Dakota in 1952. While at Huron High School, his basketball teams won three sectional championships and finished third, fourth and seventh in three state tournaments.

Coach Marschalk is also credited with inventing the “inner ring” basketball rim, a device now used universally to sharpen players’ shooting skills. He also revised the once cumbersome basketball scorebook sheet into a format still used today.

Marschalk had been inducted into the South Dakota Coaches Hall of Fame and the South Dakota Sportswriters Hall of Fame, and he is known as that state’s “Mr. Basketball.”

 

Matt Thoeny, ’33  •  Basketball, Baseball, Football

Matt Thoeny was an outstanding athlete at Glencoe (Minn.) High School, graduating in 1929. Winner of seven varsity letters at Carleton, he will be long remembered as a guard on the “Victory Five” basketball team, coached by Marsh Diebold. The teams he played on lost a total of only six games, all to Big Ten opponents, won three Midwest Conference championships and were undefeated at home. Thoeny was also an excellent hitter and infielder on the baseball team, and a star quarterback in football until injuries put him out of football early in his junior year.

Following graduation, Thoeny spent two years as an assistant coach at Carleton, then coached and taught at Canby High School for two years and Benson High School for one.

Thoeny served in the U.S. Army during the Second World War and was killed in action in France on November 8, 1944.