I had seen that jacket before, and he didn’t look a day older, but when I heard that radio-voice it was as if I had been transported back in time. It had been a lot of hockey games since George Baumann and I had crossed paths, but it seemed like it was only yesterday.

As you begin to read this, know that before there was the online Wisconsin Prep Hockey, there was the pioneer plain paper edition called George Baumann’s High School Hockey Report. “If you were a high school hockey player in the 90’s you couldn’t wait to get home and check the mail for the George Baumann hockey report,” admitted Brendan Doud, who played for Pius XI Popes. “Then scan it to see if there was a game summary and hopefully your name was in it.” It may not have been Christmas morning, but the anticipation and enthusiasm for the HSHR was real.

“If you were a high school hockey player in the 90’s you couldn’t wait to get home and check the mail for the George Baumann hockey report.”

The man behind High School Hockey Report for nearly twenty-five years was indeed George Baumann. A bank marketing officer by day and a high school sports broadcaster by night, Baumann started HSHR in 1976 while working for WLKE/WGGQ radio in Waupun. It began as a modest high school hockey poll and grew into a beloved staple of every high school hockey fan, coach and player in Wisconsin.

Grand Rapids and Gus

After serving in the Navy/Marines during the Vietnam War, George returned and went to the Career Academy of Broadcasting in Milwaukee. “It was a crash course, basically you learned nothing except how to broadcast,” said Baumann.

His radio career began in 1970 with KOZY Radio in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Broadcasting high school sports was part of the job description, however, Baumann admittedly knew nothing about hockey. So, he decided to meet with the Grand Rapids high school coach, who just happened to be Gus Hendrickson, who would lead Grand Rapids to a state championship in 1975 and later go on to be a coaching legend at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

“I got a crash course from Gus,” said Baumann. “I went over to his house, and he got out a clipboard, and he went over all the things I should know.” The second hockey game Baumann ever saw was also the first one he ever broadcast. “I hope there are no tapes around,” laughed Baumann. “I hope they were all destroyed. But that's how I started, and I just fell in love with the game.”

Baumann also fell in love with Grand Rapids despite the shortcomings of the radio station. “It was a little bit of a behind the times radio station up there,” he recalled. “We didn't even have a teletype. You picked up a newspaper and read the news on air. It was really something else. But we broadcast a lot of sports. And Grand Rapids was a great sports town.”

The Coursolle Challenge

While working in Grand Rapids, Baumann received an offer to work for WLKE/WGGQ in Waupun. When he learned that the station did not broadcast any sports, he declined the offer. A year later in 1974 an FM license was acquired, allowing them to do high school sports, including hockey. After a conversation with his wife Rosemary, Baumann left the Minnesota Iron Range and moved to Waupun. He has been there ever since.

The hockey culture shock he experienced was quickly evident. Hockey was king in Minnesota, but in Wisconsin it was a fledgling sport just getting started under the WIAA umbrella. One day while venting to his boss Jim Coursolle about the lack of coverage for hockey, Coursolle responded, “Why don’t you be a pioneer and do something about it.”   

“That is how it got started,” said Baumann. “There was nothing, and then I started jotting things down, and I thought, well, people got to see this. So, I started sending it out to the media and by golly, I'll give them credit, they picked it up.” The weekly Top Ten Poll was born.

The High School Hockey Bible

What began as a simple poll ranking the state’s top teams grew into the epicenter of high school hockey in Wisconsin. Keep in mind that this was far before the internet and all the information was obtained through newspapers and phone calls to coaches. We are talking about manual typewriters and white out, two things which are now on the endangered list, and addressing envelopes and licking stamps.

I asked George about the Top Ten Poll, because I couldn’t remember if the coaches voted on it like it is done today. “It was just me,” he confessed. “A number of times I went to the coaches, wanting them to help, and they said, nope, you're doing a great job, keep it up.”

Sunday mornings were spent making phone calls to coaches to gather information on their games from the past week. “I called, I got a whole list and I had my regulars,” Baumann recalled, “and they knew at such and such a time the phone would ring, and they gave me what happened, and then I put it all together, and I did that all by myself.” It was a true labor of love for Baumann that lasted twenty-four years. And throughout the entire time it was his love for the game of hockey that kept it going. “My time, I gave it away, I guess,” he said, “Just like you do and everybody else who does this kind of thing. When you're passionate about something, time doesn’t matter.”

During the newsletter’s development stage, Baumann recalled conversations with former Badger Mike Cowan, who briefly published a tabloid called Wisconsin Hockey Exchange. It was also during that time that a young college student, by the name of Dan Bauer, was also producing a newsletter, Hockey Unlimited and then a newspaper Wisconsin Hockey Report. Only Baumann’s HSHR survived. “Yeah, Mike Cowan actually came up with the name (George Baumann’s HSHR),” said Baumann.  “He told me you have to have your name on it somewhere.”

As the newsletter progressed, George added an opinion column he tabbed “Behind the Boards”. It was there that he used his complete knowledge of the high school game to express his thoughts and opinions. While HSHR primarily covered the high school scene, you could also find news about the Badger hockey team and other Wisconsin D3 and at one time NAIA teams. It really was the ultimate resource for those that loved hockey.

Near the end of the HSHR run Baumann got help from a local printer EP-Direct who printed and mailed the newsletter. Eventually as HSHR report grew from a single page to several pages, a subscription fee was introduced, to help off-set costs. The rate reached $10 in its final few seasons and the subscriber list was nearly five hundred. “It actually made a little bit of money,” Baumann noted. “Not much, the IRS wouldn't bother with it, but it basically covered my expenses.” The final few seasons HSHR began publishing the “High School Hockey Yearbook”, that included schedules and previews of all high school and college teams across Wisconsin. 

HSHR’s location in Waupun, where Mike Cowan’s hugely successful Senior Class Tournament took place for thirty-seven years, made it the perfect location for coaches to gather at the end of the season and select the All-State Team. Coaches would carve out time to meet at the rink or many times at Baumann’s house to debate the team’s selections. Despite Baumann’s efforts to create credible lists of players to choose from, the process was very imperfect and impartial. Only the coaches who attended the tournament that weekend were allowed to vote, and if your team was scheduled to play during that meeting, well you didn’t get to vote either. Madison Memorial’s legendary coach Vic Levine was most often master of ceremonies and led the debate as to who would make the cut. “He (Vic) had a lot of input and a lot of pull,” joked Baumann. “Good guy,” he continued, “Vic really loved hockey, loved our boys. I am so saddened that he is gone.”

Through all of this, Baumann was a full-time marketing officer at National Exchange Bank in Fond du Lac and part owner of three radio stations. When you look through the thousands of typed pages Baumann created you get a glimpse of the dedication and pride he took in delivering hockey to the state’s players, coaches and fans. The countless hours Baumann gave to HSHR can never be tallied up and neither can the impact he had on high school hockey in Wisconsin. Both are immeasurable.

During this time, the number of high school teams grew from 18 in 1974 to 76 in 2000, which Baumann acknowledged “was wonderful.” However, the task he started with had grown beyond his capabilities and the internet was now on the horizon. The last few years, HSHR would contain anywhere from 50 to 80 individual game summaries, all written by Baumann. “I think I was getting a little burned out from doing all the things I was doing,” he stated. “Finally, it got where I thought, people aren't going to want to wait till Tuesday to read this when they can go online, get it instantly. So, it was time.”

March 6th of 2000, the last issue of HSHR was sent out. The man who had painted the high school hockey landscape with his words for over two decades, closed up shop with the following modest farewell.

FINAL HSHR: This is our final HSHR after deciding to stop publishing to become a full-time fan. Our experience covered 24 seasons of promoting high school hockey in Wisconsin. During this period, we had the privilege of experiencing the joy that many teams and players provided for themselves and others, we also felt the disappointment that a defeat can bring. Where else can a person meet so many neat people and have so much fun as at a hockey game. Thanks for the memories and best wishes.

I showed George the final issue and his farewell. I told him I didn’t think it was a very exciting good-bye, that it was short and sweet. He laughed, “That’s kind of how I am. But it was a great run, and I met so many wonderful people, you included.”

Friends of Hockey Award

I happened to be president of the Wisconsin Hockey Coaches Association in 2000 and when I heard the news about HSHR coming to an end I proposed the WHCA establish a George Baumann Friends of Hockey Award. The award would recognize outstanding service, support and commitment to Wisconsin High School Hockey. George was presented with the first Friends of Hockey Award that year. I am proud to say I personally received the award in 2014. The award is still presented annually by the WHCA. Last year’s winner was official Dave Ferwerda.

In 2012 Baumann was inducted into the Wisconsin Hockey Hall of Fame. When asked about these awards he admitted that the awards themselves end up in a closet, but the recognition of a job well done is appreciated. “People recognized what you did,” he said. “Yah, that's what means something to me. I had a wonderful time, but it was the people. I really enjoyed being around all the people, and they were always so kind to me.”

I had a wonderful time, but it was the people. I really enjoyed being around all the people, and they were always so kind to me.

The Boxes…

As we finished up our McDonald’s coffee on that chilly October morning, George informed me that he had several boxes in his car that he wanted me to have. When we transferred the boxes from his vehicle to mine, it was as if he was saying goodbye to an old friend. That friend was a lifetime of his work.

“Well, I often wondered what's going to happen to all this stuff? I boxed it up, put it in the basement, and that's been a long time now. It'd be a shame if it just got trashed. I'm really, really glad you're doing this,” he said as we shook hands. I don’t have a twenty-four year run left in me, but after talking to George I was inspired to make the decision to do my best to expand my WiPH coverage onto the boy’s side.

As we parted ways, I thought about something he said early in our meeting. “I believe we were given the ability to do things. You can call it talents; you can call it anything you want. But somebody gave you that ability. You should use it. Because sadly, a lot of people don't.” Baumann, now eighty years old, just recently gave up his other labor of love as a racetrack announcer for the past thirty-three years.

It is a different world we live in today when it comes to amateur sports. From the time kids are mites they see their faces and names and highlights all over social media. Before this craze took over, players longed to see their photo or their name in a local newspaper, or in George Baumann’s High School Hockey Report. For a quarter of a century George Baumann helped make that simple, but significant recognition come true for hockey players across Wisconsin. He didn’t do it for the money, nor the personal credit, he did for the players and for the love of the game.

George Baumann didn’t waste his talents, he shared them with all of us, and for that we owe him a huge debt of gratitude. Thanks George, for being a true “Friend of Hockey”.

Dan Bauer is a free-lance writer, retired teacher & hockey coach in Wausau, WI. You can contact him at drbauer13@gmail.com.