Fritsch: Finding his calling

“I tend to tell people when they ask, ‘Hey, did your dad ever hold any records?’ Well, yeah, he kicked the 52-yard field goal in New York… and it was just like a snap, a hold, and he was a traditional kicker — not a sidewinder — he was dead-on, straight. He had a flat toe, and he kicked a 52-yard field goal. And I don’t believe they had a black rubber tee. I think he had kicked it right off the turf,” Ted Fritsch’s son, Tom said.

That 52-yard field goal on Oct. 19, 1950, against the New York Yanks held up as the club record for 31 years, until Paul Hornung matched it in 1964 and Jan Stenerud broke it in 1981 — by just one— at 53 yards.
But then his Packers career was over.

“What mom and dad did was they purchased a home out at Red Banks, and we were Holy Cross people,” Tom recalled.

Holy Cross and Red Banks are located on the northeast side of Green Bay, where Red Banks is known as the landing site of Jean Nicolet in 1634.

“There was a convent and a big cherry orchard. God, it was huge from what I understand. Now there’s no cherry orchard there anymore; I think they grow apples. The convent is long gone, but Holy Cross is still up there,” he explained.

“Now he’s selling cars in Manitowoc, and my mother’s going to work, and I had no idea what they did for childcare.

“But from 1950 to 1953, I know they had the house in Red Banks. Then dad was let go. Now dad is saying, ‘I’m out of football. What the hell am I going to do?’

“I was born in 1953, but prior to that year, Premontre came knocking. Now Premontre was Catholic Central High School, in the basement of WBAY in Green Bay. So when they built the school on top of the hill… they’re searching for educators, they’re searching for athletic directors, trainers, coaches. My dad applied and was accepted as the athletic director, as the football coach, baseball, basketball — because they had baseball then — and he was a teacher of physical education, and just was proud as could be to retain a position in a school where his passion was to mold men and provide interest in their passions. And that’s what he did, and when he accepted the keys from Father (Jordan) Blecha, he was all in.”

Central Catholic was founded in 1941 was housed in the WBAY and Columbus Club buildings in downtown Green Bay for 14 years, before Our Lady of Premontre High School opened in 1955 as a continuation of Central Catholic High School by the Norbertine Order.

“Green Bay was his community, Green Bay was his home,” Tom added.

“The Norbertines and the district of schools said, ‘You’ve got to live within the city limits,’ and Red Banks was not, so he had to decide what he wanted to do. He wasn’t going to go back selling little Nash cars… so he bought a house in Green Bay.”

To be continued