Submitted photo The Nordgaard extended family has seen success in everything from basketball and volleyball to swimming and archery. The family has been putting together feats of athletic excellence from Dawson to Wisconsin for four generations of athletes now.

There are so many schools in the southwest corner of the state that have had tremendous success and I have been lucky enough to meet many of the athletes who were part of those teams. If I started to name all of those special teams and phenomenal athletes, I would have to do a special section in the paper. There have been several athletes who have gone on to play professionally in a variety of sports. We have seen several star athletes do some great things, and then watch their kids follow in their footsteps and create the next generation of great athletes. We have even seen some families in the area that have three generations of gifted athletes, both male and female. I know of at least two families who have had four generations of success in a variety of sports. This article is on just one of them, the Nordgaard family, that has plenty of local flavor.

Many in the Marshall area and beyond will recognize the name Arthur “Bud” Rose, who owned and operated “Bud Rose Flowers” in Marshall for many years after serving in the Navy during World War II. The “Bud Rose Award” is presented to the top Marshall High School athlete, so his legacy is carried on to this day. At Marshall High School, he played football, basketball and ran track. What many people don’t know is that after High School, he attended North Carolina State, where he was a football and basketball All-American. He met his future bride, Charlotte Hill Rose, while she was attending UNC-Greensboro, where she played basketball and was on the Swimming and Archery team.

Bud and Charlotte had two daughters, Eleanor and Barb, and a son, A. Duane, Jr.. After graduation from Marshall High School, Barb stayed around Marshall and purchased the shop with her husband, Byron Maranell. Eleanor, meanwhile, went to college at Minnesota Morris and met her future husband, John Nordgaard.

John had graduated from Wahpeton, N.D., where he excelled in football, basketball and track, and played Legion baseball. He played in two state basketball tournaments at Wahpeton. His Father, Wallace “Wally” Nordgaard, attended Valley City High School in Valley City, ND. While in high school, Wally was All-State in both football and basketball and he was the state high jump champion. He is currently in the Valley City High School Athletic Hall of Fame. After high school, he played football and basketball for the University of Minnesota.

John started his college career at North Dakota School of Science in Wahpeton and he played basketball for two years there, making the All-Conference team both years. He also played one year of football. His time at the school earned him a nod for the North Dakota State School of Science Hall of Fame.

John then attended Minnesota Morris, where he played football and basketball. In basketball, he was the team’s captain and MVP, as well as All-Conference his senior year. For his college career, he averaged 18 points and 10 rebounds a game. In three years as Morris’ quarterback, he was All-District and All-Region as a Senior, team MVP and was named NAIA Honorable Mention All-American.

John was also inducted as a Charter Member of the Northern Intercollegiate Conference team, as well as the Minnesota Morris Hall of Fame. At John’s induction ceremony, the presenter started his speech by listing the accolades of the Nordgaard children. After a few minutes, John stood up and said, “Wait a minute, I am the one being inducted here!”

Eleanor graduated from Marshall High School, where she played basketball, badminton, gymnastics, track, GAA swimming and modern dance. This was all before Title IX, so most girls sports were intramural. She then attended Minnesota Morris, where she excelled in intramural basketball, badminton, gymnastics, volleyball, and even flag football. After graduating from Morris, Eleanor became a physical education teacher and basketball and volleyball coach at Southwest Minnesota State University.

After graduation, John signed a professional football contract with the Atlanta Falcons. He was cut from the team and then was drafted and sent to Vietnam as a combat medic. After his service was over, John went into teaching and coaching. He and Eleanor had four children, Jeff, Julie, Chari and Kami. They all grew up in Dawson and, from an early age, they all excelled in whatever sport they played.

Jeff is the oldest of the Nordgaard kids. He was an outstanding High School athlete at Dawson-Boyd, where he excelled at both football and basketball. I watched many memorable contests between Jeff and Todd Bouman, the outstanding multi-sport athlete at Russell-Tyler-Ruthton in the late 80s and early 90s. Except for RTR, Dawson-Boyd may have been able to go to the state tournament three years in a row instead of just Jeff’s senior year, when they beat RTR in a memorable game in 1991. RTR had gone to the state the previous two years and had also beaten Dawson-Boyd in the football playoffs that year by upsetting them at Dawson. Todd Bouman ended up playing in the NFL with several teams, including the Vikings, in a 13-year career.

“Although we had other schools that were more historic rivals to Dawson-Boyd, it is hard to argue that RTR wasn’t our biggest nemesis during my high school days. We knew in order to reach our ultimate goals we had to figure out how to get by the Knights,” Jeff said. “They were dominant in hoops over those years – Wendell Buysman, Lee Rood, Troy and Todd Bouman, and others were a juggernaut. We thought we had them at our place in 1990, but a late turnover cost us our lead in the last minute. Senior year was devastating, with an unexpected loss in football playoffs after having taken down No.1 Minneota — finally — during the regular season, which haunts our legacy to this day. No loss in my athletic career hurts more than that, with a 1-point loss to Purdue in the 1995 NCAA tourney being a close second. Fortunately, we were able to redeem years of frustration with a historical victory over RTR in the 1991 regionals that eventually led to our trip to state. I would argue that no game meant more to Dawson-Boyd athletics, basketball certainly than that 1991 regional win over Todd, Lee and the RTR Knights.”

Jeff had an outstanding career at Dawson-Boyd that may have been overshadowed by having only one state tournament appearance. He was the top quarterback in the state his senior year, leading the state in both yardage and touchdown passes. He also led the Blackjacks to a third-place finish at the state basketball tournament in 1991 and was a Final Five Mr. Basketball Finalist. He was the top rebounder in the state and the second-leading scorer, behind Joel McDonald. In 1991, he became the first player in Minnesota state history to record a quadruple-double after hitting double figures in points, rebounds, assists and blocks

Jeff went to Wisconsin-Green Bay on a basketball scholarship. He was a four-year starter and three-time first-team all-conference selection. He averaged 15.9 points per game in 120 career games with three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances from 1994-96. In their first appearance, Jeff led his 12th-seeded team to an upset of No. 5 California, a team featuring future NBA players Jason Kidd and Lamond Murray. In Jeff’s senior year, he averaged 22.6 points/game, while logging 39.8 minutes per game. That earned him an Honorable Mention All-America choice and he was named “Basketball Man of the Year” in Wisconsin.

The Milwaukee Bucks drafted Jeff 53rd overall in 1996. He started playing in Europe, playing for Dijon (France) and Patronato Bilbao (Spain). He started the following season with the Bucks and finished the season in the CBA with the Fort Wayne Fury. Jeff went back to Europe to play in Italy, where he was teammates with Manu Ginobili. He played in France the next season, then came back in 2000 to play with the Indiana Legends in the ABA before going back to France to play with Chalon.

In 2001, Jeff went to Poland to play for Anwil Wloclawek and played on three National Championship teams, including the first ever for Anwil Wloclawek. He was recently honored as one of the top 10 favorite players in the club’s 30-year existence. He earned dual citizenship and participated with the Polish National Team for one summer before ending his professional career in 2009 and moving back to Wisconsin.

If you think he was the only basketball player in the family, you would be wrong. His wife, Alexis, was also a standout at Butler University, helping the Bulldogs to a 1996 NCAA tournament berth and earning her way to the university’s Athletics Hall of Fame. She spent a year playing professional basketball in Italy after graduation.

Jeff and Alexis have two sons, Dawson and Langdon. Dawson now is a 6-foot-10 redshirt sophomore at Michigan Tech, and recently scored a career-high 19 points in a win over Wayne State. Langdon is a 6-foot-4 senior and three-sport standout at West De Pere High School. He ended his football career with 120 career receptions for 1,904 yards and 14 touchdowns despite missing parts of two seasons with injuries. He recently accepted a preferred walk-on offer at the University of Wisconsin.

To no one’s surprise, the Nordgaard girls also excelled in multiple sports at Dawson-Boyd. Julie Nordgaard Kowalczyk is the oldest daughter of John and Eleanor. At 5-foot-9, she didn’t have the height advantage of her siblings but she had plenty of exposure to the gym as she was just a year younger than Jeff.

“I wasn’t as motivated to achieve success in athletics as they were,” Julie said. But that didn’t mean she lacked success in both basketball and volleyball. As a junior and senior, she earned Defensive Player of the Year honors in basketball.

Julie followed her brother to UWGB for college and loved watching him play his entire collegiate career there. She was also there for a year of Chari’s collegiate career. Julie became a literature teacher in Wisconsin and coached eighth grade girls basketball and track. Her teams won the conference championship each year that she coached.

Julie is married to Tod Kowalczyk, the Toledo mens basketball coach. They met when she was teaching in the Green Bay area and he was at UWGB as the head mens basketball coach. He was an assistant coach at Marquette prior to UWGB and recruited and coached Dwyane Wade.

Tod still holds the scoring record at his DePere High School in DePere, WI with 53 points in one game, before the 3-point line, and continued to play at Minnesota Duluth. His father was a football standout and was invited to the Steelers preseason camp prior to coming down with polio, which ended his football playing days.

Tod and Julie have two children. Race is a 6-foot-5 sophomore at St. John’s Jesuit High School in Toledo and he was the sixth man on his varsity team last year. The Titans made it to the state semifinals in Race’s freshman year.

Race is named after Tod’s college basketball coach, Dale Race. Their daughter, Rose, is named after Julie’s mother, Eleanor, and her grandparents, Bud and Charlotte. She is a freshman in high school and is the starting setter for her volleyball team and an outside hitter for her club team. Rose was recently named to the First Team All-Conference team — not bad for a freshman! She is hoping to play in college, like her aunt.

Chari Nordgaard Knueppel graduated from Dawson-Boyd in 1995, where she excelled in both volleyball and basketball. In volleyball, she was an All-State selection her Senior year, and by the time she graduated, she was the career leader in both blocks (291) and kills (1066). In basketball, she held the school record in points (1580), rebounds (1001), blocks (432) and steals (412).

When Chari graduated high school, her 63.6% career field goal percentage was a state record among players with at least 300 attempts. Her play earned her a Miss Basketball Minnesota finalist nod, a Reuben K. Youngdahl Memorial Award for Outstanding MN High School Female Athlete of the Year and a pair of All-State selections. She was also inducted into the West Central Tribune Sports Hall of Fame in the class of 2004-05.

After high school, she followed her brother to Wisconsin-Green Bay to play basketball. She was a four-year starter, a three-time Team Captain and a two-time Team MVP. She made the All-Conference team all four years that she played there and was named Newcomer of the Year her freshman year. UWGB finished as Conference Champions in her freshman and senior years.

Chari led her team to the NCAA Tournament twice, losing to Illinois and UCLA. She was named to the Honorable Mention and AP All-American teams, and she was a GTE Academic All-American First Team member in 1998-99.

By the time she graduated, she held the school’s career, single-season and single-game records in points as well as the career rebounds record. In 1999, she was named Wisconsin Woman of the Year, Wis. AAU Athlete of the Year, and Midwestern Collegiate Conference Student-Athlete of the Year. Chari was inducted into the UW-Green Bay Athletics Hall of Fame in 2004-2005 the school will retire her jersey later this month. After college, Chari played professionally in Europe for a brief period.

Not to be outdone, her husband, Kon, also was an outstanding basketball player. Kon was an All-American at Wisconsin Lutheran College, and he is the All-Time leader in scoring, rebounding and steals. He is a member of the Gus Macker 3-on-3 Hall of Fame and was a Hoop-It-Up National Champion in 2003.

Chari and Kon have five sons — Kon II, Kager, Kinston, Kash and Kidman — ranging from ages 12 to 18. Kon II is currently the No. 16-ranked player in the nation, according to 247Sports’ composite rankings, and has signed with Duke University on a full scholarship after setting school records for field goals, 3-pointers and total points in a season at Wisconsin Lutheran.

And now we come to the youngest of the Nordgaard children, Kami Rose Nordgaard Davis. She also attended Dawson-Boyd High School, graduating in 1997. As a volleyball and basketball standout, she set the school record for set assists with a pass to Chari for a kill at the net. She was a four-year letter winner in both volleyball and basketball.

Kami was an All-State Selection in both sports and scored her 1000th career point with 13.3 seconds left in her last game against my old school, RTR. She was a top-25 finalist for the Miss Basketball Minnesota in her senior year. After watching her play several games against RTR, it seemed to me that she got the bulk of her points and assists against the Knights! She played club volleyball with the Southwest Minnesota Juniors and made several appearances at the National Tournament.

She was also a well-rounded student. She participated in band, choir, student council, and was class salutatorian in 1997. She was recruited by several schools for both basketball and volleyball, but she decided to accept a volleyball scholarship to the University of South Carolina.

Kami played the role of setter for the Gamecocks, an unusual choice considering that she was six feet tall and most setters in those days were the shorter players.

While having a stellar career from 1997-99, she also did some singing. An article from a South Carolina paper read, “Kami of All Trades – South Carolina sophomore, Kami Nordgaard, was everywhere Friday night. At least it must have seemed that way to the University of Tennesee volleyball team. After singing the national anthem before the Gamecocks’ match with the Volunteers, Nordgaard set career-bests by ripping 17 kills, recording 21 digs, five blocks and four service aces to lead South Carolina to a four-game win.”

After the 1999 season, Kami transferred to familiar territory in UW-Green Bay. By that time, both Chari and Jeff had graduated so she did not have the pleasure of watching them play. However, she decided to concentrate on her academic career instead of pursuing volleyball. She graduated in 2001 with a degree in Vocal Music and a minor in Arts Administration.

After graduation, she stayed in Wisconsin. She and her husband, Kevin Davis, both work at Rockwell Automation in Milwaukee. Kevin played volleyball at UW-Whitewater, and they both still play in adult leagues in the Milwaukee area, where they team up with Chari to keep it a family outing again. They have two sons, Zavier and Wallace, and a daughter, Thea.

Zavier Zens is a 6-foot-6 sophomore who lettered as a freshman at Wisconsin Lutheran, where he plays with Kon and Kager. Some of you may remember Zavier’s father, Greg Zens — Kami’s first husband — who played basketball at SMSU from 1997-99.

Seven-year-old Thea Davis has already attended several Milwaukee Sting Volleyball camps and various basketball camps and may be in line to follow in her Mother’s footsteps to be a two-sport star in the future. Wallace Davis is just five years old but started his first volleyball camp this fall with the Milwaukee Sting.

The Nordgaards remain among the most remarkable athletic families to grace this area with some fine athletic feats for the last 60-plus years. There is still a good following of the Nordgaard family in the Dawson-Boyd area, where John and Eleanor were involved in the school and the community. It has been my pleasure to know both John and Eleanor for the last 50 years and it was fun to watch all four of the kids play in all sports, even though they gave RTR all kinds of competition for many years. I remember calling John one Saturday morning, just after the girls volleyball team had beaten RTR the night before. I started the conversation with, “I am so tired of your family beating up on RTR every single year!” John’s response was, “Well, I don’t have to ask who this is!” I am proud to call this family my friends and I look forward to watching the fourth generation excel in whatever they decide to do in life.