While searching through my files, a rather lengthy clipping from the Enderlin Independent 25 years ago came to light that I could never have found if I had been looking for it. Dated August 23, 2000, the headline simply stated “Dr. Hendrickson.” Its author, Jack Schwandt, apparently knew the doctor quite well and wrote of him in this article with a positive light.
I have a special affinity for Dr. Hendrickson because, after all, it was his skilled hands that brought me, a 10 pounder, into the world on a February day in 1942. In the old days, life was simpler and my mother was staying at the Opheim home awaiting my birth that cold month. He came to assist when the time seemed right.
The passage of time has dimmed the historical context that made the doctor an important person in the community. Many might say, “I’ve heard of him, something to do with baseball, I think.” Yes, he stood as an early patron who promoted the game locally and spent much time and treasure in support of the sport. That he was respected for his work in the community became displayed a year after his death in 1948 when they formally adopted the park’s name as Hendrickson Field.
An early success of the baseball program came in 1930 when the American Legion team participated in a national baseball tournament at Colorado Springs. The Schwandt article told of the way Enderlin advanced through the games until they met and lost to Long Beach, California in the finals. The local team amassed an admirable record that year - 30 wins and just that one loss. Dr. Hendrickson had accompanied the team. Upon returning on the Soo Line they found a crowd gathered at the depot to welcome the team, but Dr. Hendrickson couldn’t stay to celebrate; he was summoned to deliver a baby.
The following quote comes directly from the article. “Between seasons, he did enjoy talking baseball, one of his few concessions to small talk. But when summer came, it was time to play ball. On game days, he could be seen beforehand dragging the dirt infield with a large field rake attached to the trailer hitch of his Chevrolet. The baseball field itself was a gift: he had bought the land and then given it to the city. He also mowed the grass and supervised all the related activities — ticket sales, soda pop, and umpires — that went with a game. And he was always at the games, in the dugout and keeping score, except when he was called away by medical emergencies.”
Both the Enderlin Jubilee book and the Enderlin Centennial book praise the baseball program and give credit to the doctor for his part. In 1966 Perry Sandell, a former coach, was quoted thus, “I believe the first year of any kind of organized team was in 1928. Doc picked up a few lopsided baseballs, some cracked bats and we actually played a few games. Dungarees were the uniforms of the day.”
With a lack of funding for the program, Sandell said, “Doc became quite proficient at driving small nails and putting screws in the handle without cracking the wood, which was quite a trick.”
And as teams kept getting better and gaining more community attention, he added, “It became more expedient for young married females to plan their families so that no birth would occur on a Sunday afternoon from May 20th to Sept 1.”
Several pages in the 1991 centennial book written by Carole Tosseth give history of the baseball program. He wrote, “The real success story started with the Junior Legion program and ‘Doc’ Hendrickson, long-time local doctor, whose dedication, time and money all helped to build the program in Enderlin.”
With Doctor Hendrickson’s death in 1948, Tosseth said, “another baseball enthusiast was waiting in the wings, ready to utilize the reserves of local talent available. He was the late Pete Redmond, first manager of the Enderlin Indies, who were destined to become the first team to win three state titles. With the support of local fans and businessmen, the grandstands were rebuilt, lighting installed and the newly renovated field dedicated to the memory of Dr. Hendrickson on August 4, 1949.”
State baseball historian Terry Bohn attests to the success of the program in his book Lots More Fun That Way. He quoted an anonymous source as saying, “Enderlin boys have practically cut their teeth chewing on a baseball bat.” He said the Indies success due to a “core group of very good players who stayed together for many years.” He dropped names to prove his point: Janz, Wallace, Redmond, Utke, Peterson, Foss, Larson, Graalum and others.
Hendrickson was only 60 when he died in 1948. Schwandt reminisced about how finances always showed a deficit. “But every year there was an ‘anonymous contribution’ to the post (Arthur B. Marschke Post of the American Legion) that exactly matched the deficit. Everyone knew who the anonymous donor was, yet his privacy was respected.”
During Doc’s funeral, the town businesses showed respect by closing, the American flag flew at half mast on the pole next to city hall, and that building filled “beyond capacity.” The words of one-time coach Sandell will conclude this article. “I do know that literally hundreds of kids from Enderlin and the vicinity owe a great deal to the opportunities Doc made available to them. At
the same time, I think he would have been the first to admit that baseball and the boys playing it made it possible for him to go on year after year in what would have been a pretty drab life.”
But on second thought maybe my own quote should conclude. “I was in pretty good hands when he delivered me that cold, wintry day of February, 1942.”
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