George Durenberger '28 arrived on the Saint John's University campus as a freshman from Le Sueur, Minn., in the fall of 1924.
He went on to a standout career in both football and basketball, earning All-MIAC honors three straight seasons on the gridiron and lettering all four years on the court.
But all that was only the beginning of nearly 50 years of service in Collegeville, during which time he played a pivotal role in shaping the SJU athletic department into the modern version you see today.
"It was the foundation of his life," said his son Dave '55, who was raised on the SJU campus and went on to serve as a U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1978-95.
"Everything was based around Saint John's and Stearns County. That was home. He took so much pride in everything associated with Johnnies athletics."
During his long tenure as the school's athletic director (1931-72), Durenberger presided over the addition of a number of new sports, the construction of new facilities and the hiring of numerous coaches – including
John Gagliardi and
Jim Smith, two future Hall of Famers who remained in Collegeville for a combined 111 seasons.
"He was really a mentor to me," recalls Smith, whom Durenberger hired to coach basketball in 1964 and who would remain on the job until his retirement in 2015. Smith compiled a 786-556 record, making him the winningest college basketball coach at any level in Minnesota history.
"He is the basis of the athletic department at Saint John's as we know it today. He was the one who got things going and kept them going in the right direction."
'Big George'
Dave Durenberger said his father took to life in Collegeville almost immediately upon arriving on campus. He hadn't played football at St. Anne's High School in Le Sueur because the sport had been dropped when he was a freshman.
But "Big George" (who stood over 6-foot-4 and weighed around 212 pounds in his playing days, according to his family) decided to give the sport a try at SJU, joining a program that had been reinstated just four years earlier after being dropped in 1909.
The team struggled in those first seasons after its revival despite the presence of future NFL Hall of Famer John "Blood" McNally – a legendary character on and off the field whom Durenberger would later hire as head football coach from 1950-52.
According to
Scoreboard: A History of Athletics at Saint John's University, the story goes that "a friendly high school coach had told George that if he didn't know much about playing football, the easiest position to learn to play is guard. So when (head coach Gene) Aldrich asked George what position he played, he said 'Guard!' "
He was soon moved to center, and started there as a sophomore, junior and senior – anchoring the team's offensive line (
right). But he was also used in the backfield as a bruising ballcarrier who could pick up a needed few yards. He handled the Johnnies' punting duties and drop-kicked PATs as well.
"One of George's kicks sailed over the safety's head and went for 82 yards,"
Scoreboard reported.
Making SJU home
Shortly before his graduation in the spring of 1928, Durenberger was told there might be a coaching position available for him – welcome news for the youngster who very much wanted to remain in Collegeville.
Then-Abott Alcuin Deutsch – the man behind the decision to drop football at SJU and no fan of competitive intercollegiate athletics – soon tossed water on those plans, letting Durenberger know budget limitations might make that impossible.
Disappointed, Durenberger returned to Le Sueur where he received an offer from Green Giant, the vegetable canning company in town then on its way to national prominence.
On the day he was about to meet with the company's CEO and accept the position, he received a letter from Saint John's letting him know a position would be available after all.
"And after that, Saint John's was always home," Dave Durenberger said.
Running the show
Durenberger was an assistant football coach under Bill Houle and served as head basketball coach at Saint John's Prep before he was named athletic director three years later.
At the time he got the job, the athletic department offered football, basketball, track and field and tennis. Durenberger would help oversee the addition of new sports including golf (early 1930s), hockey (1932), wrestling (1946-47), cross country (1947-48) and soccer (1967).
His belief in the importance of a well-rounded athletic program is one of the reasons the MIAC's men's all-sports trophy, which is awarded annually to the institution that accumulates the best all-sports record during that school year, was named in his honor in 1972.
"One of George's earliest dreams as athletic director was an all-sports athletic program which would provide opportunities for students of all sizes, interests and abilities to engage in competitive sport," reported an article on the occasion of his retirement in the 1971-72 edition of the
SJU Alumni Magazine.
"It was the period of the Depression, however, when many colleges were forced to curtail their athletic programs because of financial difficulties. Through careful budgeting, and an impartial, proportionate distribution of funds to each activity, he managed to maintain the Saint John's program intact, at the same time gradually preparing the way in better days to come for such new sports as skiing, golf, wrestling and cross country."
He also played a key role in efforts in the 1950s to build a new golf course on campus in an area near the Watab picnic grounds (an old course had existed in the 1920s and early '30s).
But those efforts were halted due to outcry in some quarters.
"Then came the letters," Durenberger himself is quoted as saying in
Scoreboard.
"One said that God had been good to Saint John's for 99 years and we must not do anything to offend him. Another wrote that golf was a game only for the wealthy people, so we would be doing our students an injustice, since most of them are poor, by creating an interest and skills for a game economically beyond their means. Another objected to the picnic area: 'If we permit this to happen, the grounds will be surrounded by women in short skirts.'
"Some of this rubbed off on Abbot Baldwin (Dworschak), as I was instructed to stop work on the course for the sake of peace, and we did."
Durenberger served as SJU's head football coach from 1937-40 (leading the Johnnies to the MIAC title in 1938), head basketball coach from 1937-41 and head track coach from 1942-46.
He presided over the installation of a new cinder track in 1934 and purchased the needed equipment to hold full-scale meets, including the establishment of an annual high school meet that drew teams from around the state.
"He saw that meet as such an incredible benefit to the school," Dave Durenberger said. "High school teams from all over Minnesota – private and public – would show up every year in the first week of May.
"Not only was it a nice thing to do when it came to promoting the sport, but it then associated Saint John's in the minds of all those potential students."
Leaving a legacy
He would later go on to serve as an assistant coach in several sports, including for a time on Gagliardi's football staff. Gagliardi was hired as a 26-year-old in 1953 after four successful seasons at Montana's Carroll College and remained at Saint John's for 60 seasons, winning four national titles and finishing with 489 career victories – the most at any level in college football history.
Durenberger and his wife Isabelle played key roles in establishing the school's alumni association. He also was an integral part of the construction of Warner Palaestra, which opened in 1973 after Durenberger had retired and Smith succeeded him as athletic director.
"He realized the gym (Guild Hall) we had been using had become so inadequate for the number of people we had involved in athletics," Smith said. "So he was constantly pushing and promoting the need for a new facility. He talked to a lot of alumni and really helped make it happen."
Beyond his work at Saint John's, Durenberger was also involved in a number of organizations including the State Advisory Committee on Civil Rights, the Governor's Physical Fitness Community, Rotary, the Knights of Columbus, the St. Joseph Sportsman's Club and the Diocesan Council of Catholic Men.
"He was a huge believer in physical education and activity as a key part of the academic experience," Smith said. "It was a balance of the mind and body working together. That was always his main focus and mission."
