By MIKE BEACOM
of The Gazette
Whether Roland Hemond first saw University of Wisconsin-Madison centerfielder Rick Reichardt in May or June of 1964, he doesn't quite remember. It's understandable considering that it was more than 35 years ago.
Hemond, the California Angels director of scouting at the time, had brought Angels owner Gene Autry with him on the trip and remembers that Autry wasn't the only celebrity in attendance.
A who's who of former baseball legends were in the stands - Ralph Houk, general manager of the Yankees; Minnesota Twins representative Billy Martin and St. Louis Cardinals Vice President Stan Musial were all there to see what Reichardt could do at the plate.
"It was pretty scary stuff," said Reichardt.
And although today Hemond can't recall in which month or against what team that memorable doubleheader took place (May 16 against Illinois), he can rattle off Reichardt's statistics for that beautiful spring afternoon quicker than he could tell you what he had to eat last.
"He put on quite a show that day," said Hemond. "He hit a home run over the right field fence, one over the left field fence, one over the center field fence, stole home and hit a crushing double."
Reichardt's performance in front of the star-studded crowd started a bidding war between Major League organizations that ultimately changed the economics of professional baseball. Some predicted he'd become the game's next great slugger, going as far as comparing him with the New York Yankees' Mickey Mantle.
But well before Reichardt was busting home runs out of baseball parks, he had an outstanding prep and collegiate career as a star on the football field, basketball court and on the track.
Few from Portage County who remember the 6' 3," 205-pound P.J. Jacobs standout, can name a more impressive or even comparable all-around athlete to come from the area since.
Reichardt moved to Stevens Point as a third grader the year his father, Fredrick, accepted a medical position here.
He was an exceptional athlete, even in his early days.
"Point's always done a good job in its youth programs. I was very blessed in that way," said Reichardt. "(George Roman and John Roberts) did a lot for the city of Stevens Point."
On a little league all-star team, a 9-year-old Reichardt played with future local greats like Jim Shuda, Dave Roman, Ray Orlikowski and Wayne Jinsky (all older than Reichardt). That team won the title in 1952.
When he entered high school, Reichardt took his father's advice (the area's only orthopedic surgeon at the time) and participated in track rather than baseball.
"He felt track would be better for me long term and I agree with that retrospectively," said Reichardt.
Although he won a state title in the broad jump by breaking the school record with 22' 5 1/2" (he placed at state in the event four years straight) and finished second at state in the 100-meter dash, track wasn't the sport Reichardt earned a name in locally.
That's because on the football field, Reichardt was an eye-catching, unstoppable force.
In his senior season of 1960, Reichardt gained 981 yards on 110 carries as P.J. Jacob's fullback (106 yards shy of the record held by Bob Schroeder, father of current Green Bay Packer Bill Schroeder.)
In a game against D.C. Everest on Oct. 1, Reichardt ran for four touchdowns and 321 yards on only 10 carries. Reichardt also threw a 12-yard touchdown that day to backfield teammate Earl Higgins.
Four weeks later against Marshfield, Reichardt outdid himself by scoring five touchdowns, racking up a total of 34 points including the four extra points he kicked.
His 107 points in six conference games that year broke an 18-year-old record that was accomplished in seven games, and helped his team win the Wisconsin Valley Championship.
He was rewarded with a second straight unanimous all-conference selection on offense and a selection to the defensive team as a safety. He was also named to the All-Wisconsin High School Football Team that year.
Of Reichardt, longtime Stevens Point Journal sports editor Don Friday once wrote "one word for Reichardt - tremendous."
On the basketball court, Reichardt was as big of a star in conference play as he was during the other seasons of the school year.
He was named to the All-Conference team twice during his high school career. He was the conference's third leading scorer as a junior and his 269 points as a senior (14.2 per game average) was second only to Tom Razner.
By the end of his senior year, Reichardt was ambitious enough to try to tackle both baseball and track in the spring. It was his first attempt at baseball since playing as a youth.
"I can remember going from the baseball field to a track meet on certain days," said Reichardt.
Reichardt was successful at all four of the sports he finished his high school career competing in, earning a total of 12 letters. But, even though he knew he could become a celebrated collegiate athlete in baseball, track and basketball, Reichardt wanted to play the game of football, more than any other, at a higher level.
Reichardt chose the UW-Madison football program, mostly because it was the closest major school to home.
"I'm a lot like other people in that I'm ethnocentric," said Reichardt, who was born in Madison. "And, in those days, recruiting wasn't as widespread as it is today."
Reichardt found a place with the team as a back, but during the last day of spring practice his freshman year, he sustained a serious ankle injury that required his father to perform surgery in the off-season.
At the beginning of the 1962 season, Reichardt suffered a serious concussion early in the season. The Badgers coaching staff decided to move him to safety on defense and use him as a kick and punt returner.
That year was one of the more memorable in Badgers football history. And it's conclusion, a 42-37 Rose Bowl loss to the University of Southern California, was one of the more memorable Rose Bowl games ever.
But, even though Reichardt and the Badgers program were both blossoming on the gridiron, memories from the previous spring prompted him to ask the team's coach if he could play baseball that spring instead.
"It was a quirk of fate that got me into baseball," said Reichardt.
It's safe to assume that in most cases, football coaches aren't favorable to allowing their talent to loom anywhere other than the football field. But Milt Bruhn, the Badgers' coach, was a two-sport athlete at the University of Minnesota, playing catcher for their baseball team. Bruhn was sympathetic to Reichardt's request and agreed to let him give baseball a shot.
It didn't take Reichardt long to go from being an up-and-comer on the football field, to a name every professional baseball executive was salivating over.
He remembers that during spring training his sophomore year, he was already turning heads.
"I hit one over the fence and over the palm trees that got some eyes open," said Reichardt.
In his first season, Reichardt hit .343 to lead the Big Ten Conference. He hit safely in 15 of his last 22 at bats. He also added 6 home runs in the 27 game season.
When fall arrived in 1963, Reichardt was back on the football field, where he caught 26 passes for 383 yards to lead the Big Ten. He also led his team in punt and kick return average.
But, the buzz about Reichardt's baseball abilities was beginning to grow. No one, however, expected him to accomplish what he did on the diamond in the spring of 1964.
Reichardt hit .443 to lead the Big Ten for the second year (the first conference player to do so and to date only one of three players to lead the conference in back-to-back seasons).
Reichardt also led the conference in runs, hits, at bats and stolen bases, which with 20 set a new Badgers' single-season record.
Reichardt also broke another Badgers record by hitting safely in 17 straight games in 1963 and including his junior year, had hit safely in 29 games over a 30-game span.
The right-handed centerfielder earned a first team All-Big Ten selection and by the end of the season was fielding more phone calls from scouts than fly balls.
"Rick was the number one prospect in the country and was courted by virtually every team," said Hemond.
"The next year they instituted the draft primarily because of me," said Reichardt. "Ball clubs couldn't stay up with the bidding."
Reichardt signed on with Autry's California Angels for an astounding $205,000 bonus check, the largest of its time and for quite a while after.
To put Reichardt's bonus in perspective, at the time, league superstars Sandy Koufax, Frank Robinson and Mantle didn't make that much for the season. And when Ken Griffey Jr. signed his first contract 24 years later as the nation's top prospect, Griffey's bonus was $18,000 less than Reichardt's.
But, as big as Reichardt's check was, it was a day too early. By the time Kansa City Athletics' owner Charlie Finley was courting Reichardt over dinner at once was The Hot Fish Shop in downtown Stevens Point, Reichardt had already verbally committed to signing with California.
Finley was prepared to offer Reichardt double what Autry had, but on the steps of the Whiting Hotel, Reichardt turned him down.
After two years of development in the minor leagues, Reichardt broke in with the Angels in 1966.
One thing he remembers fondly from that first full year were the times he had with his teammates, many of whom had Hollywood and political connections.
Reichardt recalls that during a trip to Washington to play the Senators, his roommate, Cy Young winner Dean Chance, made four phone calls when they got to the hotel.
"The first person he called was (FBI Director) J Edgar Hoover," said Reichardt. "Then Bobby Baker (of the Lyndon Johnson administration), then Hubert Humphrey (Vice President) and then Mamie Van Doren (actress). You can imagine the kind of situations Dean would put me in as a single guy."
Reichardt also remembers taking a side-trip to Las Vegas with Chance and Bo Belinsky that resulted in Chance winning nearly $20,000 at the craps table. Late to catch a flight to watch the World Series, the three were holding wads of cash when they entered the airplane.
"We had money stuffed everywhere on that flight back," said Reichardt.
Reichardt was having a tremendous rookie season when an ailment required that he have one of his kidneys removed. It changed his baseball career forever.
"Rick was on his way to being the rookie-of-the-year and hitting 35 home runs," said Hemond.
"There's no question in mind that (the surgery) hampered my resiliency," said Reichardt.
Reichardt had several more solid seasons of professional baseball, being listed on eight all-star ballots. He had a career year in 1968 with 21 home runs, 73 runs batted in, 20 doubles and 62 runs scored.
He also held a major league record with three consecutive pinch hit home runs.
Reichardt spent 1970 playing for Washington manager, and baseball legend Ted Williams and remembers Williams had quite a tongue for cussing at pitchers.
"He had an obsession for hating pitchers," said Reichardt. "He had me pinch hit in the sixth inning of a game specifically to break up a no-hitter the opposing pitcher had going."
The next season, Reichardt joined Hemond again, but this time in Chicago (Hemond still serves the White Sox today as the executive adviser to the general manager).
"One of the first trades I made when I went to Chicago was to bring Rick to the White Sox," said Hemond.
Reichardt finished his career in 1974 with Kansas City.
In the fall of 2000, Reichardt was inducted into the UW-Madison Athletic Hall of Fame. He invited the late Nick Kamzic (the scout who first told the Angels of Reichardt) and Hemond to share the evening with him.
"It was quite an honor for us," said Hemond.
The honor was one more in his long list of credits to his athletic career.
Reichardt may always be remembered as a baseball player because it was the sport he excelled in most. But his triumphs on the track, basketball court and football field alone, make him one of the finest athletes to come from Portage County.
Even though Reichardt gave up football at UW-Madison to play baseball, he impressed professional scouts enough that he was drafted in the 17th round in 1965 by the then-Baltimore Colts, the first Portage County high school graduate to be selected in the draft.
"I've spent 40 years coaching and he's the greatest athlete in the Valley, bar none," said former SPASH and the American Legion baseball coach George Roman.