Unlike in some areas of our country, the sport of racing pigeons didn’t get started in south central Minnesota until the 1960’s. The first club in the Mankato area was the Southern Minnesota Association of Racing Pigeon Fliers (SMA). Some of the original members were: Art Lindberg of Mankato, Chuck Fromm of Kasota, Delmer Schmidt of Glenco, and Ed Hoffman Jr. from Hutchinson. The first SMA bands are reported to have been issued in 1968. In the years that followed, the club grew, and spread out geographically. By 1980 the club members were dispersed from as far south as Albert Lea, North to Cosmos, West to Marshall, and East to Faribault. Countermarkings were held at the home of Chuck Fromm in Kasota. For some members, each week required a 120 mile round trip drive each week to the countermarking station.

At the beginning of the 1981 YB season members on the Eastern and Southeastern regions of the club spun off a new club that became known as the Gopher State Racers (GSR). A couple of years later another club was spun off. This time it was the fanciers on the northern and western regions of the SMA club, and this club became the Crow River Fliers (CRF). Shortly there after the SMA divided again, this time spinning off a club that became known as the Mankato Riverbend Racers (MRR). There were now 4 clubs where there had originally been one club. Eventually the SMA and MRR rejoined and the SMA club was dissolved. In the years that followed, attempts were made to form a combine of these clubs. We soon learned that because we were spread out so far East to West, and likewise from North to South, the short distance joint releases were a disaster for some folks, and people lost interest in forming a combine. There is still hope of focusing on joint releases and combined results for the longer races.

When the decision was made to form the GSR club, the YB racing season had already begun. The new club had no assets and had to scramble to build shipping crates. To pay for the materials, Raffle tickets were sold. From the beginning we were a pretty tight knit group. We were a family club. We were always getting together for something or another, even in the off season. Not just the members, but wives, kids, and girlfriends as well. We gave each other birds, advice, assistance, etc. Our focus was not on being top flier, but on having fun, and we did have fun.

Two of the original members (Rod Lund & Joe Jackson), were high school age boys when the club was started. They brought in a couple of other young men; Chris Caron and Brian Buhr. After these young men graduated, they either went on to obtain a higher education or they moved out of the area to find work. Needless to say, they dropped out of the club. In addition to losing these four young men, we soon lost a couple adult members. Mike Melin moved out of state, and a few others quit flying for one reason or another. By the end of the 1980’s our membership had dwindled down to five or six members and remained there for a number of years. When it came time for the annual election of officers, we found that we barely had enough people to fill each office, so everyone was either an officer or had a responsibility of some type. Rather than switch jobs each year, we reelected the same officers each year until the club got to be a little bigger. For a number of years Tim Stoering held the office of President, Brad VanRyswk was Vice President, Chuck Stensrud was Race Secretary, and Elaine Stensrud was Secretary-Treasurer. Frequently we would hear Tim Stoering, say “Gee. I wish we could find a few more members.”. Tim finally got his wish.

Slowly we began to grow. In 1990 the Vince Schenk family of Faribault joined the club and flew with us for a couple of years until an injury forced him to give up the sport. In 1993, Tim Wolff joined the club and has been flying young birds with us ever since. Tim Wolff found Terry Miller in 1996 at a Janesville Bears basketball game. Terry had just retired and was interested in flying pigeons. He had fancy pigeons as a boy, but had no racing experience. He proved to be a natural and caught on very quickly. In 1998 Terry brought his friend Denny Bauer into the club. Denny was new to the sport and Terry took him under his wing, providing him with birds and teaching him the ropes. It was about this time that we lost Brad VanRyswk, one of our charter members. Brad our southern most member, lived by Alden, and left the GSR to join a club closer to home. We had another young man, Jody Jandt, that was growing up in the Owatonna area that was an on again/off again member as he grew up. Tim Stoering stayed in touch with him, mentored him, and kept the interest in racing pigeons alive. Today Jody is a grown married man with two children and both he and his children are very active members of the GSR club.

When we reached the year 2000 our growth accelerated. Gary Mosher and his son Kevin joined the club in 2000. Gary had experience with pigeons but was new to the sport of racing. Kevin was just starting high school. In 2001 the three Finch brothers Everett (Rett), Gregg and Kirk, joined the club and brought their children with them as junior members. In 2002 Jody Jandt brought Allan and Mark Spurgeon to the club. Both were relatively new to the sport but had a year or two of experience in the sport. In 2003 our ranks expanded even further as Jim Bowder, Mark Koehnen, Denny Kuhn, Randy Kubicek, Dave Gehrke and his son Remington, Mick & Donna Lendway and Tom Tonneson joined our club. Bowder, Koehnen, and Kuhn were all experienced fliers. Randy is new to the sport, and Dave Gehrke is a well known Roller man. Remington is a junior member. Mick & Donna used to fly in the Twin Cities years ago, and Tom is a newcomer to the sport. Mick was only with us for a short time before he died suddenly and unexpectedly on Sept 20, 2004.

We didn’t go out and recruit these new members. They came to us. Going from a small club to a large club so quickly has brought growing pains. We needed additional equipment. We needed more room. We needed to improve our shipping night procedures, and we needed to get to know one another. In Oct of 2003 we held our first auction and seminar. None off us had any experience on putting on one of these events. We had good contacts, we obtained some quality birds from well known fliers, we planned, we organized, and we pulled it off. Everyone participated. Everyone had responsibilities and assignments. We worked together, and we had a good time.

The GSR club has a mission statement that we think sums it all up: The mission of the Gopher State Racers is; to promote the sport of Pigeon Racing by presenting a favorable image of the sport to the public, to promote the enjoyment of the sport with our peers, and to unselfishly help our membership become successful in the sport.