Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn., Charley Walters column

Jan. 29--Minnesota lost a high school basketball coaching legend with the passing of Jim Hastings last weekend.

Hastings, who was 90, coached one of Minnesota's best all-time teams, Duluth Central, to a 27-0 record and state title in 1961. The team averaged 73 points while holding opponents to 38, counting the state tournament.

The star on that team was 6-foot-4 flashy point guard Terry Kunze, who also was the state's best player, as well as the first player in Minnesota to dribble behind the back, through the legs and throw behind-the-back passes.

"(Hastings) was very stern, very strict without profanity," Kunze said Tuesday. "Our senior year (1961), we felt we could win the state. The first practice, (Hastings) said, 'You know what we're here for. So if you want to misbehave and do something that will sacrifice your teammates, that's up to you.' He was right on."

Kunze, now 70 and in the insurance business in Fridley, went on to start for the Gophers, then played professionally. He was close to Hastings.

"I grew up poor," Kunze said. "My mother bought me a MacGregor X10L ball, the most expensive ball you could buy. All the high schools and colleges used it.

"I came to school one day and (Hastings) said, 'Where did you get that ball? Your parents can't afford that. Here I found out, when I was done with high school and college, that he had bought the ball for me and told my mother never to tell me."

Kunze will attend Hastings' memorial service May 3 in Duluth.

The Twins have the No. 2 minor league system in baseball, according to ESPN.com, behind only the Houston Astros.</p>

Rocori High in Cold Spring on Thursday will hold a pep rally to honor graduate Eric Decker, the Denver Broncos wide receiver. As part of the ceremony, 576 T-shirts with "Decker 87," his Broncos jersey number, will be sold for $10 each as a fundraiser.

Joel Wiens worked on a farm in Windom in southwest Minnesota.

"Got three thousand bucks from rock pickin' and bean walkin'," he said.

That was 23 years ago, before Wiens got an idea: heated sports underwear.

With help from a friend at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Wiens used the $3,000 he had saved to start a company, WSI Sports, and developed a clothing line, WikMax, with a fabric technology he calls "HEATR."

The fabric, a synthetic fiber, creates heat when activated by skin moisture. After the San Francisco 49ers wore the heated undergear in defeating the Packers in a playoff game at frigid Lambeau Field, word got out. Last week, the Seattle Seahawks ordered the same undergear from Wiens for their Super Bowl matchup outdoors on Sunday against the Denver Broncos in New Jersey.

Wiens also developed special heated undersuit gear that the U.S. Olympic ski jumping team will wear in Sochi, Russia, next month. All of his cold-weather products are made at his factory in Eagan.

Wiens, 46, a 1986 Windom High grad who played one season at Bethel University as a defensive back, lives in Lakeville. He has a dozen administrative employees and two dozen seamsters who are independent contractors.

Wiens has done well since his days of picking rocks and beans on his parents' farm in Windom. But he started slow.

"I lived on University Avenue in a warehouse in an industrial building, and I'd get up early in the morning and go shower at the YMCA," he said. "I told my mom and dad I didn't want their money to do this, that I wanted to do it on my own. And I have."

Wiens' products have been in 2,000 retail stores across the country. He has become wealthy.

"I never got into it for the money, though," Wiens said. "I would just as soon have fun than worry about money. When you focus too much on money, you lose that spirit of development."

Nike and adidas are major sports apparel companies.

But, Wiens said, "Nike and adidas, they're on the coasts. They don't know what cold weather is. We know cold here."

DON'T PRINT THAT

Bob Peltier, 59, who this week stepped down as president and CEO of Edina Realty, is the youngest of four well-known hockey brothers who each played in three state high school tournaments for St. Paul Johnson and then for the University of Minnesota.

Peltier, whose brothers are Doug, Ron and Skip, will be chairman emeritus at Edina Realty and transition to spending 50 percent of his time with the company. He plans to spend time traveling with his family.

Ron Peltier, a former Gophers hockey captain who is chairman and CEO of HomeServices of America, which owns Edina Realty, preceded Bob in running Edina Realty.

On a stand-alone basis, Edina Realty would be the third-largest real estate company in America, Ron Peltier said.

Ron, 64, who was to be in New York on Tuesday on business, runs investing guru Warren Buffett's entire real estate division. He has no plans to retire.

Nearly three years ago, Ron Peltier began a winery that abuts White Bear Yacht Club. The property consists of 1,800 feet adjoining the fairways of the No. 3 and No. 4 holes. Another five acres of vines will be planted this spring.

"We're planting more vines this spring and will take our first harvest of grapes this fall," he said. "It takes three years for the vines to produce the grapes to harvest and process. We're going to build a world-class winery and facility."

The vineyard, which will be named "Seven Vines" after Peltier and wife Arlie's seven grandchildren, is expected to open in the fall of 2015 with pinot noir, Riesling and sauvignon blanc.

OVERHEARD

Terry Kunze, the former point guard legend at Duluth Central who went on to play professionally for a dozen years before coaching in high school, as a Gophers assistant and the Minnesota Fillies in the Women's Professional Basketball League, on new Gophers men's basketball coach Richard Pitino: "A great hire."

Follow Charley Walters at twitter.com/Charley_Walters. He can be reached at [email protected].

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