How Ladysmith got its name: Some background: Ladysmith was founded in 1885 with the name Flambeau Falls but was renamed to Corbett, then Warner in 1891. On July 1, 1900, the name was formally changed to Ladysmith, named after the bride of Charles R. Smith, head of the Menasha Wooden Ware Company. Since the 1920’s the city has had a fairly steady population of between 3,100- 3,900+ residents. Of the teams in the Heart of the North Conference, Ladysmith had the second larg

While doing research for another blog I ran across a story in the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram newspaper about Ladysmith high school and the Heart of the North Conference. The story was about Ladysmith winning the 1961 conference title, it’s first undisputed title since 1949. This isn’t a history of a conference north of Eau Claire, but there is a bit of background on the Heart of the North to put things in perspective. So, here goes, the non-history, history (Because all my

A few weeks ago, I received an email request for any old records I might have on Clintonville football from their new head coach, Nick Raasch. I have old files of records and admittedly I did not have much. One name stood out and I scratched my head wondering why I hadn’t done a blog on him when I wrote about multi-sport stars back in early 2021. Maybe because Mike Jirschele played in the mid-70’s and the others were stories from players who stared in the 60’s. Anyway, I be