The Mighty Gulls in 2000, including Dean Trout pitching at right.
The company softball team has been a mainstay of corporate America for decades, and North Shore Bank is no exception to the rule. We’ve fielded at least one group of champions and some others who…were not champions — but when it comes to having fun, our employees have always been winners.
Over 50 years ago, executive chairman Jim McKenna led a North Shore Savings team for around 25 years. In its first season, the team played on a small field in Brookfield, on Calhoun Road between Bluemound and Greenfield. The next year, McKenna decided they should be playing in the “majors” — in the Brookfield Recreational League at Wirth Park. Things went up a notch or two in the ensuing years, as the team invested in full uniforms — including stirrup pants — and brought in ringers including a former minor league baseball player.
President and CEO Jay McKenna recalls attending the games as a boy — he walked from home through the neighborhood to the ball park. And yes, he says, North Shore did have the best uniforms in the league.
A Shorelines article from 1991, recapping the game against the “old-timers.” (Click to enlarge it.)
In 1986 or 1987, a North Shore Bank softball team began playing what was known as the Financial Softball League, says process risk analyst Ron Olson, who played on the team. If his recollection is correct, he says, the original members met through the regional chapter of the Institute of Financial Education, taking courses after work.
North Shore wasn’t bad — Ron guesses we won about half our games. “We were all about having a fun time and making sure everyone had a chance to play,” he says. “We did have some very good players, though! And it was great getting together with other employees from different branches and Corporate.”
Perhaps that team’s best game was against the “old-timers” in the bank’s Loan Production department, and featured “lots of friendly banter and trash talk,” Ron says, as well as back-to-back home runs from him and Scott Jensen. “Our biggest crowd and a great party afterward.”
A Shorelines article from 1998.
On the verge of becoming old-timers themselves, Ron and others hung up their cleats in 1996 or 1997 after winning the league championship. Their successors, the Mighty Gulls, would win again in 1998 and place second in 1999.
Chief information officer SVP Dean Trout pitched one game for the Gulls in 2000, filling in for Scott. “They didn’t invite me back,” he jokes. “It was a fun game that we came out on the wrong side of, but the team was very talented.”
Sharon Hack, second from left, with the rest of the good sports in 2000.
Ashwaubenon employees put together a team in 2000 as well, to play in a Green Bay league. Consisting of employees from North Shore Bank branches in the area, this team finished the season with a record of 0-12. “Yes, the zero is the won number,” a Shorelines article confirms. It adds that the team became known to the rest of the league as “the good sports” — but had a great time doing so.
“I don’t remember any other years playing softball,” says area manager Sharon Hack, who played on that team. “We probably threw in the towel after that 0-12 record!”