Lone Star Dietz was inducted into his home town’s Hall of Fame in 2002. On Sunday, another Carlisle Indian was honored similarly by Rice Lake, Wisconsin. John Russeau, who spent much of his youth nearby in the town of Hayward in adjoining Sawyer County. He graduated from Superior High School in Douglas County, which is a bit further north along, not surprisingly, Lake Superior. He began his football career at Superior High School from which he graduated in 1905. After that, he played a bit for the Hayward Indian School team from his then home town. About then, he enrolled at Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania.
John’s name was first mentioned to me almost a decade ago by local Rice Lake historians but I found nothing about him relating to the Carlisle football team. I didn’t do an exhaustive search but, finding nothing about him in Steckbeck or in game reports I had looked at while researching Lone Star Dietz, who was at Carlisle while John was there, I concluded that he wasn’t a starter on the varsity team and forgot about him.
Later, I learned that he might have also been known as John Russian. While reading Carlisle Indian School newspapers as part of the research for Wisconsin’s Carlisle Indian School Immortals, I came across two articles in The Carlisle Arrow in which he was featured. On April 30, 1909, it was reported that he paid the school a visit while in the country on outing. He reportedly said that he was living in a good home and was being paid good wages. The second mention was in the November 26, 1909 edition. That one focused on sports:
“The Painters football team came out victorious over the Specials last Saturday, in a struggle for the shop team honors, by the score of 6 to 20. As the Painters have won all their games thus far their success reflects the earnest efforts of their coach, John Russian, in rounding out such a good team from so few candidates.”
To be continued…
Tags: Hayward Indian School, Rice Lake, Sawyer County, Superior High School
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