May 19, 2011

MILWAUKEE - University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Director of Athletics Rick Costello was the guest speaker at the latest gathering of a special group of former student-athletes.

The group is known as the Green Gulls, which was the nickname of the athletic teams at the then-Milwaukee State Teachers College and Wisconsin State College-Milwaukee for 30 years. Most members of the group were student-athletes at the school during the 1940's and 1950's, participating in a wide variety of sports.

This month's gathering was Thursday at the Machine Shed in Waukesha. The group includes Dan Benson, Sam Barosko, Dave Bogenshild, Bill Emanuelson, Ron Geraghty, Jerry Gleason, Leon Glowacki, Gordon Hackbarth, Ken Hitzke, Glenn Jahnke, Ken Kranz, Connie Laska, Ken Lindl, Gust Minessale, Bruce Parson, Joe Olen, Jerry Stern, Joe Tarantino and Glen Ulrichsen.

Sports teams at the now-University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee were actually called the Normals from 1896-1927, when the school was known as the Wisconsin State Normal School. It became the Milwaukee State Teachers College in 1927 and the Wisconsin State College-Milwaukee in 1951, when the teams were the Green Gulls. After the school became the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1956, its teams were known as the Cardinals until 1965, when the nickname was officially changed to the Panthers.