Leonard "Oakie" Brumm

 

Leonard "Oakie" Brumm was born in 1926 at Ironwood, Michigan, and raised in Marquette, Michigan. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1950 with a BS Degree in Physical Education. Brumm coached hockey at the University of Wyoming, and later on at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, where he was also the Director of Athletics. Returning to Michigan in 1953, Brumm was hired by Marquette State Prison Warden Emery Jacques as the first Athletic/Recreation Director for that maximum-security prison. During his four-year tenure at the prison, he was also player-coach of the semipro Marquette Sentinels of the Northern Michigan-Ontario Hockey League.

In 1957, Brumm left the prison to work full-time in his family’s construction business in Marquette. During the construction off-seasons, he continued to be active in sports and served for 15 years as player/coach of the Des Moines (Iowa) Oak Leafs, the Waterloo (Iowa) Blackhawks, and the Marquette (Michigan) Iron Rangers in the very strong semipro US Hockey League. During this time, Brumm’s teams won four league titles and two playoff championships. During those years, he played with or against many players who became legends in the sport including Herb Brooks, coach of the famed 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team; Lou Nanne, former General Manager of the Minnesota North Stars; and Tim Taylor, the current coach at Yale (also a former Olympic and U.S. national team coach). The famous Hanson brothers of "Slap Shot" Movie fame got their start under the tutelage of Brumm when they were members of the Marquette Iron Rangers.

From 1968 to 1972, Brumm was part owner, sports director and political columnist of the Marquette (Mich.) Mirror, a sports and politically-oriented weekly newspaper. Never far from sports or construction, Brumm once again blended the two in the mid-1980s, when he was cofounder of the Kuwait National Hockey League while serving on the staff of an international construction group building roads, bridges, and the new Kuwait International Airport. Brumm, who became the league’s publicity director, also coached and played on the team that captured three playoff titles in the new league. During his short stay in Wisconsin, Brumm took time from a very busy construction schedule to coach the Brookfield, Wisconsin, High School’s combined-hockey team for almost three seasons. In 1997, he took the team to the state championship "Elite Eight" for their first and only time.

Brumm was named to the Upper Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame in 1992. He and his wife, Frances, now reside in Racine, Wisconsin. He continues to be active in the construction consulting business. In 2000, he became the owner/editor of The Wisconsin Hockey News, a statewide publication. Visit Leonard online atwww.wisconsinhockeynews.com/prisonbook.htm

 

 

Pageonelit.com: Where did you grow up and was reading and writing a part of your life? Who were your earliest influences and why?

Leonard "Oakie" Brumm: I was born in Ironwood, Michigan and moved with my family 150 miles east to Marquette, Mich. where I grew up. I graduated from high school there and went into the US Army a few months after graduation in June of 1944.

The largest influences in my early life were my mother and father. My mother was gentle, gracious, lovely but forceful. My father was rough, smart and also very forceful. In addition he had a very loud and resonant voice which often made him seem angry when he didn't mean to be. My other influences were Roger Keast, my first high school football coach, who left after my freshman year and was killed in New Guinea 18 months later and Bruce Blackburn, my second high school football and basketball coach who went into the Navy after my sophomore year. Both coaches, Keast and Blackburn were Michigan State Univ. graduates and former varsity athletes who were effective teachers and motivators.

Reading was a big part of my early life and still is. Writing didn't start until I was 40+ years old.

 

Pageonelit.com: Why did you write WE ONLY PLAYED HOME GAMES? You were inspired by the movie The Longest Yard - What about that movie served for this books inspiration?

Leonard "Oakie" Brumm: When I worked at the prison Warden Jacques used to send me out to the various groups that wanted a speaker to talk about the prison. A few year later when I was coaching hockey in Des Moines and Waterloo, Iowa I did a lot of public speaking as part of my job as coach. Sometimes I spoke 4 to 6 times week. At each engagement when the audience found out I had been a coach and athletic director in one of the toughest prisons in the country there was no end to the questions and the sessions always ended the same way.."You ought to write a book" was the universal final word from the groups. When I saw The Longest Yard for the first Time I immediately could relate to every single actor/convict in that film except Burt Reynolds. I knew a convict in Marquette Prison identical to each and every con in the movie. I think I have seen the movie 15 times!

 

Pageonelit.com: Tell us about the Marquette Prison and why sports activities were so important to prisoners, the warden and the prison itself. Where did your role come into play? How dangerous was your job? Were you ever scared for your life?

Leonard "Oakie" Brumm: Marquette Prison is one of the toughest prisons in the US because Michigan does not have the death penalty. Almost 50 percent of the men in Marquette would be on death row had they committed their crimes in a state with the death penalty. In Michigan, if they behave themselves in prison, cons are allowed yard privileges regardless of their criminal record. I was hired specifically to not only keep these cons busy playing sports and recreation but to supervise them building any sports or recreation facilities we might need. . My main occupation all my life has been heavy construction starting on my father's crews when I was 14 years old. The warden was very familiar with my athletic, coaching and construction background plus he wanted a man who DID NOT have any prison work experience especially as a guard. He knew I could not be a "snitch" and still be effective to say nothing about staying alive. Chap. 35 in the book "The Barney Francher Story" relates how an Assistant Athletic Director in Jackson (MI) prison got killed for "snitching." Warden Jacques told me when he hired me,"Oakie, you are not a screw,(guard) you are the athletic and recreation director. If the cons want to shoot dice, make booze or screw each other I don't want you snitching on them. If the guards can't catch them we will have to get more guards. You can't work as close to those cons as you have to and not have their confidence and trust. You won't get it if you are snitching on them." That advice saved my life several times as the cons tested me. I was not scared very often but I was always alert and always apprehensive. I was threatened seriously twice but was able to finesse my way out of it and did not have to report it.

I had a very good relationship with 95% of the inmate body. However, I resigned after four years because the other 5% were getting more and more dangerous and I figured working under those conditions was like being in combat, stay there long enough and sooner or later you are going to get killed or wounded.

 

Pageonelit.com: The first and only prison hockey rink in the country? Tell us about it.

Leonard "Oakie" Brumm: The ice rink. turned out to be the conversation piece of United States penology. Once it was up and operating we had inquires from all over North America about it. Years before the official type ice rink, the convicts had very little to do out in the yard during the exceptionally long winter except go to the movies (maybe twice a week) or walk back and forth in the part of the exercise yard that was shoveled clear of snow. We developed a varsity hockey team that played "free world" teams ,including the Detroit Red Wings ( the most unusual hockey game ever played) and we had a six team intramural league. We had public skating sessions where no hockey was allowed and we had an ice carnival on Washington's Birthday every winter. We played two varsity games (Sat. and Sun.) every week and I don't know how many intramural games. Not only did convicts play but we always had a lot of convict spectators who were into the game either because they had bet on it or their friends or "girl friends" were involved. It was an exceptional facility and was maintained to the highest degree possible under the conditions by a crew of five convicts all night every night and six during the day. An excellent photo of the rink is shown on page 66 of the book. The only regulation boarded ice hockey rink in the American prison system ever!

 

Pageonelit.com: A very interesting chapter of WE ONLY PLAYED HOME GAMES is Chapter twenty -- "Marquette Prison Inventions. You say Slow pitch Softball and the Basketball three-point-shot were invented in the Marquette Prison?

Leonard "Oakie" Brumm: I am not sure who got the patent on any of these items. All I know is that they were"invented" or used by the convicts during the period that I was there. Actually the NBA could take a look at what they did because the basketball "game' they invented was actually a "four point" game. The big thing was that a team only got one point for a basket close in. This rule in the NBA would cut Los Angeles Shaq O'Neal effectiveness in half, as it would for all the exceptionally tall guys in the league. The convicts that really got involved in the program were really quite far ahead of the general public in regard to inventing or starting sports, games and recreation ideas. In addition to slow pitch softball and the four point basketball game, we had shoot outs in hockey, a giant pinball machine played with a golf putter and balls, a football game for players too old to play football, "L Boccie" (a Boccie ball game played on an "L" shaped court) speed scoring in volleyball, handball and racquet ball, replaceable blades on hockey sticks, plus many others too numerous to mention. This only goes to show what can be done by even the most depraved when they get their mind to it instead of raising hell or killing someone.

 

Pageonelit.com: Explain the controversies regarding a recreation/sports program in prisons and your perspective/stance on the subject.

Leonard "Oakie" Brumm: The controversy is very simple. Why should ANY convict sentenced to prison for life or a long term be able to do anything that even suggests fun or a good time. It is extremely hard, if not down right impossible, to convince the guard force and general public that convicts of any kind need recreation and/or sports. It is especially hard in a state without a death sentence because no matter what the guy did, if he behaves himself in prison, he is allowed out in the yard. When he gets in the yard, with nothing to do and all the other convicts readily available, trouble is going to develop if something is not done to divert their thoughts and energies. Chapters 3-18-29-33 - tell about convicts who got so involved they forgot about their troubles. . The alternative to a good sports and recreation program is a hell of a riot and/or guys, inmates or guards, getting killed over nothing. This controversial, volatile subject is very complex and cannot be answered in one chapter. I like to say "we to tranquilized them with sports".

 

Pageonelit.com: Being an experienced published author - What advice can you offer for those writers who are working on their first book?

Leonard "Oakie" Brumm: I do not consider myself an experienced published author although this book was an experience and I ended up publishing it myself after a disastrous experience with a Canadian publisher. My advice is: writing and publishing the book is fairly difficult for the newcomer, getting the book distributed is very difficult if not impossible, in spite of the great reviews it has received. It now appears distribution will be very expensive also.

 

Pageonelit.com: What has been your feedback from readers? What do they say to you about their interpretations of your books?

Leonard "Oakie" Brumm: The feed back has been tremendous. I have had NO bad reviews in writing or verbally. Everyplace I go where people know me they mention how much they liked my book. I have 25 or 30 excellent reviews from very creditable people. My sales lately have been from word of mouth. People read the book and recommend it to their friends and relatives. Several people, including some of the critics, feel this would be an excellent TV program or movie.

 

Pageonelit.com: Who are your favorite writers and why?

Leonard "Oakie" Brumm: I don't have any favorite book writers but I regularly read three large newspapers every day along with Time, Newsweek, USNews and World Report and Sports Illustrated every week.

 

Pageonelit.com: What's next?

Leonard "Oakie" Brumm: I have had three very unusual jobs. First, Director of Athletics and coach of hockey and basketball at the University of Alaska (Fairbanks) before Alaska was a state. The story of what happened to me and what I went through up there is probably even better than the prison book. I then worked at the prison. Finally. I spent five years (1982-87) in Kuwait managing very large construction projects with minimal American and British staff. Five or six of us were in charge of 1,500 to 2,500 third world engineers laborers and mechanics every day. 98% of them were Muslims and 80% of them were Palestinians. I probably know more about the Middle East and its problems and idiosyncrasies than most Americans. A book about this experience is just about to explode out of me! I have a book full of stories to tell about the Arabs and the Muslims that is truly astonshing.

My hobby is publishing the WISCONSIN HOCKEY NEWS of which I am also editor. Additionally I do some construction consulting and arbitrating on the side. I retired three times and flunked the course each time! http://www.wisconsinhockeynews.com/prisonbook.htm