Peterson Remembered For Dedication to Athletes, Family

Wes Vork-NSO

Oct 5

Kerry Rodd-NSO

As a longtime sports broadcaster, reporter and writer in the Northland, I have had the opportunity to meet, and talk with, many coaches and athletes. There are people that move through your life that leave a big impression and others who you forget the moment you meet them. In the case of Coach Bob Peterson it was a case of a big impression from a guy with a huge heart.

I first met Bob when I was an average athlete at Cloquet High School in the mid-1970’s. Bob was the head coach at Esko in football when they won the Class ‘C’ State Football Championship 62-0 over Karlstad. Knowing that someday I wanted to become a coach of some type myself I admired the work ethic and his creativity. Little did I know just a couple of years later I would get to know coach even more.

After I graduated from high school I went to Lake Superior College, then Duluth Area Vocational Technical Institute, and I got my degree in broadcasting. I started working at WKLK in Cloquet as an intern in 1976 and eventually became a fulltime employee in 1978 and it was during that time when I got to really know Bob. Myself, Steve Jezierski and Peter Jay (Kaluza) would host a show at Rudy’s Restaurant in Cloquet called coaches corner. The fall was fun because we had guys like; Bob Peterson, Rol Bromberg, Jorma Rahkola, Wayne Pender, Bob Youso, Bob Emerson and others who would attend on a regular basis. Watching the needling between coaches was humorous and you could see all the respect the coaches had for each other. It also gave a fledgling broadcaster a chance to meet and get to know all the coaches and Bob was one of them.

The thing that I took from Bob was how passionate he was about his family, friends and athletics. I recall him sitting me down and telling me how important role athletics plays in the lives of young men and women and the importance of keeping kids on the playing fields and courts. He also told me that he felt I needed to become a coach. We talked a number of times about experiences he had and what he had learned from those experiences, in other words he was imparting wisdom through stories and life experiences.

Coach Peterson was most passionate about his family members and I can recall how proud he was when one of his kids did something special. It didn’t matter if it was sports, in the classroom, or in some other area he would be so proud of his kids. Nearly equal to that passion was the need to involve athletes in other areas and I remember when the golf program started with Bob at the helm. Golf was a special game to coach and he was darn good at the game, but he also had a way of explaining things to his athletes that seemed to make a lot of sense. Passion.

We could go on and on about the coaching exploits and many awards he won, including being inducted into the Minnesota State High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1995, but the life of Bob Peterson was not just sports. It was about touching the lives of people, about teaching values and showing the rewards you could have if you worked hard at something. I never played for Bob, but he will always be someone I think of as a friend.

Kerry Rodd can be reached at kerry@northlandsportsonline.com

Bob Peterson with Waterville–Elysian–Morristown Head Coach Jon Bakken after the Bucs won the 2009 class AA state championship. Bakken played for Peterson at Esko, graduating in 1973.