After South St. Paul legend Jim Carter passed away in the fall, his friends immediately started thinking of ways to potentially honor the local icon.
Terry Abrams came up with the idea to put Carter’s name up on the football field. Of course, South St. Paul’s playing surface is Ettinger Field. The plan a group has put together to present to the school board is to name the football field: Ettinger Field at Jim Carter Stadium.
A photo of Jim Carter autographed to high school teammate Gaylen Bicks. (Courtesy of Gaylen Bicks)
Paul Miller and Gaylen Bicks, who both attended high school with Carter, presented the case to a school board committee on Tuesday evening.
Carter’s athletic achievements speak for themselves. He was a standout football and hockey player, earning All-American status at the high school level. As a senior running back, Carter tallied 2,345 yards rushing — 261 per game on nine yards per carry — and 30 touchdowns while guiding the Packers to an undefeated record.
Gregg Veldman’s father, Pete, was the long-time athletic director at South St. Paul. Gregg surmised his dad watched “as many football games as anybody in the world.”
“And he never saw a football player as good as Jim Carter,” Gregg said. “He said he was just absolutely a dominating presence on the field.”
Carter went on to play fullback for the Gophers, where he captained the 1967 Minnesota squad. Professionally, he was a Pro Bowl linebacker for the Packers.
Carter is in the University of Minnesota Hall of Fame, the South St. Paul Sports Hall of Fame and the Mancini’s Hall of Fame, among others. There are few honors he has not accrued.
“From South St. Paul, we’re a little biased, but he was as good as anybody ever from Minnesota,” Miller said. “When he ran the football, he was relentless. Stuff you’ve never seen. … At the time he was playing, he really represented our town with the manner in which he played.”
Yet that was only part of the reason Carter was so beloved. At the tail end of Carter’s senior hockey season, he was in the locker room with Bicks, voting on captains for the following season, as well as the current year’s team MVP.
Carter wrote down Bicks’ name for the latter.
“I said, ‘Carts, what did I do? I was just a backup goalie. I didn’t play much,’” Bicks recalled.
Carter responded: “You were as much a part of this team as anybody.”
“That’s how humble he was. He was a team player. He wanted to share,” Bicks said. “It was a treasure to play with him.”
Carter struggled with alcoholism during his NFL career. But he managed to turn that blemish into a positive for others, as well. Not only was Carter heavily involved in Alcoholics Anonymous over the second half of his life — Bicks said Carter didn’t have a drink after 1983 — but he was active in supporting others going through similar issues through sponsorship or any other method of aid.
“People talked about how he helped them with their addiction,” Miller said. “If somebody wanted help, he would go to no ends to help anybody that really wanted help.”
That helping hand extended to most areas of life, but was especially prevalent in South St. Paul athletics. Pete Veldman would tell those around him that Carter’s number was “on speed dial” if there was ever anything the department needed. He is listed as a platinum donor at Doug Woog Ice Arena.
Additional aid from Carter ranged from funding an additional assistant coach to covering costs for kids who needed shoes or camp fees covered, but couldn’t afford it.
“And Jim just gave (my dad) the money. And this was unbeknownst to really anybody until after he died, because he didn’t want anybody to know,” Gregg Veldman said. “He was that kind of guy. He was just a really great person in that way in that he was very unselfish and didn’t want to be out in the limelight.”
Most things Carter did were anonymous. It’s quite apparent the only way to grant him with such an honor as this would be posthumously.
In 2003, Carter was named the annual honoree of the South St. Paul Open Foundation Board, which honors “the impact an individual or a group can have on a community and that community’s youth.”
In his latter years, Carter was a frequent invitee to come speak to current high schoolers, and also made his visits about the kids.
Bicks has received numerous letters voicing support for “Jim Carter Stadium,” ranging from Carter’s Gophers teammate Bob Stein to former governor Arne Carlson, and well beyond. Should the naming rights eventually be approved by the school board, Bicks said the hope is to also make improvements to the field in Carter’s honor, noting there are contributors anxiously waiting to step up.
Gregg Veldman said putting Carter’s name on the stadium is “perfect.” Because, for so long, Carter’s name has been synonymous with South St. Paul athletics, first as an athlete, and then as a benefactor.
“Some of that (memory) is starting to fade a little bit, because we’re all getting old,” Miller said. “But we think it’s a good way of maybe honoring people. It’s almost like you’re honoring a generation, in that sense.”
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