Former Austin Packer Basketball Coach Haddorff Passes Away

Former Austin High School boys basketball coach Oscar Haddorff died October 25 in Northfield, MN at the age of 86.

Before Haddorff began his long career at the home of the George A. Hormel company, he played college basketball at Hamline University.  He was a member of the 1949 NAIA national championship team where one of his teammates would go on to greater success in the NBA with the Minneapolis Lakers and would later be enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA.  His name, Vern Mikkelsen.  He was also a part of Hamline's 1951 NAIA title team that was inducted into the school's Athletic Hall of Fame in 1977.

Haddorff began his teaching career in St. Charles, MN in 1952 and taught for two years.  He would serve the next two years in the Armed forces.  Following his return to civilian life in 1956, he would serve as an assistant coach to Ove Berven at Austin High School, where he would be part of four Packer teams that would play in the state tournament.

In 1958, Austin would win their first state title since 1946, beating the Brainerd Warriors 68-63.  The Packers would return to state the following season but the championship trophy went to the Wayzata Trojans who have not been to a state tournament in 57 years.

Haddorff was also part of the 1960 state final where the Packers lost in the finals to tiny Edgerton.  In Berven's final season in 1963, the Packers returned to Minneapolis but the state title was won by the Marshall Tigers.

In 1964, Haddorff would take over the Packers from Bervan and lead them to their lone state tournament appearance under his tutelage in 1972.  It was the second year of the two class tournament and Austin advanced to the Class AA championship but came up short against the Mounds View Mustangs 62-54.

Haddorff would continue to coach the Packers until he stepped down in 1978, turning over the program to his brother-in law, Howie Strey.  Strey would keep the winning tradition in the southern Minnesota city as he took the packers to the Class AA finals in 1981, losing to the Anoka Tornadoes and return to the St. Paul Civic Center the following season.

As for Haddorff, he would continue to teach biology until he retired in 1991.  He was part of a successful boys basketball program that was built by Bervan, the namesake of the Austin High School gym and continued the winning tradition after his retirement. He was inducted into the Minnesota Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1999.