In the early days of Bloomington Jefferson football, there were familiar sights and sounds to provide a caption for a Fall Friday night at Bloomington Stadium.
One of them was math teacher Steve St. Martin, who was the first public address announcer for Jaguar football when the school opened in 1970. On September 16, St. Martin passed away at the age of 93.
St. Martin, a life long Bloomington resident taught in the district for 33 years, starting at the school he graduated from, Lincoln. Prior to 1965, when Kennedy opened, Lincoln was known as Bloomington High School and was also nicknamed the Bears.
Other than his teaching career and his football announcing, St. Martin was a descendant of Gideon Pond, who served in the first Minnesota Territorial House of Representatives in 1849, nine years prior to statehood. Pond was his great-grandfather. The Pond name was prominent in the early days of Bloomington, including a former elementary school named for F. Wilson Pond.
Sr. Martin also had an unusual hobby. In an interview conducted 40 years ago in a journalism class at Jefferson where the author of this blog was learning reporting, it was discovered that he was a correspondence chess player, playing the game by mail. He was a long time member of the American Postal Chess Organization. One notable name he played against was author and Sauk Centre native Sinclair Lewis.
As the PA voice for Jaguar football, he was present for the era of Minnesota high school football when there was no state champion until the advent of the playoff system in 1972 and Jefferson's first team that went to the Class AA finals in 1974 and lost to the Rochester John Marshall Rockets.
St. Martin, along with band announcer Warren Magnuson, provided the soundtrack for Jefferson football fans on Friday nights. May he rest in peace.
Blogger's Note: Some research for this article came from a story done for the high school yearbook The Revolution in 1980.
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