Ten years later, the team that replaced them, the Courtland Cubs, are playing in the Amateur Baseball State Tournament for the second time in team history, and their first trip since 1945.

In 2015, Courtland put in its bid to join the league after a 18-year gap of not having an amateur baseball team. Corey Schultz and others from the Courtland community were able to get enough signatures, organize a team, reserve times at the Courtland baseball field, and convince the Tomahawk East League board that they were the best team to join the league.

“I talked to a lot of my friends I played with as a kid,” Schultz said. “It was really just a thing to get us all back together again. Just get back with all the guys I used to play with, have everybody that played little league, high school, whatever, just to get them out.

“It was a lot of talking to the locals, seeing if they would be interested in watching games, seeing if people were willing to join in and be a part of the team and the atmosphere.”

The Cubs won the bid against two other organizations — New Ulm Kaiserhoff and the Milroy Irish — to enter the Tomahawk East League once again.

“We had a plan,” Schultz said. “All the guys other than I think three of us were not on a team, so we weren’t pulling guys away from other teams. We were trying to shoot for our local guys and keep it as tight-knit as possible. And then again, just being part of the local area, being part of every other league that’s around here that plays most of those teams, so just being a different team, being a new team, and having been in this league before were our main points.”

Schultz and the other players on the 2015 roster may not have had very clear memories of the team before it folded after the 1997 season, but they still knew that the town of Courtland had a very close connection with baseball.

Tad Voges, a player who has been with the team since 2015, recalls others talking about the old baseball team being a big motivator for pushing to reinstate the team.

“I grew up playing little league ball in Courtland,” Voges said. “I did have some older family members and friends and their dads always talk about the amateur days in Courtland, before my team, so that was also part of what gave me the drive to get it back going again. Those old timers always kept talking about it I guess [laughs].”

The 1945 state tournament Courtland Cubs team. Back row (l to r): Jerry Gutzke, Wesley Schmidt, George Ginkel, Willard Ginkel, Elmer Langhorst, Delford Precht, Ervin Weiland, George Reding. Front row: George Gronholtz, Melvin Schiller, Ralph Zimmerman, Marlin Langhorst, manager Harold McLean. Photo courtesy by Gary Zimmerman

The team did not find immediate success, going 14- 106 in their first six seasons, finishing in the bottom two every year. However, in the last three seasons, the Cubs have gone 35-13, finishing fifth, fourth, and third out of twelve teams in the TEL.

“Over the years there’s been ups, there’s been downs, there’s been frustration,” Chase Meyer, another player and current manager who has been with the team since 2015, said.

“But we have had some success here recently. Among the last three years, it’s been night and day as far as the ability and talent that a lot of these younger guys have. It’s led to success. A lot of these guys grew up playing baseball on may different teams, weather it was for Courtland Bi-County, or peanuts, or New Ulm Legion or Junior Legion. The amount of guys that are focused on baseball and have a passion for it, that number has just increased over the past few years.

“The amount of guys on our roster that have gone on to play college baseball now as compared to when we first started, we’re looking at going from three players on our team to now, I want to say nine or 10 guys with some college experience. That does change things quite a bit. That leads to more successful teams.”

“It’s been really neat,” Voges said. “The first few years were a struggle, just getting the word out that we have a team and getting guys that want to be a part of it. It’s always a struggle in the first few years. But once we started getting a good young group in, about four years ago I could see it really start to turn around.

“If you would have asked me five years ago if we would be at state this year, I wouldn’t have said we had a chance. But once we got that young core in there and stuck together, it really turned things around. It’s really been neat to be a part of it.”

The last time the team went the state tournament, World War II was not yet over, and Courtland advanced to the semi finals after winning the short-lived Sweatshirt League. In that tournament run, Courtland, managed by Harold McLean, defeated Red Wing 19-5 and Pierz 5-4 before falling to Mayer 7-4.

This year, Courtland plays their first state playoff game against Maple Lake on Sunday.

“It doesn’t feel real quite yet,” Meyer said. “I’m sure as we approach Sunday and we get to our first game, it will feel a lot more real. Don’t get me wrong, I’m as excited as the next person, but we’re obviously in, but we’re not there yet. It’s more so the fact that we’re representing Courtland on a pretty historic run, and hopefully we represent them to the best of our ability and play the game the right way.”

“It hasn’t set in yet for me,” Schultz said. “We’ve been thinking about it and talking about it for years. 2021 we were one game away from making it to the state tournament. It’s been on our minds ever since. We had a pretty early exit from the tournament last year in 2022, which was frustrating, but getting a taste of it, we knew we were going to fight until we got there.

“And we knew it was going to be very soon before we finally figured out how to win the game that matters and calm down enough to win the game that matters. When it’s just a regular season game, it’s easy to control your emotions, but as soon as that game matters, it takes a couple of experiences to control your heart rate and really calm down. I’m really proud of the guys, proud of Chase, proud of (manager) John Giefer for setting this team up for success, being able to think ahead and be prepared for any situation ahead of us. It’s so exciting for the town too since it’s been close to 80 years since we’ve been there.”