(bright music) - Will you consider this?

It's quite a history for this woman who's been in the Peoria area for many, many, many, many decades, and how many lives has Mickey Schallau touched in all of your involvement in sports and everything?

- Quite a few, I mean, I taught at the high school from 1973 to 19, oh no, 2013.

- 2013.

Yeah, yeah, but you started out at AOL?

- Right.

- Okay, Academy of Our Lady.

Let's back up first, though, to find out where'd you come from?

You're not a Peorian, you're not a native?

- No.

(chuckles) No, I am from Iowa, a small town in Iowa.

Van Horne, population 600.

- Okay.

- And we're about 25 miles west of Cedar Rapids, and this was before computers and cell phones.

So in the summertime, you know, what do you do?

The parents would say, "Go outside and play."

- Right.

- So we'd meet at the schoolhouse, we'd play softball in the morning, and in the late afternoon, we'd play basketball.

That's all there was to do, we just played sports.

- Okay, and girls and boys together, - Yeah.

- But then you excelled as a girl.

- Yeah, the softball, we played workup.

We didn't have teams, we played workup.

- Okay.

- And so, and then after you hit 60 home runs, you had to bat left-handed.

- Oh.

(Mickey chuckling) Did you ever have to bat left?

I can't imagine that you didn't.

- Yeah, I did.

- Okay, all right.

(both chuckling) And then, so what brought you to the Peoria area?

- Well, first, I went to Milwaukee after high school, and I worked in an insurance company for a couple years, and then I played softball up there, and basketball on the AAU team, and the softball team, we played the Pekin Lettes you know, several times, and, you know, they were a really good team.

And so I knew they had a position opening, so I talked to them, and I decided I wanted to come down, and then I was a student at that time, and if you're a student, then you can go, you can play anywhere in the country.

You know, even though your home is up there, - Right.

- I could come down here and play softball.

So I did that for several years and- - well, that couldn't have been easy.

That was in the early '70s, late '60s?

Early '70s?

- '68, '69, and- - Okay.

Did you have a car?

- Yeah, well, my dad being a Ford dealer.

- Okay, yeah, so we need (Mickey laughing) to talk about that.

So you did have a car?

- Yeah.

- All right, Okay, so let's talk a little bit about now your dad and mom.

So we'll get you back to Peoria, - Okay.

(chuckles) - But we're back in Iowa now, and your grandfather was a blacksmith.

- Right.

- And then, so he got tired as he saw horses and buggies were going out of style?

- Yeah, and he found out that, you know, Ford was making their vehicles, and it would come in on a train, and the train tracks happened to be really pretty close to the dealership, and they had stopped, and it came in a crate.

So they get the crate off the train, and they'd haul it over to the dealership.

He would have to put the tires on, the windshield, and the canopy, 'cause you know, didn't- - [Christine] And that was for the Model T Ford?

- Model T, yeah.

- Okay.

There's quite a few models.

- Here's one.

- Yeah.

- And it was $295.

- [Mickey] $295.

- And that was back in 1925.

- And before that, they had a Model A, I believe, and they had lanterns on the front.

- Those were the headlights?

- The headlights.

- Oh my gosh.

(both chuckling) - But you know, it took off, and the blacksmith shop is still in the back.

It's kind of interesting to see the different tools they use, and the horseshoes.

- [Christine] Well, horses still need to be shoed and everything, - Sure.

- [Christine] But not like back in the day.

- Yeah, right.

- So your grandfather started the Schallau Motor Company?

- Motor Company.

- Ford Motor Company.

- 1911.

- Okay, and you celebrated 100 years?

- 100 years in 2011.

- Wow.

- Yeah, it was, and the CEO of Ford came out, Alan Mulally or something, yeah, he came out, and it was really neat.

We had some old cars, and we had new cars, and all the relatives came from all over, and it was really neat, but in 2016, Ford closed us down.

- [Christine] And why is that?

- We only sold 100 cars a year, and half of those were pickup trucks, 'cause it's farm country.

- [Christine] Right.

- And they wanted the mega dealerships, but you know, somebody's gotta service these farmers.

- [Christine] Right, exactly.

- But so we closed down, but after my grandfather at the dealership, then my dad and his brother - Took it over.

- Took over for about 30 years, and then when they retired, my cousin took over.

And so he took over, and you know, it was still nice to go home, and you know, my dad would always change the oil.

(laughs) - [Christine] That was your comfort zone?

- Yes, yes.

- Yeah, wow.

Okay, so then, now, so your mom was a stay-at-home mom, - Right.

- Because back in the day, that's what moms were able - That's what they did.

- To do, right.

- Yes.

- But she has a very interesting story, too.

- Right.

At age 11, she became a diabetic, juvenile diabetic type one, and in fact, she was the first juvenile diabetic at the children's hospital at the University of Iowa.

- Wow.

- And you know, at that time, they really didn't know a whole lot about it, but I think it was in 1920, there's two doctors that found the right medicine and insulin, and you know, they tried it on pigs, and they tried it on animals, and they were getting some success.

So they went to Eli Lilly and company, and they mass produced it.

And before that, the diabetics only have about a year or two to live, and so with the insulin, she lived to be 75.

- Isn't that incredible?

- 64 years on insulin.

- Wow, and then she got a special, well, is this, this is the 50-year medal?

- Yeah, now, which?

- Let's see, is this?

Oh yeah, this says, "50 years of insulin."

- That's Eli Lilly.

- Okay, so she got this medal for, I mean, what an outstanding achievement.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, and then she has this other one, this other medal.

- This is Joslin Diabetic Clinic.

- Okay.

- In fact, my mother and I, in the summer, we would take trips, and we went to Boston, and we went through there, Joslin Diabetic Clinic.

- Wow.

- And... - Well, it's a good thing she stuck around, 'cause otherwise you (Mickey chuckling) wouldn't be here.

(laughs) - I know.

It's a good thing those two physicians- - Came up with that recipe.

- Yeah.

It was, you know, I mean, she was born in 1920, and they came up with it in '22.

- Okay.

- And she became diabetic in '33, so.

- Yeah, wow.

And during the Depression, too.

- Yeah.

- Gosh.

All right, so you got your mother to where she could make it through a day, and a lot of days, - Oh yeah.

- And your dad was busy at the car dealership.

- Right.

- And then you went off to school, and ended up here.

- Okay, back up just a sec.

- Okay, okay.

(laughs) Who's doing this interview, anyway?

- I know, that's all right.

(both laughing) My mother and I would take trips in the summertime, and you know, we've been everywhere from Cape Cod to Florida, to Texas, to the state of Oregon, and she would always take the food.

We ate the same thing every day, you know, and so she had a cooler in the van that we had, and she would eat that food, what she had.

She would weigh it out, you know, I could stop- - [Christine] Specifically for her diabetes?

- Yes.

- Okay.

- She knew exactly what she could eat, and I could stop at McDonald's, but no, she had her food, and you know, she weighed it out, and, it was unbelievable how she kept going, but you know, well, she had to take two insulin shots a day.

One about 11:30 in the morning, and one about five o'clock at night.

- So you grew up not being afraid of needles as a result?

- Oh, I'm afraid of needles.

(Mickey chuckling) - Are you, still, okay.

- I don't like them.

(Christine laughing) I think I've seen it too much, but anyway, she'd take the insulin, you know, before she would eat, but she would test her, you know, the- - [Christine] They had finger pricks?

- Yeah, and four times a day.

- Wow.

- And I've got some diaries at home.

She had a diary every year, and she'd write down in the diary, 8:00 AM, what her- - [Christine] What her blood sugar was?

- Yeah, and then, like, at 11:30, before she would eat, and then five o'clock, and then 10 o'clock at night.

- [Christine] Before she went to bed?

- Yeah, and I mean, every day.

- That's dedication, but that's why she was around so long.

- 64 years.

- That's really incredible.

Okay, so, but she took good care of you, and then when you moved away, did she, I mean, she brought her cooler with her to visit you?

- Oh yeah, when she came up to Milwaukee, I lived there for about 10 years, she would bring the cooler up.

She knew, you know, exactly what she had to eat, and so we would go shopping.

(both chuckling) - And fill her up before she went home.

- Exactly.

- All right, so you were in Milwaukee for 10 years, came down here just specifically for the Pekin Lettes?

- Right.

- And then from there is how you got involved with Academy of Our Lady?

- Right.

- All right.

- I played softball in Milwaukee, and I had heard of the Pekin Lettes, and we played them several times, and I thought, "Wow, that's a good team."

I mean, you know, they finished as high as fifth in the national tournament.

So when the opportunity came, and they had an opening, I jumped at the chance.

- [Christine] Good for you.

- And when I played, we finished fifth and 11th in the national tournament.

- [Christine] Wow.

What position did you play?

- Third base.

- Third base, ooh, okay.

- Yeah, we played against four foreign countries.

- [Christine] Uh-huh?

- Japan, Philippines, Zambia, in South Africa, - Wow.

- And Canada.

- Okay.

- So that was... - Did you get to do a lot of traveling?

You didn't go to Zambia, they came here?

- No, no, no, they came here.

- Yeah, all right.

- Well, I figure that we played softball in 26 states.

- [Christine] Oh boy.

- Yeah, every summer, they took about two months, I mean, two weeks, and we traveled.

We took a long trip and traveled, so.

- And some of the "A League of Your Own" kind of bus kind of thing?

- Yeah, no.

- All right.

(chuckles) - We didn't take a bus, cars at just time.

- Oh, okay, all right.

All right, so now, tell me about, with all that experience, there were a couple people on the team who had gone to the academy, and they told you, so Title IX wasn't even around at that point?

- That was the beginning of it.

- [Christine] Okay, 1973.

- '73, '74 school year was the first year Title IX took effect, and so all the schools were looking for people to coach and develop- - [Christine] Establish programs.

- Right, and so there was a couple girls that went to Academy, and they went and they told the principal that I had just graduated from college, and that they should, you know- - Hire you.

- Yeah.

So I went and had an interview, and it was decided right then and there.

(chuckles) - That was it?

- That was it.

- Okay.

- So I started that fall, and we had volleyball, basketball, and softball the first year, and I coached all three.

I made $250 each sport.

(laughs) - [Christine] That was your budget?

- No, that was my coach's salary.

- Oh, okay, all right.

(Mickey laughing) - So anyway, yeah, coach's salary was $250.

(Christine chuckling) And so the next year, there was a lady in the building that liked volleyball.

I thought, "Okay," and I just walked by the principal, and just kind of as a joke, said, "Oh, I played golf in high school," not thinking anything of it.

When I came back in the fall, there's a box on my desk with all the golf stuff.

It's like, "Well, I guess I'm the golf coach?"

(both chuckling) - For another $250?

- Yeah, it didn't change.

- Okay.

(chuckles) - It didn't change, so, but anyway, yeah, so I ended up coaching, well, golf was in the fall, but up until that time, football was a spring sport.

- [Christine] Okay, interesting.

- And Merv Haycock coached both football in the spring, and golf in the fall, so when they moved football to the fall, that left... - Golf needed a coach?

- Yeah, and so that's when I got the job.

- So had you been proficient at golf before that?

Or this is you had to learn as well as the student?

- Well, no.

I was a club champion for a couple years back in Iowa, and my dad was- - Okay, why am I not surprised?

- My dad was a good golfer, and so we'd go out and play all the time, and I mean, I knew enough about it, you know, and so it wasn't new to me as far as the game goes, but as far as all the other stuff, you know, scheduling, and getting a budget, and getting golf courses, and all that, it was new to me.

- That was a new challenge.

- Yeah.

(chuckles) - So you've always been really athletic?

- Yeah.

- Mm-hmm.

And I mean, it just was something that came naturally to you?

- Well, in Iowa, it's really a sports state for girls.

- Okay.

- They had girls basketball going back to- - Well, look at Caitlin Clark.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- I think, is it 1918 or something like that was the first year of girls basketball, state championship, yeah.

- Really?

- So it was just, basketball was a way of life back there, and we won the state championship in '62, and played at the auditorium in Des Moines.

The place is sold out.

Oh, every session was sold out.

- Wow.

- Yeah, it was a big thing.

So yeah, it was crazy in Iowa how everybody- - Just ingrained?

- Yeah, exactly.

- But so then you were with the academy, and then you kind of joined forces with Spalding, and so is that when you took over the boys golf program at Spalding, too?

- [Mickey] Right, it was the second year, yeah.

- Okay.

- I think the second year, we merged, but I know they had coaches that coached the girls on the other side, you know?

I used to hear the girls laugh about when they go up and down the steps, they weren't supposed to look out the window to the boys campus over there.

- Okay.

(chuckles) - Yeah, I'm sure they did.

(Mickey chuckling) - Nuns could be like that, yeah, to make sure.

- No, right.

- 'Cause patent leather shoes reflect up, right?

- Right, right.

(both laughing) - So you did that, and then you had a lot of success mostly then with softball and golf at the schools, is that correct?

- Right, right.

- All right, and I mean, you went to state several times?

- Quite a few times.

What amazing thing is in 1978, a family moved up to Peoria from Quincy, and they had two daughters that played golf, and of course, Mary Jo Furman played golf, and so I thought, "Wow."

So I got two girls that were on the softball team, and I knew that they played golf, you know, just recreational golf, so I got the five of them together, and we started a team, and we traveled, you know, around, playing, and we made it through, well, it was district at that time, and then the sectional, and made it to state.

We finished third in state our first year, and then- - [Christine] Laudable.

- Yeah, I think I only lost one golfer, and then I had another girl, the same family that came from Quincy, joined the team, and that year we finished second in state.

I mean, how everything fell together was just amazing.

- Right.

- And in fact, that team, '78 and '79 team, is in the Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame.

- Well, that leads me to you are going to be in the Peoria Notre Dame, AOL, Spalding, Peoria, Notre Dame Sports Hall of Fame.

- Yeah, right.

This coming Saturday night is the banquet.

- So March 29th, yeah, and it took you how many years to get that?

- Quite a few.

(both laughing) Quite a few.

- Well, especially, I mean, you didn't play the sports at the school.

- No.

- You were coaching all that time.

- Yeah.

- What's your fondest memory of all of those coaching opportunities?

- Well, I think, oh, there's several.

You hate to pick exactly one, but the girls team of '78 and '79, it was just how everything came together was just amazing.

And they were so good golfers.

- [Christine] And good kids.

- Oh yeah, and so, that, and I've had, well, Tom Furman won state in '76, and it was at University of Illinois.

And so when we went down there, it was terrible conditions.

It was almost sleeting out there.

- Oh.

- The kids were coming in, and their fingers were blue, but Tom, being the positive person he is, "Oh, I'm okay, I don't mind it," you know?

(Christine chuckling) But before they went out to play, the guy running this IHSA tournament made an announcement that all coaches meet in the men's locker room for instructions.

- [Christine] Uh-oh.

- Okay.

(Christine chuckling) So I go up to him, and I said, "Where do you want me to go?"

"Oh, you can stand out in the hallway and listen."

- [Christine] Okay.

- So I stood out in the hallway and listened.

It was kind of gratifying that Tom won.

(both laughing) So yeah.

- It is kind of fun, those little get-even kind of things, right?

- Yeah, it was.

- Right.

So what do you miss most about teaching?

'Cause it's just been a couple of years now.

- Yeah, probably the kids and the other teachers.

You know, you miss being around them, and you know, I'm subbing, like, tomorrow.

- Okay.

- I go in to sub, but otherwise, I'm at home, I got plenty of things.

50 years, I've started a lot of projects and finished none, so.

- Okay.

(laughs) - But I can't talk to my dog, she doesn't talk back.

(Mickey chuckling) - Well, no, that's the main reason to talk to them, because they don't talk back.

Now, if you had kids, (Mickey chuckling) they'd be talking back, - Yeah, that's true.

- And you might not like those answers.

- Yeah.

- And you also, I mean, you would drive the buses for some of these things (Mickey chuckling) too, right?

- Right.

Well, going back to when I was in high school, and the Ford dealership, my dad had me driving everything.

I mean, some cars were just, you know, like, you turn the key, and then you push a button here, or you turn the key and you step on the gas pedal, and it starts up, I mean, - Okay.

- And then he had some tractors, too, and you know, like when they, on the ball fields, you know, they'd cut the grass.

- [Christine] Right.

- And I drove them, so, I mean, it was just- - Second nature?

- Yeah.

So yeah, I drove the school bus for, like, 15 years.

Me, I didn't have routes, I would take sports teams places.

- Okay, but not your teams, or did you drive?

As a coach, did you drive?

Didn't you have other things to think about rather than if you're gonna- - I don't think I drove my team.

- Okay.

- I mostly, well, I remember one time taking the cheerleaders down to Springfield.

We had to leave at four in the morning.

(Christine gasping) (Mickey chuckling) - Okay.

(chuckles) - And I got back at 10 at night, so that was a good payday.

- It was a long day.

(laughs) (Mickey chuckling) - So yeah, mostly soccer, the cheerleaders or dance, track and field, cross-country, you know, basketball.

- But you were mostly known then for golf at Peoria Notre Dame, is that right?

- Right, yeah.

- Okay, I mean, that's how I know of you.

- I did play, let's see, I started Pekin Lettes, it was '65, no, '68 to '75, I played, and then I started teaching in '73.

- Okay.

- So I did teach and play softball for about three years, and then- - Oh, and at Pekin Lettes?

- Both.

- Okay, so you're doing both of those, all right.

- Yeah, both of them at the same time.

- All right.

- So then I stopped, and was teaching only.

- But you mostly taught physical education and driving, is that right?

- Physical education, and the last 15 years, I was driver education, but in the classroom only.

- [Christine] Oh, okay.

- I wasn't in the car, District 150 does that.

- Okay, yeah, well, you didn't have to use the mom break?

- Nope, nope.

(both laughing) - Good for you.

- No.

- You taught the rules of the road.

- Right, yep.

- That's good, okay, so what do you plan now?

I mean, you're gonna be in the Hall of Fame, and you've got all these projects at home that you wanna finish.

(Mickey chuckling) Maybe you could strive to finish one of them, I don't know.

- Well, there's a lot of them there.

(Christine chuckling) Yeah, I probably will hang out around the golf course some, or I, you know- - [Christine] Have you ever had a hole in one?

- Oh, I was this far.

- [Christine] That far?

- Yeah.

- Okay, well, maybe that's in store for you this year?

- (chuckles) This was back home, and most people around here don't know it, but the golf course that we belonged to back home had sand greens.

- [Christine] Yeah, tell me about that.

- And I'll tell that to people around here, and they say, "What?"

It was really popular in the '50s and '60s.

Sand greens, you know, they weren't as big as these, of course.

In the morning, they would go around with a rake, go around the outside, and get closer and closer to the inside.

Then they would go a heavy thing that they'd go right across- - They would smooth it out?

- Go across the way, the diameter of the green.

- The green, right.

- And so what we would do is, yeah, the hole was right there where they would- - Okay.

- So you always wanna be first up to green, because you'd see the people before you.

You'd see how much the ball would break.

- Ah, okay.

(Mickey chuckling) - But when you get up there, like, if it was you hit the ball and it was over here, you would have to take it around to that flat area.

- Okay.

- And you know, you just took it around, you know, you could see the lines going around, and be there.

- Okay.

- And then you would putt out.

- Wow.

- And- - Were they green?

Did they paint the sand green, or it was just sand?

- No, no, it was brown.

- Okay.

(chuckles) - Now, the reason they did that was because it's so much cheaper.

- [Christine] Okay, huh.

- You know, you didn't have to... - They didn't have to all that special stuff on there, right.

- manicure, and fertilizer, and cut the greens real short, but on those courses, you know, it really didn't have to have anybody in the shop, you know, 'cause most people had passes.

- Right, wow.

- But as far as I know, there's only one course in the United States that has sand greens, and that's in Kansas.

- Interesting.

- I looked that up a year ago.

- Good, well, (Mickey chuckling) - We're out of time already.

- Really?

- Yeah, how about it?

- You're kidding.

- I have to have you back, 'cause we didn't even get to half this stuff.

- I know.

(laughs) - But thank you so much.

- Wow, that was quick.

- I loved the story about the sand greens, too.

I'm gonna have to look that up for sure, so thanks for being here.

- There was, (papers shuffling) I got something here.

- Okay, well, we gotta close out, so you can show me in a minute.

- Okay.

- But thank you.

Thank you for telling your story.

Thank you for bringing so many people along through all of the high schools, and all of your years of teaching and stuff, and coaching, and yeah.

- I figured up one time in PE, and I also taught health and driver's ed.

I had about 10,000 students.

- How about it?

(Mickey chuckling) I hope you're all watching.

Thanks, Mickey, for being here, and thank you for joining us.

Meantime, we'll see you next time, be well.

(bright music) (bright music continues)