Bernie Gerl of Joliet, Ill., is the last man standing from a Duluth Dukes minor league baseball team involved in a 1948 bus crash that claimed six lives.
Gerl, 83, received news Sunday that teammate Joe Svetlick had died at age 80 in a nursing home in San Pedro, Calif. They were the only players remaining from the 1948 Dukes, a Northern League team that was passing through St. Paul on the way from Eau Claire, Wis., to St. Cloud, Minn., to face the St. Cloud Rox. An ice truck crossed the center line on July 24 and collided head-on with the bus about noon on Highway 36.
Gerl was a catcher, Svetlick a pitcher.
"All of us from that team kept in touch as much as possible. We went through quite a bit together in 1948, and we meant a lot to each other," Gerl said Monday.
Dukes manager George Treadwell and the truck driver, James Grealish of St. Paul, died at the scene. Players who died were outfielder Gerald "Peanuts" Peterson of Proctor, pitcher Don Schuchman and outfielder Gil Krirdla, who played under the name Gil Trible, both of St. Louis.
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A few days later, infielder Steve Lazar of Oliphant, Pa., died of head injuries. The other 13 players on the bus were injured, and some were badly burned.
Gerl said he was pulled out of the burning bus by a farmer, Frank Kurkowski, who came upon the crash scene. Gerl returned to play in Duluth in 1950, retired briefly, and was lured back to the Dukes in 1952 and 1953, when he was named a Northern League all-star. He then went to work for Coca-Cola as a driver and 38 years later finished as vice president for Chicago operations. He retired in 1993.
Svetlick didn't return to the Dukes, joining the U.S. Air Force for a 20-year stint, then worked for Grumman Aircraft.
Gerl has family members living in Minnesota, in St. Cloud, Brainerd and Lakeville, and has been to Duluth often, including a 2008 Duluth Huskies game marking the 60th anniversary of the bus crash. He threw out the first pitch.
"I'll keep coming to Duluth as long as I'm able," Gerl said. "There were 23 family members there in 2008, and the connection there is still strong. I had a few folks come up to me last year with a lot of memories, and one even had a scrapbook and said I was their favorite player. That's a lot of years to have gone by and still be remembered."
