By Dave Pedersen
Sun Newspapers
(Created March 27, 2002 )  

Wally and Dawn Langfellow make such a good team that they have started a sports magazine. The Robbinsdale residents obviously loved working together when they met in college. Some 22 years later, they are back in business. In March the couple launched The Minnesota Score, a sports magazine highlighting the best of Minnesota sports from the high school to professional level and everything in between. The goal of the publication is to provide insight and entertainment through features, columns, question-and-answer articles and a calendar of events.

The Langfellows have 29 years’ combined experience in sports broadcasting and magazine publishing. Wally graduated from Robbinsdale High School in 1979, then attended college at Wisconsin-River Falls, where he met Dawn in a journalism class.  Both worked on the school newspaper. They married after graduating from college and moved to Robbinsdale.  Dawn went to work in the travel industry, then found her way back into journalism with Minnesota Meetings and Events, a publication based in Golden Valley. When the company was sold late last year, Dawn was hired by Minnesota Monthly magazine as a senior editor.  After college, Wally did some volunteer work for Northwest Cable TV. In 1985 he was hired full time by Channel 41, based in St. Cloud. The station acquired the rights to Minnesota North Stars games, and Langfellow did the pre-game show and between-periods reports.  “The North Stars had their worst season ever [in 1987-88],” said Langfellow. “The station soon went out of business.”  Hubbard Broadcasting hired Langfellow as a sports anchor for its national All News Channel 12 years ago. He would do live reports until 1:30 or 2 a.m.

A month and a half after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Hubbard Broadcasting cut 100 jobs, including Langfellow’s. “Dawn came up with the idea to start our own magazine even before I lost my job,” said Wally. “She got the idea shortly after her company was sold. I picked up the idea and ran with it.”  Langfellow first had to study the market. Then he had to do all the sales and administration. He gathered the contents and handed it over to Dawn for her editing expertise. “There were a lot of specialty publications but nothing that is all-encompassing,” said Wally. “We are not trying to compete with the daily newspapers.  “We wanted to pattern the magazine after Sports Illustrated,” Wally added. “When I read Sports Illustrated, I thought we had stories like these in Minnesota that are not being told. ”The Minnesota Score will look for mass appeal by producing in-depth stories about Minnesota athletes and sports.  “I kept every Sports Illustrated I had since the 1960s,” said. “I enjoyed the way they articulated things.”

The magazine will start with four issues per year, with the goal of publishing every other month.

Langfellow knows much about sports in Minnesota and in the Robbinsdale area in particular. He started coaching youth baseball teams in Robbinsdale and Golden Valley in 1980 when just out of high school.  He worked with his father, Wally Langfellow Sr., who was his Little League coach. The elder Langfellow enjoyed the job so much that he continued to coach in the area until 1995, when he finally stepped back. “I got my dad out of retirement to coach my son’s Robbinsdale Little League team,” said Wally, who is the team’s manager and the league’s publicity director. Robbinsdale Little League president Gary Tonsager played sports with Langfellow at Robbinsdale High. Now their sons play together. Wally also coaches youth basketball at the Northwest YMCA. He figures to be involved in coaching for several years, following sons Paul, 7, and Tony, 4.

Then there is adult softball – Langfellow will join some of his friends for their 25th season in the Crystal and Robbinsdale leagues. Another venture of Langfellow’s is broadcasting high school sports in the northwest suburbs and Eden Prairie. His company would purchase air time on local channels, then seek advertisements from local merchants. Langfellow has broadcast a number of state hockey and basketball tournament games. The Minnesota Score was distributed at the recent state high school hockey tournament. Copies will be available on area newsstands. Information can be found online at www.minnesotascore.com .

“I think the magazine will be a good market for displaced Minnesotans,” said Langfellow. “We should have a good shelf life since we provide a resource guide by providing schedules of interesting events.”