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Encyclopedia Dubuque

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MCALEECE, Gerald "Red"

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Revision as of 21:04, 27 July 2008 by Randylyon (talk | contribs) (New page: MCALEECE, Gerald "Red." (Dubuque, IA--Kenora, Canada, Sept. 14,1984). Coach and RADIO sports director. McAleece was sports director at KDTH from 1942 to 1979. Beginning in 1946 he establis...)
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MCALEECE, Gerald "Red." (Dubuque, IA--Kenora, Canada, Sept. 14,1984). Coach and RADIO sports director. McAleece was sports director at KDTH from 1942 to 1979. Beginning in 1946 he established and broadcast the popular "Trading Post" over which he advertised an estimated three hundred thousand items.

Prior to his radio career, McAleece taught physical education and health at WASHINGTON MIDDLE SCHOOL, served as head basketball coach at DUBUQUE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL from 1936 to 1942, and founded the Dubuque public schools' first physical education program.

McAleece had been a star baseball pitcher at the UNIVERSITY OF DUBUQUE and Northwestern University. Upon graduation, he organized many area baseball tournaments including a very successful one played during Dubuque's centennial in 1933.

One of three people inducted by 1985 in the Iowa Sportscaster Association Hall of Fame, McAleece helped pioneer live sports coverage. In the days before elaborate press facilities, he often stood on a concession stand or auto for a better view of the playing field. McAleece continued play-by-play broadcasts of football games of the Iowa Hawkeyes until he was seventy and sold radio advertising until he was seventy-three.

McAleece received many forms of recognition. In 1963 he was awarded the Man Behind the Boy trophy from the DUBUQUE BOYS' CLUB and the Outstanding Citizen Award from the Dubuque Board of Realtors. He received the second Conservationist of the Year Award from the Dubuque County Conservation Society two years later. In 1971 McAleece was the recipient of the MOCO MERCER AWARD from the JAYCEES. This was followed the next year when the city named McAleece Field in his honor.

In 1972 McAleece was named recipient of the FIRST CITIZEN AWARD and he received the Service to Mankind Award from the Sertoma Club. In 1959 and 1974 McAleece was named Conservationist of the Year by the Dubuque County Conservation Society. He was elected to the Sportscasters' Hall of Fame in 1975 and the DUBUQUE SOFTBALL HALL OF FAME in 1976.