The basketball court at the University of Minnesota-Morris was recently named the “James Gremmels Court,” honoring the long-time Glenwood resident and well-known UMM English professor and UMM’s first basketball coach. 

James “Jim” Gremmels first came to Glenwood as a high school English teacher and basketball coach in 1955. He lead the Glenwood Laker Basketball team to their first state tournament appearance in 1956, when it was an “open class” tournament.  Gremmels coached and taught at Glenwood High School until being hired into the 1960 inaugural professorial ranks at the University of Minnesota-Morris.  He started the UMM basketball program and was the first UMM basketball coach.  Because there were just nine freshmen players on that first team, Gremmels had to practice along with the students, he said in a past interview.  “Thank goodness I was in pretty good shape back in those days.  But it was a challenge, he said of his first team at UMM.  “I had a couple of players who didn’t even play high school ball.  …We were playing against athletes and I just had some hardworking kids.”  In the first three years of coaching at UMM, he did not have an assistant coach.

His last game as a head coach at UMM was perhaps one of the most memorable, he said in a news story when he was inducted into the UMM Cougar Hall of Fame in 2006.  

“We played St. Cloud State who was coached by Red Severson.  They were really tough.  A very meticulous team that liked to work a shuffle-type offense.  They scouted us six times that year,” Gremmels said in that interview.  “We played a man-to-man defense and hung close, trailing by 12-13 points at halftime.  They built on that in the second half.  After a while, Red took out his regulars and brought in the reserves.  We started to make a comeback and forced St. Cloud State to put their starters back in to hang on for the win.  Even though we lost, the team played hard and well.” 

After he ended his basketball head coaching career, he stayed involved with the program, coaching and working with players throughout his nearly 50 years at UMM.  He said he loved being around basketball players at UMM. 

“These student athletes work hard very day.”  He said none of them were getting the big scholarships.  “They play the game of basketball for the love of the game…they enjoy the lessons it teaches and perhaps the greatest lesson is a better understanding of themselves,” Gremmels said in that interview.

Gremmels was also well-known for his basketball skills during his playing days in college.  While at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, he excelled in basketball, setting numerous scoring and defensive records, and becoming the first inductee into the Augustana Hall of Fame.  In 2007, he was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame.  In 2006 he was inducted into UMM’s Cougar Hall of Fame. 

In a tribute to Jim Gremmels after he died in 2010, StarTribune columnist Dennis Anderson told readers that it was said that Jim “had a dancer’s footwork” on the hardwood.  “He could shoot the hook from either side and he was as good facing the basket as he was with his back to it.”

Gremmels was a two-time North Central Conference MVP, an honor later earned in that league by North Dakota’s Phil “Head ‘n’ Shoulders” Jackson, coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. 

He spent nearly 50 years teaching English, specializing in American Literature and coaching basketball at UMM.