Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022
Joseph Bernard Schleper was born on April 11, 1928, outside of Farming, Minnesota, at a farm! He was the youngest of nine children of Herman and Mary Dingmann Schleper. After chores, Joe used to practice baseball with his six brothers and his father.
He graduated from Albany High School in 1946 and enrolled at St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota.
Joe was drafted as a pitcher by the Detroit Tigers and played minor league baseball for one year before returning to finish his college education at St. Cloud State University where he received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1951. He was drafted into the US Marines and served his country during the Korean War from January 18, 1952, until January 17, 1954.
He married Rose Marie Weidner on August 16, 1954, in Regal, Minnesota. Together they had eight children: Joseph Herman, Linda Marie, Jeanne Patrice, David Robert, William John, Gary Michael, Thomas Patrick, and Jennifer Anne.
Joe began his teaching career in Belgrade. After eight years he accepted a teaching and coaching position at the Shakopee High School in Shakopee in 1962. In 1966 Joe became the high school’s athletic director while continuing to teach sophomore history and coach varsity baseball. He served as president of the Minnesota State Baseball Coaches Association from 1972 to 1973. Joe retired as the Shakopee High School baseball coach in 1976, and as a teacher in 1989.
In 1996, Joe High School Hall of Fame, a member of the Albany High School Athletic Hall of Fame and the Minnesota Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame, Joe was a past president of the Minnesota State High School Baseball Coaches Association.
He received the Dick Siebert Award in appreciation for contributions toward high school baseball in 1980. In 1990 he retired as the Shakopee High School athletic director, was elected into the Minnesota Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame, and became the executive secretary of the Missota Conference, a position he held until his death. Joe was a charter member of the Albany High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 1996, and he received the Jim Dimmick Retired Baseball Coach Award in 1997.
He was inducted into the Shakopee High School Athletic Hall of Fame on May 31, 1998, just a few weeks after he died. Also after his death, the baseball stadium at Tahpah Park in Shakopee was named Joe Schleper Stadium. A few years ago, a second ballpark was named after Joe and his brothers in Farming, Minnesota. The Schleper Brothers Field was named in 2017 and has been the home of the Stearns County League Farming Flames since 1946. Herman Schleper convinced the church in Farming to build a baseball field. Joe’s father, Herman, brought in loads of dirt for the original field in Farming!
Joseph Bernard Schleper died on May 8, 1998, and was buried at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis.