Abe's Boys plan Saturday reunion

Abe's Boys are fast dwindling, but that doesn't stop the healthy and able among the legendary coach's former athletes from living it up at their annual reunion during Southeast Missouri State's homecoming.

Started in 1980 -- when Abe Stuber was still alive -- the Abe's Boys Reunion has been held annually since then. This year's affair will take place Saturday beginning at 4 p.m. at the newly renovated Marquette Hotel building in downtown Cape Girardeau.

"There aren't a lot of us left any more. They're all getting old, and a lot of them have died," said Charlie Brune, 83, who played football for Stuber in 1940 and 1941. "But we have a lot of fun. It's good to see all the older guys you don't get to see too much anymore.

"We talk about old times, and there's a little drinking going on."

Stuber is regarded as one of Southeast's finest coaches. He directed three sports at the university, including basketball and track.

But Stuber is best known as Southeast's football coach from 1932 to 1946, when he compiled a 72-42-6 record. His 1937 squad went 9-0-0, outscored the opposition 168-12 and ranks as one of only two football teams in school history to be undefeated and untied with a schedule consisting of more than two games.

Stuber later was the head football coach at Iowa State and was also an assistant coach in the NFL. Southeast's track and field complex was named after him in 1986, and he died in 1989 at age 86.

"He was an outstanding coach," said Brune, a Cape Girardeau native who still lives here.

Herb Mulkey, like Brune, is one of Stuber's former athletes who has been attending the reunion on a regular basis. Mulkey, who competed in track for Stuber from 1939 to 1942 but did not play football at Southeast, also always looks forward to the gathering.

"It's a very fun time," said Mulkey, who lives in Cape Girardeau. "Most of them are gone, but it's terrific to see the guys who are there. We reminisce a lot and everybody has their favorite stories.

"I was very close to coach Stuber, even though I didn't play football for him. But he knew track as much or more than he knew football, and I understand he really knew football. He could sure get it out of you."

Gordon Galbreath of Cape Girardeau was recruited to Southeast by Stuber but actually played football for coach Wayne Goddard -- an All-American on that standout 1937 team -- beginning in 1947 after Stuber left the university. He has also been a regular at the reunions.

"I got a scholarship through him, but he left before the season started," Galbreath said. "I got to know him later on and thought a lot of him.

"There aren't that many of us around any more. Those guys are getting far and in between now, but I sure enjoy the reunions."

According to Southeast director of alumni services Jane Stacy, who helped start the Abe's Boys Reunion along with some of Stuber's former players, only about 10 of Stuber's ex-athletes attended last year's affair, and she said "there probably won't be that many Saturday, but they have a great time."

The reunion has this year been combined with the Seventy-Five Plus Party for Southeast alumni age 75 and older.

Added Mulkey: "When we started out, there were a lot of us there every year. There probably won't be very many there this year but it's still a lot of fun, and I hope we keep getting together."

Abe's Boys won't be the only reunion of former Southeast athletes who played for a legendary coach taking place during homecoming.

For the second straight year, some of the late Kenneth Knox's ex-players will gather to reminisce. The group will get together at Buckner Brewing Company in downtown Cape Girardeau following Saturday's football game against Tennessee-Martin.

Knox is Southeast's all-time winningest football coach -- Stuber ranks second -- compiling an 89-58-4 record from 1952 to 1967, including the 9-0-0 squad in 1955 that matched Stuber's 1937 group as the other undefeated and untied team in school history.

"We had a real good turnout last year and we're expecting another one," said Southeast director of athletic development Greg Brune, who is Charlie's son and played quarterback under Knox from 1965 to 1967. "Everybody had a great time."