Lawrence "Shyde" Krause, 2005 WHS Hall of Famer. Clipping courtesy of Christine Aamot.

Lawrence "Shyde" Krause graduated from Waseca High School in 1948. Like all of this year's inductees, Shyde was a three-sport participant, as he participated in football, basketball and baseball for the Bluejays and was all-conference in football and basketball.

Shyde Krause was a gigantic man at 6'5" in 1948. Clipping courtesy of Christine Aamot.

Shyde was a gigantic figure of a man in his day, standing 6'5" with rugged features.  He stood out as a big man that most teams didn't have in those days.  Newspaper articles of the day made comments how no one could measure up to such a giant of a man.  An example of the times: on the Bluejays 1948 state tournament basketball team, the two starting guards were 5'4" and 137 pounds and 5'6" and 118 pounds.

His career scoring total of 1122 points was a fantastically high total in an era when teams didn't score as many points as in the modern era.  His career scoring mark stood for 24 years until Jack Gray broke it in 1972.  Shyde's point total still ranks 8th all-time, one of only 11 players to score 1000 points for the Bluejays.  In many games he would have over half of his team's points.  As a senior he averaged over 20 points a game when the team averaged just 50 points.

Len Svoboda, Shyde Krause, and Dick Borkenhagen dream of state tournament glory. Clipping courtesy of Christine Aamot.

Shyde helped to lead his team to the 1948 state basketball tournament where the Bluejays won the consolation title.  Shyde was the leading scorer in the tournament and in the consolation title game he had a tournament high of 31 points in a game that was only 24 minutes long instead of the normal 32 minutes as in those days they would cut down the length of consolation games so they could stay on schedule for the championship game.  He was named to the all-tournament team.

Another interesting item about basketball in Shyde's era:  In the opening round of the state tournament the Bluejays lost to Mountain Lake 37-36.  Waseca fouled Mountain Lake six times in the last minute of the game but couldn't get the ball back.  A rule at that time stated that a team had a choice; could shoot the free throw or take the ball out of bounds.  With a one point lead, Mountain Lake just kept taking the ball out of bounds rather than risk missing a free throw and allowing Waseca a chance to score the winning basket.

After graduating from high school, Shyde attended Mankato Teachers College where he played basketball and football.  The following year he transferred to Gustavus Adolphus College and played football and basketball.  The transfer created a lot of controversy and the presidents of both schools had to be brought in to decide whether he had been recruited by Gustavus to transer.  After one year at Gustavus, Shyde  joined the United States Marines at the time of the Korean War.

Shyde passed away in 1976 in an automobile accident and is survived by his wife, Virginia, children Larry and Jackie, and two grandchildren.