I HAVE BEEN BLESSED!

 The Mike Schmidt Story 

1956:  MIKE ECHOS - RICHARDSON, TEXAS    

1961: BUD HAHNE - MINNEAPOLIS, MN  

1975: LOU POFERL - ROSEVILLE, MN                  

1980: JOE JOHNSON - OLYMPIA, WA

Mike Echos - Richardson, Texas

LOVE – RESPECT & CARE

FOR THE BIRDS AND YOUR FELLOW FLYERS

     My roots and love for this great Sport and Hobby of Racing Pigeons goes back to 1956 when an  8 year old kid would ride his bike across the city of Richardson, Texas to visit Mr. Echos and his beautiful Racing Pigeons.  My buddies, Jerry and Jim Crawford, and I would sit and look at those beautiful birds all day long until Mr. Echos would come home from work and we could help him with the chores.  We hoped that some day we could have birds half that beautiful.  Mr. Echos spent many hours with this young boy teaching me how to love and care for the birds and occasionally selling me one or two for .50 cents to a whole dollar.  I know now that he never gave them to me so that I learned that they had value and that I should appreciate them as valued additions to my loft.  He never once had a bad word about any of his competitors or for this trio of bothersome kids that were always hanging around.  I won my very first race in 1957 with Mr. Echos' birds competing against the Crawford boys and Bobby Steal.  The race distance was a HUGE 5 miler and "Big Red" won it for me.  The Crawford boys moved to Seattle, Washington in 1959 and sent me pictures of their new loft which they flew from as junior members in the Seattle Racing Pigeon Club.  They sent Gold Bands to Mr. Echos which he and I then selected the pairs that young birds would be banded from to be sent them.  Mr. Echos paid the shipping and never asked for any thing in return. In 1961 my Dad was transferred to Minneapolis, MN for work and it broke my heart to have to say good buy to Mr. Echos.  He gave me several pairs of his great birds and with the help of my Mom and Dad we loaded them on  the train and shipped them to Minneapolis, MN.  I LEARNED A LOT ABOUT LIFE AND A LOT ABOUT THE BIRDS FROM MR. ECHOS.

Bud Hahne – Minneapolis, MN

INTEGRITY – SPORTMANSHIP – A CHAMPION

     1961: When my birds arrived in the freight office of the Minneapolis, MN rail road fait would have it that one of the best flyers in the Mid West would be working there.  I can still hear Mr. Hahne’s voice when asked a 13 year old kid, “Are these birds YOURS?”  Guess he couldn’t believe that a kid could have that quality of bird, but as I said, Mr. Echos never gave me anything but the best.  My Dad made me a make shift loft out of a refrigerator box and the Texas birds were now up in Minnesota.  Mr. Hahne helped sponsor me into the Minneapolis Racing Pigeon Club made up of Champion Flyers like George Loahr, Sherm Bergeron, Bob Houser, Fred Thompson, Harley Thompson and fellow junior flyer, at that time, Bob Capitola.  Some neighborhood kids broke into my little loft and let all of my Texas birds go.  I was absolutely heart broken.  Mr. Hahne heard what happened and invited me over to see him and his beautiful family of Charles Hitzeman Sions, and I mean they were BEAUTIFUL.  I’d shovel snow, mow lawns, any job I could do then take the bus over to Mr. Hahne’s to purchase one of his beauties for the price of $5.00 a young bird.  There were no gifts as Mr. Hahne also wanted to teach me the value of the birds.  I soon learned what he had done for me when I had to quit the sport in High School to pursue Athletics.  Those $5.00 birds were going out of my loft to the highest bidder for $35.00 to $100.00 each.  Bud Hahne never gave that kid junk.  Lots of conversations over the kitchen table overlooking his fantastic garage loft while his wife Gracie would bring Mr. Hahne and his young guest cookies and milk.  A LOT OF MY SUCCESS AS AN ADULT FLYER CAN BE ATTRIBUTED TO THE HOURS SHARED WITH MR. HAHNE.

Louie Poferl – Roseville, MN

GENEROSITY – QUALITY – PRIORITIES – FAMILY – A CHAMPION

     1971: I had gone to the University of Minnesota, Duluth, [UMD] to be a College Wrestler and maybe get an education in the process.  I ended up married and in Duluth for the duration.  I was driving home from work one day and saw a group of Racing Pigeons returning home from a training flight.  My years as a junior flyer trained these eyes so I knew that those weren’t commons the way they were flying.  I followed them to the Duluth loft of Tony Packovich’s and was thrilled to find out that Duluth had a Racing Pigeon Club.  I came home to tell my young wife Eileen that I’d like to start Racing Pigeons again.  She never knew that I raced them as a kid and asked how was I going to ride them.  Shortly there after a 12’ X 12’ loft was built and I was now back at it.  Racing Pigeons was like an addiction, once it’s in your blood, you are hooked, and I had it bad.  I was given 20 pairs of breeders from the guys in the club and started out after my first young bird season.  My first year of racing I raised 100 young birds and at the end of the season had only 3 birds left.  The same thing happened the second year and I knew it was time to call my childhood mentor Bud Hahne for some advise, help and hopefully, some birds that knew how to come home.  Bud was a good friend of Louie Poiferl at that time.  From Bud I purchased several pairs of his World Class Sions and Louie sold me several off his Twin City Combine Champion Buittas.  I loved showing the birds as well as racing them and both of these flyers won more that their share of shows in addition to being the flyers to beat on race day, particularly on the Long Distance.  Louie and I struck up a friendship that lasted to this very day.  Many, many hours were spent in his back yard with his wife Aggie bring coffee and something great to eat while Louie and I talked about the birds.  Louie’s son Bob was flying with him at the time and the Loft of Poferl & Son was the loft to beat in those days in the Twin Cities.  Louie taught me about the Widowhood System, Young Bird Racing, how to mate them up to produce repeat Champions thru the generations but much more than this.  He was a great father and husband and taught me that family should always come first.  He was a strict culler and only kept what was going to be a Champion.  Many a time I questioned why he was getting rid of a particular bird, pleading with him not to destroy it, but he said “Only keep the best, get rid of the rest”.  My first National Mid-West Classic 600 Mile Champion “Renee’s Find” in 1979, was out of Louie’s birds.  LOUIE TAUGHT ME HOW TO BE A CHAMPION, THE IMPORTANCE OF YOUR FAMILY IN RELATIONSHIP TO THE BIRDS, GENEROSITY  AND QUALITY IN ONLY GIVING FLYERS THE ABSOLUTE BEST AND THE PROPER PERSPECTIVE OF YOUR TIME BETWEEN FAMILY  AND TIME SPENT WITH THE BIRDS.  He was a great friend and mentor and I owe him a lot of the credit for any of the success I have been able to have.

Joe Johnson – Olympia, Washington

GENEROSITY – INTEGRITY – LOVE FOR THE BIRDS – A CHAMPION

     1980:  In 1980, the same year that Mount Saint Hellen erupted, I took my little family of 5, wife Eileen, daughters Renee, Jessica and son Don, to visit my sister Jean and her family in Olympia, Washington.  I had won the Pudgett Sound Futurity the year before so knew some of the flyers out there but this was not a pigeon trip but a family trip.  You all know  though, that any pigeon flyer on a trip is always looking for lofts in the back yards of the homes he drives by.  Near my sisters home in Olympia was a guy that had a loft in his back yard.  It didn’t take long before I made my way over to meet him and to look at his birds.  The flyer was Joe Johnson.  The birds were the most fantastic group of Slate and Plum Slate Vernaza’s I’d ever seen.  I looked at Joe and said “If you’re not the best flyer in this area you’ve got to be one of the best”.  He just looked at me and smiled.  Never bragged about his birds he let others do that for him.  It was Friday night and I accompanied Joe to the race shipping for that week’s young bird race.  At the Club House I discovered just what a great Champion Joe and his family of birds were.  It was a lot of fun at the Club House, I felt like a celebrity, flyers new me from the Pudgett Sound Futurity win of the prior year and being with Joe was like being with the King of the Sport.  Joe saw how much I loved his Slates and their style of Racing Pigeon.  When we were packing to return to Duluth Joe came over and asked if we had room for a couple of pairs of young birds.  He gave me four young birds off his Foundation Pairs.  Unbelievable!  He taught me a lot on that day and even more through the years via long phone conversations. 

JOE NEVER BRAGGED ABOUT HIS BIRDS, HE LET THEM DO THE TALKING ON RACE DAY.  HE WAS A TRUE AMBASSADOR OF THE SPORT, ALWAYS WILLING TO GIVE ADVISE AND A HELPING HAND.  HE LOVED HIS BIRDS AND APPRECIATED IT WHEN OTHERS COULD SEE THE QUALITY OF HIS FAMILY.  HE TAUGHT ME HOW TO BE A CHAMPION.

Why I am the way I am.

     With mentors like these how could you go wrong.  I have been blessed to have had some of the Greats in the Sport be considered my friends.  They have taught me much about the birds, life and how to work hard with a plan, to be a Champion.  If I’ve had any success, it is to their credit.  All four of these Greats are now flying their Racers with the Lord, I miss them all, owe them everything, and hopefully can continue to make them proud with my efforts using “their” knowledge.

     That’s why I sell these Great World Class birds for $100.00 each in my 1^st Round and Late Hatch Specials.  That’s why my regular prices for the Young Birds are so low.  To whom much is given much is expected.  I’ve been fortunate to have developed friendships with some of the Modern Day Greats in the Sport, Waldo Slie, Herman Beverdam, Chris Peeman and Mike Ganus.  When I offer young birds from the pairs acquired from these flyers they are from their absolute best.  Every pair I bred from and offer young birds from would be FOUNDATION BIRDS for most lofts.  They cost me a fortune, at least for this teacher, so we can’t give them away but any one who does their home work will know that our prices are very reasonable for the quality we are offering.

     I was taught from some of the best in the sport that what counts is:

INTEGRITY – QUALITY – GENEROSITY –

SPORTSMANSHIP – PRIORITIES – AND FAMILY FIRST. 

I know that paying outrageous prices for pigeons can really hurt a young family and so I try to help the Sport by providing these quality birds at a working mans wage.  That’s what Mr. Echos, Mr. Hahne, Mr. Poferl and Mr. Johnson taught me, and I was paying attention.