This story first appeared in the Herald Journal and is reprinted with permission
By Kip Kovar
When I first started as Sports Editor at Herald Journal back in 2016, spring sports were just about wrapping up, and amateur baseball was about to get underway. For amateur baseball, one of my duties throughout the summer was to cover the Winsted Wildcats.
While I was familiar with the area, it had been a while since I dug deep into amateur baseball in these parts. I asked for some advice to get rolling. The advice I got was get to know Soup.
I vividly remember the blank stare I had on myself when I was told that I should get to know a man who was called Soup. Despite that, I did, and I am so glad I did.
Denis Campbell, better known as ‘Soup’, was an amazing baseball mind and man. I really got to know him over the years and realized truly how important he was to the Winsted baseball community, not just the Wildcats in general.
Baseball was life for Soup ever since he was a kid. A three-sport athlete at Holy Trinity High School in Winsted, baseball was also his sport throughout his life. Soup was the manager of the Winsted Wildcats for seven years and didn’t let that stop him from being a part of the game after he moved on. He became the North President of the Crow River Valley League for more than 20 years while also holding down the secretary-treasurer position for the Winsted Wildcats as well.
Soup’s impact on the Wildcats and the CRVL went beyond what happened on the diamond. He was instrumental in building a new concession stand as well as getting new lights for the field. You could always find him at the ballpark working on the field or in the concession stand during games, especially come playoff time.
“I just remember putting Soup in that category with some of our older Wildcat legends, and he was just one of those guys that was always around,” former Winsted Wildcat Jake Prehn said. “Soup was always the guy who was at the field for both games and practices. My first real memory of Soup that stands out was that he would always come to the park for our practices leading into the region and state tournament time. We never really practiced as a team back then until that time of the year. He would come down and grill up a bunch of food and get everything prepared for us so that when we were done, we’d have a good meal and some cold beers waiting for us. As time went on, I started to realize he was much more than the guy who would cook us meals at practice. I would come to learn he had a larger role in the organization and in the CRVL as well.”
In 2012, Soup was inducted into the Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame. His countless and thankless hours spent at the ballpark not only helped the Wildcats grow, but amateur baseball as well.
“Soup was one of those guys that quietly did a lot of work for the Wildcats, and I don’t think he got enough credit, nor did he ask for it,” Prehn said. “You could tell as a former player, he was invested in making this ball club work and be successful. He was always a guy we could rely on. I look back at some of my early years, and there were a lot of nights he was closing down the park on his own after games. As we made changes for our Wildcat board, there were a lot of questions on responsibilities, and there were a lot of items that we realized Soup just took care of on his own. All of these things really reiterate the fact that the Wildcats would not have been able to survive as successfully as we did all those years without Soup’s help.”
Soup’s impact on amateur baseball in the area went beyond Winsted. In his role with the CRVL, he helped the league become one of the most competitive and successful leagues in the entire state.
“I was also on the league board for the last handful of years and spent many Region 7 tournaments with Soup,” Norwood’s Nik Frank said. “As we all know, the two-weekend tournament can be a grind. Usually by the first few innings of the first Saturday, I have had my fill of being around people and try to find a corner to hide out in for a while. Just when I find a spot in the back corner that I think will be perfect for a little quiet time, I find Soup there already with a beer in hand, just grinning. We’d always have good long chats, and he’d always sneak in his one-liners that just had me rolling.”
This past summer, the Winsted Wildcats and their fans got a chance to thank Soup for his hard work and dedication to amateur baseball. Soup threw out the ceremonial pitch on Fan Appreciation Day, a moment that wasn’t on Prehn.
“My favorite Soup memory is always going to be the opportunity to catch his ceremonial first pitch when we honored him last year,” he said. “I’m very grateful that I was able to be the recipient of that. I’m just very thankful that we as an organization were able to honor Soup and give him the flowers he deserved before it was too late. Seeing him get emotional before that first pitch showed just how much this ball club meant to him and reiterated to me how special that moment was.”
The news of Soup’s passing was hard to take for many. When they heard the news, it was important for people to find a way to honor him. The Winsted Wildcats wasted no time in doing that. After his passing was announced, Winsted turned on the lights Feb. 9 at Denis M. Campbell Field to honor the man who made a huge impact on the organization and the community.
“We have our lights on at Denis M. Campbell field tonight in honor of Denis ‘Soup’ Campbell who passed away this past weekend,” the Winsted Wildcats said in a social media post. “It’s possible that Soup spent more time at this field than at his own home during the summers, so tonight we turn the lights on for him. To say that he will be missed is an understatement.”
Soup will be missed by everyone he came in contact with. Whether it was because of baseball or however you came to know him, it’s impossible to forget a man called Soup.
“When I think of Soup, I think of his laugh,” Prehn said. “He was always a very joyful person, and I liked to hear him laugh. I think that joyful personality is what drew people to him, and people liked having conversations with him. He also just had that energy of a guy you wanted to talk to. We used to sit and listen to his stories about his playing days and different things that happened. He had a great memory when it came to things that happened in his days or even just previous CRVL years. Guys like that are the type of people that the baseball community loves to converse with.”
