50 years later, co-pilot recalls deed

CARROLL, Iowa — Fifty years to the day after making an unexpected arrival here, Harold Gifford again took command of the situation.

An rapt audience estimated at 100 crammed into the Harold Bierl Community Room on Monday to listen to the 86-year-old Gifford recount the harrowing experience of landing the Minneapolis Lakers' team plane in a nearby cornfield during a blizzard.

Gifford was the co-pilot on that flight, which lost its electrical system early in its intended journey from St. Louis to Minneapolis. The captain of the flight, Vern Ullman, is dead. The third member of the crew, 72-year-old Jim Holznagel, was in attendance Monday. He had been training to become a co-pilot in 1960.

After speaking to the crowd, Gifford expressed his appreciation for the opportunity to return.

“I was actually overwhelmed,'' he said of the reception. “They were very interested and very gracious people.''

At the end of the program, a historical marker was unveiled, titled “The Miracle Cornfield Landing of 1960.'' It will be placed in Veterans Memorial Park, which is just a few yards south of where the plane landed. The actual landing spot is now Collision Addition, a housing subdivision in the northeast corner of town.

After the 1960 National Basketball Association season, the Lakers moved to Los Angeles, where they have become one of professional sports' most successful franchises. Carroll Mayor Jim Pedelty read a letter from Lakers Executive Vice President Jeanie Buss.

“It is difficult to imagine what the Lakers would be like today had pilot Vernon Ullman and co-pilot Harold Gifford not found Mrs. (Emma) Steffes' open cornfield, and the citizens not responded so rapidly,'' Buss wrote. “Since the Lakers' organization was contemplating a move to Los Angeles a few months later, it is quite feasible that had the entire team been wiped out that night, this legendary franchise might not have endured.

“The citizens of Carroll should take pride in their role of sheltering the Lakers' team. ... The Los Angeles Lakers and Carroll, Iowa, will be bound together in history for the rest of time. Please accept our heartfelt appreciation for being there in the Lakers' greatest time of need.''

A two-minute film shot in 1960 that had been found in recent days was played. It revealed a line of cars snaking along the highway a few days after the landing to watch Ullman fly the plane out on a makeshift runway that had been leveled by a bulldozer.

After the close call, Holznagel and his wife had a second son, and that son has given him two grandchildren.

“I can only describe it one way: a miracle that was given to us by God,'' Holznagel said.

Gifford's voice began to crack when describing the cheering from the players after the plane came to a stop.

“You'd think the Vikings had just won the Super Bowl,'' he said.

Gifford was hoping to secure a plane and take a quick flight around the area today. He was interested in seeing if any of the landscape looked familiar, including a grove of trees that the plane narrowly missed. However, he said the dense fog that has lingered for days might cancel those plans.

Regardless, Gifford said he wouldn't trade his occupation — or these past 50 years — for anything.

“I'd say I had the ideal job,'' he said. “It was a life of adventure.''

Contact the writer:

444-1055, kevin.white@owh.com

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