This year was the 50th anniversary of the Jim Bremser Memorial Cross-Country Invitational in Mishicot.
1,300 athletes competed in the tournament from 39 schools around eastern and northeastern Wisconsin.
20 members of Bremser’s family were in attendance for the event.
Cindy Bremser, Jim’s sister, and 4th place runner at the 1987 Olympics says Jim was a nice, quiet kid, but he did love running.
“We both got into running at the same time,” she explains. “I ran at the University of Wisconsin when they just started the women’s program, and he started running here (in Mishicot). So, we did, while he was still alive, had some conversations about our running and it was sort of cool.”
She would later thank everyone for attending, saying “Although Jim only experienced this running community for a short time, it continues today through this event. We all, including my family, feel so much love and support from you on this day.”
Mishicot Athletic Director Nicole Schmidt says it took about a month of work to put the event together, but she says it runs itself once it gets going.
She says that the 50th year of the cross-country meet was special after Jim passed away during homecoming week.
“So this is our homecoming this year,” she said. “It’s really just a good reminder that you need to be safe and having the Bremser family with us is really special.”
Jim was unfortunately killed returning home from decorating a homecoming float when a drunk driver hit him and a friend.
Click here to see the results from the race.
