Empty Loads and
No Destinations
Madison Yellow Cab Co. in the 1970s
Yellow Cab sports teams
While I was employed at Yellow Cab and Transfer Co., the company sponsored basketball, bowling and softball teams. On this page, I have included all the results I could find for the hoops and softball teams; the bowling sponsorship started much earlier, and the bowlers don’t seem to all have been YCTC employees, so I haven’t included those.
Those were the officially sponsored sports, but the Yellow employees I knew also had other athletic pursuits. We had a regular golf group that played a number of the Madison-area courses, and for at least one year there were Saturday touch football games at the Wirth Memorial Teamster Bowl, a city park in an east-side industrial area.
Basketball
Notes
The scores below ran in either the Capital Times or Wisconsin State Journal; spelling errors have been left uncorrected.
As far as I can determine, Yellow Cab sponsored basketball teams in the Madison city leagues only two seasons, 1970-71 and ’72-73, and I played during both. I didn’t work, or worked very little, at YCTC from June 1971 to May 1972, and didn’t live in Madison during that time; I guess I was indispensable, because I find no record of a Yellow Cab team for the ’71-72 season.
We were organizing a team for the ’73-74 season, held a number of practices (at the Old Red Gym), and could I think have had a pretty good team, perhaps bettering the previous year’s team’s .500 record. But the union organizing started that fall, and the company declined to sponsor us.
Some of the players on those teams were, or became, friends. Some of the others I don’t remember, even their first names. Any members of those teams who stumble across this web site are welcome to contact me at the email address on the Main Page.
1970-71
Shawnee League
Nov. 6
National Mutual Benefit 39
Yellow Cab 15
FG FT PF
Mullen 3 2 3
Enge 0 0 2
Lovell 0 0 0
Thompson 2 0 2
Johnson 0 0 0
Butts 0 0 2
Fishstrom 0 0 1
Szumudski 1 0 0
Rentz 0 1 2
Sheid 0 0 1
Totals 6 3 13
Nov. 13
Motor Freight 27
Yellow Cab 22
FG FT PF
B. Lovell 0 0 0
D. Butts 2 0 1
M. McCormick 2 1 4
C. Enge 3 2 0
B. Rente 0 0 0
S. Thomson 2 1 0
C. Johnson 0 0 0
Totals 9 4 5
Nov. 20
Yellow Cab 41
Jolly Tavern 23
FG FT PF
Butts 4 2 1
Szmudsinski 2 0 0
Rentz 3 1 2
Zeller 0 0 1
McCormick 7 2 2
Johnson 0 0 2
Enge 1 2 0
Totals 17 7 8
Dec. 3
Vs. Appliance Mart
No score available
Dec. 10
Last Chance 60
Yellow Cab 23
Jan. 8
Yellow Cab 34
American Family Ins. 28
FG FT PF
Enge 0 1 0
Zmudzinski 0 0 0
McCormick 8 0 1
Rentz 0 0 1
Thomson 2 2 1
Butts 3 4 2
Zeller 0 1 2
Totals 13 8 7
Jan. 15
Motor Freight 32
Yellow Cab 29
FG FT PF
Enge 1 0 0
Lovell 0 0 0
McCormick 6 3 2
Rentz 1 1 0
Thomson 2 1 2
Butts 0 0 1
Zmudzinski 1 1 0
Totals 13 8 7
Jan. 22
Jolly Tavern 36
Yellow Cab 24
FG FT PF
Enge 1 1 1
Butts 1 0 0
Johnson 1 2 1
McCormick 3 0 4
Rentz 1 0 0
Thomson 0 3 1
Zmudzinski 2 0 1
Zeller 0 0 0
Totals 9 6 8
Jan. 29
Appliance Mart 49
Yellow Cab 42
FG FT PF
Enge 1 1 0
McCormick 7 4 2
Rentz 2 3 3
Thomson 4 0 2
Zeller 1 0 1
Butts 2 0 2
Totals 17 8 10
Feb. 5
Last Chance 40
Yellow Cab 21
FG FT PF
Enge 0 2 2
Johnson 0 0 0
Rentz 2 0 3
Thomson 1 1 5
Zeller 2 0 1
Zmudzinski 4 0 0
Totals 9 3 11
1972-73
Wingra League
Nov. 7
Yellow Cab 56
Passport Realty 36
Nov. 14
Copper Grid 45
Yellow Cab 30
Nov. 21
Yellow Cab 63
Cosmo Club 18
Nov. 28
NECA 33
Yellow Cab 31
Dec. 5
Yellow Cab 24
Bock Corp. 23
FG FT PF
Thompson 4 0 3
Benson 2 0 1
Randbey 3 1 3
Wightman 0 0 4
Rentz 1 1 0
Noll 1 0 2
Zmudzinski 0 0 0
Jan. 9
Yellow Cab 42
Passport Realty 33
Jan. 16
Copper Grid 63
Yellow Cab 18
FG FT PF
Benson 4 0 4
Noll 0 0 1
Thompson 1 0 3
Wenzlaff 0 0 3
Wightman 4 0 1
Zmudzinski 0 0 0
Enge 0 0 1
Jan. 23
Cosmo Club 42
Yellow Cab 38
Jan. 30
N.E.C.A. 42
Yellow Cab 40
Feb. 6
Yellow Cab 36
Bock Corp. 33
Softball
Notes: The scores below ran in either the Capital Times or Wisconsin State Journal; spelling errors have been left uncorrected. Teams were responsible for reporting their scores, and ours apparently didn’t do that at times, particularly during the 1972 season.
The 1973 results include a YC win over Chappie’s. However, Ken Stone, who coached that year’s team, and I agree that we didn’t win a game that season.
In 1974, following the unionizing effort and the first strike, YCTC did not sponsor the team, but most of the Taxi Squad personnel played under Parthenon Restaurant sponsorship that season and in 1975. (A lot of gyros were consumed in the dispatch room back in the day.) Many of the players continued in 1976 as the self-sponsored Iron Gloves. Because they were not technically Yellow Cab teams, those results are not included.
1971
Yahara League
May 5
Yellow Cab 000 100 0 – 1 2 12
Amber Grid 382 241 x – 20 14 1
Winzlaff and Ence
May 12
Hyland Hall 20 Yellow Cab 7
May 19
Bowl-A-Vard 10 Yellow Cab 7
Johnson, Wenzlaff and Enge
May 26
Yellow Cab 6 Milwaukee Cheese 5
June 2
Postponed
June 9
Amber Grid 26 Yellow Cab 7
June 16
Hyland Hall 12 Yellow Cab 10
June 23
Yellow Cab 203 100 0 – 6 11 3
Bowl-A-Vard 220 212 2 – 11 13 1
Johnson and Eye
June 28
Brunke Glass 7 Yellow Cab 0 (forfeit)
June 30
Yellow Cab 20 Milwaukee Cheese 16
July 7
Brunke Glass 18 Yellow Cab 3
July 14
Graphic-Craft 23 Yellow Cab 10
July 21
Hyland Hall 22 Yellow Cab 7
July 28
Bowl-A-Vard 11 Yellow Cab 6
Aug. 4
Milwaukee Cheese 18 Yellow Cab 3
1972
Yucatan League
May 9
Twilight Lounge 30 Yellow Cab 2
(24-4 in Wisconsin State Journal)
May 16
No score
May 23
No score
May 30
No game
June 6
Wings Inn 21 Yellow Cab 1
Yellow Cab 001 00 – 1 2 8
Wings Inn 022 98 – 21 11 2
Burchette, N. Miller and Enge
June 13
Nolo Contenders 26 Yellow Cab 25
June 20
No score
June 27
No score
July 11
Twilight Lounge 14 Yellow Cab 0
July 18
No score
July 25
K-Mart 21 Yellow Cab 13
Aug. 8
No score
Aug. 15
Hart Construction 13 Yellow Cab 13
1973
Navaho League
May 16
No score
May 23
No score
May 30
Village Lanes 7 Yellow Cab 4
June 6
K-Mart East 11 Yellow Cab 1
June 13
National Guardian Life 14
Yellow Cab 7
June 20
Wing's Inn 23, Yellow Cab 6
June 27
Eastslde Lutheran 13 Yellow Cab 8
July 11
Toby’s Supper Club 11 Yellow Cab 5
July 18
Yellow Cab 23 Chappie’s 13
July 25
No score
Aug. 1
K-Mart East 13 Yellow Cab 6
Aug. 8
National Guardian 10 Yellow Cab 8
Aug. 15
Wings Inn 12 Yellow Cab 10