© 2004 Duluth News Tribune. All Rights Reserved.

On a September day in 1995, Dave Kolquist was playing golf in a fund-raising event when he received a call that changed his life.

He learned that his brother, Kevin Kolquist, had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis -- ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease.

Now, nine years later, Dave Kolquist has raised nearly a million dollars to fight the disease and help those who have it. Kolquist, 42, of Hermantown conceived and still directs the annual Luther-Eggebrecht Chevrolet ALS Walleye tournament. This year's event takes place Saturday on Island Lake. The previous eight tournaments have raised $950,000.

Four-hundred anglers in 200 boats will pay $300 per boat to compete for free airline tickets, a pickup and other prizes. Celebrities Kent Hrbek, Babe Winkelman, Jimmy Johnson and Darby Hendrickson compete annually at no cost to the tournament.

The day Kevin Kolquist was diagnosed with ALS, the Kolquist family gathered at Kevin and Cindy's home in Piedmont Heights and vowed to fight the disease. Three days later, Dave was on the phone, calling the Minnesota ALS Association, asking what he could do. He learned Hrbek was hosting a bass tournament in the Twin Cities later in the month. Dave and Kevin fished it.

"We go down with a 14-foot camo duck boat with a 10-horse Johnnie on the back," Dave said. "Here it was $300 a boat, everyone in Rangers and Skeeters and 200-horse motors."

But that night, the Kolquists met Hrbek and Winkelman, and Dave Kolquist eventually convinced them to come to Duluth the next summer. They haven't missed a year since. Hockey player Jimmy Johnson, a college friend of Dave Kolquist, joined the same year, and Hendrickson joined a few years later.

The tournament raised about $40,000 the first year and now averages $125,000 a year. This weekend's event should put the nine-year total over $1 million.

Kolquist, now on the board of the Minnesota ALS Association, is modest about his role in the tournament. He credits the tournament's 100 volunteers. He credits the celebrities who keep coming back. And he credits anglers who keep filling the tournament every year.

"Ninety-five percent of every dollar goes to the association," Kolquist said.

Kevin Kolquist, now 50, has beaten the odds, which give ALS patients two to five years to live. He hasn't eaten or spoken for five years, living on a ventilator and taking nourishment intravenously. He can move only his eyelids and a big toe. But he'll be there at the tournament weigh-in, and he'll speak at the banquet Saturday night using a remarkable device that allows him to tap out words on a keypad with his big toe.

Those devices cost $5,000 to $10,000 each. The ALS association has made them available to every family in Minnesota that needs one, 75 in all, said Dave Kolquist.

Dave is humbled by his brother's spirit and tenacity.

"I could never do what he's done," Dave said.

He just hopes that the money his tournament raises will make a difference in the lives of the 30,000 ALS patients nationwide.

"Without events like ours, there's no hope," he said. "As long as there's hope, there's a reason to fight. We just keep on battling."