For years, the Glimm Memorial operated under a simple legend: The tournament was named for Alma Glimm, the late 11th grade calculus teacher of Glimm Commissioner Josh Kleinbaum. According to the legend, Glimm nearly busted Kleinbaum for gambling in school in 1995. But Josh insisted there was no money involved, so Mrs. Glimm joined the pool — then won the whole damn thing.

In 2011, though, the fable was busted: There was no ‘Alma Glimm.’ Josh’s 11th grade calculus teacher was actually Marion Glim, and she was alive and well. Investigative Reporter and longtime Glimmer Greg Wilson revealed the truth in the Wilson Report, a March 18, 2011 email to all Glimmers laying bare the scandal. Since then, Marion Glim herself has joined the pool (Grandma G), along with much of her family.

But the question remained: If the math teacher was Marion Glim, who was Alma Glimm? Today, thanks to first-time Glimmer but longtime Friend of the Glimm Jeff Eldridge, we have the answer: Alma Glimm was a 16-year-old girl from Freedom, Wisconsin, arrested in 1897 for twice poisoning the family that employed her. From the book Wisconsin Death Trip, written by Michael Lesy and unearthed by Eldridge:

Did Kleinbaum know this back in the late 1990s when he named the Glimm Memorial? Is this entire enterprise a strange tribute to a murderous 19th Century midwestern teenager, and the math teacher ruse just an elaborate cover story? Kleinbaum refused to comment.