By Sally Tippett Rains
A young American soldier’s battle with PTSD led him to take his own life but because he chose to donate his organs, Jim Tietjens of St. Louis was put on a road full of twists and turns but ultimately of life– a productive life. A life that never gives up. Along the way, this former soccer player has had many “saves”and that is why he chose SAVES as the title of his autobiography.
Tietjens has a pretty impressive resume, but what is most impressive to him is his heart—or should we say his three hearts. He has been a sales and marketing director at Anheuser Busch (for more than 23 years) and before that a sales and marketing manager at Rawlings Sporting Goods for more than 13 years
He earned the prestige at Rawlings of being awarded his own Gold Glove. Oh, and he has had two heart transplants. He had the heart he started with, a first transplanted one and then the one that beats in his chest today.
He is worthy of all three hearts as he has accomplished the work of three people in his lifetime. He has now embarked on a new phase of his life: “author.” From his days at Oakville High School and Saint Louis University, both of where the name Jim Tietjens is known for his service as an outstanding soccer goalie—to his professional career in soccer, to playing on the U.S. Under 19 National Team, to having played in the NASL, MISL, and United Soccer League and his success in the corporate world, it seems he never stops striving for new goals.
“I’ve had a lot of challenges in my life, but I just kept going” said Tietjens. “My first was my father passing when I was just 21 months old. Growing up with out a role model left a huge void in my life. My mother was there in a huge way and everything I am today is because of my mother. In her own way she taught me how to stand tall and never stay down when knocked down. I also had two great coaches growing up who served as mentors and role models”
Jim Tietjens is in the Oakville H.S. and SLU Halls of Fame and is in the St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame.
His new book called SAVES talks about his incredible life in the professional soccer world saving games for various teams including the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers and Ft. Lauderdale Sun until the day the team he was playing for folded in Florida and he took a job at Rawlings, his diagnosis of heart problems and realizing his family all carried a gene for idiopathic cardiomyopathy (ICM). According to the National Health Institute, ICM is a primary cardiac disorder associated with abnormalities of ventricular wall thickness, size of ventricular cavity, contraction, relaxation, conduction and rhythm.
He lost several family members including his sister Karen in 1989 at the age of 32, and in 1992 at the age of 32 Jim Tietjens was sidelined but then survived due to a life savings heart transplant.
He credits Barnes hospital and the whole transplant world for his survival.
“I’ve had many challenges in life but my biggest was my health,” he said. “But honestly it got to the point where the health challenges became very normal to me. I accepted that it was part of God’s plan for me, it was just a part of my life on an ongoing basis and God gave me the mental and physical strength to battle and prevail. It was just meant to be what I do and I became pretty good at it.”
In the book he details his tearful depart from Rawlings (where among other projects he worked with Mark McGwire during the famous home run year) to take his “dream job” at Anheuser-Busch.
During his time at Rawlings he spent a lot of time with McGwire both when he was on the Oakland A’s and then with the Cardinals during his record-breaking quest. Always coming up with new ideas and setting new goals, Tietjens came up with a partnership between McGuire and Cracker Jacks.
It turned out to be lucrative for both McGwire and for Rawlings.
Tietjens is a remembered by so many for his outstanding soccer career as a goalie and all the saves he had, but the word “SAVES” has a new meaning to him.
He feels he was given so many “SAVES” by so many in his life–including his daughter, Annie and son Jimmy, shown left with him the night he was inducted into the St. Louis Soccer HOF. He credits them and many others who helped him and stayed in his corner during his health challenges—and two heart transplants weren’t his only ailments, he has had many more including 14 leg surgeries over a 30 months period (2021-2023).
How did he survive all of the setbacks? How did he stay so positive?
“I chose to never be angry at God and I accept my situation as a cross I have to bear here on earth,” he said. “It is just a part of my everyday life. Although I had a sick heart my mental make up was very strong and confident in how I approached these challenges.
“My mom always taught me to believe that there were no challenges that I could not overcome. I was very confident in my doctors and knew if they did their part I would do mine. I decided a long time ago to never view myself as a patient and always consider myself a strong person physically and ‘me’ mentally. I always have a recovery plan, and this has helped me immensely.”
His daughter Annie shown, right, at a St. Louis City Soccer game is a cardiac ICU nurse at Barnes Hospital.
“She works with the same doctors who saved my life,” he said.
Another person who stood by him in his times of trouble was his best friend Mike Redohl who retired from Anheuser- Busch. He talks about that friendship in the book.
One of the most important people in his journey helped him when this person could no longer help himself.
“The young man in the Army Fatigues (shown left) is my 2018 heart and kidney donor,” said Tietjens, who shared the photo with STLSportsPage.com. “He was a combat medic in the Missouri National Guard. Sadly, he was only 22 when he took his own life from PTSD.”
Despite his past and even recent bouts with injury or illness Jim Tietjens works out every day at the gym. In fact, the day this reporter met with him a friend from his gym saw him and came over to say hello.
Despite his obvious love for soccer, he loves the St. Louis Cardinals too. ‘Like most St. Louis natives I am a huge Cards fan,” he said. “I remember in 1967 and 68 watching the World Series games on the black and white television sets in our class rooms when I was seven and eight years old. When I was eight I saw Bob Gibson strike out 17 Detroit Tigers and to this day it is a vivid memory in my mind.”
Being a Cardinals fan makes him even appreciate more that they do an Organ Transplant Day at Busch. He goes every year that he can and is shown in the photo left.
Tietjens knows so many people and and his life story has touched so many hearts.
Jeff Kuchno, the co-author of the book met Jim at the Workout Company in St. Louis about 10 years ago.
“As I got to know him, I learned about some of the details of his life story,” said Kuchno. “Since I spent most of my adult life as a journalist and a journalism educator, I approached Jim one day at the gym and brought up the idea of a book.”
Kuchno had spent time writing for the North County Journal years ago and many other outlets.
“I told him he has an amazing story to tell and I would like to help him tell it. I even remember saying to him, ‘Jim, you and I are not going to be around forever. But your story needs to live forever. Let’s do this.’”
Kuchno had just recently retired as a full-time educator in the Oakville Schools, so he knew he had some time to devote to the project.
“I had always wanted to write a book and share my story and my family’s story, but did not know how to go about it,” said Tietjens, “When I met Jeff years ago and developed a friendship with him, he came to me after several years and asked me if I would like to write a book and I knew he had the background and skills to do it I told him I was in!”
They started with about 20 interview sessions between 1 and 2 hours.
“I recorded our interviews, transcribed the recordings, and began to organize the notes into chapters. I went over each chapter with Jim, reading them to him multiple times. If he didn’t like what he said, he might say it again in a different way. The voice you hear in the story is his and the words are his.”
Kuchno did a lot of fact-checking and met with many of the characters in the story —Redohl, his sister Laura, Cindy Pasque, his daughter Annie, Dominic Barczewski, Bill Colletta, and even his ex-wife because he wanted it to be just the book his friend Jim Tietjens deserved.
“I have been blessed to be a high school teacher for the past 27 years, said Kuchno. “I never thought about being an educator when I was younger, but the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of young people is something that I truly believe is part of God’s Plan for me– and I feel the same way about this book.
“When I retired from full-time teaching in 2021, I thought about what would be my next purpose in life. Utilizing the God-given skills I have to help Jim get this story out to the world has given me purpose. I have devoted over a hundred hours in the past two years to this project, but it’s been worth it.”
The story is about more than sports. It’s about friendship. It’s about determination, perseverance, and faith. Few have faced the litany of health challenges from multiple heart transplants to bouts with cancer, pneumonia 15 times and COVID three times.
The book shares stories of memorable moments with some of the greats in the sporting world. He honors the life-saving role family, friends, doctors, nurses — and organ donors — have played in his life. From his early days of youth soccer to his induction into the St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame, SAVES chronicles the inspirational story of a man who understands the value of family, friends and faith.
“You are who you think you– are and I think I am a strong person who has been able to overcome my challenges by just believing they are temporary setbacks,”Tietjens said. “My body heals very quickly and I have a strong mind.”
It’s all documented in his book, SAVES.
“When that young soldier died from PTSD and I was saved by receiving his heart in the transplant, it reminded me of the motto of the Missouri National Guard, “We serve so others can live”– so even in his passing he was serving others. I owe huge debts to so many people who have saved me many times over my heart and kidney donors, my family, my friends.
“Part of my quest in life is to serve them and in some way, pay them back for their sacrifice. This is what drives me daily to take care of myself.”
That attitude is what makes him a person worthy of all the “saves.”
Be sure to check it out SAVES. His is a life worth living and a book worth reading.
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The book is now available online at Amazon (paperback and e-book only) and Barnes and Noble (paperback only). The hard-cover book is coming soon.
How to find out more about “SAVES” by Jim Tietjens with Jeff Kuchno: CLICK HERE
To watch Jim Tietjen’s interview on Monica Adams’ podcast: CLICK HERE.
Inspiremestories.com.
