Dave Leightenheimer
Draft 6-4-08
Dave Leightenheimer was a center as a Junior on coach Bill Rohr’s first Portsmouth Trojan basketball team. Dave had played for coach Peg Elsesser as a sophomore and coach Paul Walker as a freshman. Dave also was on the varsity as a freshman and played in one game for coach Elsesser.
Coach Rohr coached the Trojans from 1946 through 1951 and always had teams that finished well in the tough Greater Ohio League, the state ratings, and the tournaments.
Dave Leightenheimer describes himself as one who wasn’t the top scorer, but as one who obtained rebounds and was a team player. That is exactly how I remember Dave L.
Personal History:
Dave’s parents were Ernie and Beatrice (Holt) Leightenheimer. Dave had two older brothers, both deceased and a younger sister Ernestine “Tinie” Sheppard. Dave attended Grant Grade School and played all sports there for
coaches Bill Berry and Bob Bender. Dave and Jean Blair will celebrate 55 years of marriage in August 2008. They had two sons, David, a jet pilot killed tragically by a drunken driver in Pennsacola, FL when he was 23, and Doug, now Choir director for the First Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, NC. Dave graduated from Morehead State and Doug from the University of Kentucky. Jean was an excellent soloist who directed the Central Presbyterian Church choir in Portsmouth for years and was often called upon for solos at special events and weddings in Portsmouth.
Sports stories:
In addition to playing on the Grant grade school teams, as a quarterback in football, Dave played with the kid’s Bombers baseball teams in the summers. There was a six team league around Portsmouth and the Hilltoppers were the Mound Park team of that day which had a boy named Snyder and Lon Cassidy.
I, Sam, remember watching all of coach Rohr’s basketball games while I was in PHS. The teams always gave maximum effort and won many more games than they lost. When I was a freshman, Dave was a center on the team. He was a quiet, steady performer for good Trojan teams in 1947 and 1948. Dave was always a battler, but never prone to fouling, that I honestly recall.
Dave, however, was second highest scorer for the 1946-1947 team and shot 61% from the field as a junior. That team included: Maurice Cooper, Ellis DuPuy, Dave Gambill, George Hill, Dave Leightenheimer, Lowell Reeg- team high scorer by six points over Dave L., Fred Shumate, Elwood “Corky” Sparks (third highest scorer), Denver Triggs and Jack Young. The team won a game and lost one at the District Tournament in Athens. The record was 10-9 against many of the the best teams in the area and the Greater Ohio League- arguably the best competition in Ohio.
In 1947-1948, Dave Leightenheimer was third in scoring behind Fred Shumate- (1) and Corky sparks- (2) for the team which finished 23-6, and won four games and the District Championship at Athens. The team lost to Akron south in the Regional semi-final game at New Concord. Dick Anderson, Jerry Barry, Keith Booker, Ellis DuPuy, Dave Gambill, Dave Leightenheimer, Henry O’Roark, Fred Shumate, Elwood Sparks, Ben Smith, Denver Triggs and Jack young were on that team.
I, Sam, visited the 1948 and 1949 Trojan annuals for the information in the above two paragraphs. I was surprised that very few stats were shown.
Ironically, coach Rohr accused Dave L. of losing that Akron south (expletive deleted) game for the Trojans. Harold Rolphe, the superintendent of Ironton City Schopols, had always been a well-respected official by area fans such as me. Mr. Rolphe has passed on, but I lost some respect for him due to a couple of Trojan basketball stories. Mike Swearingen previously told me of a couple of incidents he remembered about Harold Rolfe’s officiating. Harold was always very animated with his calls and he was a fairly good sized gentleman who gave each call a little pizzazz. Coach Heller claimed that he, himself a mild mannered coach of the Trojans after coach Rohr, said that he didn’t have a lot of trouble with officials and he certainly respected Harold Rolfe of Ironton. Mike, who had driven coach Heller to meet me in Chillicothe for my interview of he and George, chimed in: “Mr. Rolfe called a foul on me once and I wasn’t near the play. As we walked back to the opponent’s foul line, Harold put his arm around my shoulder and said, ‘Son, somebody fouled him and I don’t know who did it.”
Off the record for that Excellence in Athletics in the Portsmouth Area book, Mike also told me of the Regional tournament game in New Concord which Harold Rolfe officiated. I don’t know what prompted Mr. Rolfe’s warning, but, prior to the tip-off, he told all players around the jump circle that he would throw the first man who started trouble immediately out of the game. After the center jump to start the game, Dave rebounded a missed ball, and Mr.Rolfe blew his whistle and threw Dave out of the game. He told Dave he was slugging.
I asked Dave about that and he told me that the Akron South player had come over his back on the rebound, so upon the whistle, he handed the ball to Harold expecting a foul call on the Akron player. Harold told Dave he was slugging and threw him out of the game.
Dave didn’t play a full minute of the game and coach Rohr was hot at him, even accused Dave of losing the game for the Trojans.
Dave pitched with the good Ramey Feed baseball teams. Jim Murphy was the ace pitcher and advanced in pro baseball to the A level. Dave also played with the Ramey Feed softball team behind the pitching of the great Wayne Widdig. Fred Shumate normally played second base and I played third. Wayne took the American Legion team to the Ohio State Tournament and won it later that year.
After graduating from PHS, Dave went to Ohio University in Athens on a basketball scholarship. Corky sparks also came to OU with Dave from Portsmouth and Jerry Barry came a year later.
Harold Rolfe officiated one of OU’s games and walked up to Dave and asked to talk with him. Dave replied that Mr. Rolfe had done him a great disservice and he would not talk with him. Later when OU played Toledo, an Akron South player there told Dave he “got rooked” by that call. Later Harold Rolfe called another OU game and asked to speak with Dave. Again Dave refused.
OU’s biggest rival was Miami of Ohio and Dave said OU beat them at home and Miami beat OU at their place during his four years at Ohio University. Dave played for OU from 1948 through 1952. There were point shaving scandals in college basketball during that time. OU played Kentucky in Lexington and were badly beaten. The next year we beat them by six or seven in Athens and the NCAA investigated if point shaving was involved. Similarly, we beat a fine University of Cincinnati team with Portsmouthites Don Monk and Joe Luchi on their roster and the NCAA again investigated whether point shaving was involved. They found nothing either time. We just beat them to everyone’s surprise.
“I was not always the scorer” Dave said. “I was a team player and I went after the rebounds. I and Jack Betts were 6’4” and were the tallest on the OU team until Poloski and Lou Solchuck (6’6”) joined the later OU teams. Players taller than that were extremely rare on teams of that era.”
“We were 14-0 as freshman for coach Jim Snyder. OU fans were anxious for the next season when we joined the varsity. Dutch Troutwine had recruited me, but subsequently had a heart attack. Coach Snyder came to the varsity with us, but we took our licks then and went only 6 and 14.
Dave knew the OU baseball coach, Bob Wren, and respected him greatly. Mike Schmidt, later the perennial MLB All Star for the Philadelphia Phillies played for the OU baseball team in that era. Bob Wren was widely thought of as the best college baseball coach in America. Dave needed cash for school so he worked the concession stand for the baseball teams.
I, Sam, was privileged to meet and speak with Bob Wren at Dick Fishbaugh’s funeral here in Westerville. Dick, the long time Otterbein baseball coach had played along with Harry Weinbrecht for coach Wren at OU. Dick and I, Sam, played softball together.
Harry Weinbrwecht previously mentioned the fine officiating crew headed by Dave Leightenheimer to me. It consisted of Fred Shumate, Bill Newman, Harry Weinbrecht and Dave. Dave was quite proud of that crew and, in fact, Dave was chosen to officiate in an high school play-off game in Findlay where he was joined in that crew by his high school and OU friend Corky Sparks. They were instructed not to tell others in their area about their choice in order to avoid jealousies.
When I mentioned how great it was to hear war stories and Trojan stories from my good friend, Gib Lakeman, Dave said I would have to call Bob Bender. Bob was in the Battle of the Bulge in Europe. Dave asked if he was scared. “Scared?” Bob replied. I took the buttons off my fatigues so I could get closer to the ground.”
When I asked Dave about other Portsmouth athletes who did well nationally, he mentioned Otto Apel, an All American football player at Columbia University and Del Rice, who had lived in Dave’s neighborhood when Dave was a kid. Del was a catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals.
Outstanding coaches Dave knew well were Arch Justus, Kenny Long, and Paul Walker.
When pressed about the outstanding thing in his life, Dave quickly replied: “My two sons!”
Young David played basketball for Clay High School, attended Morehead State and was very successful as a basketball player in their intramural league. He became a jet pilot and, while stationed at Pennsacola, FL, he was on his motorcycle when a drunken driver came through an intersection illegally. David swerved to miss the vehicle and was sideswiped. He was taken to a hospital but died shortly after. It was hard in Losing him while he was only 23 years old and still is.
Doug obtained a degree in organ and piano from the University of Kentucky and a Masters from the Westminister Choir College in Princeton, NJ. He is Choir Director for the First Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, NC. The church has eight choirs and Doug directs four and his assistant directs four.
Doug is very talented. Jean and I recently visited Wilmington for a special concert. Doug played a couple of songs and received standing ovations by the appreciative audience. It made goose pimples go up and down our backs.
Dave taught and coached basketball at the old McDermott High School for four years and for another at the consolidated Northwest High School. He then went to Stockdale –it later became Eastern Beaver-where he coached another two years. He retired from Clay High School after twenty-six years. He coached junior high basketball and baseball at Clay.
He taught drivers’ Education classes for thirty-six years altogether. One day a young girl who told me she was very afraid of bridges was driving across the bridge on 348 just northwest of Lucasville. She was headed for the side of the bridge. When I looked at her she had her eyes closed. I grabbed the wheel and hit the brakes.
I see many former students around the area. They always go out of their way to say: “Hi Mr. Leightenheimer or Hi Mr L. I don’t miss the Mickey Mouse things teachers must put up with but I surely do miss the kids. They keep this old man young.
Dave wasn’t in sports for the accolades, but he received a few. He is proudest that he was inducted into the “Ohio Officiating Hall of Fame” and of the Star he signed on the Portsmouth flood wall.
As we concluded the interview, I invited Dave to my next day’s book signing at the Portsmouth library for my latest book, I, God, & Country. I mentioned one conclusion by many of those interviewed was that they felt they could be Christians without church attendance. That took Dave back a little. “Oh no, I don’t think so. You need the fellowship of other Christians. I don’t know where I would be without the Lord in my life.”
