As you know, Jeanie and Jay were a tremendous help to me those days and have been in all of my married days. Jeff followed Jay by six years and the boys have been a joy to us.
Sam
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Kegley"
To:
Sent: Monday, December 07, 2009 7:16 PM
Subject: High Notes 12-10-09
Sam,
This should do it.
Jim
High Notes 12-10-09
I, like others, consider myself a tri-state basketball fan. That is, my allegiance isn’t restricted to Shawnee State, or Ohio State, but encompasses, all of Ohio, most of West Virginia, and Kentucky. I root for UC, Xavier, Marshal, Morehead, Ohio U., and Dayton, but mostly I like the University of Kentucky Wildcats in basketball. Ever since my brother Sam, his wife Jeanette, nee Weddington, and their baby son, Jay, moved to Lexington, where Sam completed his degree in Metallurgical engineering in the fifties, I’ve avidly followed the Wildcats.
My allegiance to the Wildcats began back in the days of Rupp’s Runts.
I can remember when Lew Cranmer and Doc Karr, used to attend Portsmouth Trojan games every weekend.
Lea Duschinski, the PHS secretary, never missed a game!
That was at the same time that Ed Kizer and I would go to the games and be wowed by the likes of Mike Haley, C. A. Hartley, Al Oliver, and Larry Hisle. Ah yes, Portsmouth and Scioto County have had some great players through the years. The Trojans won the state championship in 1961.
I remember listening to, and attending the Scioto County tournament games…games in which the tall Earl Thomas, played for McDermott. The tournament was held every winter at old Grant Gymnasium, in Portsmouth, and every school competed in those days.
My family has been friends with the Thomas family for many years, and I had known Earl when he had attended Highland School before they moved to the country. Earl had a crippled leg, and I thought it was great that he was able to be successful as a basketball center. And, he was a great player!
Dave Leadingham, who grew up in the 1500 block of Jackson Street, and I commiserated on our old school days recently, and he remembered when he attended Wilson School, that it was the largest school in the county in enrollment. It was during the early A-plant boom days of the early fifties. Dave and I graduated PHS together in 1957. He is retired from Barbour Auto Parts. He and another PHS ’57 member, Bob Locke, go to the SOMC health center three days a week and work out together. They do walking laps in the pool and spend time on the treadmill. Dave and his wife, Betty, now lives on Rosemount Road, just off Rte. 139. Dave said that he, and Tom Pitts, another “Early Towner”, went to all the Trojan games that year, and held season tickets.
Early Towner – That’s what they called people in the East end of Portsmouth…so called because so many people worked for the railroads in those days, and always went to work early, and came home late.
The OSU Buckeye, Evan Turner's tragic accident on Saturday, December 5th, in which he suffered a broken back, uh, er, vertebrae, in a freak accident, makes the case for any player going to the NBA when he gets the opportunity. Eight (8) weeks off in the middle of his junior year, when many are talking him for national "player-of-the-year" could prove the death knell for a pro career. We can only hope the great Ohio State basketball player does come back, and plays with the same kind of derring-do and talent as before! I don't blame any player for making the jump when he can. I hope Patrick Patterson doesn't pay a high price for staying at Kentucky!
"Medicine, law, business, engineering. They are noble pursuits, and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for."
-Tom Schulman, screewriter
