Portsmouth Ohio ( P-Town) memories from Jack Plymale

I have a new book, SamKat Blog 2008, which I sent discriminately and freely to a few intimate friends of Jeanie's and mine.  I wanted Jack Plymale, mutual friend Gib Lakeman's Trojan cohort, to receive it early on particularly for Doc Yeagle's copy.   There was also a copy for Jim Fout- p53 of my Excellenc in Athletics book.  Doc is criticlly ill now with cancer. Jack's and Doc's interview stories are in the new book.  Also Dave Leightenheimer's interview story is in the new book. Jack responded with a few "Plymales Nuggets" of our fair city.  Jack's stories are to be savored and enjoyed.  Thanks Mr. Plymale!


Great P-Town memories again, Mr. Plymale!




----- Original Message -----










From: Jack H Plymale









To: Sam Kegley









Sent: Friday, June 11, 2010 19:12










Sam, Received your books today and first blush is delightful. Docs condition grows more grave daily. Thankfully not a lot of pain yet, but all his medicine  probably causes him to lose a little more of his mental edge. Not serious yet, but it is beginning to be noticeable. I'll get Jim's off to him as soon as I am able. Let me know what kind of costs you have incurred. I've leafed though and am glad we are of the same political bend. There is one difference. I have little hope for our survival given our national willingness to be destroyed and the collective indifference of the electorate.





On the sports side. One sports sequence( Portsmouth) we have never discussed was the national champion American Legion basketball team. Right after the war. Don Monk, Joe Luchi. Rocky Nelson. Del Rice and Jack Horton. These guys won it. I forgot the subs. Jack only played basketball at PHS, but was generally conceded to be the best fisticuffer(Sp,) in town. Very taciturn but really a nice guy. Married one of my favorite people in Portsmouth. Ramona Newman, homecoming queen 1943.





By the way. I handled the baseball training program for the chamber of commerce in Ft. Pierce,Fla. when the Toronto Maple leafs trained there and Rocky was on his way down then and played 1st for them. He still knocked the cover off the ball. Just less often with worse pitching. I doubt any first baseman ever played better defense than he did.




All this for bagging purposes. By the way, you might have been in school with Jack's brother Bobby. Nobody wanted any of him either. I think he was killed in a car wreck. Jack p.






Jack P.








Mr. Plymale,



You aid my weak memories so well, friend.



I didn't know the Legion basketball team won a national championship. I knew they beat the best semi-pro teams who visited Portsmouth, Ohio in those days. Carrol Hawhee from Waverly was a tall, lanky fellow, who sank the long two handed set shots better for the Legion team, than anybody I recall.



Taciturn- unusually quiet and non-communicative- is a great word for Jack Horton, but I didn't remember him playing basketball. I think Bobby Horton, a brother, was on the legion team with those guys with Wayne Widdig, a memorable athlete for any area of the country. Wayne, as you well know, was P-Town's greatest fast pitch softball pitcher, who later pitched for the Bell Helicopter teams of the Bufalo, New York area (here again, my memory slipped but I picked up a copy of my Softball book and went to Bill Newman's interview story -P197) to get the name of Bell. As a Mound Park Urchin, I walked down to many Grant Gym games of that team and watched them put the beatings on the best traveling teams of the day. Mick Kornhoff, whose dad Ray coached them, gave me great nuggets on Wayne's experiences in Mick's interview in the same book (p 168). Wayne had an amazingly successful turn around underhand layup, not dissimilar to the underhand foul shots of ex-NBA pro, Rick Berry.





Jack, you are much older and wiser, but Bobby Horton was even one or two years older than me. I always heard that the Horton's grew up in the vicinity of the 14th Street Community boys and had to handle their fists at an early age to be 'racially accepted'. In my interview story with Earl "Smokey" Gibson" (Excellence in Athletics in the Portsmouth Area- p82) my good friend, Ronnie Walters , told a story of Jack Horton crediting Smokey Gibson with being one of the best Portsmouth 'street-fighters' of his day. That is high praise from a good-looking, quiet man such as Jack Horton. I also remember Ramona as a world class beauty. P-Town had a lot of those type beauties. Ray Benner, just a year older than me, was a street fighter of Portsmouth and Mound Park reknown, and Don Thomas, Dave's younger brother my age, had the long muscles of Abraham Lincoln and was no person to rile up into a fight. I had a few fights but not in the class of the brawlers mentioned here.  The street fighting sport is world universal and on America's streets as well. You, no doubt, participated in a famed service-men saloon brawl of the WWII guys all over. Our day's movies staged a few of those. There may have been a few rivalry incidents but Americans were always proud of our 'fighting men' who allegedly weren't often sober at those times, and we were so glad they were on our side.



Jack, you still pack a powerful punch with your quick stories and I and my friend, Clay Vice, probably enjoy them more than anybody.



Sam