High School Basketball Memories - Dave’s Midwestern Ohio Memories

A Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s.

High School Basketball Memories

With the high school basketball season beginning, the memories of my old coach John Kremer always come to the forefront. He celebrated his 90th birthday earlier this year, and in 2009, was an inaugural inductee into the Ft. Loramie Wall of Honor. The photo of Coach at the induction ceremony is shown. On the occasion of his 90th birthday, I sent him a card and a brief note of thanks, which has been excerpted below: 

Coach Kremer,

Congratulations and happy birthday on reaching the wonderful milestone of 90 years. The news about your upcoming birthday sure brought back many wonderful memories about Ft. Loramie sports and your many contributions that made those recollections so special.

For example, Ft. Loramie’s basketball program was said to have started in 1935; however, I recall my dad telling abut playing other teams from around the area in about 1930. They played in the upper level of Brucken’s Café and those initial games eventually led to the creation of Ft. Loramie’s basketball program, the Shelby County League and the construction of the gym as part of the now-demo’ed old high school building. After a recent meal at Brucken’s, my brother and I, along with our sons, climbed up to the Brucken’s upper level to see the setting for ourselves and to share the story with our sons. There were a lot of cracker box gyms prevalent back in the day, but upstairs at Brucken’s literally takes the cake!

Playing basketball for you in 1964-66 was really something special. You molded me, a tall, skinny, clumsy kid, into a decent basketball player. I recall you giving me a pair of weighted shoe inserts and ankle straps for use during the offseason, and you challenged me to be the first player from Loramie to dunk the ball. It worked! I could easily dunk during warm-ups, but the only opportunity I had during a game once was on a breakaway, but lo and behold I travelled!! The weights also helped my rebounding in that I held the school record for a number of years.  However, that too is imperfect, as years later, a fellow player, who as a benchwarmer kept the statistics, told me that he gave me a rebound every time I touched the ball from a missed shot, whether I controlled the rebound or not. Needless to say, I was glad when my flawed record was finally broken years later.

Enjoy your special day, as the tributes coming your way are so deserved. Thank you for everything you’ve done on behalf of all Loramie High grads over the course of your storied career.