Zack Crusey Speaking of Sports - 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.

Zack Crusey - Speaking of Sports

My mother-in-law is an avid sports fan who attends many of Russia high school games, so whenever my wife calls her, she gets an update on the local sports scene. Invariably my mother-in-law shares her opinion that local sports writers do not cover Russia sports as well as the other teams around the area. Maybe that’s why the Fish Report came into existence, who knows! But since she doesn’t have a computer, Fish Report stories (and this blog) have to come second hand, sometimes from my wife, but mostly from her son, Ken, who is co-host of Fish Report LIVE!

Her concerns brought to mind a story told by my cousin, who played basketball for Anna back in the early 60’s. His mother (my aunt) worked as a housekeeper for Fr. (later Msgr.) Lehman at Holy Angels church in Sidney during the Great Depression. While working there in town, she would routinely run into Zack Crusey, who had attended Holy Angels high school and also was a junior sports writer for the Sidney Daily News. Zack was constantly asking my aunt to go on a date, but she never accepted, apparently because Zack was a tad shorter than she was!

My aunt eventually married a taller fellow from McCartyville and they had 7 boys, a bunch of six-footers who played basketball for Anna. And Zack Crusey became an award-winning sports writer, renowned for his familiar by-line Speaking of Sports. Zack was named to the Ohio Prep Sportswriters Hall of Fame in 2013. And similar to my mother-in-law, my cousins always complained about the lack of Anna sports coverage in the SDN, blaming Zack because way back when, he got stood up by their mother!

Zack died in 1977, after 46 years at the Sidney Daily News. He did marry a wonderful lady named Dorothy Yinger in 1937, who survived Zack by over 30 years. They had three children.

Congratulations to Ken Barhorst, current SDN sports editor, for being elected to the Hall of Fame in Zack’s footsteps. For sure, both Zack and Ken are outstanding sportswriters in their own right; however, I’ll venture to say the quality of sports in Shelby County gave these great writers the perfect environment to excel.