Redskin Field Crew - 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

Redskin Field Crew

 

Congratulations to the Loramie Redskin football team for an outstanding season! First year coach Spencer Wells and his assistants did a terrific job elevating the program to a new level one game away from the state championship. In addition to the coaches and players outstanding efforts, I’d like to recognize a behind-the-scenes group who contributed to the team's success; namely the members of the field crew pictured below.

Sitting (l-r) Coach Wells, Tom Eilerman, Don Ruhenkamp, Jeff Schulze, Ralph Fleckenstein, Jake Sherman

Standing (l-r): Bob Theis, Roger Frilling, Ron Schulze, Tom Wisener, Russ Seger, Ken Boerger, John Sherman, Norm Albers, Ken Meyer, Jim Eilerman, John Meinerding, Frank Schafer, Tony Winner, Ron Pleiman

There are about a dozen more members not shown who weren’t able to attend the recent recognition event for the field crew. They were honored with the “Fields of Excellence” award within the area for having the best maintained field. The group was also honored during halftime of a game earlier in the season. Don Ruhenkamp has been the leader of the volunteer group of local retirees and recently turned over the reins to Ron Schulze. Some photos of the team in action preparing the field follow.

 

And here’s the award-winning finished product. Perfect!

Two of the members of the field crew were in my class in high school; John (Spike) Meinerding and Frank (Red) Schafer. Spike and I took mass server lessons (in Latin) together with Fr. Raterman that I had written about in this 2017 blogpost. Red and I roomed together after high school at 52 1/2 Anderson near U of D’s campus as documented in this 2017 blogpost Also, I played softball with or against about half the group, including Ralph (Ferd) Fleckenstein, whom I had written about in this 2016 blogpost. He was the best softball player I had ever seen play. And, who can forget Don Ruhenkamp, my ditch-digging boss, whom I had written about in this 2015 blog post.

Obviously, with all these previous blogposts about members of the field crew, they are a memorable group to me and I know how dedicated and committed they are to maintaining the Redskin field in such perfect condition. Seeing the group photo brought to mind some other memories about individuals on the field crew that I’ll have to write about in the future, so stay tuned. Thanks and congratulations to each and every crew member.

And finally, here’s another blogpost about Friday Night Lights from back in 2015:
http://fishreportonline.blogspot.com/2015/10/daves-midwestern-ohio-memories-from-50s_27.html

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